Right after having finished "Dracula Reloaded" from the same author, I threw myself into Bathory, drawn in by the curious letter the protagonist from DR recieves in the epilogue, mentioning the curious "Bathory case".

I definitely appreciated the story it was trying to tell. Clearly inspired by (and about) the famous Elisabeth Báthory (The Blood Countess). Bathory takes cues from the metal band aswell in their artstyle (at least in some cases, like the AVI design, if you carry a body). It was a great idea to have you switch between different characters, approaching the world from another perspective. The concept felt very unique and thought through, because even the voice of the character is altered, including all its "ugh"s and "hnhhns" when jumping, climbing or carrying a body. Even the clacking of your shoesoles changed.

The attempt to change up the pace felt always earnest. I never percieved the thing I was doing to be simply filler content. In some cases I even went out of my way to finish an interesting, optional task despite being able to conclude the level (Hint: Ouroboros).

They even introduced (though very SHORT) a mechanic that I found to be a great idea: The one-time-use lockpick. I don't know if other FMs have done this, but I found it so interesting to use a bone as a lockpick, which breaks right after its use. The concept wasn't explored further (aside another time in the mines), sadly, but again it was noticeable how much care to detail was seen here: Despite the bone only being used this once, it still had its own model and description - really nice!

But sadly I felt like Bathory had too much trial and error in it. I even had to resort to some walkthroughs on youtube and the guy there had just the same issue, looking for a hidden switch for half an hour. A secret should not be the requirement to progress in a mission, in my opinion. A lot of time was wasted looking for that certain door that was designed for only this one key. Levels had about 5-6 keys each time. It was unnecessarily complex.

The biggest issue for me was the lackluster theme of the supernatural, ESPECIALLY compared to Dracula Reloaded. I was so thrilled continuing the vampiric/horror saga, only to find out that the author chose a more grounded approach in Bathory, focusing on betrayal and intrigue, instead of the supernatural. Don't get me wrong, you still get to see a lot of "wizardry" and mysticism, but it just isn't "in your face" like it was in Dracula, where I loved the magical approach, as if you were transferred into a magical horror-realm.

Still, Bathory is a great campaign. A lot of thought and care went into this and overall, despite a lot of frustration, I had fun. Dracula Reloaded was just better.



SPOILER AHEAD:

The last level (as Bathory) is very unique, in that you feel like you are playing some sort of Hexen. Completely detached from the rest of the campaign. If the whole campaign was the vampiric last level, I would give this a 10/10 - because that was awesome. It's a shame that all of this lasts only for such a short while. Again, the love for detail is apparent especially here.