Unfortunately I've been having the same issue as others. I can get to the main menu, but when I try to access any other button, it either closes the game down completely or if I try to play it takes me to the start screen, but freezes. I've tried the usual tricks including setting it to play with a compatibility setting for Win 8 (which at least one community member has said it works for her on Win 8, but still crashes. I've not tried different screen resolutions yet, but don't have the time today. If I do get it to work over the next few days I'll post something in the forums. I've created a thread specifically for this game.
If anyone finds a fix, please post it there (as well as in this comments section. Thank you. I still had the original game backed up so copied it over to my new build and it crashes the same as this one from TooMky Games. Whether it's the operating system that is the issue or as mentioned elsewhere possibly the resolution IDK.

This was originally given away on October 11th 2015 where it received a positive 77% from 346 votes with 34 comments, which you can see HERE.

Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock

In Brief
A Hidden Object Adventure game.

Introduction
Welcome to Hill Lock, a place no one in their right mind would want to be. The abandoned town beckons you to explore its ravaged streets. Fire that reaches up through cracks in the earth threatens your life and signs that something unnatural is stalking you have your nerves on edge. To escape, you'll have to gather useful items and solve clever puzzles. Find the path that leads you out of hell in Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock!

Reference accessed HERE Oct 11th 2015, reposted May 16th 2021

The Game
The following two reviews were not written by me. I've posted them because I've not had time to play the game enough to write a full review. I've taken 20 or so screen captures and played through the initial part of the game. I don't particularly agree with what either of the two reviewers say about this game. both are quite negative about virtually every aspect of the game. I don't particularly enjoy Hidden Object games these days unless they are exceptional; todays offering is really just an average hidden object game with a slightly different way of navigating through the various locations using photography as a tool. The graphics are decent and the overall presentation is good. The only issue I really had with this game was in expert mode; the list of words telling you what hidden objects were to be found still glowed when you were near them, making this a very easy expert mode as there really was no hidden objects because of the prompting. Overall I still think this is worth downloading, especially if you like hidden object games and if you have young children that aren't bothered by the dark atmosphere, or if you usually have difficulty finding objects due to deteriorating eye sight etc.

When you first start a new game you will be asked if you want to learn how to play. If you choose yes, you will get the usual tutorial messages until its deemed you've got the basics. Useful information is recorded in the journal, which is located in the bottom right hand corner of the game play area. In casual mode useful objects that you need to collect will be highlighted with a white/vaguely yellowish glow with starbursts. Hidden objects are the easiest items to find i've ever seen in a HOG, simply because when your cursor is near or on the object the word related to the object changes color to green. The collision mesh for this 'cheat' is quite large, so it's easy to pick up objects simply by slowly waving your cursor around the scene.

Normally I like to begin a review by focusing on a game’s strengths, the aspects of it that are most likely to be well-received by players of all stripes, and so I shall do that here to the best of my ability by saying that Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock is almost certainly not the worst hidden object game you will ever play. To be fair, it’s not even all that terribly awful. It’s just blandly, generically bad: silly, tedious, eminently forgettable and, given all the other hidden object games out there that don’t suck, really not worth the bother.

To the game’s credit, there’s at least one moment that’s pretty creepy. You’ll know it when you see it, believe me, and I’m not going spoil the surprise for. It happens relatively early – within the first of roughly three hours of play time, maybe four if you like to take it slow – and it promises some legitimate, Salem’s Lot-style chills ahead. Sadly, that one creep-out on its own is not worth the price of admission and it’s all downhill from there, as the game fails to deliver on that early potential.

Welcome to Hell Lock is, technically, a hidden object adventure, but the vast majority of the adventuring consists of a simple, sequential series of “find object, use object” maneuvers. Puzzles and mini-games are very few and far-between, and tend to be frustrating despite their obvious simplicity because they’re also rather obtuse. One such “game” requires the use of a magnetic crane to move an obstacle blocking an entrance. The crane is about as complicated as a preschooler’s Tonka Toy; the trick is figuring out what specific part of the obstacle the magnet needs to attach to and because there’s absolutely no indication given, you’re liable to spend minutes just waving the thing back and forth until something clicks. A “skip” option is available and although it’s irritating being forced to throw in the towel not because a puzzle is too tough but because it’s so poorly designed, in this game I would advise that you not be afraid to use it.

It’s hidden object scenes that are the game’s raison d’être, but while they’re plentiful, they’re not particularly good. The game’s visuals are decent but tend to be a little on the muddy side, which may be appropriate for the dark subject matter but isn’t especially conducive to enjoyable hidden object searching. Not that the HOG scenes are very difficult. Quite the opposite, in fact. Welcome to Hell Lock is one of the easier hidden object games I’ve played, for two reasons: one, the hidden object scenes are used repeatedly, with all the same objects in all the same places every time, and two, the objects you’re required to find tend to be the same from scene to scene. You’ll be looking for the same mix of stuff – pliers, daggers, jewelry cases and ropes are popular – from the first hidden object search to the last.

Making things worse is the way each word in the list of items glows green when the cursor is near it. The closer the cursor is to an item, the brighter its description glows, and it’s no exaggeration when I say that I found a substantial number of the objects in the game by simply moving the cursor around on the screen while keeping an eye on the object list. There’s no way to stop the glowing short of covering the bottom bit of your monitor with duct tape, and assuming you don’t want to do that, you really can’t avoid that helping hand. The net result is that gamers who want any kind of meaningful hidden object challenge are bound to be disappointed.

The cleverest thing about Welcome to Hell Lock is the way it uses virtual photographs instead of a map to assist with navigation. Pictures of each of the game’s locations are added to a photo album as you visit them, and to travel directly from one spot to another you simply click on its photo. It even ensures that you know where to go (and reduces the aforementioned low difficulty even further) by tagging each photo that has an active hidden object scene or other activity.

