The Castlevania series has had a long history beginning way back on the original Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987 [The Japanese Famicom had it almost a year earlier]. It started out as a notoriously difficult platformer, creating some of the most memorable experiences in all of gaming history. As 1997 rolled around, the series saw a dramatic facelift with Symphony of the Night, which combined the style of the CV series with a Metroid layout, focusing more on exploration and new abilities, thusly dubbed by fans as "MetroidVania." After thirteen years and a total number of games well over the 30's, and Konami has seen fit to call for another reboot of the franchise, this time wiping the slate clean with a brand new canon, recruiting Spain-based developer MercurySteam to handle their titular Vampire killing series. Do they have what it takes to bring the Belmont clan back to the limelight, or will they wash the series into darkness?
STORY
You play as Gabriel Belmont, the first Belmont in the line and a member of the Brotherhood of Light. Your wife, Marie, has been brutally murdered, and her soul has been caught in limbo, unable to ascend. Not only is this a bit of a bummer for Gabriel, it's also a nasty little problem for everyone else, as a soul caught between worlds is generally a bad sign of things to come. Guided by Marie and assisted by his fellow Brotherhood knight Zobek [voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart, who additionally narrates the game as Zobek], Gabriel sets out on a quest to recover the God mask, an artifact which can ressurect the dead. It is split up into three parts, each held by a member of the Lords of Shadow, beings well beyond the powers of mortal man, and the leaders of armies of monsters which have been ravaging civilization for years. It is up to Gabriel to defeat these Lords and assemble the God Mask once more to finally set things right and get his revenge.
The story itself is, on paper, a very interesting narrative, which chronologizes Gabriel's fall from divinity and purity into depravity and bloodlust, as he is filled with rage and contempt for those who would rob him of his one love. The execution of it leaves a lot to be desired, however. While the narration is stellar, and many of the cutscenes are slickly done, we never get to see much of Gabriel actually evolving as a character. He is rendered practically completely mute for a majority of the game, and only pipes in for a few sombre lines in the cutscenes. Thankfully, the cutscenes themselves are entertaining, and offer great glimpses into various characters, even though their time and development is short. Had we seen more of Gabriel's reactions and development, it would have made a lovely tie between the narration and the great cutscenes, but as it stands, there's a strange disconnect, as the components are a bit disconnected from one another.
GAMEPLAY
Obviously, being a Castlevania game, you're going to need a few good ways to kill a heck of a lot of monsters. Gabriel himself is equipped with a Combat Cross, which acts as a chain whip that has a long and wide berth allowing Gabriel a fair amount of distance between him and his foes. One of the first things one will likely realize when first stepping in Gabriel's shoes is how familiar the gameplay feels, feeling a lot like Sony's God of War franchise, and that isn't an unfair distinction; much of the combat is handled almost the exact same way, featuring a light and heavy attack, grab move, and secondary attack, with dodging and countering handled once again very similarly. However, the familiarity wanes after a short while, as this game manages to add enough small wrinkles to make it stand out above other would-be imitators of Sony's premiere hack-and-slash franchise.
Alongside the whip, Gabriel has access to a small variety of subweapons, a staple of the Castlevania franchise, including daggers, holy water, faeries, and summon crystals. Knowing which of these to utilize against your enemies is key to surviving in battle, which the game helps to inform you, by way of an in-game bestiary which lists strengths and weaknesses against your various alternate weaponry. Alongside subweapons, you also have access to Light and Shadow magic, each of which have their own meter. You find magic orbs in the field, dubbed Neutral magic, which you can absorb into one of the two meters-- or both at the same time, if you'd like. Light magic allows you to heal a bit of your health with every strike against an enemy, and Shadow magic, conversely, adds more damage to your attacks. This system can also be utilized to alter and strengthen many of your own special attacks and subweapons. A Focus meter is added in as well, which, if filled by consistently attacking and avoiding being hit, will spout a huge wealth of magic orbs from your enemies to refill your gauges as you see fit.
The combat certainly has quite a few mechanics to look after, and is bolstered by a number of abilities which allow you far greater movement in the field, but while battling your enemies allows for a lot of creative combos, you're very rarely given reason to use a majority of your abilities. Most of the time, simply mashing on an attack button and rolling out of the way will actually spell success for you against even a lot of bosses. There's no incentive to use these abilities, either, except to get a trophy or achievement for buying everything, so even the bare minimum abilities that you have at the beginning of the game, save for some of your magical abilities, are more than enough to carry you through the rest of the game. It's a shame, too; even some of the story-related abilities, while incredibly interesting in concept, are only necessary a handful of times, and are almost completely forgotten by near the end of the game.
There are times where combat is broken up a bit nicely. A few bosses, immediately reminiscent of Shadow of the Colossus, require more navigation than actual fighting, and certainly push the player to be careful with each step. Though it nowhere near captures the fluidity of SotC, they don't feel out of place, and are great setpieces to add in plenty of variety. You'll also take to fighting while on horseback... or spiderback, or warthogback, or even ogreback. At various times, in order to get to the next area, you have to use your enemies against the environment to break down walls, make rather impossible climbs and jumps, and so forth. They're not incredibly frequent, but they're a good way of adding in spice to some of the longer levels.
