Castlevania Curse of Darkness
Posted March 10, 2006
The Castlevania franchise has a lot of history, both in the confines of the game and as a series. You'll be hard pressed to find a gamer weaned on the NES who hasn't played through a videogame as one of the Belmont clan. The first foray into the third dimension with Castlevania 64 was a far from stellar experience for any gamer, and I'll admit that I was one who purchased the game only to be severely disappointed. Thankfully the series has come a long way from that dismal performance, and Curse of Darkness strives to not only keep 3D Castlevania moving, but also enhance the legacy of Dracula.
Taking place shortly after the fall of Dracula in Castlevania 3, Curse of Darkness breaks tradition and puts you in the role of someone who is not a Belmont. Rather this time around you play Hector, one of Dracula's minions who turned on his dark master thus removing his given right of devil forging. Flash forward to now and Hector is seeking revenge for the death of his lady friend, and the blame falls directly on his old companion and fellow Devil Forger, Isaac. A dark tale of revenge and a fall back into the dark rituals await those who venture into the third dimension, but I must warn you...it's not all pretty.
Gameplay:
Innovation has been a key to the series since its inception, and along those lines we do get some nice innovations here in Curse of Darkness. First of all it should be noted that you no longer are limited to using only a whip as your weapon, this time you start out with a nice blade to slice and dice the various enemies you'll encounter. As you vanquish these baddies, they'll tend to drop an item that seems very out of place for this game; but collect enough items of different types and you'll be granted an ability to combine these items to create all new weapons, armor and accessories. Yes this has been done before, but I still had a blast making duplicate weapons and using them to try and create an even better one. As you advance through the game you'll no doubt have spent a lot of time combining elements and cursing that you just made a spiked baseball bat out of the two handed sword you just acquired.
Along with this item creation, another interesting feature of CoD is the concept of Innocent Devils. Not unlike the familiars that are used in the great online game Kingdom of Loathing, you obtain these innocent devils through your dark arts who will blindly follow you into battle aiding you in the way that only they can. Some are destined to be healers, while some are useful for crossing large gaps; and of course they too are subject to rules of RPGs where they level up along with your character. Not only limited to simply leveling up their hit points, the IDs can evolve into bigger stronger forms and by doing so can bring additional skills to the table to aide your quest.
Evolving your cute little devil is as easy as collecting crystals that randomly are dropped from killed creatures. There are multiple crystal types and depending on what weapon you are using, a different color crystal will be available for you to pick up. The colors come into play when you take a look at the evolution tree, which shows you how many crystals of a given color are need to evolve. What it doesn't show you is the actual effect the evolution will have on your ID. So there will be times where you've slaved to collect 90 crystals of a given color, only to have your companion evolve into something even more useless than what you initially had. As a concept it's good, but the execution was slightly flawed. I am sure with additional tweaks the value of the Innocent Devils could be improved greatly in further games which utilize the system.
Aside from the little devils, the game boils down to a very basic hack n slash, button mashing adventure. Overall I found the combat to be very repetitive and ultimately mediocre. To take out any enemy it turned into a swing often, dodge less often adventure. Taking down any of the various enemies was very similar, requiring limited thought and experimentation on how to take them out. Even the addition of an ability allowing you to steal items from your enemies is flawed, as the camera will swing out of the ideal position very easily allowing you to be attacked from behind without knowing a bad guy has walked up behind you.
Graphics:
I felt that CoD didn't really capture the true graphical feel that the Castlevania series is renowned for. Sure there were dank castles and forests to explore, but due to the linear way the levels are laid out, it could have been any non-descript hallway in any generic action game. If someone had walked into the room with no knowledge of this game, chances are high that they'd be hard pressed to pin down that it's a Castlevania game, unless of course they walked in during the scene early in the game where you fight Trevor Belmont.
Animations were actually something that were really well done, with each type of weapon you yield requiring different methods of attack. Swinging a heavy axe or pike looks very different than attacking with a mace or with a spiked shield. Other than the cut scenes, graphics tend to be a little blocky and enemies lean toward generic as you progress through the game, with slight variations on any given type.
Audio:
Unlike a lot of reviewers I found the music here to leave a lot to be desired. The upbeat gothic techno really didn't sit well with me, and I quickly tired of it while playing through the game. I can only handle remixed guitars set to a thumping bass beat for so long. Even the sound effects really were sub par, seemingly gleamed from a stock library of action sounds. Voice acting while a bit over dramatic, was used during the sparingly used cut scenes to help propel the story forward. To this reviewer's ear, the sound seemed to exist here only because it needed to and unfortunately didn't help envelope me into the title any further.
Conclusion:
As a rightful heir to the Castlevania throne, Curse of Darkness misses on a few points. While still a far cry from the greatness that is the 2-dimensional titles, CoD does take over top spot as best 3D Castlevania game - take that for what it's worth. I found the uninspired fighting combined with the less than stellar graphics slightly disappointing, as I was really looking forward to playing this title.
