Incredible Dracula: Ocean's Call

Review

After entering your name for your Profile, you’ll be taken to the main menu screen, where you can choose the game’s difficulty. There are three difficulties: Casual (More time for thinking), Hard (For experienced players) and Relaxed (No time limits). Also on the main menu is Achievements for the game, Profile will allow you to Create and Delete multiple profiles, so you don’t have to overwrite a previous game.

Once you have decided which difficulty to play, the game will start. Dracula and the Missus are enjoying a bite to eat (don’t worry, they haven’t got some bosom blonde or handsome young man over the table drinking their blood, it’s already in a decanter), while they watch the latest news. The news reporter states that the scientists in the far North are observing the ancient glaciers melting due to global warming. Rumours start to circulate about a demigod that’s been found frozen in the ice. The reporter travels to the site of the so-called demigod to verify the claims. It turns out to be true; frozen in the ice is a huge and terrifying creature. Scientists around the world are making their way to the frozen lands to study this creature frozen in ice.

Then something happens which doesn’t seem possible; the creature moves. After being stuck in the ice for thousands of years, it has now broken free of its icy prison. The creature heads for the sea, as everyone else heads for somewhere which is safer than here. A week after the appearance of the creature, the world is in chaos. Large numbers of amphibious and other ocean creatures appear wherever the mysterious creature turns up. The world’s militaries are powerless against these aggressive sea creatures.

Rumours about the creature’s origins fly around the world; is it a descendant of Cthulhu, or is it a genetic study gone wrong? The world’s scientists are both confounded and divided and on what they think. The latest reports indicate that the mysterious creature is heading towards the Kingdom of Count Dracula. It’s from here that your adventure begins ...

You play as Count Dracula and find yourself on the left-hand side of the World Map at the beginning of a pathway. This path winds its way around the various regions of Dracula’s kingdom. Along the length of the pathway are the game’s levels, a total of fifty. You start on the first level which is indicated by Dracula standing on a green plate with three stars underneath. The others are currently locked, indicated by a padlock on the plates. These will unlock as you complete the previous level, allowing you to make your way around the region.

You can either select Dracula or hit the Play button in the bottom right of the screen to play the current level. You will then have a small text story intro about that level and the tasks ahead of you. Along the bottom of the screen are the objectives for completing the level. The first level requires you to Remove Every Puddle (three of them), Build a BloodDonald’s, Clear the Way for Vlad and Build a Sawmill. At the top centre of the screen is where your current resources are displayed, along with the current game level, three stars, time limit, and a Pause/Play button.

You do start with a few resources to help you on your way. There are five main types of resources that you can collect: Food, Logs, Power Crystals, Elixir and Fireballs.  There are other resources around the level that you will need to either collect, craft or use somewhere on the level. Each level has multiple paths with a Starting Point and Exit; the starting point is Dracula’s vehicle and the exit could be anywhere on the level. To reach the exit you will need to complete all the objectives and clear the exit so you can move on.

Along the paths between the start point and exit are resources and obstacles that you’ll have to either collect, repair or build until all objectives have been completed, allowing you to leave for the next level. Some of these obstacles and resources will require that you already have certain resources or items before you can collect them.  At other times you will have Quest Items or Characters, which are indicated by a Red Exclamation Mark. Once you have completed the necessary tasks for the quest items and characters, the exclamation marks will then turn Green, at which point you can select the exclamation mark to complete the task.

You will need plenty of resources to complete the many tasks on each level. To help you with this you can repair rundown buildings; these buildings will give you a steady influx of resources. The buildings are Sawmill (Logs), BloodDonalds (Food), Pharmacy (Elixir), Crystal Mine (Power Crystals) and Fire Tower (Fireballs). You will also be able to craft certain items to help you get passed some of the creatures or obstacles in your way. These will become available to you as you progress through the game. You will also find items like amulets which can give you a boost of speed for your zombie servants or instant resources at the Sawmill etcetera.

Playing the Casual mode will have you competing against time on each level. There are three stars in a yellow bar below your resources in the top centre of the screen. To collect all three stars, you are required to complete that level before you hit the first star. You’ll collect two stars if you complete the level before you hit the second star, and one star if you fail to before then. If you don’t complete the level before the yellow bar has gone then you’ll have failed and will have to start again.

Relaxed mode is for those who just want to take their time playing each level. There are no time limits in Relaxed so you really can just relax and take the game in your own stride. Hard mode is for experienced players and those who want a challenge.

In the Options you’ll find Music and Sound volume sliders, Show Instructions, Full Screen and Cursor tick boxes for On/Off.

Incredible Dracula Ocean's Call is enjoyable to play; it looks and sounds good. I like the storyline of each level as well as the main story. I do like to play these types of games just to relax a bit instead of poppin’ heads off all the time. It’s a game for everyone that’s not hard to play, but it can be challenging if you want to go for all three stars in Casual and Hard mode. Worth giving a bash if you like these types of games. Thumbs Up!

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!