Castlevania - Curse of Darkness - Review

In Curse of Darkness, the second Castlevania on the Playstation 2 and the first for Xbox, the player controls Hector the former devil forge master now on a quest of revenge for the wrongful death of his beloved. This quest takes him, and the player, on a journey to hunt down the man responsible for her death - Issac, the only other devil forge master and the force that propels Hector for much of the game. The player controls Hector as he reclaims his dark powers, battles enemies and explores Valachia for this revenge.

CoD hits the ground running with an opening cut-scene between the rivals to the backdrop of an abandoned castle with their facial expressions and hand gestures fully captured. While not stellar, the voice-acting is the highest quality of the series and the dialogue is thankfully without the grandiose style of Castlevanias past.

Devil Forgery, the art that Hector relearns in the game, is similar to the Familiar system of Symphony of the Night but takes it several steps deeper. Through this skill Hector can create Innocent Devils; fairy-type, bird-type, mage-type and so forth. Though you never really control the IDs, as they are called, you can issue them a few commands. Each ID comes equipped with several abilities to assist Hector in healing, attacking or with solving puzzles.

To upgrade an ID Hector must defeat enemies to make them drop Evo Crystals. A predetermined number of a particular color evolves the currently active ID. The color is relative to the type of weapon Hector is using. If the player is accustomed to using one type of weapon, for instance the sword, they are forced to fight with another until the exact amount of Evo Crystals are attained. Moreover, there is no hint of what ability each path brings and no way to reverse the process once complete. If the ID has passed a certain development path the player must start over. Fortunately, the IDs will drop Devil Shards which can be used to begin anew.

CoD expands its areas outside the castle with a forest, mountain range, a temple and so on. This variety is largely superficial, however, as several connecting hallways and pathways resemble the last with little to distinguish between them. This repetition can make backtracking tedious especially since few of the areas have anything to discover except the same respawning enemies. In fact, the similar hallways can confuse a player and force them to check the map or risk going in circles. This is not helped by the fact that Hector moves slowly across the screen so that oftentimes all the player is doing is leading him from one empty space to another.

This lack of diversity expands to Hector himself. While the IDs can change and grow Hector retains a basic set of abilities with the only notable exceptions being Quick Step, an escape maneuver that renders him temporarily invulnerable and Steal, an ability critical to gathering rare items. Gaining levels is straight forward - defeat enemies until you go up a level - but there is no customization because the upgrading of life, strength and defense is automatic and not determined by the player. Since the IDs can be developed and controlled to an extent they often play a large role in fights, particularly boss battles, almost overshadowing Hector.

Another new system used in CoD is the combining system which the player gains early in the game. The enemies drop materials ranging in worth to combine with weapons and armor to create new items. The only drawback is that the player does not know what a certain combination of items will create. This may result in wasting a material on a weapon or armor the player may never use. Some of the larger weapons are cumbersome and can make escaping attacks when fighting with them more difficult. The actual creation process itself is engaging but the items attained from it rarely do more than add to a mostly unused collection.

Due to the abundance of healing items and the assistance of IDs the challenge is medium at best. The menu system is accessible even during boss fights so the player can use items and swap between weapons and armor at will. The IDs can never die only be put of commission until the right amount of hearts are attained and while only one can be active at any given time up to six can be stored and summoned one after another. Even the bosses, with a few notable exceptions, require little more than to run around a bit and throw in a few hits and let the IDs do the bulk of the work.

CoD starts off promising but that promise is filled with empty corridors, lack of challenge and several innovative but underdeveloped systems. The game gives no reward for experimentation with new weapons or IDs as it can essentially be completed by hacking through one corridor to another. Overall the experience doesn't quite live up to heights of the stronger Castlevania games. Most gamers (and fans) will probably be left horribly disappointed.

- 6 / 10