The inclusion of the Innocent Devils does add some redeeming quality to the title, but the limited customization that they offer is disappointing. If the idea was fleshed out a little more, chances are that it could have helped propel the game forward a little more. Fans of the series that are very dedicated to completing a story arc may want to pick this title up, but for the vast majority of gamers a rental will be sufficient.
Taking place shortly after the fall of Dracula in Castlevania 3, Curse of Darkness breaks tradition and puts you in the role of someone who is not a Belmont. Rather this time around you play Hector, one of Dracula's minions who turned on his dark master thus removing his given right of devil forging. Flash forward to now and Hector is seeking revenge for the death of his lady friend, and the blame falls directly on his old companion and fellow Devil Forger, Isaac. A dark tale of revenge and a fall back into the dark rituals await those who venture into the third dimension, but I must warn you...it's not all pretty.
Gameplay:
Innovation has been a key to the series since its inception, and along those lines we do get some nice innovations here in Curse of Darkness. First of all it should be noted that you no longer are limited to using only a whip as your weapon, this time you start out with a nice blade to slice and dice the various enemies you'll encounter. As you vanquish these baddies, they'll tend to drop an item that seems very out of place for this game; but collect enough items of different types and you'll be granted an ability to combine these items to create all new weapons, armor and accessories. Yes this has been done before, but I still had a blast making duplicate weapons and using them to try and create an even better one. As you advance through the game you'll no doubt have spent a lot of time combining elements and cursing that you just made a spiked baseball bat out of the two handed sword you just acquired.
Along with this item creation, another interesting feature of CoD is the concept of Innocent Devils. Not unlike the familiars that are used in the great online game Kingdom of Loathing, you obtain these innocent devils through your dark arts who will blindly follow you into battle aiding you in the way that only they can. Some are destined to be healers, while some are useful for crossing large gaps; and of course they too are subject to rules of RPGs where they level up along with your character. Not only limited to simply leveling up their hit points, the IDs can evolve into bigger stronger forms and by doing so can bring additional skills to the table to aide your quest.
Evolving your cute little devil is as easy as collecting crystals that randomly are dropped from killed creatures. There are multiple crystal types and depending on what weapon you are using, a different color crystal will be available for you to pick up. The colors come into play when you take a look at the evolution tree, which shows you how many crystals of a given color are need to evolve. What it doesn't show you is the actual effect the evolution will have on your ID. So there will be times where you've slaved to collect 90 crystals of a given color, only to have your companion evolve into something even more useless than what you initially had. As a concept it's good, but the execution was slightly flawed. I am sure with additional tweaks the value of the Innocent Devils could be improved greatly in further games which utilize the system.
Aside from the little devils, the game boils down to a very basic hack n slash, button mashing adventure. Overall I found the combat to be very repetitive and ultimately mediocre. To take out any enemy it turned into a swing often, dodge less often adventure. Taking down any of the various enemies was very similar, requiring limited thought and experimentation on how to take them out. Even the addition of an ability allowing you to steal items from your enemies is flawed, as the camera will swing out of the ideal position very easily allowing you to be attacked from behind without knowing a bad guy has walked up behind you.
Graphics:
I felt that CoD didn't really capture the true graphical feel that the Castlevania series is renowned for. Sure there were dank castles and forests to explore, but due to the linear way the levels are laid out, it could have been any non-descript hallway in any generic action game. If someone had walked into the room with no knowledge of this game, chances are high that they'd be hard pressed to pin down that it's a Castlevania game, unless of course they walked in during the scene early in the game where you fight Trevor Belmont.
Animations were actually something that were really well done, with each type of weapon you yield requiring different methods of attack. Swinging a heavy axe or pike looks very different than attacking with a mace or with a spiked shield. Other than the cut scenes, graphics tend to be a little blocky and enemies lean toward generic as you progress through the game, with slight variations on any given type.
Audio:
Unlike a lot of reviewers I found the music here to leave a lot to be desired. The upbeat gothic techno really didn't sit well with me, and I quickly tired of it while playing through the game. I can only handle remixed guitars set to a thumping bass beat for so long. Even the sound effects really were sub par, seemingly gleamed from a stock library of action sounds. Voice acting while a bit over dramatic, was used during the sparingly used cut scenes to help propel the story forward. To this reviewer's ear, the sound seemed to exist here only because it needed to and unfortunately didn't help envelope me into the title any further.
Conclusion:
As a rightful heir to the Castlevania throne, Curse of Darkness misses on a few points. While still a far cry from the greatness that is the 2-dimensional titles, CoD does take over top spot as best 3D Castlevania game - take that for what it's worth. I found the uninspired fighting combined with the less than stellar graphics slightly disappointing, as I was really looking forward to playing this title.
The inclusion of the Innocent Devils does add some redeeming quality to the title, but the limited customization that they offer is disappointing. If the idea was fleshed out a little more, chances are that it could have helped propel the game forward a little more. Fans of the series that are very dedicated to completing a story arc may want to pick this title up, but for the vast majority of gamers a rental will be sufficient.