Castlevania: Curse of Darkness

Castlevania Checklist: Play as a Belmont? No. Whip? No. Subtitle with musical terminology? 2D gameplay? No and no. Is this Castlevania Cursed?

	Version PS2, Xbox	Developer Konami	Publisher Konami	Genre Adventure

By Stephen Rowley

Considering the successful elements that make up the higher-regarded games in the Castlevania series being so abundantly clear, the existence of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is a strange one. Sure, it's admirable to see those lovely people at Konami trying something different within the Castlevania license, however slight, but surely their first priority would be to make the series work in polygons, as well as it already does in bitmaps.

Unlike a lot of people, we all thought the previous entry in the series, Lament of Innocence, did many things right in pursuit of that goal. The fixed camera may have felt strange initially, but at least it worked, and worked a hell of a lot better than the one in Curse of Darkness which, when close to walls, can obscure both your character and enemies. The majority of the rest of Lament managed to measure up well with, if not quite match, the most-loved entries in the franchise.

Curse decides to move away from the more familiar aspects of Castlevania, putting players in control of the Devil Forgemaster, Hector. He isn't 'one of the Belmonts', rather a traitorous and repentant henchman of Dracula, with the ability to summon 'Innocent Devils' to do his bidding. He doesn't wield the iconic whip in battle, instead he combines raw materials to create swords, spears, axes and, er, knuckle dusters. Obviously.

To be fair though, these elements aren't a major departure in their execution, sharing parallels with Soma Cruz's quests on the GBA and DS. The different melee weaponry works in much the same way as a whip, and the range of Hector's eventual arsenal is welcome, as is the 'combine' ability used in their creation. Whenever monsters are defeated, they will usually drop some raw material - metals, composites, artefacts, gemstones, etc. - which combine to make initially basic weapons. Higher level monsters drop rarer materials, subsequently allowing stronger and more specialist weapons to be forged.

The system works very well, and considering the large number of possibilities, the combination of items almost always makes some kind of sense as regards the final product. You will need the patience of a saint to create the game's 'uber' weapons though, the required materials for which can take hours to get hold of, but some gamers like that sort of thing. Most will be happy just using whatever comes their way.

Weapon categorisation also comes into play with Hector's other ability, his Devil Forging. Throughout the game Hector can find up to 6 forges, each granting him a new class of Innocent Devil: Fairy, Battle, Bird, Mage, Devil and... well, we'll keep the secret of that last one. And yes, there is a Devil Devil, which isn't great English, but hey. They all begin as infants, but can be evolved depending on the class of weapon Hector wields. Each class can eventually become one of 5 final forms (giving a total of 30 final forms, and all stages in between). To be honest though, the difference between the final forms within each devil class is marginal, really only found in the abilities they learn.

Rather annoyingly, certain areas of the map can only be entered if you first have a devil with the necessary ability to access it, and also have that devil in your party. If you chose a different evolutionary path for instance, it could take hours to build up enough experience to learn the one skill needed to access what amounts to about 2% of just one of the game's locations. Either the game isn't really long enough to fully explore the potential Devil Forgery provides, or to level your devils just takes too long. Considering the game is quite sizeable, we know which we'd plump for.

The scale of the game also feels wrong in other ways, with Hector either moving too slowly, or some of the 'rooms' just being too large and featureless. In fact the visual design of the game, though obviously 'borrowing' parts from Lament, somehow manages to be blander. That the camera is closer to the action is partly the cause of this, but also there is a lack of verticality in each room, and the focus is almost entirely on combat with little room for environmental challenge (no traps, no puzzles, no difficult jumps, etc.) as in Lament. Just as well that the combat is solid and engaging, if inevitably repetitive.

Things start to feel better after Hector's quest is done with. The weapon combining system may be interesting, and the Devil Forging can be quite compelling regardless of its eventual flaws, but the almost compulsory second play-through with a 'hidden' character makes a whole lot more sense considering this game's leanings toward combat. Needless to say it's a Belmont (of the Trevor variety), whip in tow. No messing about with devils or combining, just one man and his whip, an 'access-all-areas' pass to the map and a blood-sucking fiend to vanquish. Simple, solid fun.

Two final issues we want to get off our collective chests. Michiru Yamane's musical score pales in comparison to that of Lament (which was pretty damn good, though again if itself not as great as those in previous Castlevanias). It does contain familiar themes, and has the ability to eventually get under the skin, but has an overall blandness to it.

Also, whoever came up with the names of the locations in the game - Mortvia, Jigramunt, Baljhet, Garibaldi, Cordova, Aiolon, Eneomaos - either needs a promotion, or a slap (we're not sure which). We can only properly process one of those words, and that's because we love the biscuits of the same name. Mmmm, Cordova Creams...