Vampire Rain

Playing Splinter Cell with vampires isn't as cool in reality as it is on paper. Despite an absolutely fantastic concept that transforms Sam Fisher's spies and saboteurs into postmodern bloodsuckers called Nightwalkers, insta-death difficulty and confusing level design make Vampire Rain nearly unplayable. Developer Artoon hits some high notes with guts and gore, but the frustration factor kills whatever pluses the game has going for it.

About the only good thing about this game is that it doesn't waste your time; it broadcasts its awfulness right from the very start. The campaign story tells the ludicrous tale of John Lloyd, member of a team of plucky commandos fighting a secret war against vampires that are somehow taking over America and will outnumber regular citizens with pulses in precisely 908 days (vampires must be really good at mailing in their census forms). It's never explained exactly how this is happening, though. Even though the game is loaded with nonstop cutscenes, virtually all of the leaden, comic-book exposition is devoted to the repetitive explanation of mundane mission goals. Average folks are still walking the streets at night without a care in the world, too, so it's tough to worry about the undead swarming in to take American jobs or whatever.. Read more on Gamespot>>

Vampire Hunters

The city lies down to sleep while somewhere in the middle of an old dockyard a man's life fades away. The most skilled vampire hunter is dead. The night is damp and chilly as the investigation begins.
The main character in this tale is an adventurer who has been living in the company of the undead for years. The story starts to unfold as a mysterious murder, apparently without a motive, takes place on one of the dockyard's piers. None of the Nosferatu clans claims responsibility for the attack and what are even worse, strange things start to happen.

Vampire Hunters is a role-playing game with adventure-like elements that will charm the player with its dark atmosphere of old docks where a mysterious clan of vampires rages free.

Key Features
- Catchy storyline underlined by a thrilling dark atmosphere. The overall impression is augmented by an original game soundtrack creating a slightly horror mood.
- Advancement of the main character including level-ups, enhancements of skills and abilities.
- The possibility to create your own spells using the rune system
- ATBS (active time battle system, commonly used in many Asian RPG games including Final Fantasy series) adding dynamics to turn based combat as well as the possibility to use a lot of hits, blows, weapons and special combos
- A lot of adventure-like items and non-linear dialogue branching

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption

Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption is a great-looking action-packed role-playing game based on the White Wolf pen-and-paper RPG. It's got a great premise and an ambitious design, but the game is mired by its repetitive and often frustrating combat, ill-fated design decisions, and forgettable characters and story.

The graphics in Vampire are unmatched by those in any other computer role-playing game. You play the game from a third-person perspective, which is zoomed in fairly close and raised slightly above your main character. Up to three other characters will join you and follow as you travel around on foot across medieval Europe and beyond, and you can choose to directly control a different member of your party at any time. Vampire's fully 3D environments look remarkably realistic because of their stunning detail and moody, subtle lighting effects, which remain consistently impressive through all the game's many varied and interesting settings. As crusader-turned-vampire Christof, you'll travel through Prague and Venice and into fearsome catacombs or thereabouts. Later in the game, you'll find yourself in modern-day London and New York. All these cities, as well as all the outlying corridors and hallways you'll explore, are uniquely rendered to an extraordinary level of quality. Although you'll sometimes travel through such typical settings as abandoned mines and sewers over the course of Vampire, even these overused set pieces look good in the game. Some of the best of Vampire's environs include a hollowed-out, magical tree that's home to an ancient vampire clan; the decadent, gilded mansion of a vicious vampire lord; and the rain-soaked, neon-lit streets of London. Read more on Gamespot>>

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines comes during a surprisingly dry year for PC role-playing games, which only amplifies the attention on the game. There's also a lot of focus on Bloodlines due to the fact that it's based on White Wolf's popular pen-and-paper role-playing game, and partly since it uses Valve's Source engine, the same engine behind Half-Life 2. And, for the most part, Bloodlines is an atmospheric role-playing game with a rich setting--though it's one beset with a clumsy combat system and some noticeable bugs. That's unfortunate, since the game clearly could have been better had its rough edges been ironed out. 

You start Bloodlines by creating a vampire, which you'll do by conforming to the seven major vampire types found in the pen-and-paper game. The idea is that you can create a vampire suited to your style of play. The options range from sophisticated vampires that can talk their way past most situations, to burly vampires who like to intimidate people and pick fights, to demonic vampires who prefer to skulk in the shadows. And while you can select a gender for your vampire (which affects the kinds of characters you can seduce), you won't actually be able to customize your vampire's appearance, aside from the kind of clothes he or she wears. Read more at Gamespot>>

Dracula - Undead Awakening

Dracula - Undead Awakening is a top-down shooter, with players controlling a vampire hunter who must combat hordes of undead enemies.

Dracula: Undead Awakening first arrived on the iPhone a little over a year ago. There it was called iDracula, and it impressed us thoroughly - as an homage to classic dual-stick arcade shooters like Robotron, it matched manic blasting action with a classic horror monster theme and offered an addictive, if not incredibly deep, action experience. Now, as a Nintendo download, its appeal is repeated -- but in two different ways.

