| Cover Art |
 |
| Credits |
Platform: PlayStation 2
Developer: Konami
Players: 1
Year: 2005
OFLC Rating: M |
Castlevania is the father
of horror gaming. That's not to say it's
scary (8-bit character sprites will probably only
scare today's generation of kids where even
the lowest of today's consoles are better
than the last generation's best), but Castlevania was probably the progenitor for most horror titles
that have become available since. The earlier
Castlevania games have gone on to become true
classics, as have some of the more recent ones
in their own rights, but unfortunately, like every
long running game series, there is always a lull.
A lot of people will point their fingers at the
Nintendo 64's seriously underrated entry
into the series, however, the true gold coated
turd in the long running Castlevania saga, is
definitely Lament of Innocence.
Those familiar with the Castlevania series (whose
fan base is as rabid as Silent Hill's)
will know who Koji (IGA) Igarashi is. This was
the man behind PlayStation 1's phenomenal Castlevania: Symphony of the Night,
and supposedly God to a large number of Castlevania
fans. Well, he was also the man behind this little
number, along with two of the weaker Gameboy Advance
titles. Lament of Innocence attempted
to take what worked in the two-dimensional games
and translate it to the third dimension. It failed,
miserably.
Set before all the other titles in the series,
you play as Leon Belmont, the first of the Belmont's
to fall victim to Dracula's curse. As a
knight in the Great Crusades, Leon returns home
from his travels to find is wife Sarah has disappeared.
Friend and fellow knight Mathias Cronqvist tells
Leon of a Vampire living within the heart of the
nearby woodlands. Dutifully, Leon heads out to
these woods, and before the game even kicks off;
we are privy to a cut scene that explains exactly
how the Belmont Clan acquired its famous whip.
It all seems a little bit slapdash, comparable
to the very first game; where it's simply
a matter of "Go and kill Dracula",
but the twist at the end is a very nice little
set up for the other games. I won't give
too much away, but it revolves around the fact
that you do not come up against Dracula at all
in this game…
However, you do come up against the standard
menagerie of Castlevania enemies. All the classics
are there and repeated constantly with varying
colour schemes to help differentiate a Zombie
from a Ghoul and a Gargoyle from a Demon. Do you
see where I'm going with this one? That's
right, our good old friend Repetition rears his
horrendously lazy head and decides to stay for
the whole show. Which is a huge shame in every
sense of the word, because Lament of Innocence really showed some potential.
The hi-res visuals are superb and the smoothest
of smooth frame rates help carry what are some
of the best graphics I've seen on the Playstation
2 so far. Fabrics flow like water, and character
animations are realistic and never overdone. Like Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube,
all the cut scenes are in real time and manage
to maintain excellent continuity with the playing
experience, the problem is, the playing experience
is really, really lacklustre.
What begins well quickly becomes one momentous
dungeon crawl and because each room is linked
needlessly with long corridors that are all identical
to each other, you find yourself getting lost
very quickly. There is also little difference
between each major room you enter, general layout
aside, the aesthetics are exactly the same from
room to room. Now, I can deal with repetitious
enemies in games like this, but when the levels
all look the same, it really is a problem. After
killing off the first couple of bosses, I kept
thinking back to Gauntlet Legends (available on Nintendo 64, PlayStation and Sega
Dreamcast), which, although it was repetitious,
was simple enough and had such well designed levels
that none of that really mattered and you could
sit for hours on end tearing your way through
never-ending hordes of enemies. I think this is
where Lament of Innocence really
missed the mark.
Playing as Leon, you can advance your skills
and powers by gaining experience points though
battling enemies and collecting hidden treasures
throughout the castle. You can also combine weapons
and powers and draw powers from your enemies to
boost your own, but it's an overly complex
character system for a game as straightforward
as this one. While it worked superbly for Symphony
of the Night, it really isn't that
necessary in this one. It's as though the
game is stuck between Gauntlet and Symphony and
refuses to make up its mind as to what it should
be. If the level and play mechanics had been as
complex as the character system, I'm pretty
sure this would've been a far more enjoyable
gaming experience. Likewise, if it had've
been stripped back to the bare essentials it would've
been far more akin to it's retro brethren,
and probably as enjoyable as either them or Gauntlet.
Simon's Quest, the second
Castlevania game to be released back in the good
ol' NES days has more depth to it than this
one, and less annoying repetition. The producers
wanted to push Castlevania into the world of 3D,
but really didn't push far enough and the
result is an awkward and ultimately boring blemish
to the Castlevania franchise. Two stars; one for
the graphics and the other for the twist ending. |
0 users have commented on this review so far.
