It's getting there. It's getting there. But not quite an amazing 3D Castlevania yet.
After playing the 3D horror that was Lament of Innocence, I was dreading playing this indirect sequel. So did it fix the things that were wrong with Lament of Innocence? Yes, but not all of it.
Storyline
The story takes place around the end of the 15th century, which is a good 350-400 years after when Lament of Innocence was based. Trevor Belmont has vanquished Dracula, but before he left, he screwed over the people by putting a curse on them. They went crazy, and 3 years later, some girly guy named Issac has killed this other guy who is not girly named Hector's wife. Now, Hector wants revenge. And to do it, he will have to reclaim his old dark power that he swore never to use again and get his vengeance, as well as rescue the people from Dracula's Curse.
Gameplay
Konami's apparently learned from their mistakes. This one feels mildly like a 3D Symphony of the Night. You can change your equipment, and I'm talking about weapons especially. In Lament of Innocence, all you had was that Whip, but in Curse of Darkness, you get Swords, Axes, you name it. You can also use items that enemies drop to forge new weapons, which was pure genius. You also can level up (Yay! Finally!) yourself, as well as the Innocent Devils that you get throughout the game (innocent Devils are like Familiars from Symphony of the Night. It's Hector's dark power mentioned earlier, called Devil Forging). Unfortunately, the arrows in the doors telling you where to go is still here, but it's strangely lees annoying this time. And it still feels a little Hack n' Slashish, but that's not so bad either because now you can change and create weapons. Bravo, Konami!
Graphics/Sound
The in-game graphics have changed very little compared to Lament of Innocence, but the cinematics have been improved a lot, making the overall graphics a little better than it's predecessor. The music is like Lament of Innocence: Cryptic and fitting the mood.
No 360/PS3(/Wii? Please) Castlevania has been announced yet. But if they follow in Curse of Darkness's footsteps, I think it would be great. As for Curse of Darkness itself. It's pretty solid. And it's miles ahead of Lament of Innocence. Definitely worth buying.
