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Quick Review: Soul of Darkness is for dudes that hate Twilight

Haters of Twilight will be happy to know that you will get to go totally fubar on some real vampires in Gameloft's Soul of Darkness. Available for download from the DSi Store, the game is short but very fun and challenging, especially if you don't pay attention to certain details. The game is actually so fun, that I actually went right ahead and replayed it—which is rare for any downloadable game.

Story

You are Kale—no relation at all to the evil elf prince from Warcraft (you just look kind of like him and happen to wield magical powers like him). You love Lydia, and while talking to her at one point about how much you want to be with her forever, she ends up being kidnapped away from you by a vampire. Kale is responsible for slaying Edward the fanged fiend and his army of Jacobs werewolves, wraiths, and other monsters to get the love of his life back.

That's the plot put simply. There are actually a couple of very cool and crazy plot twists—some of which I didn't see coming at all. The story is unfolded mostly through cutscenes that if you skip through, you'll actually miss some juicy secret details.

You won't really have much help along the way either.

Graphics

The graphics aren't stellar on the DSi. If you're coming to this game for some amazing shading and HDR lighting, go look somewhere else. This game's graphics will remind you a lot of a game from the Super NES days. The characters aren't heavily detailed, the special effects are very simple, and the environments (with the exception of the interiors) aren't exactly striking.

None of this is to say that it is an ugly game though.

Sound

The sound scheme is very basic: you've got music, zombies, attacks and spells. That's really about it. Because of this, the game isn't particularly atmospheric.

Gameplay

This is where the game really shines, and shines bright. I've never had this much fun beating the crap out of werewolves, zombies or a dragon in a 2D game. Each of these enemies will either act intelligently in their attacks or just sneak around and generally act tricky. Even the boss battles combine hacking and slashing with small puzzles that can actually take quite a bit of trial and error before you get it right.

Playing Soul of Darkness is actually the first time that I've failed horribly at a boss battle but haven't gotten pissed off, because I was always coming up with new strategies with which to take the beast.

For this, the game scores major brownie points.

Conclusion

It isn't the best game out there on the DSi, but it will definitely satisfy. Whether you're on the NYC subway, in the back of a car on a road trip, or just plain out relaxing during a break at work, you'll probably want to whip out the DSi and give this game a shot. After mine has been relaxing on my dresser for a while gathering dust, this is the game that actually made me come back to the platform.