Give yourself vampirism with a mortar and pestle in Dracula: The Disciple, an alchemist's castle puzzler from Styx devs Cyanide

Many are those who stray before Vlad the Impaler seeking eternal life as a vampire. Poor, ignorant cattle! Immortality is a goblet of ashes, a bouquet of thorns, an endless stairway among the fading portraits of bygone loves. Besides, you have to solve a bunch of alchemy puzzles first, and if I'm interpreting the announcement materials for Dracula: The Disciple correctly, you might only get halfway there and transform into a normal dude with a gross undead hand.

Dracula: The Disciple is the latest from Cyanide Studio, creators of goblin houseburglar sim Styx: Master of Shadows. It casts you as Emile Valombres, a French archivist who is terminally ill. He's come to Dracula's stronghold in hopes of being cured of his disease along with his pulse, reflection and taste for garlic and sunlight, in no particular order.

Dracula ain't here, however – perhaps he's away seeing his Vampire Therapist - so it's down to Emile to "explore a Gothic castle filled with mystical puzzles, forbidden experiments, alchemical secrets and dark rituals", some of which involve a mortar and pestle. I can't quite picture Dracula with a mortar and pestle. It's like trying to picture Nigella Lawson with a Void Sword.

In the course of said puzzling, experimenting and ritualising, Emile will acquire supernatural powers and unlock new paths through the castle. "But salvation comes at a terrible price," the Steam page cautions. "To cheat death, you must become something else." A… vampire, right? I'd love it if the outcome of Emile's labours weren't a foregone conclusion, actually. Perhaps he will get an ingredient wrong and cheat death by transforming into a very sturdy armchair.

All japes at poor sickly Emile's expense aside, I'm moderately keen on the idea of a strictly puzzle-driven exploration game from the creators of Styx. That said, Cyanide's parent company Nacon are looking a little in need of Drac's gifts themselves. They filed for insolvency in February and are set to close Greedfall developers Spiders, among other cutbacks. It's not clear whether they'll survive to publish either this game or the two World of Darkness titles that got new trailers last night.