New Review Posted: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Daniel Weissenberger · 02-01-2006, 01:27 PM

Jason Karney plays Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, and likes the way the series is growing:

"Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is the newest game in the venerable Castlevania series, and it leaps forth in another bid to bring the dark world of Dracula into three dimensions. It obviously builds upon the foundations set by Lament of Innocence, while addressing lessons learned there—particularly that Lament was far too short. Curse of Darkness attempts to give the modern gamer something he can really sink his teeth into."

The details are available here.

jdingo · 02-01-2006, 11:01 PM

Nice review: informed and well-written.

As someone who is currently played CoD (XBOX), I took a particular interest in what you had to tell. I was of course on the lookout for unannounced spoilers, of which there were two (you named two of the Innocent Devil types which are not named in the instruction manual). Not a big deal.

I finished Lament of Innocence (PS2) last week, so I am making a lot of comparisons between the two games. I'll offer these thoughts:

1. The visuals in the XBOX version are disappointing. This is a PS2 game on the XBOX.

2. You can control the camera in CoD, which is welcome. But this doesn't prevent some irritating struggles to get the camera where you want it. The perspective will not retreat behind walls, so if your on-screen character (Hector) is near a wall, you have little hope of getting a view from behind his shoulder. And there are times - few, admittedly - when you cannot get the camera to show you where Hector is going: it becomes trapped in front of him, showing only his front and the few feet of ground behind him.

3. I have read other reviews that fault the game for its bland environments. I have to agree with them. The rooms are spacious, but never especially interesting or varied.

4. CoD offers two things that LoI didn't: Innocent Devils, which you covered; and stealing, which you didn't. Stealing from enemies introduces a welcome little challenge to every new enemy encounter. Almost every type of creature has a particular type of item that can be stolen from it, but only under specific conditions. The condition for each enemy is different, and satisfying that condition can be very easy, or very challenging. Some of these stolen items are essential to crafting new types of weapons. Combining materials to form new weapons has become something of a staple of the Castlevania series, and it continues unapologetically in CoD. Players will find themselves consulting the sub-menu's Bestiary to see which encountered creatures have dropped everything they can possibly drop, and what item can be stolen from that creature. My one (and minor) gripe about the stealing is that the animation of Hector stealing from the creature is obscured by an on-screen message telling you what you've just stolen.

5. I can hum the theme music from the first stage of NES Castlevania. Some of the music in Dawn of Sorrow (DS) is excellent, and in one stage the incidental music pays homage to that opening piece in NES Castlevania. LoI similarly has some wonderful music. CoD has utterly forgettable tunes. You won't be humming this stuff.

6. I finished LoI in about 13 hours, but this doesn't include the times I got killed off before I could get to a save point. I have invested about six hours in CoD, and am not yet 30% of the way through the game. So, yes, this game is clearly going to be longer than LoI. And that is a good thing.

7. The voice acting in CoD is far superior to that in LoI. The opening cinema in LoI was painful to listen to.

Thanks for a good review. Nicely done. Work like yours is one of the reasons I keep coming back to gamecritics.

- jdingo

David Stone · 02-01-2006, 11:19 PM

And I'm still not buying it until it drops in price. I'll play it in a month or so. I've got way too much on my plate already.

Jason Karney · 02-02-2006, 08:26 AM

Nice review: informed and well-written.

Thank you.

I was of course on the lookout for unannounced spoilers, of which there were two (you named two of the Innocent Devil types which are not named in the instruction manual).

That was a last minute addition. I felt that my experience with the Devils was important for the review, so I named them. And didn't realize they were a minor spoiler.

I didn't read the instructions until I'd played a lot of the game, actually; the game did a good job with its tips system.

3. I have read other reviews that fault the game for its bland environments. I have to agree with them. The rooms are spacious, but never especially interesting or varied.

The point I tried to make was that I thought things looked pretty, but felt somewhat empty. Yes, things do repeat... but adequate amounts of action would be eough of a focus that it shouldn't matter. The rooms that aren't "busy" enough are the problem.

