Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

"As a game its good, but as Castlevania, its fair."

Ive been a Castlevania fan for a very long time now. I used to watch my older brothers play the classic Castlevanias and as I got older, I played them and after all these years, I still go back for more! I've beaten and mastered Symphony of the Night so many times and beaten the GBA and DS Castlevanias and I could not say enough about how much fun they are! Every time a new Castlevania game is announced, I jump with joy and wait anxiously. So far, I've been satisfied and pleased with the Castlevania's that came out after SotN....that is until Castlevania: Curse of Darkness came out. Now, this game isn't bad, its just not what I thought it would be and it had me wanting more.

Story (6/10)

The story takes place 3 years after the Epic battle between Trevor Belmont and Count Dracula. You are Hector, a Devil Forge master. As a Forge master, he fought alongside Dracula summoning and using dark powers to create powerful monsters. He and his Rival, Isaac, are the only humans who possess this power But unlike Hector, Isaac saw no problem in using his powers to destroy. Hector turned his back on Isaac and Dracula and vowed to never again use his dark power. However, after the death of Dracula, Hector's wife was killed by Isaac because he blames Hector's betrayal for the fall of Dracula. Now, filled with hatred and revenge, Hector breaks his vow and regains his Devil forging powers and begins his quest to avenge the death of his love and defeat Isaac. There is more to the story than just that, but I don't want to spoil anything. The story does have some surprises and you meet a few interesting and a couple familiar characters. Other than that, the story is just a little below average. I've seen similar story lines quite a few times before.

Graphics (5/10)

Overall, the quality is decent, though it could have been a improved a little bit since its for XBOX. It looks like they just ported it over from the PS2 and thats it. I'm not one who thinks that games are all about graphics and I honestly don't mind if a game's graphics don't look realistic. However, its hard to enjoy a game if it's graphics are repetitive and lazy. Nearly everything in this game has a dark and gothic sort of feel to it, which goes along with this game's theme really well. The weapons, attacks, and magic look really sweet! Some weapons are unbelievable and some are just unrealistic and don't fit in the game at all. Either way, they all look great. My main gripe with this game's graphics is that they're lazy. I was honestly disappointed with the enemy designs. Some looked boring and uninspired and some were just generic looking. (For example, a Red dragon) Don't get me wrong though, they're not horrible or anything. I just feel that not much time was spent on enemy designs.

The level design was, sadly, a disappointment. They mainly consist of Hallways and corridors. There were a few cool looking ones, such as the mountains, and had more than just hallways, but they still seem more like mazes with monsters. I'm very pleased with the details, such as writing and blood stains on walls, however. You really get a spooky feel from all of it. Some just look demonic! I just wish they weren't overused.

Sound 8 (8/10)

This is perhaps the best part of the game. This game's music, like every other Castlevania game out there, has an outstanding soundtrack! Almost every song in this game is just awesome! My personal favorite is the song in the Abandoned Castle, which is the first level of the game. These songs just get your blood pumped up and gets you ready to just beat the snot out of enemies left and right! A couple of songs might even give you the chills! I only disliked a couple of songs. But other than that, Konami has done it again! I'd buy the soundtrack if I could find it! Seriously, has a Castlevania game's Soundtrack ever let anyone down?

Gameplay (6/10)

This game plays like a mix between Symphony of the Night and a generic hack-and-slasher. You have your standard running, jumping, melee, and aerial attacks as well as combos, blocking and evasive maneuvers, such as a back flip. You also have a Finishing move button that ends a combo with a special attack. You level up by defeating enemies and obtaining experience points and gain new abilities by finding relics. When you level up, your HP and statistical attributes increase, making you stronger and harder to kill. You can go to and from levels, just like in SotN and even find hidden passages and break open a few walls to reveal secrets. You can equip weapons, armor, helmets and accessories to make you stronger and provide protection. Items can also be used, though you can't use any attack items like you could in SotN. You can get new weapons, armor, and helmets by collecting or stealing (new to Castlevania!) materials from enemies or finding hidden materials throughout levels. You can combine materials together or even combine materials and equipment together to create new equipment! Some Equipment you can buy at Julia's shop as well as potions and other items to help you. you also get a map as well.

But what this game has that others don't is the new Innocent Devil system. As you progress in the game, you gain allies known as innocent Devils, or ID's for short. Once you get an ID, you can summon it to help you. It can aid you in battle by fighting enemies, guarding you, or healing you and giving protection. There are different ID types that are used for fighting, healing, magic, gliding, and gaining access to special places. You get hearts in this game, which serves as both an ID's health and magic points. IDs consume hearts to use their special abilities, though some are used for free. Once an ID's hearts are used up, they faint and become unusable until more hearts are collected or you get restored at a save point, Julia's shop, or from a healing circle after a boss fight. As you defeat enemies, your ID gains Exp and levels up. They get stronger and their heart capacity increases as they level up. Some abilities are also learned through level gaining and some are learned from defeating a set amount of monsters. You can also evolve your ID's by collecting Evolution crystals that enemies drop. How they evolve depends on what crystals you collect from enemies. The crystals they drop are based on which weapon type you used to defeat that enemy with. You can choose different evolution paths and have an ID that suits your style of play. Your IDs even lay eggs so that they can be hatched to form a new generation of ID.

So why the low score? Because you pretty much do the same process over and over. Besides the magic attacks, all you really do is hack, hack, hack, move on. You jump if you need to reach a flying enemy, but all you do is hack, hack, hack move on. there as well. Its basically, enter room, defeat all monsters, go to next room, travel down hallway, rinse and repeat. In some rooms, you need to make a jump or use an ID's special ability to progress, but thats only a few times. this games difficulty gets frustrating as well.Sometimes doing the same combo is all you need to do it. It can even get to the point where you can just let your ID do all the work and sometimes its really hard to where you need to level up a lot and use all your items just to defeat a boss. The hardest of bosses can still easily beat you despite having the best armor and max level and stats. Overall, this game gets really old and stressful, especially if you're trying to get 100% completion and get everything.

Rent or buy?

I don't think you can rent this game anymore. But if it were available to rent, I'd say go for it. I wouldn't recommend that you buy this game for more than $20, unless you're a huge Castlevania fan. Even then, you still might not think its worth it. This game is definitely worth a try though.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/08

Game Release: Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (US, 11/01/05)