Killing Time was a forward-thinking FPS, with the entire game being one giant map with backtracking, Metroid-style. Sadly, it doesn't go full Metroidvania, as you just collect keys instead of abilities, and the puzzles are not very complicated. But the idea was there. This is a game you play for the joy of exploration - the shooting, while fun, is limited, as enemies take many shots to die and aren't too challenging. The map is really good, though, with a huge mansion and surrounding grounds that are nicely detailed and full of unique enemies. The remaster looks and sounds terrific, and hearing the gloriously eclectic soundtrack uncompressed for the first time is worth the price of admission. There is some nostalgia affecting my rating as I played the OG as a kid. If you don't mind some tedium and enjoy exploring, you will probably like this.
This game is exceptionally unfun. I've been gaming since the 90's. I've played every classic Castlevania title, beaten Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, and had fun doing it. I like challenging platformers, clearly, and in my quest to play as many as possible, I've run into several awful games. Some have been easy, some have been hard, but they all shared similar traits, issues in design that made them unsatisfying to play. This game contains several. 1. Lack of Recovery Time - The recovery time is so short in this game, that you can easily take a ton of damage from an enemy by being knocked on top of their sprite. 2. Lack of Decent Knockback - Enemy attacks fail to knock you away, compounding with the above problem to cause enemies to jump on you and quickly drain your health. 3. No Range - Part of what made classic Castlevania so fun was cracking that chain whip. It allowed you to attack without having to get right up next to an enemy and risk a cheap hit. Here, you swing a sword, and the hitbox is actually a bit shorter than the sprite! You also swing slightly upwards, forcing you to duck most of the time, and even then you have to get so close to land a hit. 4. Too Big - This game looks and plays a lot like the much-hated Castlevania arcade game, Haunted Castle. That game and this game, Odallus, suck because you have a huge sprite making it hard to dodge incoming fire, Note that in Synphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood, your sprite stays small. Well-animated, well-detailed, but small. This allows for a more fair challenge, as you have more room to maneuver, even when enemies and attacks flood the screen. 5. Too Much Memorization - You should be able to play dynamically, with unpredictable enemies that have attack patterns you have to counter with skill, even after memorizing what to do. But bad games often have cheap traps, forcing you to rely entirely on memory. Like this game. I've run out of room, but in summary this plays like a bad NES game. Retro =/= good.
