Dark Romance 1: Vampire In Love

Dark Romance: Vampire In Love
by DominiGames - February, 2014

Series links:  Dark Romance 1: Vampire In Love, Dark Romance 2: Heart of the Beast

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
GameHouse as Platinum Edition /
Steam as Collector's Edition



Emily and Enron love each other and want to be together. But Enron is hiding a terrible secret – he is the son of Dracula. And just as Enron wants to tell Emily the whole truth about himself, she is kidnapped. No one knows where she is. But there are all the signs that she was abducted from her apartment against her will.Meanwhile, Emily wakes up in a gloomy room with numerous coffins and the ghost of a little girl tells her that Emily has to hurry in order to be rescued. So Emily and Enron must hurry to find each other. But can they do this? You will learn this from the game Dark Romance: Vampire In Love Collector’s Edition.

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• Find out who abducted Emily and where she is
  
• You can play for both heroes Emily and Enron at once
  
• Achievements, zoo and interface shop
  
• Re-playable hidden scenes and mini-games
  
• Soundtracks, wallpapers, and concept art
  

For the Standard Edition

• Walkthrough
  
• Strategy Guide (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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 I so want to smash some heads together!!   

People on bfg forums have expressed varying degrees of concern (from "Oh, how could you?!" to "Do your research, devs!") at the use of the name Enron for our hero (remember, he's a vamp, it might matter).

So, excuse me, but what the hell is the problem? I live in Aus, ie. an english-speaking country with strong ties to the US, and the name meant nothing to me!!    

How are devs in the European Eastern countries supposed to know the damn corporation almost bankrupted California?

And why in God's name do you (the bfg people, not you!) care???  

Can anyone please explain to me how people get worked up about this kind of thing? Because it's beyond my comprehension.

  

JustTheFacts, after I read your post, I want to BFG to see what the problem was. 

I'm in UK, and Enron doesn't mean anything to me, either.  It's just a name, that's all.  No better or worse than any other name.    

Why the BFG people are so bothered, is beyond me.    

Definately  

Oh, please   So what if they chose Enron as a name?

This crazy level of sensitivity, even paranoia... So common in Americans. It's the weirdest thing. But it's always there, waiting for the next excuse. I find it a really curious phenomenon. But mostly, it just spoils the mood.

Luckily, this is a game that appeals to a lot of happy people! They are too busy buying and playing the best vampire game since Kisilova and don't give a hoot! lol

Oh dear! I seem to have offended a few of our lurkers... I hope I haven't upset or disturbed any of you that know me.

The above comment was meant to be an observation, and express my general frustration with people I see as being overly sensitive to implied criticisms or their national pride. They are upsetting because they are so aggressive and hostile... Was I offensive? I do hope not!! But seeing none of you responded, which I usually take as disapproval, I guess I did. So I am so sorry. I would never mean to hurt your feelings or insult you.    

I was genuinely kinda hoping someone might have some ideas that would enlighten me. There must be a reason. It's a lot easier to accept a thing if it's understood. Who knows, I might even be sympathetic then!

In the meantime, I have people googling JustTheFacts, scouring the internet to see if they can find other things to be insulted about! Oh dear. Think I'll just pull my head back in.

    I AM GENUINELY SORRY IF I OFFENDED ANY OF YOU!   

Please tell me if I did...

As a paranoid American, I can state unequivocally that you didn't offend me, Just.  I've seen levels (and high ones at that) about almost every subject under the sun in the BF forums (fora?).  I think paranoid people who like to express their opinions are drawn to BF as bees to honey (I was going to use another expression, one much more coarse, but came to my senses   in time).

Unfortunately, you seem to have rattled the hive, but this will all blow over, I'm sure, as soon as another topic flares up.  Some people, however, have lost their savings, and only got pennies back on the thousands of dollars they were fleeced.  Although I'm not aware of anyone at BF being affected, here's an except from Wikipedia which may shed some light:

"Many executives at Enron were indicted for a variety of charges and were later sentenced to prison. Enron's auditor, Arthur Andersen, was found guilty in a United States District Court, but by the time the ruling was overturned at the U.S. Supreme Court, the company had lost the majority of its customers and had closed. Employees and shareholders received limited returns in lawsuits, despite losing billions in pensions and stock prices."

Pretty sure losing one's pension completely is a reason to see red, but that's just me, I guess.  So never mind, I still love you, lol.

