Game Archive

PC Computer Games

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

Developer: Legend Entertainment
Publisher: Take 2 Interactive
Released: 05/97
Difficulty: Medium
Number of players: 1
Multiplayer support on: none
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: -

System Requirements:
System: 486/66
RAM: 8 MB
CD-ROM speed: 2X
Hard Drive Space: 25 MB
Controllers: Mouse
Sound Board: Yes
Operating System: DOS, Windows 95

Summary:

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon is set in what looks like a typical present-day Long Island bar except that the crowd of regulars includes time travelers, space aliens, and other unusual folks. Callahan's is friendly like the Cheers bar, but has a cosmic clientele like the Star Wars cantina. It's the place where every being knows your name.
Callahan's offers a unique twist on the traditional adventure game format. The game consists of six adventures organized like a TV sitcom, in which each episode presents the band of regulars with a new challenge. The game is accessible and fun for everyone. Because of the episodic format, people can play through one of the stories in an evening or two and come away with a real sense of accomplishment. Callahan's offers incredible entertainment value -- the funny puzzles, witty dialogue, gorgeous environments and nonviolent themes will appeal to the whole family.

Note: Vampires feature in the second story plot of this game. A segment is devoted to helping him.

Dracula: The Resurrection Dracula: The Resurrection

Developer: Canal+ Multimedia
Publisher: DreamCatcher Interactive
Released: 06/15/2000
Difficulty: Easy
Number of players: 1
Multiplayer support on: none
Genre: Adventure
ESRB rating: M

System Requirements:
System: Pentium-166 or equivalent
RAM: 32 MB
Video Mode: SVGA
Sound Board: Yes
Operating System: Windows 95

Recommended:
System: PII 233 or equivalent

Dracula Resurrection, a point-and-click adventure game from DreamCatcher Interactive, begins seven years after the primary events of the book. Mina has begun acting strangely, and some force is drawing her back to Transylvania. Harker follows his wife in hopes of saving her and finds that, indeed, Dracula is undead and well. But exactly how he returns from being a few handfuls of dust is never made clear. Perhaps the designers thought sunlight was an insufficient way to kill a vampire, even though it's been a staple of the vampire mythos. Whatever the reason, Dracula's titular revival is never explained or even discussed.

Dracula: The Last Sanctuary Dracula: The Last Sanctuary

Developer: -
Publisher: DreamCatcher Interactive
Released: -
Difficulty: -
Number of players: 1
Multiplayer support on: none
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: M

Follow Jonathan as he pursues Dracula through London to Carfax, Borgo Pass, the Catacombs, and finally to Dracula's secret Sanctuary. Numerous puzzles, challenges, plenty of bad guys, and confrontations with the boss himself (Dracula), await you in this 360-degree graphically splendid, continuing story of Dracula.

Dungeon Keeper 2 Dungeon Keeper 2

Developer: Bullfrog
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: 07/99
Difficulty: Medium
Players: 1-4
Multiplayer support on: Local Area Network, Internet, Modem, Serial Connection
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: M

System Requirements:
System: Pentium-166MMX or equivalent
RAM: 32 MB
CD-ROM speed: 4X
Video Mode: SVGA with 2MB of video memory
Hard Drive Space: 300 MB
Sound Board: Yes
Operating System: Windows 95, Windows 98

Recommended:
System: PII 266 or equivalent
RAM: 64 MB
CD-ROM speed: 16X
3D Accelerator Board: Yes

Summary:

Create your own dungeon empire. Dig out your underworld kingdom. Populate your dungeon with a variety of beasts - such as Skeletons, Dark Elves, Trolls, and evil Warlocks. Prepare them for battle with training rooms, workshops and magical libraries. Command your hordes in frenzied battles against the invading forces of heroic good. Summon the dreaded Horned Reaper to deliver the final knockout blow to help complete your evil quest.
Build a dungeon - Carve out a living, breathing underworld and attract a host of devilish creatures. Be the master - Feed, train and entertain your dungeon's inhabitants, or slap them into submission. Monstrous warfare - Send your legions into battle against righteous heroes and unleash devastating magic. Wicked perspective - Reign from high above or control your minions from a first-person viewpoint. Bag of tricks - Build traps, research spells, torture prisoners and deceive your enemies. Vicious variety - Conquer a full campaign, play individual skirmishes or hone your skills in My Pet Dungeon mode. Multiplayer warfare - Challenge your friends and foes through Internet and Network multiplayer modes. Downloadable updates - Expand your underworld from the Dungeon Keeper 2 website.

Note:Vampires feature in the dungeon complex with the Skeletons and Trolls.

