Friends that slay together, stay together
Note: in light of the DLC and updates, I decided to rewrite the review entirely.
Like Pokemon, Nintendo's beloved critter-collecting franchise, Castlevania has all the popularity in the world yet the least progression from game to game. The same "Metroidvania" style of using abilities to access other rooms way across the map has still been a staple of the series yet not offering much changes aside from the occasional ability system (cards to souls to glyphs) so I guess it's fitting 2010 saw 2 of the biggest shape-ups to the franchise: Lords of Shadow, a 3D hack-and-slash action game from MercurySteam and Kojima Productions, and this: a multiplayer-centric arcade-y game where you and up to 5 more players use the character's various abilities to make it to the end, beat the boss in the fastest time and get the highest points for the leaderboards. Originally launching with 6 chapters and 5 characters, now we're at 3 new chapters and 4 new characters for you to kill the undead and other assorted nastiness and while there's still some occasional flaws, it's kind of strange that for all the praise Limbo and Lara Croft got, no arcade game of 2010 sunk its teeth (pun intended) longer then Harmony of Despair.
The goal of HoD is pretty simple: make it to the boss and kill it, reap the rewards. However it won't be easy as switches must be pressed to progress further, hordes of enemies block your path and you have a 30 minute time limit. But pick the right character and beef them up and the stage becomes a cakewalk and it's this ever-present grind that becomes HoD's main hook: replay a level over and over, get the best gear, power up your abilities and do it all over again till you get more. It actually becomes strangely addicting, especially when you know that awesome gear is in the level and the game doesn't give it to you so you replay it in hopes it'll give it to you this time. The only downside is that you kind of have to build up your character from scratch which can make playing online somewhat frustrating since you're kind of a burden, the only guy on the team who doesn't have the speedy Winged Boots and the ones with abilities at level 1. But once you've gained a good footing into your character's progression and the game becomes incredibly fun.
The character roster includes: Shanoa (Order of Ecclesia) , Alucard (Symphony of the Night) , Soma Cruz (Aria/Dawn of Sorrow)
Jonathan (Portrait of Ruin) , Charlotte (same as above) , and now they've added 4 new characters: Maria Renard, Yoko Belnades, Julius Belmont, and Richter Belmont. Each character has their own unique abilities so Shanoa uses glyphs she siphons from certain enemies and powers them up through constant use while Charlotte absorbs the attack until a little metal "tink" sound effect says you've leveled them up. It does kind of suck that the game never says whether you should constantly use the attack or in Alucard's case, to find more then one but eventually you get the hang of it and even characters you may not even bother using now become a powerhouse thanks to the gear and abilities you have. The new characters play quite well and while I never got the hang of Richter, others completely dominated.
Which brings me to the biggest selling point of the game: it's multiplayer. It's a little off in places (finding a match that is either not immediately disbanded or you're kicked off the team for some reason can be rare) but there's something really neat and awesome about having this supergroup tackle each chapter and using their abilities together. Of course be prepared to run through chapters on hard though since the best gear tends to be found on the difficulty and if you're not up to snuff, be prepared to feel kind of a burden. The DLC stages are pretty worthwhile with new level and boss music, new abilities for certain characters and new gear and some bosses can be a bitch to beat (Chapter 8) but keep in mind: this is kind of an expensive game DLC-wise as you have 3 new stages, 4 new characters which are bought separately and if you're so inclined, 2 new music packs with 5 new songs each. Kind of sad the nickle-and-dimeing of the game is here but trade off is further extending the life of the game; it's just done very poorly.
I'm not entirely sure where the series will go from here as HoD turned out to be a success and for many people, Lords of Shadow proved to be a surprising entry with some good potential for sequels but do people want more "Metroidvania" titles, then cry they're just doing Symphony again? Or do they want another HoD but wish they'd do a 2D traditional game instead? Whatever the case, Harmony of Despair turned out to be a very solid game and one of the more underrated arcade games last year.
