Apart from the heavy fog and rolling clouds, most locations are largely static, without the slightest animation, yet the realism of the backgrounds helps to overcome this limitation. Strangely, whenever visiting the nearby castle the sky indicates it’s day time, yet in town it is always night. This constant darkness confused me, as surely a priest would be keeping regular hours while investigating the myth of the undead, when the villagers are more relaxed and willing to talk. One nice touch was the ability to see Arno accurately reflected in mirrors, even moving his gaze to follow the cursor.

You’ll see the locations a lot as you trawl through them again and again, and come to appreciate their finer details, but although quite scenic, the lack of an instant travel map can slow down gameplay. At one point I had to traipse from the castle on one side of town all the way to the inn to pick up one puzzle piece, and then walk all the way back. Otherwise, the point-and-click interface is simple and user-friendly, with an objectives screen allowing you to keep track of what you’ve done and what you need to do, while a documents page allows you to read anything you’ve picked up along the way. You are also provided with a dialogue page for going back and reading every word said in conversation, and although not strictly necessary, it is nice to have the opportunity to check any detail you may have forgotten or missed the first time around. The inventory screen is easy to use, yet whenever you pick something up it goes into an auto holder off to the side rather than your main inventory screen. I never found a purpose for this holder, as it only caused me to think I’d accidentally lost some important item I needed.

Within the inventory screen, you are presented with a bible which you can use to skip to any passage to calm yourself. Although quite an interesting idea, it’s really not implemented well, as stopping what you’re doing just to slow your heartbeat becomes grating after a while. Apart from this niggle, the gameplay doesn’t pose the hardest challenge, but I mean that in a good way. Rather than being loaded down with contrived puzzles for padding, Dracula 3 relies heavily on inventory puzzles, yet you are never resigned to trying everything on everything. The hotspots are almost always necessary, while puzzles are logical and accessible and never feel out of place. Only one tile puzzle towards the end felt needless, and in one typing puzzle I was perplexed by the lack of keyboard support, but two amongst a whole game worth of puzzles is certainly an acceptable average.

As Father Arno is trying first to debunk the myth and later chase it, many of the puzzles are science-based. Having been a medic in the war, Arno has a good grasp of what he is doing and can guide along those who may not. One such puzzle includes extracting his own blood (the medical way, not the vampiric way), first beginning with the sterilization of equipment, piecing it together, and then examining it under a microscope and comparing it with other samples to find a compound believed to be related to the myth of vampirism. Another includes the proper combination of chemicals in trays for the development of photographic evidence. Although these may seem too technical at first, help is never far away with Father Arno’s verbal musings about what he should do, or a helpful notebook of chemical combos. There are some potentially deadly puzzles as well, though these are not timed, relying on smart choices and not fast reflexes. Although there is no autosave function in the game, in such situations it thankfully reloads at the point just before you died, allowing you to try again.

I clocked in at roughly eight and a half hours of game time, and while somewhat short, its length ensures the game does not overstay its welcome. Instead, you’ll probably be looking forward to more in another sequel, which certainly seems possible at this game’s conclusion. And despite the “3” in its title, it’s certainly not necessary to have played the previous games in the so-called “series”, as it holds up very well as a standalone adventure. With its focus more on science and history, the game is less for fans of horror than for those with a hint of detective and researcher inside, so it’s important to know what to expect going in. The game rarely wows you in any one way, and the pace can drag at times in dry subject matter, but overall it’s both logical and accessible, and with its interesting approach to vampire lore and deftly crafted storyline, Dracula 3: The Path of the Dragon is worth picking up.