Heroes of Might and Magic II Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars

Developer: New World Computing
Publisher: New World Computing
Released: 11/96
Difficulty: Hard
Players: 1-6
Multiplayer support on: Modem, Direct Connect, Local Area Network, Internet
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: -

System Requirements:
System: 486/66
RAM: 8 MB
CD-ROM speed: 2X
Video Mode: SVGA
Hard Drive Space: 60 MB
Sound Board: Yes
Operating System: DOS, Windows 95

Summary:

The original Heroes of Might and Magic was a great game for avid fantasy readers and D&D cultists because it fleshed out the pencil-and-paper universe they admired. Not only did it animate this universe, it made it strategically engaging, letting players pursue quests using carefully cultivated resources, army recruits, and spells. Heroes of Might and Magic II still retains the same play structure as the original, the bundles of new elements in the game coupled with richer graphics and more detailed character animations should have fans of the first adventure eagerly donning their gauntlets for a second round.
Two new heroes - in addition to the classic Warlock, Sorceress, Barbarian, and Knight who show up again in Heroes II - are available for selection at the beginning. First is the Wizard, who's got a little more mana under his belt from the get-go, not to mention well-rounded skills. The second is the Necromancer, a dark character with the innate power not only to stomp his foes in battle but also to revive some of the battle casualties and enlist them - whether they like it or not - as low-level fighters in his army of the undead.
Both of these guys can command a den full of new, bizarre creatures. The Wizard cultivates everything from stone-slinging Halflings and terrifying Rocs, to scepter-wielding Mages and, well, big, mean Giants. The Necromancer begins his crusade with dime-a-dozen skeletons, either obtained from his castle or (as we mentioned before) revived from his enemies' dead bodies. Then he can start to enjoin higher-ranking soldiers such as Vampires, Lichs (whose projectiles also screw up the target's adjacent hexes), and Bone Dragons. Since the Necromancer's troops are all basically walking corpses, spells such as mind-control, bless, and curse won't work on them.
Like the first game, heroes rule over corresponding castles, each with its own distinctive buildings and background jingle ("background overture" might be a better term here, but seriously, who's ever heard of a "background" overture?). There are a lot more options associated with the castle than there were in the previous Heroes. For example, you can strengthen your castle's defense against enemies by mounting flanking turrets and setting up a moat. Your castle-defenders without long-range weapons can now advance upon attackers by lowering a drawbridge. Also, the new option of purchasing protective phenomena in each castle gives castle-defenders certain advantages over the enemy. Necromancers can create a storm over their castles, offering defenders more spell points; Barbarians can build a coliseum to boost the defending troops' morale. Need all your heroes to go out exploring and somebody else to hold the fort? You can now assign an ad-hoc captain to your castle to baby-sit while you're gone, bestowing upon your defenders the necessary spell powers.
Another big change is the addition of upgradable monster dwellings (buildings developed in the castle where you recruited your monsters). If a Necromancer buys the upgraded Mansion, his Vampires gain more strike points and can transform into bats, flapping over to attack the opposing army on the combat screen; upgrading a Wizard's Cloud Castle transforms ordinary Giants into bolt-throwing Titans. Warlocks can now upgrade their Green Dragons to Black Dragons which are...well, just steer clear of the Black Dragons.
In describing all the new features, we've overlooked Heroes of Might and Magic II's most striking improvement over the original: the graphics. The colorful animations of the first title, which were intriguing but still a little on the rough side, are now more robust and have higher frame rates. All the new animations - from shambling Zombies, to characters keeling over when killed - add more of an element of realism to the combat sequences.
Copyright © 2000 ZDNet All rights reserved. From GameSpot - By Tim Soete, Posted 11/26/96

Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer

Developer: New World Computing
Publisher: 3DO
Released: -
Difficulty: Easy
Players: 1
Multiplayer support on: none
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: -

System Requirements: System: Pentium-166
RAM: 32 MB
CD-ROM speed: 4X
Video Mode: SVGA with 2MB of video memory
Hard Drive Space: 375 MB
Sound Board: Yes
Operating System: Windows 95, Windows 98

Summary:

