Castlevania: Harmony of Despair Image
Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 15 Ratings

  • Summary: Dracula returns in Castlevania Harmony of Despair, with the second launch of the title this time for PlayStation Network. Featuring the classic fast paced 2D, side scrolling action the series is known for, fan favorite vampire hunters from across the series will join forces to return Dracula, the Lord of Darkness, to his eternal slumber.

    The game allows up to 6 friends to play together via online co-op story mode or see who the best vampire hunter is in Survival Mode, which challenges players to fend off their friends while fighting for their very survival. Utilize your co-op skills to explore the levels with your friends in order to find hidden locations with special items and equipment or team up in battle to let loose destructive attacks on the hordes of attacking creatures.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 11
  2. Negative: 1 out of 11
  1. Feb 13, 2012
    80
    The amount of money a player has to spend in order to get all out of this game is ridiculous, especially when all of the content is recycled from older games. The multiplayer is pretty fun, though. [Feb 2012]
  2. Nov 15, 2011
    72
    Harmony of Despair is a great and above all challenging game, especially when played with a friend. The lack of a story and the slow controls, however, are major let-downs.
  3. Oct 31, 2011
    69
    Harmony of Despair is a game for fans of the franchise. The gameplay works great although we had our hopes set on a little bit more innovation.
  4. Oct 16, 2011
    40
    Nothing more than a brilliant idea gone horribly wrong. The chapters are relatively short, uninteresting, and the gameplay just isn't exciting enough to keep you coming back for more. Adding co-op for the sake of having a multiplayer component does not automatically make for a fun game. Harmony of Despair is proof of this. Konami's halfhearted effort does not deserve your money.

See all 11 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. the game is very good. But where the Leon Belmont, Trevor Belmont, Sypha belnundes, grant, juste belmont, Maxim, Hector, John Morris, Eric lecard, albus, hammer
    We would have eleven characters and new maps. the game would be bigger and better please konami more DLCs. after all my note is also positive
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  2. 10
    the game is good because it keeps the classic gameplay and beyond to play with friends and new people. but I agree with the guys at konami should not to DLCs in precizamos many more characters and maps but even then my note is possitiva always been fan of the Castlevania series Expand
  3. is true we need more DLCs with more characters I wanted to play with a albus of my favorite characters. could put more maps
    type some maps cas
    tlevania rondo of blood, some maps castlevania konami symphony of the night if you can do more to make DLCs for fans of the series Expand
  4. Why does it show 1 player? For the PS3 version, it's up to 6 players online and I 4 locally.

    The game is pretty fun, for awhile, and worth
    playing, but I don't believe it has good longevity due to poor design. The goals and methods are those of an MMO, where you grind tediously for item drops and try to do speed runs. But MMOs get expansions and new content, this game does not. It has a few DLCs, sure, but it does little to add anything to the game. In a game with very finite playability such a system makes little sense.

    There isn't much of an online community and there is very little variance in it. 75% of all players play the same character due to it being more fleshed out than the others and can be brokenly overpowered. One of the worst parts of the game is the requirement to get a low drop pair of boots that make you run much faster. If you don't have them, you'll be left behind everyone else with very little to do than pointless kill the odd monster that they avoided, and if you manage to catch up with them at the boss, you'll be more of a hindrance because the bosses are all designed purely around avoiding ultra powerful attacks, and being slower you have a much smaller margin for error.

    I really hope we see more complete, balanced Castlevania games based on this type of gameplay in the future, as it has promise were it to be more intelligently executed.

    So to recap, worth playing for awhile but it's cut off at the knees by it's short length and even worse balancing.
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See all 9 User Reviews