The summer of love 2010

[Cyan]

First reviews of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair. Apparently this isn't going to turn out well if the next reviews follow the same principles. They say the difficulty is way too high, especially heartless with solo players or small teams.

http://resolution-magazine.co.uk/content/review-castlevania-harmony-of-despair/

All in vain

It’s at this point that we come to the first hurdle and stumble wildly. Castlevania games aren’t exactly known for their easy-going gameplay, but at least an ample number of save points is usually provided so that you can care a little less about dying all the time. Harmony of Despair provides no such thing – there are a couple of pedestals dotted around the map which can be used to buy new weapons and stock up on potions, but ultimately if you die, you must start all the way from the very beginning of the level.

For this reason, the aforementioned ability to zoom out and see the entire level becomes quite the double-edged sword. In any previous Castlevania game, if you died you’d simply spawn again at the last checkpoint and get back on your way. In Harmony of Despair, however, since you can see the whole level already and know it’s going to be quite the trek, it’s rather off-putting to think that you now have to traverse this whole castle all over again.

Case in point – I reached the boss of the first level, and spent five minutes dealing him as much damage as I could possibly muster up. With my health steadily dropping throughout the battle, I eventually hit the bucket and was thrown back to the main menu. Upon loading the level up again, it zoomed out to show the long and winding path I had to take all over again, and I simply felt that I couldn’t be bothered to go through all that again. Dying when quite far into a level is easily the most frustrating element to this game.

This is, however, only touching the surface of how frustrating Harmony of Despair can really be. Unless you’ve seen an enemy before in a past game – indeed, many of the monsters are taken straight from previous titles – defeating enemies can be an utterly trial and error experience. Even when you do know how they move and attack, it’s still very fiddly, especially when multiple enemies pack together.

Aluhard

Then there’s the baffling inclusion of a time limit. You’re given 30 minutes to complete each level, and if the timer hits zero, your game is over. Half an hour is easily enough time to beat each maze and destroy the boss, but Harmony of Despair isn’t about rushing through as fast as possible. There are rooms dotted all over the place which conceal special treasures and interesting puzzles, so quite why Konami would put a limit on how long you’re allowed to explore for is beyond me.

Harmony or despair?

Harmony of Despair may include a single player mode, but it’s quite clearly meant to be a multiplayer-only experience. After playing with other people, going back to the single player is really rather lonely. It feels as though the single player was simply thrown in to give those who don’t play online something to do. Hence, a word of advice – if you don’t play games online, I definitely do not recommend buying this game. You will be frustrated to your very limits and enjoyment will most likely not be on the cards.

If however you’re looking for an interesting title to play with friends, this may well be what you’re looking for. If you can put up with the cheap deaths and somewhat fiddly gameplay, there are six levels to conquer, challenging achievements to unlock and plenty to see and do.

6/10

http://beefjack.com/reviews/castlevania-harmony-of-despair-review-xbla/

Positives

It is quite literally a Castlevania game
Um. The music is catchy?

Negatives

Ludicrously, unfairly, ultra-frustratingly difficult
Makes no concessions for smaller teams or solo players
No surprises lurk in even its darkest corners

Overall

A catastrophic mess of difficulty and balancing issues turn a mediocre Castlevania game into an almost unplayable disaster. Forget it ever happened, lest you be haunted by its memory forever.

Score: 3.8
Poop

It's a Castlevania game after all, it can't be that bad.

 

[joker454]

Then there’s the baffling inclusion of a time limit. You’re given 30 minutes to complete each level, and if the timer hits zero, your game is over.

Noooooooooooooooooooo! Dammit, why do some companies make such idiotic decisions. It's not the 90's anymore, gaming isn't meant to be painful it's meant to be fun. Sigh.

 

[RobertR1]

Pass due to the difficulty stuff. I didn't pick up Hydro Thunder either. It's not my style of racer.

Looking forward to the Tomb Raider game though. Thank God for Starcraft 2 or I'd be bored until Halo: Reach.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

A catastrophic mess of difficulty and balancing issues turn a mediocre Castlevania game into an almost unplayable disaster.

That is just about the most damning sentence I've ever read in a review. Ouch!

And no love for Monday Night combat? I just watched the developer walk through and that game looks like a cross between a 3D version of the old arcade game Total Carnage (which was a take off of the movie The Running Man) and TF2.

It comes out Wednesday, I'm definitely looking forward to giving it a spin.

 

[joker454]

That is just about the most damning sentence I've ever read in a review. Ouch!

Yeah I passed on it, kinda disappointing. It doesn't even feel right when playing it, just seems very sluggish and stiff. I ended up getting the indie game Soul Caster instead which is actually pretty cool.

 

[RobertR1]

I decided to give the Castlevania demo a shot. Amazingly bad. A 1inch character on a 60inch screen is not my idea of a good time. Also, I think I'm being generous with 1inch.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I'll stick to Shanoa in Order of Ecclesia on my DS. That game is brilliant.

 

[RancidLunchmeat]

Blacklight: Tango Down is a CoD game with the UE3 engine. The presentation with all the "noise" really annoyed me.

The "noise" is annoying and it's a shame because that's apparently their entire hook. The game takes way too long to load, way too long to find a server, and seems to be based completely around spawn camping.

You get 60 minutes in the demo version to try it out, and I didn't need half of it to decide it wasn't worth the space on the HDD.

