- Publisher: Konami
- Release Date: Nov 1, 2005
- Also On: PlayStation 2
- Critic Score
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The tools of the demon-hunting trade define Curse. [Nov p.84]
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86While Curse of Darkness is certainly not on the same level as previous titles in the series, the game offers a great action experience through exceptional boss fights and an engaging story.
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85An instantly accessible, thoroughly entertaining, and worthy addition to the busy hack-and-slash genre.
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82The satisfying combat will appeal to the casual gamer while the Devil raising and rare drops will keep perfectionists entertained.
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80Curse of Darkness nails the gameplay mechanics and packages it with a pretty solid presentation.
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80Yet as innovative and inviting as the Forgemaster system and customization facets are, Curse is slightly hexed by a repetitive play scheme: enter room, kill enemies, exit room, repeat.
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78Its nicely implemented Innocent Devil scheme and its varied, and useful, assortment of weapons are great, but its environments are lackluster.
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76Boss battles are fun, but the overall experience doesn't bring anything new to the genre of gaming.
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Castlevania fans will definitely be pleased with the direction this series is going in. It's a shame that it feels so dated. [Nov 2005, p.151]
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Curse is thus leagues better than its PS2 predecessor, but it still doesn't reach the legendary status of its 2D forerunners, mainly because of a lack of Metroid-style open-ended level progression.
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Basically you have to sit through a lot of meaningless running around and little fights in order to get to the good stuff once you've gotten past the first castle.
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75Suffers from some problems, including minor camera trouble and some dated graphics. Still, these aren't major enough problems for me to not recommend the game.
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70Don't get us wrong: the latest Castlevania isn't a bad game, if you can swallow the endless combat repetition. It just falls well short of this series' legendary heritage, and can't hold a candle to the handheld "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" for the Nintendo DS.
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70Konami's leap into 3D for the acclaimed Castlevania franchise is backed by a generally solid gameplay and combat, albeit marred by extreme repetitiveness.
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70It's a piece of satisfyingly decrepit eye candy. The gameplay carries on the Castlevania tradition of whipping bastions of undead into submission.
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70It sounds cool on paper, but there's really no telling as to which weapon choices will result in which evolutions, so the entire feature becomes essentially useless to anyone but the truly hardcore who will play through several times.
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70The 3D realm hasn't been kind to Castlevania graphically. A lot of gamers will be turned off by the slow start to the game.
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70As a fan of the series, I hope that they can get the visual issues ironed out for the next 3D trip through Transylvania, so I can marvel at the gloomy interior of a haunted castle instead of wondering how the in hell in ended back up in this room again.
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The unbearably monotonous levels, by themselves, easily killed it for me.
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70Starting with "Lament of Innocence," it seems like Konami is inching ever closer to creating the 3D Castlevania game that we've been waiting years to play. Curse of Darkness is an incremental step in the right direction.
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70It just gets a bit stale going through area after area, facing enemies that never really evolve to keep up with you.
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67Despite a solid combat system and a decent presentation, this latest Castlevania is cursed with extremely monotonous levels that prevent it from being an engaging action adventure game.
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Konami needs to go back and re-think the direction of this series. A somewhat disappointing hardcore hack and slash game for fans of pure action.
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All that backtracking might've floated back in the day, but now it just feels repetitive and tedious. [Holiday 2005, p.90]
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65All the elements of a great game are here except the level design. That, however, is a key element in a game with exploration based goals.
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64An underwhelming experience.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 8
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Mixed: 0 out of 8
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Negative: 3 out of 8
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ChrisB.9
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IamNlCK7
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JosueC.10