I want to like the new Castlevania, but it feels a bit off

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse has the right pieces for a great revival, but it doesn't quite nail it.

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When Castlevania: Belmont's Curse first hit the black screen, I got off to a bit of a rough start. After a few minutes of troubleshooting, I came to the conclusion that the game does not display on the monitor with a refresh rate higher than 120 Hz. It's easily fixed, but I kept thinking about it when I selected the 120fps in-game switch and then every time I hit a cutscene, I'd slow the game down to a lower framerate.

Perhaps these technical quirks will be a treat for reviewers to have been ironed out in time for launch. They haven't stopped me from having a lot of fun with the eight or so hours I've played Belmont's Curse - I think I'm getting close to the halfway point, and it's getting better as it goes on. But it's not quite the slam dunk I expected from the first new Castlevania in decades, with such a talented studio behind it.

Belmont's Curse has a bit of a juice problem. You've probably heard (or said) "this has juice" so many times in recent years that the phrase has more or less become just an acronym, which I think is really cool. As originally coined by some very clever game designers, it means something more specific: a kind of polish that "feels alive and responds to everything you do - lots of actions and cascading responses for minimal user input." There are a few basic ways to add liveliness to an action game: screen shake, pause (a short pause to hit when attacks land), enemy reactions, glitter particles, and other effects. Most important is how your character feels when moving or jumping or dodging.

Juicy does not necessarily mean fast. But Dead Cells, which Belmont's Curse developer Evil Empire worked on for the better part of the last decade, is one of the fastest and freshest action games ever made. Halloween Night's fast-paced nail-biting and precise dodging are also pretty juicy, which is one of the reasons it's become such a Metroidvania.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC - gameplay trailer | PS4 Games - YouTube

Belmont's Curse intermittently, confusingly dissolves and... dries up? is it sour There are ways in which it feels awkward that still keeps me engaged in the game for hours.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is like classic Vania in fast forward, with a whip to die for.

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Castlevania: Belmont's Curse isn't technically related to the Netflix anime, but its filming was inspired by the show.

There's a long wind in Rose Belmont's whip, which you use to swing across France and Dracula's castle, which becomes a frustration during spike-filled platforming challenges that require perfect swing timing. Even when I get the timing right, I often miss a hook point because I'm holding the analog stick in the direction I want to move, rather than pointing it at the point I need to hook.

The first dodge Belmont's Curse teaches you is a forward slide, but it has few – if any – invincibility frames on it, which gets me killed in boss fights more than it saves me. Maybe I should have learned not to use it by now, but it's just one of dozens of little things I find confusing or baffling about this game, and I thought Evil Empire was completely locked down.

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Another: some tedious platforming challenges require you to step through certain walls and floors using a skill that, by default, is attached to the controller's left trigger - which is fine as long as you have to pump it with a small margin for error. Go through a wall (hold), then wall jump (release), then go through another wall (hold), then land on one above a clove pit (release). Why bind that function to the analog input with the longest travel time on the controller?

Rose can use the whip to pull herself towards enemies and land a crushing blow, but that attack seems to be timed too early.

Popping out a healing flask requires holding down a button long enough that I often think I'm healed in the heat of battle before, oops, surprise, I'm dead.

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And I know it's a budget constraint, but Belmont is clearly so inspired by Netflix's Castlevania series — even featuring some of the same voice actors — that some of the early cutscenes, which are disappointingly animated shots of static artwork, really cry out for a more lavish presentation. They deserved a proper animation that apparently Konami didn't pay for.

The Curse of Belmont doesn't make a good initial impression, but when I got to Dracula's castle after a few hours in Paris, it started to shake things up with clever tricks I hadn't come across before and clues pointing to each of Dracula's minions. It's a bit more mysterious and brooding than a lot of old Castlevanias, and I can see this being my favorite version of the castle that I'll be tearing apart at any moment. I'm done with it.

And not completely dehydrated! When your attacks connect, there's a great punch and kick. The animation work is smooth. The presentation of tarot cards, which serve as special weapons and guides for each boss you must defeat, is very nice. I like to review them in my inventory.

Was Evil Empire trying so hard to make sure Belmont's Curse didn't feel like Dead Cells that it ended up with controls that didn't quite gel? It's hard to articulate, but there's a bit of slack in this whip that keeps it from returning to the Castlevania I want to love with all my heart.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for over 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing the conveyor belt in Satisfactory (that's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some matte ASCII series. Focusing on feature writing and editing, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its specific communities. 50% of pizza volume (specifically deep dish).

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