Fully realized portrait of a dreamscape, ingulfed in mystery and tragedy.
This experience really begins to transcend what the media calls video games. It has a beautifully realized story, characters with attitudes that jump out of the monitor, gameplay that is thoroughly fulfilling (the intertwining if guns and magic), a setting that transforms polygons into moods, and beautiful mystery.
The gameplay is a combination of magic and firepower, you can level up the magic and have a selection of firearms. But the gameplay is not about the biggest gun for the biggest monster, since some enemies need to be stunned by magic then assaulted by your revolver. The boss battles with each member of the cursed family is choreographed to perfection, since the tense moments when first sight of the foe is given to the climactic battle.
The setting is a mood piece of tragedy and mystery; dark corners, staring statues, structures that reach the Heavens and dip toward Hades. As you walk down the corridor, the curtains dance in the distance, then a figure appears and runs toward you; scenes with this much tension mark a high point of entertainment.
The sound design is truly inspiring, the howls and moans heard in the distance. Actors that truly believe in the experience and put emotion into their words. The soundtrack, as the setting, ranges from flights of fancy to crippling claustrophobic.
It is a sad conclusion that experiences such as this aren't given the appreciation of the public, instead humiliations of Grand Theft Auto are splattered in the morning papers. Entertainment such as this should be kept in a museum for previous generation to encounter and experience