The Vampire Saga PANDORA'S BOX - detailed plot and gameplay

As I mentioned in my latest article Top 5 Point-and-Click Mystery Games you should play rightnow, the Vampire Saga series is at the very top of my favorites-list. It consists of three parts and now I will be talking about the first installment – Pandora’s Box.

In terms of storyline, Pandora’s Box is the most intriguing. In fact, the storyline is so captivating that I’m pretty sure the players will be completely hooked to the game even though it has some annoying gameplay. The Hidden Objects Scenes are some of the most annoying parts I have ever played in the game, which ruins the game a bit for me. But if you are solidly looking for games which focus mainly on the HOS, I solely recommend this game. But if you are someone like me who gets annoyed with irrelevant HOS, I recommend you still play this game but use a walkthrough for the HOS to progress quicker.

The story of this installment is quite intricate and elaborate. But I will still try my best to be as detailed as possible, otherwise I won’t be doing justice to the game. With that in mind, let’s proceed with the gameplay and the plot.

Gameplay

• From the main menu, you can create a unique and individual profile and your progress will be saved for that particular profile only.
• There are no separate modes for this game.
• The Hidden Objects Scenes are highlighted in white glow and they are randomized.
• On the game screen, the player will find the following things – the menu button, the hint button, the diary button.
• The player can access the Hint button as many times as he likes but not before the button refills in between each click.
• The game offers a custom cursor.
• The game also has some mini-games and a lot of interactive sections.
• The game offers non-interactive special cut-scenes important to the storyline in a cinematic format.

Plot

Grandfather’s phone-call

The story takes place in Boston, 1950, where the main protagonist Tyler summoned by his grandfather through a phone call on a fateful night. He informs Tyler that he has killed someone but is very confused and Tyler must visit him immediately to sort things out.

Tyler quickly heads out to 301 North End, where his grandfather lives and finds his house in a disheveled shape, indicating that his grandfather must have been very scared of something and had an enormous fight. Because the stairs to the second story is in rambles, Tyler uses stepladder to climb to the top floor where he finds his grandfather in the master bedroom. He was not in a lucid state, so Tyler stables him with some aspirin.

After the grandfather was stable enough, he informs Tyler that he has killed a woman, or so he thinks he did. He also asks him to listen to his story and help him understand what’s going on. Tyler agrees and the story begins.

Aboard Pandora

The story takes place in Puerto Rico, 1898. The Grandfather was still very young. He was stranded in Puerto Rico with no food or money. That was when he found a magnificent ship called Pandora on the moors and he felt drawn towards it. So, he decided to sneak into it and reveal himself only when they were in the sea in the hopes that the captain would allow him to sail to Boston with them. Aboard the ship, he hides in the cargo hold but slips on something in the darkness and loses consciousness.

When the Grandfather wakes up, the first thing he realizes is how quiet the ship is. He manages to get out on the deck but the first thing he sees is a terrible vision with blood splattered all over the deck for a split second. Startled, he realizes that the whole deck is in a pin-drop silence with no living soul. The ship is also not moving.

He goes into the captain’s cabin to search for someone or something but was faced with another vision where he hallucinates a demon on the verge of attacking him. After he recovers from the vision, he searches through the captain’s files where he learns that America was in war with Spain and this Spanish ship Pandora has been on her way to America with an important cargo from Egypt, which is supposed to help the Spanish in war against the Americans. He also finds a revolver in the captain’s safe.

Anyways, he looks through the window from the captain’s cabin and finds a dead man in a row-boat down there. As he climbs down to investigate, he is faced with another hallucination where he sees the demonic figure attacking and then killing the man in the boat. The Grandfather quickly flees the scene after taking a skull key he found in the boat.

He finds a scuba gear on the ship and uses it to go down into the ocean to find out why the ship isn’t moving. To his horror, he finds the corpse of the captain down below from whom he collects a special ring and another skull key. He also discovers that the anchor of the ship is stuck between two huge rocks. He returns to the captain’s cabin and opens the desk with the special ring where he finds a journal with a chilling entry from the captain.

Apparently, the main cargo of the ship is some kind of monster who got unleashed within the ship and has killed all the crew except the captain as the captain was able to save himself with some silver bullets. It also appears that the captain was a devout religious man and he chose to kill himself rather being the monster’s victim. So, he committed suicide by drowning himself.

The note renders the Protagonist frightened. So even though he is not superstitious, he still manages to find some silver bullets and a revolver just in case. Then he goes to the cargo hold and opens a special door with the skull keys he has found all over the ship to access the second cargo hold. After entering the cargo hold, he finds a good number of wooden crates which he assumes contains the same Egyptian artifacts.

The protagonist also finds an empty coffin with a note saying – “Real love never dies. Death is just a dream, my love. Remember this” – and an amulet piece. Upon investigating the closet in the second cargo hold, to his utter joy, he comes across another person – a woman – who calls herself Laura Patton. She was in a very feeble state. So, the Protagonist feeds her some hot pepper rum to regain her consciousness and carries her to the captain’s cabin so that she can get some rest and recover. While she recovers, the Protagonist proceeds with his quest to bring the anchor up.

