Mobile Game Review of "Soul of Darkness"

Image via Wikipedia Soul of Darkness has you, Kael, an avowed vampire hunter, fell in love with Lydia, who has severe amnesia, and under attack by vampires. Kael saved Lydia, they fell in love, and lived a few years... Until she had nightmares, and then a vampire lord came calling and took her away... Kael vows to save her... Even though it may just be possible that Lydia is a vampire herself...

And thus starts "Soul of Darkness", an action-RPG for mobile phones from Gameloft. It is an interesting game with a lot of things to do, combination of fighting and puzzles. There are even occasional "transformations" that you need to utilize to defeat some nasties. There are also occasional "rail shooter" sequences. It's a good smörgåsbord of gameplay, and it's pretty long, not bad.

The game is 2D, with a similar engine to Assasin's Creed mobile, though the sprites are a bit smaller to fit more action on screen. This time, due to more weapons, the action is not really compromised. You can jump, run, crouch, and so on. You also have two weapons: a fire sword, and an ice lance. Both can be upgraded in terms of power, combo, criticals, and magic power. Every enemy you kill and bonus you discover, you gather "soul chards", which is your currency to upgrade. You can also discover life and magic gems, which adds to your life and magic bars if you find enough.

As you move about the levels, you'll notice some beautiful parallax scrolling backgrounds, and very fluid moving enemies. Some zombies break open the ground then emerges from the round. Gargoyles fly at you with either spears or bombs. Vamps teleport close to you to suck your blood and avoid your retaliation. Then there are werewolves, vamp lords, and more...

The "magic" basically are "alt-fire" modes for your weapons. The "fire" one is a circle of fire all around you, could be used to break floors or nearby enemies. The ice one throws "ice spears" that can be used to climb places that normally you can't climb to. It can also be used to freeze water elementals and springs.

Transformation gems can be found that will allow you to transform into something else, perhaps to walk on ceiling as a bug, or swim as a fish, and so on. Those are good for puzzle segments.

All in all, Soul of Darkness has a very Japanese feel to it, and is one of the better action-RPG games to hit the phone market. I can give this one an 8.5.

Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10 (!)
Pros: simple to pickup, action RPG with fighting and puzzles
Cons: end-game may be a bit TOO hard