Enjoyable fantasy twist on Doom-style action
This is part of a long series of similarly themed shooters that includes the likes of Catacomb Abyss and Terror of the Catacombs and continues the franchise's story of a lone mage out to destroy the evil Nemesis who has the usual plans for world domination. The games are all pretty similar and bear more than a passing resemblance to the likes of Doom and Wolfenstein and this should come as no surprise as they have their origins in a much earlier game which was developed by John Carmack of iD Software fame. This one is a fairly standard first person shooter that mixes in RPG and Gauntlet-style elements and which sees players exploring a vast series of dungeons and other such environments in your epic quest. However, rather than using the standard array of high-powered guns to help you out, here your tools of the trade are fireballs and other spells. You will face a variety of enemies, including seemingly harmless animals which transform before your eyes into ravenous beast, along with zombies and vicious trees. While Curse of the Catacombs is not overly original, it does provide a few neat twists on the genre to make it appealing to fans of old-school shooters. The fantasy style is well used, with the magic making a refreshing change from shotguns and rocket launchers and while the environments can be a bit sparse, the enemies are quite well designed and there is certainly a lot of exploring to be done. Sound is minimal and slightly annoying but if you can get past this niggle, there is some fun to be had here.