He manages to remove the rocks by tying them with an inflatable boat and raises the anchor. But as the steering wheel of the ship was broken, he relies on fate only in the hopes that the wind and currents will take to the shore. Meanwhile, he helped Laura recover. But all these while, he felt someone’s invisible gaze on him. However they get hit by a storm.

Present time

The scenario changes and we are back to Boston again where Tyler is having this conversation with his Grandfather. The old man asks him to bring his music box where he has hidden a special object which may kill the monster. At first Tyler dismisses his Grandfather’s beliefs but he insists Tyler to trust him.

Tyler finds the music box in a hidden compartment in the bathroom. After opening the music box, he finds an amulet and a bullet and returns to his Grandfather. He finds his Grandfather’s revolver and loads it with the silver bullet and hands the loaded gun to him. After that, his Grandfather continues with his story.

The island

For days, the protagonist and Laura were stranded in the sea and he slowly began to fall in love with her. Every small things she did or ask him to do charmed him. In the meantime, He speaks to Laura as she is recovered.

At this point we learn that the Protagonist was called Matthew Ward. He learns from Laura that she was the niece of historian Elias Patton, who invited her aboard the ship to take a look at the Egyptian relics he had collected. But on the way, the monsters inside the sarcophagus broke free and attacked everyone. Elias Patton supposedly threw himself in water and Laura hid in the closet of the cargo hold to save herself.

The days pass by uneventful after exchanging stories when one day, Matthew discovers that they have come across an island. He collects a telescope to look closely at the island. The island appears to be abandoned with a broken ship on its shore. Suddenly Pandora slams against the island and the cargo holding an Egyptian sarcophagus breaks down in the cargo hold.

Matthew quickly goes down to see what happened and to his horror, he finds a mummy. In panic, he shoots at the mummy with the silver bullets and the mummy attacks him, temporarily making him unconscious. As he wakes up, he runs to the captain’s cabin to check on Laura and to his relief, she was safe. Matthew then lures the mummy with an old Egyptian wand aboard the small row boat with the corpse of the sailor and cuts the rope making the mummy float away into the ocean.

After getting rid of the mummy, Matthew uses his scuba gear to find a way into the island. Underwater, he discovers the broken staircase leading to the island and also finds a whole in the stranded broken ship which leads to a very old skeleton living inside it.

Anyways, he manages to fix the staircase and goes into the island where he finds another fainted survivor. Matthew wakes him up with some smelling salts and after the man is woken up, he introduces himself as Elias Patton. Enraged, Matthew threatens him to tell him everything. So Elias Patton tells him that they were indeed carrying cursed objects to America, especially because the wage was too handsome and because he did not believe in anything supernatural. Matthew also learns from him that he has no niece. That’s when he realizes that it was Laura who was the main monster all along.

Matthew goes back to the ship only to find the other part of the amulet – a heart shaped pendant – with Laura nowhere to be seen. While he is checking the pendant, Laura comes up from behind and attacks him, informing him that he did not do right to leave his friends in war in Puerto Rico, something she was not supposed to know.

The time period changes and we are back again in Boston where Matthew tells his grandson that Laura is back – still young and youthful – lying unconscious in his bedroom. Tyler goes to check and indeed finds Laura and sees that his grandfather was telling the truth. He goes back and informs Matthew of what he has found and the grandfather proceeds with his story.

The Escape

Back on Pandora, Matthew decides to flee the island with Elias Patton’s hot air balloon but before will destroy Pandora along with all the cargo. He collects some dynamite and blows Pandora up. But when he returns to the shore, he finds that Laura has murdered Elias Patton. She informs him that the demon aboard the ship was none other than Matthew himself. She offers him a life of eternity. But Matthew declines and quickly flees the island on the balloon when he almost gets attacked by his demonic doppelganger.

Laura is left alone on the island but she curses Matthew and tells him that she will return and take away what he loves the most.

Back in Boston, Tyler finds the pendant where there is a picture of Laura and Matthew together. Devastated with the revelation of his past, Matthew decides to finish everything once and for all. He asks Tyler to kill Laura with some holy water. As Tyler grabs a bottle of holy water, Laura wakes up and hits him. Then she kills Matthew. But before that, she informs him that she will indeed take away what he loves the most and that is his grandson – Tyler.

When Tyler wakes up, he discovers that Matthew is dead and Laura has disappeared. He finds the pendant but the image of Matthew transforms into Tyler and Laura’s eyes glow red in the picture indicating that Tyler is now under her spell.

If you are someone who is annoyed to play the full game but wants to know the full captivating story any way, this article is exactly for you. It took me ages to finish that game and walkthroughs weren’t very helpful. So, I hope this detailed story helps you learn about the amazing story of this game.