Cleave the ogre, fireball the vampire, grab the gold, and acquire a spiffy new leather outfit. A typical night out in Manhattan? For some, perhaps; but it's also a well-established formula for a hack-and-slash RPG. While some gamers prefer their RPGs with additional depth and involved storylines, there are plenty who are content to explore territory and to slay hundreds of monsters to gain experience points and equipment for their violent virtual counterparts.
In order to produce an annual installment in the series, New World Computing has recycled the same engine in three successive games. Gameplay in Might And Magic Viii is virtually identical to Might And Magic Vii. Most RPG fans are willing to accept the reuse of technology, because the inherent complexity of the genre mandates extremely-lengthy development periods. But the proprietary Horizon and Labyrinth graphics engines looked outdated even when initially unveiled. As usual, gameplay consists of systematically exploring an expansive gaming world from a first-person perspective while stomping hundreds of savage beasts to gain experience points to make your party staggeringly powerful. Although the series typically provides a rudimentary plot to justify the ensuing slaughter, Might And Magic Viii's plot is more involved and requires your characters to gain the support of various factions in order to save the gaming world from pre-ordained destruction. Well-produced, animated cut-scenes provide meaningful plot development during the course of the game - a feature surprisingly absent in most of the series - in addition to rewarding players for landmark achievements.
The use of an established engine has allowed the developers to focus on providing additional character options and on improving the interface. While some of the new character classes have essentially just been renamed - Dark Elves, for instance, are fundamentally just monstrous versions of the Archer class - it's definitely extraordinary to have dragons and other beasts available as player characters. The interface has been redesigned to provide a panoramic view of the gaming world, and the handy journal function improved to allow map annotations and to more accurately record trainer locations.
Copyright © 2000 ZDNet All rights reserved. From GameSpot - By P.Stefan "Desslock" Janicki, Posted 07/06/2000

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen

Publisher: ActiVision
Crystal Dynamics

Developer: Silicon Knights
OS: Windows 95
ISBN: 0-87321-175-8
Rated: MATURE (17+)

Revenge. You can almost taste it. You desire vengeance. You lust for blood. You are Kain. Your enemies killed you in the ultimate act of trechery. But through the blackest of sorcery, you have returned - as a vampire. For sustenance, you must feast upon the blood of the living. For revenge, you will exact the darkest of fates upon your murderers. Nothing is sweeter than the blood of your enemies.

EPIC ROLE-PLAYING GAME: Journey through the depraved lands of Nosgoth in search of your murderers, with thousands of detailed screens and 100+ hours of dark, gothic adventure.
GORY COMBAT ACTION: Engage in ferocious combat brimming with 170 horrifying enemies, eight weapon/armor power-ups and over 20 demented spells and objects - each with a unique, bloody graphic.
VAMPIRE BLOODFEST: As a lord of the undead, you must drink the blood of your enemies to survive. Transform from vampire into one of four sinister forms to escape - wolf, nobleman, bat or mist.
A VILE TALE OF REVENGE: The powerful storyline of Kain's eternal damnation is intensified by 25 grisly minutes of full-motion, 3-D animation featuring dramatic Hollywood-style voice-overs.

Nocturne Nocturne

Developer: Terminal Reality
Publisher: Gathering of Developers
Released: 11/99
Difficulty: Medium
Number of players: 1
Multiplayer support on: none
Genre: Action
ESRB rating: M

System Requirements:
System: PII 300
RAM: 96 MB
CD-ROM speed: 4X
Video Mode: SVGA with 2MB of video memory
Hard Drive Space: 500 MB
Sound Board: Yes
Operating System: Windows 98, Windows NT

Recommended:
System: PII 400
RAM: 128 MB
Video Mode: 3D Accelerator
Hard Drive: 1200 MB

Summary:

