Dracula Unleashed



Dracula Unleashed was a FMV video game released for the Sega CD as well as the PC back in 1993. It acts as a sequel to the story Dracula (obviously) taking place several years after the book's events. You play as Alexander Morris, a relative of Quincy Morris, who comes to London to find out about Quincy's death and wed his sweetheart Annisette Brown.

However strange murders soon start happening around town and Alexender realizes its linked to his brother's death. Now he must get to the bottom of whats going on before his friends and loved ones are put in danger.

The game was pretty much trial and error as you were required to moves around the city under a strict time limit and visit different areas to gain information while in others you needed certain items on hand to move on. Failure to have such at a crucial moment would lead into death. Say the least this is one of those game where you really have to pay attention. Still it helps that the acting (like pretty much all FMV games) was very Narm-ish.

Was re-released in 2002 as a DVD game with updated visual and special features.

The game provides the following tropes:

 * Ambiguously Gay: Alfred Horner, the owner of the Goldacre & Horner Bookstore.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Well pretty much all items you pick up during the story. But the most important one is when Alexander comes across a napkin with a odd drawing on it drawn by Delvin before hand
 * Did Not Do the Research: Didn't Renfield die in the original story?
 * Full Motion Video
 * Guide Dang It: Pretty much the only way to get through the game without tearing your hair out.
 * Have a Nice Death: The Game Over screen has a picture of your grave and a bat with blood on its lip hanging from a tree over it. This is either Alexander now a bloodthirsty vampire himself or of course just Dracula mocking you.
 * Idiot Ball: When Alexander first writes to Father Janos and receives the Bowie knife as a response, he explicitly says "Quincey" to himself, and goes even further on that note when he tears Jonathan Harker a new one in his office. If you then choose to write Father Janos a new telegram, he asks in the message, "What is the significance of the knife?" Uhh...
 * I Have You Now My Pretty
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice:
 * Jerkass: Devlin.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: The DVD version is now out of print and extremely hard to find. So good luck locating it.
 * Large Ham: Dracula during your confrontation.
 * Let's Play: One can be found here.
 * Love Makes You Evil: Devlin, whose was pretty much a prick at the start of the game. Once his love Juliet falls victim to Dracula and is staked. He pretty much goes off the deep end, kidnapping Annisette to bait Dracula to him.
 * Multiple Endings: Really just variations of the same ending, but depending on your actions either all of your friends can come out alive, only a couple survive, or just Alexander and Annisette are the only survivors.
 * Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Alexander has many of these through the course of the game, foreshadowing his later encounters with the undead.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: At one point Alexander and Helsing go to visit Reinfield for information and being the madmen he is goes to attack the latter. You need an item to beat him back before he kills the professor. If he succeeds you have to restart from the last checkpoint as Helsing needs to be alive for later.
 * Nintendo Hard
 * Our Vampires Are Different: They apparently can shape-shift (though implied to be an illusion covering them) and use magic spells.
 * Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: One of your friends turned vampire, Juliet, tries to pull this on the heroes in a last ditch effort to save herself.
 * Made funnier because Alexander falls for it until Van Helsing snaps him out.
 * Staking the Loved One
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: During the course of the game you visit a bookstore whose owner is slightly creepy though helpful. However at one point during a visit, Alexander ask about any books on vampires to which said owner responds with a thinly veiled threat.
 * Talking to Himself: Bill Williamson plays both Alexander and Quincey Morris, who converse during a dream sequence.
 * The Many Deaths of You: You can get arrested, attacked by a crazy man, faint from exhaustion or of course bitten by a vampire.
 * Trial and Error Gameplay
 * Unwinnable By Design: Goes hand and hand with Guide Dang It, there are a few parts of the game where your meant to be at a specific area at the right time to show you a clue for an important part later. However the game doesn't let you know it till too late and you get a game over but don't know why.
 * Vampire Bites Suck: When the heroes first inspect Juliet after she falls ill, the bite marks show her skin was practically ripped into.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Seems to be a common trait of vampires in this game.
 * What Happened to The Mouse: At the start of the game there a bit about a Bloofer Lady and one of the members of a club Alexander goes to that linked to her. They disappear halfway through the game and are never mentioned again.
 * It's possible they're just meant as brief callbacks to the original book (where Lucy was the "bloofer lady" according to the village kids).
 * If thats the case, then who was that woman who had neck lifted Alexander in the middle of the game?
 * It's possible they're just meant as brief callbacks to the original book (where Lucy was the "bloofer lady" according to the village kids).
 * If thats the case, then who was that woman who had neck lifted Alexander in the middle of the game?