Overview:

Taking place nearly ten years after the events in the classic Bram Stoker gothic novel, Dracula has returned to spread his evil disease throughout Europe. His plan has remained the same: create a host of vampires in Europe for which he can control to do his bidding, giving him nearly unlimited power in the region.

Clued into the fact that the Count has returned, the hunters are back to thwart him at all costs. The once-bitten Mina Harker, Dr. Seward, Lord Godalming and the tenacious Professor Van Helsing have once again taken up the chase in an attempt to kill the Count once and for all. Each hunter brings something new to the table from the Lord’s ability to fight henchmen with more effectiveness to Dr. Seward’s ability to carry more items.

The trick is finding him. Dracula could be nearly anywhere in Europe. Maybe he’s in Madrid? Or London? Maybe he’s in Rome? It’s the job of the hunters to pick up his trail and not only find him – but slay him once they catch him before time runs out because once Dracula has created six new vampires, the game ends and Europe falls under a shroud of darkness.

One to four players play the role of the hunters while one player plays the Count as he slithers across the map, trying to avoid detection.

The Bits:

This is another fantastic production job by the folks at Fantasy Flight. You get a nice fold out map that stretches from Great Britain all the way to Athens with 60 city locations in between as well as several sea zones for which both Dracula and the hunters may travel. The board, while sturdily built looks like an old-fashioned map and this is just one of the areas where the game drips with atmosphere.

The cards have wonderful ‘flavor text’ written on them that reads as if they were ripped right out of the Dracula novel. The artwork on both the cards as well as the individual character sheets is also top notch. Fury of Dracula helps set the mood and anyone who plays the game who has read the novel will appreciate the attention to detail that was put into this production.

The game also comes with four plastic miniatures each representing a hunter as well as the Count himself. The minis are of good quality, but they are not painted, which would have been a nice touch (The figures in a game like Marvel Heroes is the exception in this case, and not the rule.) You can paint these on your own, and if atmosphere is important to you, and in a game like this it’s almost required, then it’s well worth it.

The Fun Factors:

Mechanics

The game mechanics, once you get the hang of things, are very smooth with only a few frustrations.

An interesting twist involves how Dracula moves about the board. While the hunters all move in plain sight, Dracula’s movement is hidden from the other players thanks to the use of his Location cards. Each turn Dracula must move to an adjacent city or board a ship at the cost of some blood (i.e. hit points…Dracula hates the water). Once he moves he takes the facedown Location Card (that was his former location) and moves it down his “trail” one spot, putting his current location in its place. There’s room for six cards on the trail so if the hunters enter a city that Dracula has visited in the past six moves, that location is revealed to everyone and the hunters have picked up the scent of the Count. If a Location card “falls off” the trail (if it is not revealed within six turns) it is placed back in the Count’s hand and the hunters are never the wiser.

In addition, when Dracula moves to a city he places an Encounter token on that city – this is a little gift that is left for any hunter who may wander in looking for him. These range from simple henchmen who engage in combat, fog that slows down the pursuers, or even a newly created vampire. Dracula is not without his tricks. He has other powers at his disposal for both avoiding detection as well as battling the hunters. He is much more powerful at night; he has all of his combat abilities from fangs to mesmerize as well as the ability to shape-change into a wolf and move up to two cities in one turn, further confounding the hunters.

In addition, when Dracula moves to a city he places an Encounter token on that city – this is a little gift that is left for any hunter who may wander in looking for him. These range from simple henchmen who engage in combat, fog that slows down the pursuers, or even a newly created vampire. Dracula is not without his tricks. He has other powers at his disposal for both avoiding detection as well as battling the hunters. He is much more powerful at night; he has all of his combat abilities from fangs to mesmerize as well as the ability to shape-change into a wolf and move up to two cities in one turn, further confounding the hunters.