Fury of Dracula

There are so many cooperative games that are coming out that we’ve now started to remake/improve some of the oldest cooperative board games around. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Scotland Yard, as it’s a perfectly playable game even for gamers with more modern standards and tastes. However it’s not perfect and an update was probably in order.

Fury of Dracula fits this bill nicely. The gameplay is essentially the same as Scotland Yard, where one player acts as Dracula and travels across Europe to create new vampires and elude the Hunters. The Hunters’ job is obviously to find and kill Dracula. As Dracula moves, he leaves a card corresponding to a city on the Dracula's Trail track. Using various means, the players are able to reveal these cards and determine where Dracula may have gone. This can be dangerous, as Dracula leaves minions and traps in his previous locales. Combat involves each belligerent choosing a combat action, rolling a dice, and then determining which actions go off based on the weapons or abilities used. Damage is then dealt, and play continues until one party is dead or one party successfully retreats.

Unlike Scotland Yard, the Hunters have varying skills and abilities. The Hunters have to work together to find Dracula, and failing to use their abilities to aid their team will result in a quick win for Dracula. This isn’t always easy as Van Helsing’s and Godalming’s special abilities are geared toward helping themselves rather than helping the others. Nevertheless, coordination and teamwork are a necessity.

The game offers a lot of risk/reward options for both Dracula and the Hunters. Hunters can travel quickly by train, but may end up going nowhere if they run into bad luck. Dracula can clear the Trail and wipe out his path with the right card, but doing so erases any encounters that he might turn into victory points for himself. A player can try to retreat from combat if he or she is close to death, but doing so means that they won’t do any damage to their enemy.

Overall, Fury of Dracula does a good job of giving all the players a rewarding experience. Playing a Hunter seems just as fun as playing Dracula, and there are fewer “wasted” turns on the player’s part where they could potentially be running around getting nothing accomplished. The game is extremely social, as the Hunters must constantly discuss what to do next and how to deal with each new development or discovery. Like all turn-based games it’s important for the players not to mull over their actions for too long, as extended bouts of indecisiveness will result in a longer and more tedious game for everyone else. It should be noted that there was a previous edition of The Fury of Dracula, and that the version that I played was the Fantasy Flight edition featuring slightly simpler and much more streamlined rules and mechanics. Fury of Dracula gets a 7 of 10 from me. I can’t wait to play it again. Also, I can’t promise that I won’t make The Count references if I ever play as Dracula.