Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

THE GOOD:
Stronger/more interesting story than previous Castlevania's, decent combat, great boss battles, should keep fans of Castlevania happy

THE BAD:
Bland/samey level design, repetitive/flawed gameplay, easier than previous outings, quite short, no where near as good many of the Castlevania games that came before it

SUMMARY:
I've been recently getting into the Castlevania series, trying out whatever games I could get my hands on, so I didn't hesitate in buying this one when I saw it on the shelves. Unfortunately, I was left a little disappointed upon playing the game. Firstly, lets talk about the worst part of the game, the game play. The first major diversion is the fact the game is in 3D, giving the game play it a very different feel to its 2D counterparts, both for better and worse. The most noticeable thing upon the games arrival to 3D is the fact that any and all platforming sections have been removed, making the various areas in the castle dull, lifeless corridors filled with enemies. It doesn't help that your character Hector, runs at a ridiculously slow pace, making exploring the castle even more tedious. Also noticeable is the fact that, from area to area, all you seem to be doing is walking from A to B, with very little variation in between other than combat. Thankfully though, combat manages to easily be this games strongest point. Although incredibly simple, there's a great satisfaction in pulling of all sorts of snazzy, elegant moves moves from doing combos to the simple dodge. Unfortunately, because your smashing through hordes of the undead so often, you begin to realize that most of the time your just mashing the square button, and simply watching lots of eye candy. Another problem I had in combat was the camera. When surrounded by hordes of enemies, couldn't tell what was approaching me from behind my back, and found myself often pressing the dodge button or defend button after every combo simply because I couldn't tell what was coming. True, you can swerve the camera with the right analogue stick, it swerves at such a ridiculously slow pace that in the heat of battle, concentrating on not getting hit AND swerving the camera into position is hard, frustrating, and because it happens so often, it kills the fun. There is the option of instantaneously swerving the camera to the direction Hector is facing or locking onto the enemy who is nearest to you, but it still doesn't change the fact that you can't see whats coming behind you and is an annoying hindrance in the middle of a scrap. This problem would've been sorted by having the option of a birds eye view, but alas no option was found. Perhaps the worst addition to this Castlevania game is the introduction of Innocent Devils. These guys are similar to the 'familiars' found in Symphony of the Night, but much more unwelcome. These guys help you out in battle, whether its healing or attacking, and you can give orders and commands as too what they do, and that's the problem. While this works for things like healing, when attacking it feels broken. This is simply because it makes the game feel far too easy, making your Innocent Devil do all the hard work by mashing the triangle button, not even giving the enemies a chance because they can't hurt it (when attacking, they're generally invincible) or because they haven't got a chance because there no opening TOO attack. Having some innocent Devils equipped raises your power too, so that's great isn't it, not only can you spam the enemy with hefty blows from your Innocent Devil, you can get in there with your new found power and beat them in seconds! Innocent Devils DO have a life bar however, and every time you use an attack, or the Innocent Devil gets attacked, it depletes. Surely that puts my argument null and void right? Wrong. You can find 'hearts' in levels that replenish the bar, and they come all too frequently. The only positive thing I can say about Innocent Devils is for healing, which is handy for when your in a fix and heals respectable amount of HP (not too much not too little) and the same goes for the amount of HP taken way from the Innocent Devil upon healing. But despite all I've said, you still want to push on to the end of each area. Why? Well, speaking in the games game play terms, its the boss battles. The boss battles are unbelievably fun, bringing out the skills and techniques within the combat (apart from the Innocent Devils), and things like camera angles are resolved because your focusing on one target. They're a lot easier than previous bosses in the series, but you don't care one bit because they're so much fun. All in all though the boss battles are the game plays only TRUE saving grace, so as a whole the game play is quite weak, although I will note that its fun in short bursts. Now onto the much brighter side of things, the games packaging (you know graphics, music etc...). This side of things much truer to the series, and is executed well. The environments manage to pick up on a truly gothic feel befitting of the games time period, thanks to many strong points. The most noticeable of these is its design (not game play wise), colouring and effects. While none of these are particularly impressive from a graphical standpoint (although the cut scenes look nice) they set the mood for the game, giving a proper 'Castlevania' feel, which would make any fan of the series want too press on with the game simply because of that.The voice acting is hugely enjoyable, in my opinion its very well acted and there's not a single dodgy accent. The scripting is quite good too, nothing special but it moves the story along. On the subject of the story, I found it too be much more entertaining and deeper than previous Castlevania games. Yes, it is a bit of a cliche and is no award winner, but it's definitely a step forward in the series, and if its entertaining, who cares if its a cliche? The main problem I have with the story is not a fault of the story itself, but more the fact that there's not a lot of it. Generally a lot of Castlevanias are like this, but they make up for it in game play. Uh oh, problem. For this game it should have been the other way around, but oh well. Perhaps the most oddball of the packaging is the music. Don't get me wrong, its fantastic (if a bit forgettable, but all games are like that too a degree) but some of it doesn't go with the setting, but I preferred this as the composer of the tunes just focused on making entertaining, good audio than trying desperately to make it go with the setting, limiting how much they can do with the music.

Taking all these points and lumping them into one, unfortunately leaves us with an average product. If you're not very familiar with the series, I would try out the DS Castlevanias first as they provide a much better introduction to the series. If you're Castlevania fan however, although the games flaws will be evident, you will most likely find enjoyment in the game due to the fact that, game play aside, it feels like a Castlevania game. But be warned, its no Symphony of the Night, its not even a Circle of the Moon.