by:	December 27, 2004

This isn’t a title that’s going to WOW you, but it is one that will dive you into some frantic action and amazing spell casting. Then again, that’s about all that this title has to offer, but that?s not necessarily a bad thing. NightCaster will definitely give you a dose of video game medicine that will hold you over for around 2 weeks.

The story of NightCaster is very simple to follow. The main character Arran encounters a glowing orb that informs him that there is a NightCaster that is going to destroy the world, and Arran has become the chosen one who must keep the world from this awful fate. Arran is then hidden away until he learns the powers of magic in order to use to defeat the NightCaster. When Arran returns to his home, he finds it nearly destroyed. His parents dead, and his friends gone. Here is where Arran starts his quest to defeat the NightCaster and restore order and peace to the world. This story sounds like a lot of video games of the past, "become the hero, defeat the enemy that wants to destroy the world." But for the most part, the story works.

In NightCaster there are 4 different schools of magic that Arran can use. These schools are Light, Dark, Fire, and Water. Only a handful of spells are available at the beginning of your adventure, but over time Arran can accumulate over 45 different spells by collecting spell spheres that are placed throughout the levels. Arran also can increase the strength of his spells by collecting mana spheres, which will not only increase his spell strength, but also increase the amount of spells that he can cast at one time. Finding the different spells throughout the game can become somewhat addicting. The spells that Arran can acquire are simply breathtaking, especially when finding the highest level of a spell. Arran can also align himself with a certain school of magic, which will allow those particular spells of that school to be more powerful than the rest.

The gameplay for NightCaster, for most gamers, will be the deciding point to whether or not they like this game. The gameplay is very straightforward: attacking, retreating, and attacking again all while barraging your enemies with your arsenal of spells. Defeating such enemies is made possible by using the orb that is attached to the end of Arrans staff. Guiding the orb around in the right direction using the right thumb stick takes a little time to get used to, but after about 15 to 30 minutes it will have become second nature. At times the action gets very intense, but only when enemies completely surround Arran. At these moments your hands and eyes must become one in order to whirl the orb in every direction possible to take out the oncoming enemies. This is made a tad harder due to the fact that certain spells only work on certain enemies; some spells becoming more effective than others and some spells being useless. Matching up the right spell with the right enemy can get frantic at times, which is very fun and challenging.

Also, throughout the game, Arran will find scrolls that he can read that will give him insight to what is happening in the world around him. I found that reading these scrolls didn’t do much to enhance the story more than some of the simple cut scenes did. Sometimes you’ll be asking yourself if there was any importance to what you have just read. For the most part, these scrolls could have been left out. The story itself wasn’t presented in the best possible fashion. I found myself finding out more about villagers and trees than I did about the main story. This led to having a huge question mark in my head most of the time wondering what was really going on.

The voice acting in this game was considerably bland. Though when Arran encounters the ghosts of villagers, the voices creep you out. In terms of the soundtrack, you?ll probably tune it. The music doesn’t play any role in the game, but you will notice a slight change in the speed of the music when you encounter enemies. Another problem I have with the sound department is that when Arran casts a spell he’ll almost always say the name of the spell. This gets annoying really fast. Considering that at times you’re going to fire off about 50 spells in a row, hearing "SOLARIUM!" about 40 times gets on your nerves.

Moving onward, the enemy selection is where the game really lacks. There is little detail put into most of the monsters that you will see. After the first couple of levels, Arran will come across very few new types monsters for him to defeat. Also, if you were to encounter a batch of enemies and you simply wanted to retreat you could do so with ease because the enemies would never follow you. On the other hand, where the game really shines is when Arran encounters a boss. Graphically, these are some of the best bosses seen on any platform. The amount of detail put into them is simply amazing and truly shows of a bit of the Xbox’s graphical power. Your jaw literally drops when you encounter the Ice Giant. NightCaster can definitely hold it’s own when it comes to the graphics department. The environments are well done with the inclusion of swaying trees, foot tracks in the snow, and many other tidbits of eye candy. There is also a great deal of detail put into Arran himself. You’ll notice his hair and cape blow in the wind, though the movement of his cape suggests that there is a constant wind of about 20 mph blowing at his face no matter which direction he is facing. Other little things you will notice are little animals running around after you have cleared an area of the level. On the very first level I found myself throwing a spell or two at a couple of rabbits, not knowing what they were.

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I think you can definitely pump around 25 hours into this game. However after beating it, there really isn’t much that will drag you back for more. Though there is a little something special for those who find every spell. NightCaster is a fairly easy game even at the ending levels and against the bosses. I would definitely recommend a 5-day rental for this title unless you’re a huge fan of a Gauntlet type of game, which then of course you should shell out the $50 for it. Small changes would have made this game a must-have, but it falls just short of that bar.

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