4. Stealing from enemies introduces a welcome little challenge to every new enemy encounter....Combining materials to form new weapons has become something of a staple of the Castlevania series, and it continues unapologetically in CoD. Players will find themselves consulting the sub-menu's Bestiary ...

So you enjoyed the stealing? Not me. I did steal here and there, but for most of the enemies it wasn't worth trying to figure out the timing. (The skeleton wolves come to mind...) I did enjoy the weapon combining, of course, and I had to laugh reading your comment because I did go back to the bestiary trying to find where I'd obtained certain materials.

5. LoI similarly has some wonderful music. CoD has utterly forgettable tunes. You won't be humming this stuff.

I completely agree, and made sure to mention my opinion in this in my review. There was one standout piece that I really liked, and it is very similiar to (if not the same as) the music in one section of Dawn of Sorrow.

Thanks for a good review. Nicely done. Work like yours is one of the reasons I keep coming back to gamecritics.

Thanks again, and for taking the time to share your comments as well.

--Jason

Hypatia93 · 02-02-2006, 12:10 PM

Jason,

I can't hang anymore. When I get back to work (from being sick), I'll read your review and comment. (But I'm sure it's fab!)

Who loves ya baby.

And bass! Just get the damned game already. Can't Erin get it for you free like? Quit bitching, for Pete's sake! You know you want to at least /see/ it.

(*bunny noses*

)

David Stone · 02-02-2006, 12:13 PM

*le sigh*

I suppose I'll end up having to do the Second Op (assuming someone else doesn't want to take it first). I'm in a real tough financial bind here, and with the lady's birthday coming up in about a month, it's that much harder. I *will* play it, make no mistake. Just not right now.

Valmain · 02-02-2006, 08:55 PM

Thank you for the review. I enjoyed it and can say that I agree with you on most points.

I enjoyed the battle system and the stealing, but the graphics and sound were horribly plain, and the dialogue and voice acting were completely disgraceful. I also have a problem with how they made Trevor/Ralph Belmont out to be such a brash and outspoken bastard.

Just one note about the review: you call the protagonist 'Leon' a few times. In this game the main character was Hector, not Leon. Leon was the main character from LoI.

jdingo · 02-03-2006, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valmain

Just one note about the review: you call the protagonist 'Leon' a few times. In this game the main character was Hector, not Leon. Leon was the main character from LoI.

Oh, nice catch! I didn't notice that, because I've just recently finished LoI, so the name "Leon" didn't seem incongruous.

In my earlier post, there was something else I wanted to mention about this game: the "difficulty". A better word would be "easiness". Another review faulted the game for being too easy, claiming that the bosses can be beaten on the first attempt, until you get toward the end of the game, when suddenly the bosses are very tough. So far, I have found this to be true. CoD doesn't have me frequently racing through clusters of monsters to get to a save station, while LoI did. And, with 33% of the game complete, I have beaten three bosses on my first attempt. This is a bit disappointing.

I have found myself wishing that the game did more, offered more, had more variety. At its heart, this is a monster-mashing game: enter a room, hack and slash the enemies, collect some items, move to the next room. The puzzle elements I have encountered are not puzzling at all. In LoI, parts of the game remain inaccessible to you if you don't fully explore the potential of the relics (and I didn't). In CoD, there's only one door that remains stubbornly closed to me (and I am not sure it's because those blood skeletons keep getting back up after I've cut them to pieces).

CoD suffers from being too easy, and a bit too repetitive; and it doesn't really force you to think. The music isn't great, and the graphics are disappointing.

Despite all of this, I have been playing it now for 10 hours. It has its flaws, but it still somehow manages to be fun.

- jdingo

Jason Karney · 02-03-2006, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valmain

Just one note about the review: you call the protagonist 'Leon' a few times. In this game the main character was Hector, not Leon. Leon was the main character from LoI.

Oopsie! You're right. I guess I was mentally comparing to LoI, hence the name switch.

And to jdingo, the only boss battles that gave me a lot of trouble were in the final series.

--Jason