Castle Von Boom and Atlantis are lap-based tracks, which pretty much invalidates them altogether in my book. Not to mention the game wasn’t that good to begin with…įor lovers of all things wet and wild, the Tempest Pack adds a considerable amount of content to an already decent game, not the least of which is three new tracks. It’s been widely known that three new characters are planned for DLC as well, but if this is the only new stage players will be getting, is it really worth going through the same old levels another 100 times? I think for most people, the ship has probably sailed on this one due to Konami’s mishandling of new content.
$5 for a single stage is kind of a rip-off considering the full game only cost $15 and came with five characters and six chapters, plus achievements.
Although I got my Valmanway on the first Dracula run ever, it wasn’t until my fifth Astarte run that I finally got the Boots, even after a 150 or so Chapter 6 runs.
There is not much in the way of new items or loot either, but the drop rate for Valmanways and the Winged Boots are highest on this seventh chapter. Astarte has a new spell for both Soma and Charlotte to learn, while the stage’s sole unique monster, the mummy, also has a red soul for Soma. Alucard can mist through it with proper timing, but Soma and Jonathan are going to need to be quite skillful to avoid being forced into attacking their party. The Egyptian Pharaohess who awaits you atop the pyramid has some extremely powerful spells, including a large tornado that is hard to dodge, but it’s her ability to charm male characters that makes her a serious challenge. There are a lot of switches which need to be flipped to eventually lead to the boss, and despite Astarte’s small stature, she’s a very difficult boss.
Modeled loosely after the Sandy Grave locale from Portrait of Ruin, this massive pyramid is quite perplexing at first. But that’s what this pack contains: a single stage. I can’t imagine it’s hard slicing up handheld titles and gluing the pieces together randomly to make Castlevania HD levels, so why it took Konami so long to release a single new level is beyond me. Having maxed out my Charlotte and gotten all the drops for Soma that I wanted long ago, Castlevania HD went from being played every day, all day, to a distant memory replaced by games with fresh content. I think my Split/Second days are over.Ĭastlevania HD: Beauty, Desire, Situation Dire Even if Survival at the Rock, Deadline (a second, worthless DLC pack), and the Onslaught pack had been combined, $10 is a hefty price point for a single track and a few modes that are just minor variations of those already in the game. But when we all learned that another DLC pack, this one priced at $10, would be released, containing the complete version of the Quarry track, that’s when frustration turned to anger…anger to hate, and hate to the Dark Side. When my Split/Second party found out the overly expensive DLC they had just paid and downloaded didn’t have a real track that could be played in standard multiplayer races, the disappointment was unanimous. I have to say that Black Rock has lost a lot of good will towards them with their greedy DLC tactics. If you liked it the first time around, this is a nice addition, but if you hated Survival, as I did, this just adds to the frustration of the shoddy hit detection. The Survival Race mode is exactly as it sounds you and your opponents attempt to take the lead and cross the finish line while dodging explosive barrels hurled from the same trucks from the standard Survival mode. Survival at the Rock contains a new Quarry track and Survival Race mode, but don’t be fooled by its description, or the price: the new track is only playable in Survival Race mode, and its essentially just a simple loop with none of the unique elements that make Split/Second the game we all know and love. Meaningful DLC has been a long time coming for eager S/S fans, and when it finally arrived, it was a slap in the face to every patient Black Rock devotee.
Unless it’s good, then you should play it too. Welcome to the maiden voyage of GameZone’s DLC review round-up, where we play all kinds of random crap so that you don’t have to.