Lol, yes, I would be fairly seriously p'd off if it happened to me, and might say something in the forums how it was a name to leave a bad taste in the mouth - but to criticise the devs for using it? No. That I wouldn't do. I loved the jokey references to evil bloodsuckers, which I saw as far closer to what my own comments might have been.

I tend to agree with you that bfg forums seem to be a magnet to malcontents. Honestly, if I was as angry and hostile to bfg as some are, or to developers, or to individuals, I'd leave the pond for good.

But, there you go, so long as my friends here forgive me, I have never been emotiionally invested in bfg forums anyway. Thank you for the reassurance.

Nothing to forgive, Just.  I still have my pension, knock wood.  Oops, my remark could be construed as bad taste.  My bad  

As Sable says, there's nothing to forgive, JustTheFacts.  Don't beat yourself up.    

I haven't seen any of your comments as offensive, so please don't be upset.
I'm not American, and had no idea about Enron.  The game developers probably didn't know either. 
So don't worry about this, JustTheFacts   *hugs*   

Thanks frodo. It is getting to be a real pain in the butt, going to bfg forums, think I'll skip them for a while, just post my reviews and leave. Can live without the aggro.

Seriously? Gosh, sometimes the reasons why people bitch & whine just amaze me.

I didn't demo the game because it didn't look interesting to me. I didn't know the "pond" was getting all roiled up...again.  

Yeah, must say, can't remember ever meeting such a tempestuous group of people lol   

Dark Romance 1: Vampire in Love (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for Music, SFX, Environment and Voice Overs, Full-screen, Widescreen (NOT the default), Special Effects and Custom Cursor.  Choice of three pre-set difficulties, or you can go with Custom mode.  Can be changed at any time during gameplay.

Story:

Enron the vampire has fallen in love with a human and renounced both his vampire heritage and his father, Dracula.  There are just two problems... His fiancée, Emily, has no idea about Enron's past, and Dracula -- angry at his son -- has kidnapped Emily on the eve of their wedding!


The Journal contains extra story, and not only that, you have TWO journals -- one for Enron, and one for Emily!

Gameplay:

Be on the lookout for three types of collectibles during gameplay: Bats, cloves of garlic and vampire-related lore items.

Like the journal, we also have an interactive, insta-transport MAP for each of our characters.  You can switch back and forth at any time, and you will find ways for the characters to interact with each other throughout the game. Directional HINTS are available.

Hidden Object Scenes were all interactive lists of items to find, with some items requiring two actions before you could find them. ie. Move a leaf to find an item, then move that item to where it belongs.  HOS will each repeat once.


You can switch to a Match-3 game instead of finding objects, but I personally thought that their pieces felt draggy when you moved them, and that the match-3 design was uninspired (no bonuses for making 4+ or even 5+ matches).

The Mini-games were pretty much standard fare for this type of game, and ranged from too-easy to not-hard-but-time-consuming.  Something I really liked is that one of the early puzzles had a hint in the room, but that hint wasn't recorded in your journal.  The puzzle is still solvable via trial and error, of course, but it was still a nice gesture.

There is a lot of game logic in this one, and while I found some of the tasks ridiculous, they didn't aggravate me the way these things usually do.

Sights and Sounds:

The visuals are nice, though nothing stunning, and the music -- while suited the atmosphere -- felt a little repetitive.


CE Content:

• Integrated Strategy Guide
  
• Bonus Chapter
  
• 15 Collectible vampire-related lore items
  
• Collectible Bats (used to purchase decorations for your castle) and Cloves of Garlic (used to purchase cosmetic interface upgrades)
  
• 20 Steam & in-game Achievements
  
• 15 Wallpapers
  
• 15 Concept Art
  
• 5 Music Tracks (saveable)
  
• "Free Search" of all of the hidden object scenes in the game (14 scenes that repeat once each)
  
• 24 Replayable Puzzles
  

Bonus Chapter:

Rewind the final scene a few seconds, pause and that's when the extra chapter takes place.  You will play as Emily only for the bonus.  Although it's interesting, we never do find out why the village featured in this part of the game was having troubles, making it feel like a piece of the story is missing.

The chapter ends with a choice that will affect the outcome of the game. The achievements do not require you to replay the game on different difficulties, but there are separate achievements for each of the two possible endings, so if you're an achievement-hunter, you'll only have to replay the bonus to get your final 'cheevo.

Verdict:

If I had to describe the game in one word, I would say "pleasant".  I did enjoy the character-switching mechanic, but there's nothing truly outstanding about this title.  The HOS are junky, the alternative Match-3 pretty-but-plain, the graphics are nice and the music repetitive.  Recommended for a zen afternoon.