Dracula shipped simultaneously to both WiiWare and DSiWare, the first time any game design's arrived on both services on the same day -- and while both versions are worthwhile, they're worthwhile for different reasons. Read more at IGN>>

Dracula: Origin

Good storytelling never goes out of style. For proof, check out Dracula: Origin, a point-and-click reimagination of Bram Stoker's classic novel from Frogwares that delivers a gothic tale as atmospheric and chilling as a London fog. While you couldn't ask for a more done-to-death story, the treatment of this legendary material is both respectful and innovative, with familiar characters and scenes being mixed in with all-new escapades set across Europe and the Middle East. Too many pixel hunts and logic puzzles that occasionally stray into "good luck solving this without a walkthrough" territory cause a few problems, although these frustrations aren't enough to ruin a great Victorian spook story. 

Dracula: Origin keeps the bare bones of the Stoker novel, but adds to it by branching out in a few places and changing the focus from drawing-room horror to something of a detective story. Vamp hunter Van Helsing moves to center stage from his supporting role in the novel, as the dour professor turns sleuth and ventures to London, Cairo, Vienna, and, of course, Transylvania on a one-man quest to save poor Mina Murray and stop Dracula's plans to resurrect the dead. The story unfolds like a mash-up of Stoker's Dracula, any number of Sherlock Holmes short stories, and the less weird tales of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, with you playing vampire hunter, gumshoe, and intrepid researcher. Read more on Gamespot>>

Dracula Twins

Dracula Twins has you playing as the children of Dracula, Drac and his twin sis Dracana, on a quest to save their kidnapped father from the evil Dr. Lifelust.

Well, we say you should check out this demo that lets you check out the first seven levels of this side-scrolling action adventure game.

Dracula 3: Path of the Dragon

Developer Kheops Studio sticks to the ancient adventure-gaming formula that it has specialized in with previous releases such as Return to Mysterious Island and Voyage, and spins a dull yarn in which you research the biggest bloodsucker of them all in 1920s Transylvania. Busywork puzzles and stone-age visuals further drain the rest of the creeps out of this supposedly scary saga, which unfolds more like an uninspired detective story than an ominous encounter with a legendary monster.

The plot isn't what you would expect from a Dracula-inspired game, although you can't characterize that as a good thing. For a change, you don't play Van Helsing or any of his descendants. Instead, you take the role of Father Arno Moriani, a priest sent to Transylvania by his bosses at the Vatican to investigate a recently deceased Romanian doctor who has been declared a candidate for canonization. The good father soon finds out that the doctor held some odd views regarding a number of strange deaths in the village, and he finds his assignment quickly changed from sainthood vetting to disproving the existence of vampires. So you spend most of your time undertaking scientific research and questioning professors, not tracking down Dracula and his pointy-toothed pals. More time is spent with test tubes than with stakes, and you don't actually encounter any vampires until the very end of the game.

Another novelty involves moving the setting from the stereotypical Victorian age to the 1920s, when Romania was still reeling from the devastation caused by World War I. This doesn't make for many differences when it comes to gameplay, although shifting the game into the 20th century does allow for more-varied artwork involving semimodern touches such as telephones, trains, electric lights, and chemistry equipment. However, the overall visual quality is fairly poor, despite good use of shadows and fog effects to create a spooky mood. Most scenes are grainy, and character models are afflicted with slow-motion movement tics that makes it seem like everybody you meet is underwater. Voice samples often sound vaguely slurred in a rather similar fashion, lending a surreal vibe to many conversations that actually enhances the eerie nature of your investigations. 

Read more at Gamespot>>

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles

Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles for the PSP collects two (or three, depending on how you look at it) separate installments of Konami's Castlevania series together on a single disc. The formerly Japanese-exclusive Dracula X: Rondo of Blood represents two of the three games on the disc. You can play this old-school classic in its remade form, which features 3D graphics and newly recorded music and voice acting. Alternately, you can play it just as PC Engine CD-ROM owners experienced it back in 1993, with its original music and 2D graphics, as well as your choice of the original Japanese dialogue or a new English translation. The third game on the disc is a rendition of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that boasts some miscellaneous improvements over the PlayStation and Xbox 360 versions you might already be familiar with.

Rondo of Blood was the last level-based Castlevania produced before Konami shifted gears to the interconnected rooms found in recent installments. In it, you control either Richter Belmont, a vampire hunter armed with a whip, or Maria Renard, a young girl that tosses doves at her enemies, and guide your chosen hero through side-scrolling levels populated with bottomless pits, surprise traps, and loads of creepy monsters. Both characters have a no-nonsense repertoire of moves: they can walk, jump, and unleash an attack directly ahead, as well as make use of various projectile subweapons. Richter has more health than Maria, but he walks more slowly and his backflip-style double jump is tougher to use. Conversely, Maria's speed and traditional front-flip double jump make her easier to use, but her miserly stamina means she's dead meat in two or three hits. At the end of each level, you'll match skills against a boss based on a familiar horror villain, such as a werewolf, the headless horseman, or Dracula. Read more on Gamespot >>