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Review: Vampire's Curse

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 12:36 am
by RMZ
A Review by RMZ from Hamster Speak Volume 11

Our story begins with Baron Von Orlock entering Dracula's castle to get revenge for all the terrible things he's done to innocent people. Certainly a noble cause, but when Dracula defeats him, he doesn't simply kill him...

No...

He makes him part of the undead, and thus, Count Orlock is born. After realizing from a mysterious character known as Dante that the only way he can regain his mortal form is by slaying Dracula, he searches through the castle, fighting various thugs of Dracula's such as a werewolf, a Frankenstein-esque monster, the Invisible Man, and tons others.

Now that we know what our hero/villian's plot is, it's time to talk about how the actual game works out. It's really creative, but it's not exactly executed in the best way. First of all, this isn't your typical OHR game, where you fight random bad guys and level up. No. For every bad guy you kill, you gain a kill point, which is the way you track how many murders that Orlock has committed. And your money is actually blood. Gross, yes, but it works. You trade your blood to get stronger. Aquiring blood is actually part of the trick. You can either suck it out of a baddie, or you can let them explode and get it. If you double up on it, you gain twice as much.

You can exchange your blood for powerups and items, and this is where something tedious happens. The concept of building yourself up through this shop is an ingenius idea, but.. because of how long it takes to use these items it becomes annoying real fast, because in order to defeat Dracula, you will probally need to use various items a hundred or more times.

The graphics are the strongpoint of any of Fenrir's games, even some of his older stuff, but this one shows off everything he can do and then some. Enemy sprites are flawlessly detailed, and the walkabouts are superb. In one scene where Frankenstein comes to life, the amount of detail was just surreal. Every area looks crisp and refreshing, because they're all so different for the most part. The Dragon's Lair, with the gold bars stacked up, the outdoors where it's actually snowing, the sewer area. It's just an amazing looking game.

Upon speaking to the game's creator, he said he had this project in mind for quite some time. He was simply waiting for the OHR to be able to use mp3s before he began. And man... worth the wait. The music sounds so great and fits the game like a glove (probably because most of it is from the Castlevania games). The sound effects really make the battles all the more enjoyable too. Heck, in one scene with a secret boss, you hear the grinding of a chainsaw!

Battles are pretty straight-forward, and are fairly challenging at the beginning, but after you get tough, the rest of the game up to the end is a cake-walk. There are tons and tons of bosses to fight, and they're all different. For instance, the werewolf uses a Regenerate attack which makes him pretty tough to beat. Luckily for every boss you beat, you get their signature move. It's pretty much like Mega Man with this concept, and it makes it really interesting. You can choose which bosses you want to fight before you go to the Pinnacle to fight Dracula, so you can go there with the mack-daddy list of skills, or you can go up there with next to nothing.

The graphics might be great, the number of bosses and the music might be too, but perhaps the most impressive work put into this game is the alternate endings. The player is given the chance to redeem himself and become mortal again if you stay pure and don't kill more than you have to, or you can become a full-fledged vampire and take Dracula's throne! And on the best possible ending, let's just say a certain shady character's true identity is revealed.

All in all, this is a great game. The graphics are flawless, the music is flawless, the concept is one of the best on the OHR. The only thing I feel that hinders this game is gaining power. It's just so tedious and annoying, and you might spend 30 minutes to an hour just simply using power ups. However, if you look aside from that, you will be able to stand back and enjoy a game that shows a large amount of effort. Definitely one of Fenrir's best completed projects.

And... I heard rumor that there might be a sequel. But hey, it could be just a rumor. Heh.