The downside to that is that you can easily spend the whole game traveling via the photo album, bouncing randomly from location to location as you’re directed, with no feeling of a cohesive narrative unfolding before you. You’re just flipping randomly through a half-dozen pages of a virtual picture book, clicking where you’re told, working through a half-baked hidden object search or “use item on…” puzzle, and then returning to the album to find the next waiting activity. Repeat ad nauseum until it’s finally over.

If that doesn’t sound like much fun to you, there’s a pretty good reason. It’s not. Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock is an all-around disappointment in pretty much every way. The graphics and music are unremarkable, the story is nonsense (even for a hidden object game) and worst of all, it’s just dull and uninteresting. Even the connection to vampires is tenuous at best; I’m no fan of sullen, angsty undead hipsters but at least they show up in their games. And when a game is bad enough to make you feel a twinge of nostalgia for that sort of faux-Twilight drivel, well, there’s only one way to put it: it/s rubbish.

Reference accessed HERE Oct 11th 2015

Other Reviews

First and foremost it is the story that makes the game bland. And every single character, especially the protagonist is devoid of personality; The games plot is uninteresting, never explained, and unbelievable. More then anything the actions, personality, dialogue, and looks of the protagonist reminds me of Ken, as in Barbi and Ken. He is just so dopey, and does not really seem to have any personally to speak-of; I can only assume that this game is aimed as young girls as I cannot see anyone else even potentially enjoying playing as him. The rest of the game follows pretty similarly. The vampire(s) in the game do not really make an appearance nor is any of their actions ever explained. If anything their main goal in life seems to be to simply make the city slightly spooky, like they were planning to turn the city into haunted house style attraction and they were practising for this role.

The game is also extremely linear, far more then it has to be. You often have multiple puzzles on the go, but that does not mean you can solve them whenever you want, for the vast majority you will have to complete a bunch of unrelated puzzles before you are allowed to find/pick up the needed object or try to solve the logic puzzle. But despite this linear-ness you are constantly backtracking to solve old puzzles and find new items; At random points in the game old previously used HOG locations will suddenly and inexplicably become active, with absolutely no in-game indication that they have done so. Which basically degrades the entire game into, solve a puzzle, check the "map" (picture album) for the new puzzle location, warp there and solve, repeat. And one rather strange thing is that the game does not even change the scene one iota when reusing a HOG location and many items you will be finding several times. So by the end of your game, even if you have a moderately bad memory, all HOG puzzles will consist of a significant fraction of objects that you remember the location of.

The rest of the game is pretty much what you would expect. the graphics are OK; The sound effects and music are OK; The gameplay is very repetitive but other then that about what you would expect from a casual HOG title. So all in all, it is a sub-par game but, while I am no expert, is it probably still an average, to above average, HOG title.

Reference accessed HERE 11th Oct 2015

You can see more community written mini reviews via Big Fish near the bottom of the big fish page HERE and walkthroughs HERE and HERE

Videos for Vampire Saga: Welcome to Hell Lock
You can see a few videos of game play HERE and HERE.

System Requirements

Conclusion

Hidden object parts of the game were far too easy due to the highlighting of text that appeared when your mouse was close to the object. The Collison mesh is quite extensive, so your mouse doesn't need to be right on the object for the word associated with that object to start glowing, what's worse is that it also happens in expert mode. apart from this I found the initial part of the game quite enjoyable. I can't comment furtherbecause this version of the game is unplayable.

Other Free Games
The latest game from Epic called The Lion's Song a narrative aventure game is now live HERE . Next weeks game that unlocks on the 20th May 21 hasn't been announced yet.

Please see Delenns threads for Steam and Non Steam freebies HERE and HERE respectively. It’s worth adding these to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, it’s yours to keep. Delenn has recently posted details of three Steam games that are temporarily free. One may be until it leaves early access??? - i.e. Tower Ball - Incremental Tower Defense plus The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2 and Keyboard Killers Also Delenn posted a new addition to Steams giveaways. The latest is called Galaxium a Space Invader like game. (ends tomorrow at 2.00pm One of the other three Steam games ends later today, forgot which one though?

You'll find hundreds of freeware games of all arcade and indie genres on Itch.io and Caimans Games as well as other sources. Please do check out the game discussion forums for older posts HERE (the sticky section is useful). Many of the earlier posts may be out of date with respect to the links I and others have provided to the free games; however, you only need to know the name of the game to find most of them via other sources. Many of those games from 2008 to around 2017 were posted as part of a project to supplement the lack of weekday games when the game giveaway went to weekend only games around Easter 2008 (mainly instigated due to the financial crisis of 2008) until November 2018 when Falcoware stepped into the weekday slot; however, from around 2015 onwards we did start to get the occasional Steam key for various games offered as limited giveaways, with a restriction on the number of keys available (anywhere from 25 to 2000+). These included over 60 decent AAA games and indie arcade games ; for example some of the better AAA games included , lucky Warhammer: Vermintide 1 & 2 plus DLC for version 2; Dreadlands, Mount & Blade: Warband, Immortal Unchained and Conan Exiles.

I've not posted details of any Indie Gala freebies since my older computer went on the Fritz back in October last year. Since then Indie Gala have added quite a few more free games, some of which are definitely worth downloading. You can find the latest freebies HERE and their showcase list, which includes all the freebies still current; (many of which have been included for a couple of years now) HERE.

It’s worth adding these links to your favorites and checking regularly for available freebies. Most are only free for a specific time. If you miss the deadline you’ll miss out. Once added to your account, they are yours to keep. :)