Navigation
At its black heart, Curse of Darkness is a gritty and gory story-driven hack-and-slash adventure with evolutionary RPG overtones. There’s no direct environmental manipulation or NPC interaction to draw out the narrative experience over an unnecessarily long period, it’s just Hector progressively leveling-up amid hordes of undead warriors, ghostly specters, and dramatic boss encounters. But Hector is not alone in his quest for revenge and, through his embraced devil-forgemaster powers, a selection of ‘Innocent Devils’ can be nurtured into massively powerful allies that accompany Hector throughout the game and offer various invaluable attributes to differing gameplay situations.
Beyond the familiar hack-and-slash battle mechanics, which involve simple button combinations to unleash destructive fight moves, the Innocent Devils are quite possibly the gameplay’s central component. Each spawned Devil collected throughout the game offers a particular battle power or useful interaction asset to help Hector access previously unreachable areas. For example, the floating Fairy Devil watches over Hector, replenishing his dwindling energy levels as well as opening booty chests, whereas the stomping magma-imbued Battle Devil provides heavy-handed stopping power and the ability to smash through obstacles and pry locked doors. Other gathered Innocent Devils include the Flying Devil that can grab Hector and glide him to fresh areas, the Mage Devil that uses impressive magic attacks, and the Demon Devil, which is perhaps the game’s most potent Innocent Devil. All the Devils are instantly interchangeable but can only accompany Hector singularly, which, in part, contributes to their leveled evolution.
Graphically, Curse of Darkness has a grimy, unclean feel, which is certainly compliant with the dreary 15th century aesthetic, but the constant grit does lower the pizzazz factor of the game. This is especially noticeable through the environments, which constantly run to darkened castle ramparts and hallways, claustrophobic cobbled streets, forest paths, and ominous dungeon corridors. Animation is excellent and full of variety through the game’s plethora of inventive enemies and their unique attack patterns and splendid visual effects. Also, the rendered sequences, which open the story and serve to segue between separate narrative sections, are all sumptuously produced and add considerably to proceedings. The overall visual atmosphere may occasionally slide into repetitiveness but the unrelenting action soon renders that all but obsolete in terms of affecting the game as a whole. And the buckets of blood splashed liberally across the screen from vanquished enemies certainly add a modicum of vivid color to an otherwise dull and uninspiring canvas.
Game sound consists of satisfying battle grunts, sharp weapon clashes, and blood-curdling death screams—especially prevalent from dispatched skeletal wolves. Character voiceovers are all convincingly delivered with a blend of pace and emotion not so readily available in videogames, and Hector as the central protagonist is thoroughly believable, if not a tad whiny every now and then from the weight of ignorance and vengeful longing. Music is perhaps a little disappointing in terms of power and effect, and falls flat through its electronic mix of dramatic atmosphere where a genuine fully orchestrated accompaniment would have better suited the game’s grandiose themes.
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness is an instantly accessible, thoroughly entertaining, and worthy addition to the busy hack-and-slash genre. The evolutionary Innocent Devil mechanic proves to be the game’s most compelling feature, pushing the player forward long after repetitive and under-whelming environments may well have sparked the rush of boredom. The constant, blood-soaked action and massive array of applicable weaponry always provide fresh battle combinations and smiles of gleeful destruction as players wade, knee high in bodies, toward Castle Dracula and the game’s inevitable showdown.
