Anyone notice how sketchy the initial favorable reviews are for this game? all like one sentence long, written by users who appear to be new, smells like developers to me. I could just be paranoid.

full review from "Newbee" (no avatar):
"A very nice adventure game with good graphs, an interesting plot and challenging enigmas. "

full review from "Swen 12" (no avatar):
"Loved it : story - animation - difficulty.
Had great time.
Thanks KingLun for the good advice. "

full review from "KingLun" (no avatar):
"Dracula 4 is absolutely great, the story is amazing and the graphics are just beautiful! It clearly is one of the best adventure game of all time! "

full review from "dianadv" (no avatar):
"it has challenging puzzels and mini games.
I was stuck at the beginning in some of the mini games but managed them after a while.
The graphics are great
Still in the game "

These are all of the positive reviews for the game so far, and none of them sound real to me.

I've heard both good and bad about it. I purchased it with the original trilogy to get them free so either way I feel fine about it. But the number one "bad" thing I've heard about the game is the length is short (4-6 hours) combined with the fact that the storyline ends in a cliff hanger until the next "episode" is released. I haven't played it yet myself as I am playing them in order and just started the first game so I can't really say much. Those reviews do sound suspicious though.

I normally don't give much credence to any review (good or bad) that gives such little detail of the gameplay experience they had.
While they don't really seem that suspicious to me, they simply don't provide enough information to be of any use at all.

In such cases, where detailed reviews cannot be found here, I simply go to other review sources. Youtube is generally good for this, when it comes to actual customer reviews.

Amazon can also be a good source of reviews for certain games.

Metacritic is a good source for "professional" reviews, though they are not always written by fans who normally would have purchased this type of game, and thus can be unnecessarily harsh because the reviewer has little actual interest either in the game, or the subject matter. Nonetheless, these reviews can contain a wealth of information, providing you can identify any bias the reviewer might have, and read only the relevant parts, keeping their bias in mind. Most of these reviewers are pretty good about being upfront about their biases, but not all, so be careful.

Gamespot has a good mixture of pro and user reviews.

For this game in particular, I might try a search at Adventure Gamers, where they specialize in these games, and are generally pretty fair about what their biases are. The forums there are also pretty good, with generally intelligent posters.

So in general, I try to find as many different reviews as I can about any game before I commit to buying. You just have to be capable of weeding out opinions that may not be relevant to you. For instance, a reviewer may hate a game feature that you may love.

Research takes time, but in my case, when I have done all the research I can, I usually know what I'm getting into, and thus rarely have I wasted money on a game I hate.

Great link, thanks. I'm just starting to get back into this genre (after not playing since Sierra days!). This is useful, since so many games have been released since. It's telling though, that they only rate it 1.5 out of 5 (I also noticed the odd reviews while I was looking this morning; many of them seemed to use the same language and style).

Heh. I generally suck at adventure games. I don't have the patience for them in most cases.
And yet I love the premises in many of them, so I keep buying them here whenever there is a sale (such as I did now for this entire Dracula series, what with Halloween right around the corner, I wanted to have these games at the ready in case I got into the right mood to give them a go). And at these prices, I thought it would be worthwhile to have them at the ready.

Yes, I suck at adventure games, and yet I'm inexorably drawn to them, due to compelling stories, good art direction, and relaxing gameplay. It's kind of a comfort thing for me, just to get lost in their world for a while, even though I normally end up frustrated, and too proud to go to a walkthrough, instead torturing myself for hours until I give it up, vowing to return to it later, which I rarely do.

For me, it's an odd addiction. :)

Actually, you've pretty much just described my own relationship with them! For the last couple of years. I've gotten into Interactive Fiction; this just seemed like another way to experience a good story, so I remembered having a good time with the King's Quests and Gabriel Knights (for the most part) back in the day. I picked up the Dracula Trilogy, too...nothing else there seemed to connect with me, and I already have To The Moon (haven't played it yet though).