Dracula 4 emerges from darkness today on PC and Mac

It's been nearly five years since players last encountered Dracula in a full-fledged adventure game, but time is meaningless to vampires, and the notorious Transylvanian Count has re-emerged today like he was never away in his fourth outing, Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon.

This time around, players control an art restorer named Ellen Cross, who is "assigned by the New York Metropolitan Museum to identify a masterpiece that has just reappeared in Budapest. A few months earlier, this masterpiece along with its collection had mysteriously disappeared at sea." The investigation leads Ellen to various locations around the world, including Turkey, Hungary, England, and the United States as she follows in the footsteps of Vlad Tepes and meets a number of "enigmatic characters such as Adam B. Stoker, the famous novelist’s great grandson."

Despite the "4" in the title, The Shadow of the Dragon is connected only in name to the first three games in the series, but like its predecessors, it will once again be a first-person point-and-click adventure with 360-degree panning. The game will include a "casual" mode for players who want assistance, and an "adventure" mode for those who want to experience the full challenge. Among the many puzzles to solve along the way, players will discover that "Ellen Cross is affected by a severe disease that weakens her. Consequently, they will have to regularly combine and use the medication to restore Ellen’s health, or they won’t be able to carry out specific actions."

Available exclusively for download, Dracula 4: The Shadow of the Dragon can be purchased now for PC and Mac through participating digital distributors such as The Adventure Shop and GamersGate. A mobile version of the game for iOS and Android devices is expected soon.