E3: Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (PS2) Hands On Impressions

[sleeve]

I played through the first level of Konami's newest Dracula-slaying game, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence for the PS2. In a nutshell, it plays like Devil May Cry with a whip and a much better camera. That's kind of an unfair comparison, because it still retains many of the hallmark traits of Castlevania, but Devil May Cry has become an unavoidable point of reference for these types of games. At this point it's an accurate comparison.

Your character (I can't remember his first name; let's just call him "Belmont") wields a whip and all the classic 'Vania sub-weapons: daggers, crosses, crystals, and so forth. I only used two different sub-weapons in the demo, but there were others: the cross works just like it does in the 2D 'Vanias (with a nice rendition of the giant swirling crosses in 3D), and the dagger shoots energy bolts across the screen. Belmont can perform both strong and weak whip attacks, and he can do a cool flaming somersault kick move in the air. Much like Devil May Cry and the new Maximo, [Lament of Innocence has a combo meter that tallies how many hits you rack up. The controls make sense and are easy to grasp.

Once the attacks start coming the action is fast and unrelenting. There may be puzzles in the final game, but this demo was all whip-cracking action. There was one simple puzzle that required you to destroy a group of statues, but the solution was simple and required no fussing about with items or menu screens.

Unlike Devil May Cry, there are no fixed camera angles and the camera rotates intelligently and independently. At no point in the demo did an awkward camera angle cause gameplay problems. The demo level ended with a giant stone golem boss -- not a real standout in terms of design, but a good challenge.

My major gripe with the game was that it played too much like Devil May Cry. Granted, the camera in Lament of Innocence is loads better and the absence of puzzles is a good sign, but I'd like to see a little more variety in the final product. Everything else about the game (except the music, which was inaudible over the din of the convention floor) was excellent.

[Kbu Chan]

Thats ok though cause the first time I played DMC I was like, "Hey, this plays like Castlevania in 3D". Bring it on.

[Hero]

no platforming. At least in the demo. Just straight-up fighting. So far the aesthetic is drap and dreary - but not in a good way. I like how you can enhance sub-weapons with different 'elements' though.

[burgundy]

Platforming in Castlevania always sucked, anyway.

[bahn]

This game kicks ass in its form. I am definitely picking it up! But I'll have to juggle my time with Gradius V, TMNT, and MGS: Twin Snakes. Oy!

[Captain Vegetable]

I'm really looking forward to this. I loved the ideas behind CV64, but the execution was less than stellar.

Hopefully we'll get a nice package that flows well this time.