Which is too bad, because I'm a firm believer in lower cost, downloadable "full" games offering a "like" retail-box experience.

This one just missed the mark completely.

 

[Cyan]

Well, I have bought Lara Croft's game. It is true that I wasn't very interested in the game at first, actually, but I played the demo and I got completely hooked.

Lara Croft and the Guarding of Light is a classic, in my opinion. Since joker454 mentioned the 90s gameplay of many games, Lara Croft: GoL reminds me of the typical games that got you hooked and have this "classic feeling" you don't experience in many games nowadays. I mean, the typical games that were easy to play and get into, yet complex to master, and there was something addicting about it that makes you want to play more and more. Like when you were child or a teenager and you felt fascinated with a game so you couldn't stop playing it, leaving you a bit discouraged when you felt it was about time to swith off the console. So yes, that might be part of it for my personal opinion, nostalgia aside. That's how I would describe it.

Apart from that, it has dozens of items to collect and use. There are plenty of fun challenges, plus it's very, very replayable. There's a lot of variety in this game. Again, it surprised me in that regard. Really clever stuff.

It's like a mini Diablo 2 game and the camera works wonderfully, maybe Blizzard should take note for the upcoming Diablo 3 as they are using another classic isometric camera.

The game is long, varied, extremely fun and almost perfect. It also looks great -clean and crisp, and it runs smoothly-. Those are also some of the reasons I liked it so much.

It became an instant Top 3 in my games' list. The download is hefty -2 GB- but it worths every bit of it. I would strongly recommend giving it a try at least and then you can judge easily but I think most people will get hooked.

If you have very high expectations, you might consider this game. Sheer classic stuff.

Offline coop with a friend, girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, etc, is also very fun. Apparently online coop hasn't been enabled yet.

I'll stick to Shanoa in Order of Ecclesia on my DS. That game is brilliant.

I didn't buy this game either, as I tried the demo and I didn't have much fun, although it has the charm of a Castlevania game. Despite some of the flaws, the game seems to be a huge success.

Pass due to the difficulty stuff. I didn't pick up Hydro Thunder either. It's not my style of racer.

Looking forward to the Tomb Raider game though. Thank God for Starcraft 2 or I'd be bored until Halo: Reach.

Hydro Thunder is fun.... The only downside is that it doesn't seem to run at 60 fps sigh. I passed Monday Night Combat because it's not the kind of game I usually like, but I gave it a try out of curiosity and it runs at 60 fps, most probably, judging from the general smoothness of the graphics.

As for Lara Croft, if you purchased it already, it's one of the best games I played on the console, :smile: in my Top 3 this generation, which includes retail, XBLA, etc.

 

[Rotmm]

Sheer classic stuff.

Agreed. I actually bought it straight out without trying the demo, but that's only because I've bought every "Lara" game since the first.... even Angel of Darkness, But I honestly didn't expect it to be so fun, so damn addictive as it is.

More importantly (for me anyway) is that, even thought it's very different from the previous TR games, it still feels very much TR.

Excellent game, and for the price it's a total steal.

 

[NRP]

Monday Night Combat is good. The framerate is inconsistent at times and I occassionally get dropped mid game, but those are about the only gripes I have so far.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I want to try the Tomb Raider game, but no downloading for a while. Monday Night Combat is a great game. I forsee cool DLC or an even better sequel.

 

[AlNom]

I want to try the Tomb Raider game, but no downloading for a while. Monday Night Combat is a great game. I forsee cool DLC or an even better sequel.

mm... from their twitter feed:

We are actively working on bug fixes and more content for Monday Night Combat. We will have an announcement soon.

 

[RobertR1]

I played the tomb raider demo. It was cool but I simply can't justify paying full price for a game that has it's it's biggest selling point, co-op, pushed back for more than a month to coincide with a multiplatform release. The fact that this info was disclosed only recently makes it look even more shady. I might pick it up when it's heavily discounted down the road but no sale for me. If it ends up being the lowest selling game in this years summer of arcade line up, it'd be fitting.

 

[Scott_Arm]

It sucks they don't have online co-op for Tomb Raider yet, but it has local co-op play, and in general the reviews are very very good. Eurogamer 9/10 is a pretty good sign. Most reviews mention great value for money. I definitely want to try it out, but downloading is a no go right now.

 

[Cyan]

I played the tomb raider demo. It was cool but I simply can't justify paying full price for a game that has it's it's biggest selling point, co-op, pushed back for more than a month to coincide with a multiplatform release. The fact that this info was disclosed only recently makes it look even more shady. I might pick it up when it's heavily discounted down the road but no sale for me. If it ends up being the lowest selling game in this years summer of arcade line up, it'd be fitting.

Coop is always nice and you can play coop offline all day with a friend, partner, relative, etc, from day one.

The biggest selling point is the game itself, which can be played perfectly in single player mode and it's SO fun. You aren't going to miss the experience playing alone. In fact, I played single player most of the time until now and I did great, having a lot of fun at the same time.

I consider this game a little masterpiece. But I am suspicious though, as I am biased. I like this game in particular so very much.... It's so well done.

My only complaints would be the dialogues (my immediate thought when listening to them: oh no! they are so cheesy! , gamer reaction... and the story itself is rather simple but cool. It features a T-Rex, too. :smile:

My score: 9.7