Afternoon Quickie: Castlevania Harmony of Despair

Played on: XBox 360

The Gamer is a huge fan of this series, even collects and sometimes plays the older games. Therefore, he was very much looking forward to this release. You can play on your own or in teams online. He seems to favor the online play. So, let me explain a little more here. In online play, your team captain (I don't know what they call it, but that's what it is) chooses which Chapter of the story (level) you want to play. You all then fight through the level and beat the boss gaining equipment as you go. The game has multiple characters and each character has their own stuff you can get for them. I don't really know much about the characters other than one's name is Soma and it makes me think of A Brave New World each time I heard it and then the soma poem gets stuck in my head. But, anywho...

So, let's start with what I like about the game. First, it has Dracula in it. I'm a fan of Dracula and find that to be pretty cool. Second, the music has a gothic rock opera sound which I very much like and greatly appreciate for its departure from the norm. Here's what I don't like. I have seen the level where you fight Dracula (Chapter 6, I believe) about 1,337 times. While the music is still pretty awesome and Dracula still scores some cool points, I just don't get how playing the same level over and over again can be entertaining.

Now, before you gamers get all upset, and before you girlfriends start dreading this game, here is a valuable tool. My gamer has this great headset, which I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before. Not only does it allow him to hear and speak with other players, but it also carries all the sounds from the game straight to his headset. This allows him to mute the TV and play the game through his headset. I can then play some music or watch something on my laptop without hearing Dracula's two corny lines every ten minutes. He gets to be happy playing with his friends and getting all the gear and what not and I get to listen to some old school 1960's Jazz.  Here's a link to said headset:


[P.S.- If you are a high enough level geek-wife to find the hidden joke, you get a brownie point.]