The SpookHouse adversaries come directly from the world of classic horror. Snarling werewolves, misshapen vampires, vampire brides, mindless zombies, and entrails-munching ghouls are just some of the hideous creatures you'll bloodily dispatch. Absolutely grisly, these are not the campy, winking renditions of monsters we've seen in other games. For example, the zombies look like something straight out of Night of the Living Dead, each shambling corpse in a different state of gooey putrescence. Slow and stupid, zombies attack in enormous packs, happy to just rip into you with their arms or to bludgeon you with the severed arm or head of a fallen comrade.
Nocturne's emphasis on the ghastly is perhaps no more evident than when you die at the hands of ghouls. No pleasant "Game Over" screen here; you're treated to the sight of the ghouls falling upon your body and feasting, making delightfully wet slurping sounds.
Ideally, you'll be watching yourself kill the undead, not vice versa. Taking place from a third-person perspective, you'll stride through dank castles and desolate graveyards in your quest to rid the world of unnatural menaces. I found combat to be extremely gratifying, even though only a couple weapons were included in the early build I played. Still, a well-placed shot could blow the head off a ghoul, while unloading lead into their midsections could rip those horrors right in half. My favorite weapon was the crossbow, especially when I used the burning bolts. Doomed ghouls, crossbow bolts stuck in their necks and bellies, fire spreading across their limbs, desperately tried to stop the onslaught before falling at my feet - that's true, killing satisfaction.
In Nocturne, generally the best way is the goriest way. A typical situation might involve a monster guarding a key you need atop a platform with a giant swinging blade. You could waste some of your precious ammo trying to kill the beast, or you could just lure him into the blade so he's hacked to bits. Bribing him with dinner and a movie just isn't an option. Graphically, Nocturne is simply dazzling. The rendering engine uses a skeletal animation system for smooth, lifelike character movement, thus heightening your suspension of disbelief. And the use of dynamic physics means that characters look and move like real humans - no more Tomb Raider-esque 10-foot back flips from a dead standstill.
An advanced real-time dithering technique lets the engine operate in high color, outputting one billion colors instead of the 24 million when operating in true color. Volumetric fogging will let characters hide in fog banks rolling off a pier, while volumetric lighting effects help create an appropriately creepy atmosphere.
Everything is lit with volumetric lighting, casting real shadows on the characters and environments in the game. By its very nature, volumetric lighting is interactive, not canned, mapped, or pre-scripted, and occurs in real time. This is apparent in the way Nocturne deals with light reflection and shadows. In the first screenshot on the side, Gabriella stands in a dark room before a mirror. What little you see in the mirror is shrouded in darkness. In the second shot, light from Gabriella's flashlight bounces back to illuminate her. In the third shot, Gabriella moves the light to her left, falling into darkness herself while the reflected light reveals a doorway previously hidden in darkness. In the bottom two screenshots, notice how the shape of the shadows from the bookstand, the Stranger, and even the dead ghoul on the ground have subtly shifted in response to the repositioning of the Stranger's lantern.
Indicative of Nocturne's staggering attention to detail is the way the long, flowing coats of the characters are handled. Where other companies would be content to bang out a nice little coat animation, Terminal Reality has gone to the trouble of folding a cloth-modeling program into the game, letting cloth objects move independently from the characters in the game. This means coats flutter when trailing a moving character, whip above the character's head as the character falls in a pit, or hug characters' calves as they step backward. Heavy curtains are similarly modeled, falling and swaying believably when characters step through them into hidden vestibules. This is a game engine that positively screams "licensing opportunity."
But you better start saving now if you expect to play Nocturne when it's released this Halloween. Even when the code is optimized it's going to require a Pentium II-class machine with a truckload of RAM especially in software mode. Should gamers have the necessary hardware, Nocturne seems well positioned to be causing some hellacious nightmares later this year. Copyright © 2000 ZDNet All rights reserved. From GameSpot - by Robert Coffey

Quake II: Cry Havoc

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Cry Havoc is a class-based Quake2 modification in which each player is classed as a EM Trooper, Marine, Navy Seal, Rocketman, Sapper, Techy, Vampire, or Rigger. Each class has some unique ability as well as different maximums of armor and ammo. Some classes also have new designed weapons (such as the Techy's lasergun) complete w/ new skins and total functionality. Some other classes have had their weapons modified in other ways (such as the firemode switch for the Navy Seal machinegun). Each player class in Cry Havoc has its on unique skin, for male as well as female models. Other classes are being added and versions are being updated rapidly.Cry Havoc is a multiplayer patch only.
Visit Cry Havoc @ Planet Quake.

Sci-Fi Pinball: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Publisher: Fox Arcade
System Requirements: Windows 95/98 and MacOS 7.6

Summary:

Stake out vampires as you search for the Invisible Girl! Take your best shot and discover the mausoleum's secret passage.
Four of the Hottest sci-fi franchises in any universe make for the coolest pinball challenge ever. Rack up your score as over 100 movie clips and sound bites let you relive your favorite scenes. Make daring skill shots and flip your way to 11 mini-games that test your skill to the limits. Watch playing fields morph and shift as you climb to higher levels.

