"...some
of the creature designs look ridiculous, other creatures are quite
creepy and organic."
Imagine
if you will, gentle readers, a cross between the ubiquitous Gauntlet
series (particularly the recent 3D outings) and the arcade classic
Robotron 2084.Okay, now
throw in a bit of Zelda and stir.What
does that lovely mixture get you?Unfortunately,
a fairly average, though ambitious game: VR1’s Nightcaster.
Nightcaster
allows the player to take control of Arron, a young boy who, after
finding a magic orb, becomes able to cast powerful magic and goes on a
quest to rid his homeland of the evil presence that threatens to destroy
it.With the help of the
orb and spells acquired as he advances through the game, Arron takes on
a large variety of monsters across a number of unique levels.
Graphically,
Nightcaster is above-average. Overall,
there is little in the way of aliasing, polygon clipping, or visible
seams.The draw distance is
fine, as are the textures.It
is not a game that is going to truly impress visually, but taken
altogether the graphics pull the plow.Like so many developers in this generation, the Nightcaster crew
apparently fell in love with lighting and particle effects, and they
went completely overboard with them, a forgivable sin considering how
well the XBox pulls these tricks off - but still, heavy combat
occasionally starts to look like a Fourth of July fireworks show.
In Nightcaster,
Arron has access to four different schools of magic (fire, water, light
and dark).As you advance
in the game, you can decide which of these schools to focus on, and can
use glowing portals to immediately switch alignment (something that will
get you smacked down by the gods in a Dungeons & Dragons adventure).One spell in each of the disciplines can be assigned to an active
spell slot.These spells
can then be cycled through using the left trigger and cast using the
right trigger.Each school
of magic affects different creature types differently.Nightcaster makes remembering which spell hurt which type of
creature easy by color coding the creatures.This is handy, to say the least, but it gives the creatures a
dorky, Sesame Street look that really weakens the overall art design of
the game.
Another
problem with Nightcaster is related to the controls.Players use the left analog stick to move Arron and the right
stick to move the orb (which is used to aim the spells).This means that a player can move in one direction while casting
a spell in another.After
some initial struggles, the controls become second nature, but they are
still problematic because of the intricacies of combat in the
Nightcaster world.Hand to
hand combat with Arron is almost completely ineffective, and certainly
less effective than spell-casting.Getting toe-to-toe with onscreen enemies is suicidal.This makes for a whole lot of running away while firing back over
Arron’s shoulder, which, in the end, seems too wimpy for words.I felt that instead of taking on the baddies, I was getting out
of the way and letting my big brother, the orb, fight the fight for me.
If
one can look over the odd, “brave Sir Arron ran away” combat method,
and a ineffective story sewn together from fantasy cliche’s, there is
some fun to be had with Nightcaster.Though some of the creature designs look ridiculous, other
creatures are quite creepy and organic.Boss-type creatures especially are cool and fun to fight.In the end, if all you are looking for is a cast-‘n-slash
action adventure, Nightcaster will serve the purpose.If you are looking for a game with original gameplay, depth, or a
great story, there are better places to spend your money.