Dracula: The Disciple to rise up on PC and consoles

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Cyanide Studio to reinterpret Stoker's famous vampire story sometime next year

The good news about being a vampire is that you get to live forever (more or less). The bad news is, you're stuck being a horrible bloodsucking monster for eternity. But what if there was a way to navigate the best of both worlds? This will be the player's task – and terrible burden – in Cyanide Studio's upcoming supernatural thriller, Dracula: The Disciple.

Rather than a direct adaptation of Bram Stoker's famous creation, this game is a reinterpretation of the Dracula story that puts players in the role of Emile Valombres, a "French archivist afflicted with a terminal illness." It's 1866, and Valombres believes that a cure (or more accurately, a "way to cheat death") can be found within the now-abandoned Transylvanian castle of Dracula, where the Count himself once "conducted the dark experiments that granted him immortality." Attempting to recreate his solution, you must "master occult tools, grow supernatural ingredients, perform ancient rites and uncover the truth behind vampiric transformation." But like Dracula before you, you'll come to discover that salvation comes at "a terrible cost: a dark transformation into a vampire." To escape the Count's fate, you must "see the process through, altering your body forever." 

While Cyanide Studio is better known for its sports and action franchises like Blood Bowl and Styx, occasionally the French developer dabbles in more adventure-type fare such as 2018's Call of Cthulhu. Dracula certainly looks the part of another big-budget production, presented in slick-looking first-person, free-roaming 3D, but its gameplay is much more puzzle-focused than most vampire games. You don't need to worry about attacks from the shadows, as the castle is abandoned by the time you venture inside. Instead you're free to explore, day and night, from "abandoned drawing rooms, mysterious gardens and the foreboding laboratory, to the lofty astronomy tower, the lush greenhouse and the sinister dungeons." As you delve deeper into "the depths of a Gothic castle whose otherworldly beauty hides dark secrets," you must seek out evidence of the Count's work, including his "writings and correspondence, revealing knowledge beyond human comprehension, from occult incantations to alchemical transmutations and unholy experiments." 

Even then your work has only begun, as you must apply your newfound knowledge in the laboratory to "combine elemental powers using the alembic, decanter and athanor in the alchemical quest for the legendary Philosopher’s Stone." You may also need to procure your own ingredients, such as growing plants in the greenhouse with "sometimes supernatural properties," as well as "master the intricate art of rituals by tracing their symbols on the castle floor" using realistic game mechanics. Helpfully, your physical metamorphosis grants you "unique advantages, allowing you to perform feats no human could achieve," unlocking new areas "until you are no longer a guest, but the master of the castle." Along the way, you will gradually uncover "fragments of a forgotten past" that let you "piece together Count Dracula’s history, from his first steps into the occult and unspeakable experiments, to the decisive discoveries that sealed his transformation into a vampire lord."

It's too soon yet for a target release date, but Dracula: The Disciple is due to launch sometime in 2027 on Steam for Windows PC, along with console versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. 

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