Dracula: Path of the Dragon is a serialized adventure game for iPad that wants to bring the conventional PC-game experience to a tablet platform. If you've played your fair share of point-and-click desktop adventures over the years, you'll be well prepared for this experience, but you may not be as impressed with the graphics. It's not that the iPad doesn't blow away any and all other portable systems visually. Touted for high-def graphics, Apple's system does the work of a good PC setup from several years ago. Cheaper video memory, faster processors, and improved screen technology on the PC side means that most people are used to extremely crisp images and fast response. Dracula: Path of the Dragon - Part 1 shows up as a bit fuzzy in comparison, but this works in the game's favor occasionally. The setting where all the action takes place is dark and mysterious, so a little occlusion sometimes helps to heighten tension. There are even the occasional surprises, as when a dog jumps at you from behind a closed window, that require quick and responsive graphics. These devices are effective enough here, but used sparingly because that's not really the system's forte. Everything done visually in the game works well enough, but there were instances where the PC model was followed slavishly and we would have preferred to see more platform-specific devices, like pinching to zoom text or to inspect objects more closely.

The music in Dracula: Path of the Dragon - Part 1 is great for setting a creepy mood, often more than the plot line justifies. Since all the events of the game are event-driven, music tends to loop until you take action. It's a subtle thing, but if you're used to playing games that drive you steadily forward and feature a more dynamic soundtrack, you may notice the difference. There are even some visual loops, where characters will enter the same scene the same way, each time you walk into the room. It reminds us that adventure games are fundamentally just a sequence of set pieces, since you may need to interact with a character or object several times before you solve one area's puzzles. There's a great deal of voice talent used during Path of the Dragon, some of it better than others... The biggest issue we noticed was the quality of the recording. Some voices sound natural, while others have a thin, tin-can effect that doesn't match up with anything you see on the screen. It's a shame that this happens, because the actors do a nice job with their parts, and the writing is generally high quality.

Episodic games have huge potential for telling epic stories. Gamers have been willing in the past to commit 50-100 hours to a game, but that mentality seems to be more rare. Today, shorter games with a high bar for quality, and add-on content through downloads or subsequent releases predominate. Not that the age of the epic RPG is gone, just that the form these games take will have to change. Dracula: Path of the Dragon - Part 1 leads us into a three-part game that begins with an investigation of events in a small town in Transylvania. A resident of the town has been proposed as a candidate for canonization, and you play the role of the young priest sent by the Vatican to gather facts around this claim. The story seems to take a left turn as you uncover "evidence" of vampire activity in the town, and even more of a left turn when the Vatican asks you to redouble your efforts and investigate these claims. If this doesn't sound like the typical vampire story, you are correct. We aren't spoiling anything by saying that actual in-the-flesh vampires don't actually appear in Path of the Dragon - Part 1, but the mood is creepy enough that you expect them around every corner. Bringing together historical artifacts like Vlad the Impaler with fictional locations and characters, the game weaves in enough fact to flex some intellectual muscle and show you it did its homework. Fans of vampire fiction will be glad this isn't just another retelling of Bram Stoker's tale, although the fictional Dracula is mentioned in the same breath as the game's "real" characters.

Playing Dracula: Path of the Dragon is akin to playing any of the old text-based adventures that required equal parts determination, problem-solving intellect, and curiosity. You can explore to your heart's content around the town, and interact with people and objects that don't immediately jump out to you as having special purpose. The action sags a bit in places where you've talked to everyone you can find and explored everything you can find, but can't seem to make progress. For all the clamor over non-linear gameplay, we have to admit that being lost and without direction isn't a lot of fun. It's that key interaction or piece of dialogue that actually lets you proceed, but Dracula: Path of the Dragon - Part 1 doesn't push these things in your face. A bit more hinting or reminder service would have been a nice addition, at least to keep things flowing. Good examples of this in the game are at the end of this first part, where your character basically says, "Okay, that's a wrap...time for bed," prompting you to return to the inn and hit the hay. There are other story elements left open-ended, and you aren't always sure if this is because they'll be tied off in subsequent parts, or if you are still missing some necessary step. Path of the Dragon stumbles but never falls, and reminds us that game development theory really has come a long way since the days of Zork.

Aside from the unintentional frustrations mentioned about, the difficulty level in the game is only average. Most puzzles are intuitive, and you'll be prompted in a pretty obvious way if you get it wrong. Especially if you're trying to do something that the priest isn't ready for, he'll mutter something like "I can't do that now" or "I should touch that without asking." It's those latter hints that really propel the game forward, since you're being fed the next action. We wished for more of these waypoints during the game, those reminders that it's time to go to a certain place and do a certain thing. The town you explore is rather small, but we still managed to get lost, likely because there was no map or compass of any kind. Sure, that destroys the illusion that we're "in" the game, but so does the little menu/inventory icon at the bottom-right side of the screen... Wandering about in the dark and fog has its value as a suspenseful plot device, but it doesn't make for the greatest player experience. Almost every puzzle came down to combining objects to do fairly mundane tasks, where we would have liked more variety, leaning toward something like Professor Layton. At least the objects you can use are clearly marked with a hand icon, and you can also scan your inventory for clues as to how an object is to be used. We'll say that in its first chapter, Dracula: Path of the Dragon felt like it leaned more toward an interactive novel than a challenging game, which is good for players that want something they can lose themselves in without being faced with dense, brain-bending puzzles or twitchy challenges.

The interface for the game is generally well thought out, with a free camera you can control by swiping in all directions. The camera itself tracks smoothly, and never creates any vertigo even with quick swipes. Tapping is used to move in a particular direction, and your options are indicated by small arrows. Many objects can't be manipulated or picked up until you move close, and speaking with characters works the same way. A gear icon is shown when you can manipulate a device or speak to a character, and you'll have specific options for dialogue once you do interact with one of the town inhabitants. Dialogue seems to have little or nothing to do with outcomes, it's just a way to uncover new hints or score objects from characters that you'll need to move forward. The players that really get excited about storytelling will be happy to know that there are extended sequences where characters will unload history on you about the town, and some documents you'll gather to add even more color. Most of this stuff is extraneous, a bit like the smalltalk that takes place with the average NPC in any role-playing game. The downside for those of us more pressed for time is that you really can't skip this dialogue or bypass one character entirely. You're going to take a tour of this creepy little town, whether you like it or not.

Unlike the sinking feeling you get at that point in the song "Hotel California" when you learn you can never leave, you'll be glad to linger in the creepy world of Dracula: Path of the Dragon. Like any good narrative, there's a strong set-up to Part 2, which takes you to Prague in an effort to learn about the town's more obscure history. You've at least learned by the end of this chapter that the so-called Path of the Dragon is a reference to the gauntlet that humans must pass through in an effort to become vampires. What part this played in the death of your candidate for sainthood, or how it ties to the crumbling castle outside of town rumored to have been inhabited by Vlad himself, is left unexplained. Playing through to the end leaves you wanting more, but feeling as if you've worked your way through at least a few good mysteries.