Crimson Cow A Vampyre Story review

A Vampyre Story is a point-and-click adventure game with lush, hand-drawn backgrounds inhabited by 3D characters.

Cartoon-like graphics effectively set the mood for this light-hearted romp through darkest Draxsylvania. You are in charge of guiding Mona, a Parisienne opera star who has been kidnapped and transformed into a vampire by the evil Count Shrowdy von Kiefer. As the game begins, he is killed by vampire hunters, leaving Mona trapped in his castle.

Mona isn't the sharpest tack in the box, but she's aided by a sarcastic bat called Froderic and can transform into a bat herself. As well as holding objects, your inventory can store ideas. For example, selecting Froderic and then clicking on a vat of grease will cause Mona to imagine this combination, and the idea of a greased bat is added to your inventory. Upon finding an appropriate puzzle later, simply select the right idea and the puzzle is solved.

Some broad innuendo may not be suitable for younger players, but teenagers and adults should get the game's pop culture references. Some jokes fall short of the mark, but we enjoyed characters such as Frankie, the leader of a literal rat pack.

The first part of the game covers Mona's attempts to escape Castle Warg by finding and using objects to solve puzzles. The solutions are logical, although we resented a potion-making puzzle, which gave us no indication that we'd have to add sugar to a diet soft drink before it could be used. Beyond the castle is the town of Vlad's Landing, where Mona must make good her escape by solving more abstract brainteasers.

The game has some annoying technical quirks: it runs at a fixed resolution of 1,024x768 and has no widescreen support. It also takes only a few hours to finish. Still, despite these flaws, it's a fun game that should please adventure enthusiasts.