Thankfully, the exploration aspect of the game, while minimal, doesn't suffer quite the same fate. Exploring is once again very similar to God of War or Tomb Raider, leaping from ledge to ledge, occasionally using your chain whip to rappel along walls. These segments of the game certainly make use of your abilities, and though none are particularly difficult, the guys at MercurySteam sure found plenty of ways to tuck hidden items just out of view, requiring some clever leaps of faith to get to these secret areas. There aren't a wealth of new experiences to be had in the exploration over the course of the game, save for a few moments near the end, but it holds up well for the most part, thanks to spot-on level design where each area has a strong identity. While the gameplay gets a bit samey, it's easy to tell levels apart even when they share very similar visual themes, a testament to some very strong art direction on the part of the developers. Certainly an accomplishment, since there are well over forty levels, each of which last you a good fifteen to thirty minutes each, bite-sized sections made for replayability.
Added in to break up the game a bit are various puzzles, many of which can take up an entire level. A majority of the puzzles are fairly rudimentary, solved with some basic logic or trial and error. With the exception of one puzzle, however, you're never at risk for failing these puzzles. You can find hint scrolls for nearly all of these puzzles, which can reveal the answer to you if you so choose, but it's worth it to solve on your own, as you're granted a good helping of experience. It isn't until late in the game where the puzzles start to get genuinely interesting, requiring a good mix of logic and your own abilities to succeed, but those are also the sections where you've gained all your extra spells and relics.
REPLAYABILITY
The game also tries its hand at adding in various bits of replayability: By the end, you're likely going to be missing out on a few hard-to-find upgrades. A percentage on each level will be marked on the world map, allowing you to work your way to 110% completion [as opposed to the standard 100], thanks to hidden items and, more importantly, trials. Trials give you new objectives within levels to handle alongside your normal objective. These can range from time limits, killing enough of a particular enemy, the usual things you might expect. There's no actual reward except for completion purposes, however, so incentive to tackle these sometimes particularly difficult challenges remains low except to the most hardcore of players.
GRAPHICS
What really helps the game stand apart from many other hack-and-slash games, though, is its art direction. The graphics in this game may not exactly be Uncharted 2 levels of polish, but it holds its own with variety and detail. Castles are basked in light through windows and with ancient candles, books and pages and broken furniture laid out along the floor and ravaged by time, rich, lush forests growing around the beaten trails, even the deserts are a spectacle to behold. Though the framerate can occasionally stutter, and there are the very rare graphical glitches [we're talking only one or two throughout the game's 15+ hour run], the environments are simply a joy to behold. The enemies look good and gruesome, indicative of MercurySteam's heavy Guillermo Del Toro influence, particularly with Pan's Labyrinth. The enemies are gorgeously grotesque, with some great classic designs.
The main characters can occasionally look a bit odd, however; Gabriel's hair in the cutscenes looks a little odd, and many NPCs can look downright awkward, especially the few children you see. Mouths are animated rather stiffly, and one character, who speaks to Gabriel telepathically, moves her head and body as if speaking quite enthusiastically at all times, which honestly looks a little too awkward to take seriously. Luckily, many of these characters only appear for a few levels and are gone, allowing the monsters to steal the show. Animation for both Gabriel and the creatures are handled incredibly well, with moves flowing into one another smoothly and solidly.
AUDIO
The music helps set the mood quite amicably in the game. Though there are no stand-out memorable hits, offering more ambience than something you can hum on your way to work, it is appropriately epic, capturing the intensity of some of the bigger fights. The sound effects range from satisfying to merely "okay," but nothing sounds out of place, thanks to appropriate audio balancing. The voice acting delivered in each scene is generally well done, never underselling or overstating the point for the most part, though you occasionally wish there was a bit more energy at times.
MercurySteam set out to make a brand new Castlevania, one that held true to the essence of the series while at the same time establishing its own identity. For the most part, they manage to succeed, thanks to great art direction and a very nice set-up for a series thanks to the story. However, it does falter in a number of areas, with occasionally stale combat, a mishandled narrative, and very little in the gameplay department to help it stand out. Its successes are far greater than its failures, however, and though it's debatable whether they've totally captured the spirit of the Castlevania franchise, it is an incredibly interesting beginning that certainly deserves a sequel, for once not because of there being plenty to fix, but because there is enough of a strong foundation to launch into one of the more interesting reboots of recent years.
BREAKDOWN
Pros:
+ Strong art direction
+ Smooth gameplay
+ Plenty to collect and do
+ 15+ hour experience
+ Great voice acting
+ Solid pacing and variety throughout the entire experience
Cons:
- Occasionally feels derivative
- Weak boss fights
- Broken narrative
- Low incentive to replay the game
- Puzzles are frequently lackluster
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
BUY/RENT/FORGET:
If you're merely looking for a solid action game that'll last you a good, long while, definitely buy. If you're looking for a wholly unique experience, you may want to pass on this. Castlevania die-hards may get a huge kick out of this, however, as long as they go in without thinking it's MetroidVania style. It's roughly as linear as any game within the hack-and-slash genre. A buy for them as well.
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