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption

Publisher: Activision
Developer: Nihilistic Software
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Genre: RPG
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Without a doubt, some game designs are more ambitious and complex than others. An action game can be successful solely by providing compelling graphics and sound coupled with smooth gameplay. Successful role-playing games have the additional burden of providing a detailed plot and a well-developed gaming world. While grand aspiration is not necessarily a prerequisite for a good RPG, it has led to the creation of some of the most innovative and memorable games. For its debut project, Nihilistic Software has undertaken to create a game that not only satisfies action, RPG, and multiplayer gaming fans, but also depicts nothing less than the inner struggle between humanity and monstrosity in the face of unfettered power and eternal life.
In Redemption you are given the role of Christof, a medieval holy crusader who, early in the game, has the misfortune of getting in a clash between vampiric clans. Just after he saves the life of a beautiful nun, Christof is "embraced" by the Brujah clan of vampires and turned into a vampire. Faced with the horror of becoming a creature that he would have previously destroyed on sight, Christof tries to forge a meaningful, ethical existence in spite of his transformation. The conflict between humanity and monstrosity plays a key role in Vampire the Masquerade. Each character is given a humanity rating. Vampires that succumb to the temptation to ruthlessly stalk humans will gradually lose their humanity until they ultimately devolve into rampaging beasts driven solely by instinct. In Redemption, if your character sinks into that state, the game is over.
Rather than let the plot completely unfold in the initial, appropriately gothic, setting of medieval Prague, Nihilistic has opted for four distinct settings. Complementing Prague is medieval Vienna. After thoroughly exploring those settings, a twist in the game's story advances the action all the way into 20th-century London and then finally concludes in New York on New Year's Eve 1999. Just as Christof is growing familiar with the conflicts between the vampiric clans and accustomed to undead existence, his entire world is thrown upside down. The gameplay will significantly change to reflect the switch to a modern setting. Some of the clans will have evolved, or even disappeared, and the perils of existence as a vampire will have radically changed. While holy crusaders and the religious inquisition no longer openly stalk undead in the 20th century (although they're still around, functioning primarily through the secretive Society of Leopold), modern weaponry proves more than brutally capable of polishing off vampires.
While Van Helsing (and Buffy) experienced great success dispatching vampires by planting wooden stakes through their undead hearts, in White Wolf's setting stakes are only capable of immobilizing vampires. Vampires are not, however, immune to humanity's more standard weapons of war. Christof and his peers and enemies will deploy a variety of traditional weapons, each appropriate to the setting when featured in the game, including swords, hammers, maces, halberds, stakeguns, phosphorus weapons, Uzis, chainguns and flamethrowers.
Redemption uses an impressive proprietary 3D engine created by Nihilistic, called Nod. When the Nod engine was unveiled at last year's E3, attendees were justifiably dazzled by its extremely detailed character models, vivid textures, and particularly convincing shadow and light effects. If anything, Redemption's engine only looks better now, as the game nears release. The game uses a third-person rotatable camera-perspective view that is similar in appearance to the one used for Ultima IX: Ascension. Redemption's engine already appears more polished, however, even at this stage in its development. Camera movements are extremely fluid, and the game runs exceptionally smoothly. The early build we examined only featured 3D support using 3dfx's proprietary API, Glide, but Nihilistic has promised equally impressive Direct 3D support prior to the game's release. The gaming world is undoubtedly beautiful, with realistic skies, fluid animations, and some of the best lighting effects ever seen in a game.
Unlike Ultima IX: Ascension, Redemption's 3D engine has been designed from the outset to support party-based gameplay. Throughout the course of the game, nonplayer characters will join Christof in response to plot developments. Your party can consist of up to four members, but you'll have little control over its composition. The environments are varied and beautiful but predominately linear and noninteractive, as they have been in most 3D-engine games. When your party is capable of interacting with objects in the environment (of course, there are barrels that need pummeling), the items will be highlighted when your cursor passes over them. Redemption's interface is well designed and lets you access desired information or items without completely obscuring your view of the gaming world. Movement is handled through a simple point-and-click system similar in feel to Diablo's interface.
The linear surroundings and story-driven gameplay, combined with a detailed character-development system, make Redemption feel like an adventure/RPG hybrid. Gamers who prefer the more open-ended gameplay of Black Isle's recent RPGs may be disappointed with the design of the single-player storyline in Redemption, although the game's multiplayer options offer more varied gameplay. The game's character- development system, however, should appeal to RPG fans. Most of the complexity of White Wolf's system has been ported intact into Redemption. Characters have ratings in a variety of attributes and have access to many of the vampiric disciplines that bestow supernatural abilities. White Wolf's detailed "ability" system, which ranks characters in a range of talents, skills, and knowledge, has been visibly trimmed out.
Copyright © 2000 ZDNet All rights reserved. From GameSpot - by Desslock, 02/04/00

Games that mention vampire NPCs or Enemies, but not focused on them:

Shadows over Riva, Sirtech - Role-Playing
Return to Krondor, Sierra On-Line - Role-Playing
Lords of Magic: Special Edition, Sierra Studio - Strategy
SkullCracker, GTE Entertainment - Action
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, Interplay - Role-Playing
Kingdom Under Fire, GodGames - Strategy

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