REVIEW : Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition (XBOX Series X)
FURY OF DRACULA has a long and disturbing history. The board game was first released in 1987 and was originally a more complex version by Scotland Yard. The history of my game isn’t that long-I came across the 4th edition at the board game bar this year-but it left its mark. The impression was not good. Board games have a lot of different elements to keep track of, lack of instructions and explanations of the rules, and we all felt like we were doing something wrong. We gave up when we encountered the combat system because the instructions may be in a foreign language.
In theory, it’s a better game for digital platforms. Taking action without being seen by your opponent is the best online multiplayer material. Also, each Vampire hunter takes turns independently, so the game can last up to 2 hours, slowing everything down. If a video game does a lot of operational legwork for you, that time can be reduced to an hour or so.
For those who have never seen Dracula’s wrath, one player plays Dracula and infiltrates all over Europe, while another player plays a hunter to find Dracula and try to stab it into the ground. , A great little asymmetric board game. The game is so appealing because all Dracula movements are done in secret, while all Hunter movements are very public. So Dracula tries to get out of the way while the hunter searches the trail for days to find the next place.
The board consists of four hunters, all randomly scattered throughout Europe. Dracula can choose any place she likes. Then it starts in the daytime phase. In this phase, it’s each hunter’s turn to spend a single action point on things like moving (most common), searching for weapons and event cards (second most common), buying trains, and much more. I can do it. Exchange ticket breaks and items with each other to perform special character-specific movements. Therefore, the hunter looks sideways at the Dracula player and travels the route in a ticket-to-ride style to see if he was able to find the Dracula player. Dracula says “yes” or “no,” and the round continues. This is a nice little mechanic that Dracula has left a mark on. You can come across the town where Dracula was three or four rounds ago, and Dracula flips through the map to reveal that information. It narrows things down: he’s only three trains away if he was in Rome three days ago. Especially with four hunters doing hemming, you can start Dracula’s triangulation and hemming. Then at dawn, the hunter has another round or half-round. Hunters can buy tickets, take breaks, and make additional rounds of searching for items, put at risk because Dracula owns the night. You may dig up cards that are more profitable to Dracula than you are.
I got this review copy because the game’s concept is really good.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s four characters had to try to stop the protagonist of the same name, hoping that the digital version could smooth out the wrinkles in the instructions. The good news is that the barriers to entry are much lower, but given the game’s structure, it has its drawbacks.
But the first rule. The game can be played by 15 players (thanks to a capable AI). One becomes Dracula, and 14 players manage four vampire hunters. Dracula aims to increase the impact meter with traps and defeat hunters while avoiding detection. When the influence gauge reaches 13, Dracula wins. The hunter’s goal is to find out where Dracula is hiding and bring his health to zero.
Each player is placed on a game board representing Europe, where the cities are scattered. The standard rule gives hunters a fixed placement, but Dracula can choose any city. There is a day and night cycle every day. Players can travel during the day, collect train tickets, collect essentials and event cards, and rest. It’s worth using this time to recover, as you’ll be stuck when you reach the night cycle, but Dracula is at risk because you can get additional cards from supplies. Dracula is out during the day and moving around at night, but no one knows where to go. So when the villain moves, he leaves a path that lasts for the last six moves. Each card has a trap or other vampire waiting to catch a hunter who might land at that location.
Then it’s time for Dracula to meander around the board, make sick moves that double himself, go to the town where the hunter has just left, and pretend to go where he isn’t. Fury of Dracula: The classic move in Digital Edition is to jump on a boat-shown in different colors on the card, so other players know exactly that Dracula is in the ocean-but then Come back to land, almost because you are there. Hunters tend to fan out to find new shelters where you have escaped, even though you have never actually moved. Textbook.
Dracula has another trick on his sleeve. He drops enemies or effects whenever he leaves the place, allowing hunters who follow his path to face mice, wolves, fog, and other vampires. Dracula also loves to stir the pot with his effect card. This is very helpful to be misunderstood. Is there a load-blocking card that prevents players from using certain streets? Put it far from you for you to make such an impression.
Finding Dracula means fighting, then all items and effect cards come into play. Fisticuffs is a rock-paper scissors case, finely seasoned with some additional mechanics. When you select a card to attack, a symbol appears at the bottom of that card. First, determine the type of card to block. Therefore, if Dracula attacks with a fang symbol and your card also have a fang symbol, his attack is nullified. It’s nobler than that, but not so much. The victory conditions are very simple. For Dracula, the point is to avoid detection up to the point where you want to replace the trail map with a new trail map added to the countdown timer. When you reach 13 bad luck, Dracula wins. For hunters, everything revolves around killing Dracula. Tie him up, hurt him, and push him into the sea. In the ocean, you take 1 damage per round.
Players need to respect the privacy of others. There are some events where only all hunters or Draculas have to look away from the screen to see the information provided. This could allow four people to sit with their eyes closed while Dracula plans to place the card. You may also not know exactly who should distract you and how long. It’s a game that requires a jack box-style device connection (or the long-lost Xbox SmartGlass utility), and people can see the cards they have in their hands on their phones and tablets.
Online works, but no one plays. This is an essential feature of the game, but it’s rewarding to buy a title with five people. This is because board game enthusiasts can clench their teeth (the pun is intended) and play with people who can’t help during these pandemics, as everyone is around and chatting on the mic. I think it’s important. As with Operation Tango’s solution to this problem, I’d love the $ 60- $ 70 option that allows players to download a free copy and join me by invitation.
Unfortunately, there is a point where the digital version of the Fury of Dracula disappoints players. Control can be a bit tedious. It isn’t easy to get a complete picture of the board and pinpoint the location’s name with the zoom-out feature. The red markers on the buttons on the screen are easily lost and should be played by inexperienced gamers to select the options they need. In addition, pressing the A button twice in one place activates the card, making the button assignments inconsistent, but if highlighted on a battle card, the player moves to the Play option.
These issues weren’t enough to hinder the experience, and my time in the digital version felt like a perfect primer for finally spending money on the board game version. Playing long distances with friends is fun, but I can’t imagine many people trying to do it, especially when the price of board games is exceeded. And for those who do, there are still some twists. Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition doesn’t automatically place the cursor where it should be, so some UX is awkward. Why is Fury of Dracula: Digital Edition not automatically directed to “confirm” when I select a battle map? Button? It should be very simple. And one of the greatest joys of board games is that Dracula can show his route after the game, and the hunter sighs and snorts.
