With most games, you can tell what genre they fit into. Take Geoff Crammond's fantastic Grand Prix series for example, obviously a racing game. Quake? First Person Shooter, and so on. Then we have games that cross genres and create new ones like Resident Evil. An action-adventure 'survival horror'. Or Deus EX, which perfectly melded RPG elements around an FPS exterior. Then there's games like Nightcaster, trapped somewhere between genres in a confused meandering fashion. Like those tramps you see wandering around after you come out from a club at 2am, shouting about how they've just seen God in a pile of sick and kept it in their pocket to prove it.

Gameplay:
Nightcaster's gameplay is as vacuous as its plot, which goes as follows: You play Arran trying to change the world that has been cast into darkness, back into light again. Presumably so he could get a better look to see if there's anything to this game. You have the four elements to use to complete your quest, being fire/water/light/dark, which can be combined to make new spells. Great idea, bland execution. Unfortunately the game is hampered at the start by its horrendous control system. You use the left stick to control your character and the right controls the target on the ground. Sounds ok, but it's a battle to coordinate both thumbs, especially when you have tons and tons of enemies swarming over you and you've also got to think about what type of magic you will use to dispatch of the creatures. Water magic works best with fire and…well I'm sure you get the idea, it's the same one used since the beginning of time.

I was expecting something along the lines of Diablo, not a full-on D&D game but taking the basic premise of character class, levelling up and loads of good-natured hack 'n slash action. Unfortunately it's more a case of aim, fire, run, aim, fire, run until you either fall asleep or turn it off and do something less boring instead. As 'Why Don't You' so cleverly told me to do when I was young. There's no real incentives to make you want to complete the main mission or the sub-quests you'll be given along the way. They don't really seem to fit in with the feel of the game and seem to have been put in as padding to make the game seem longer than it actually is. You won't get anything substantial for completing them either which makes them seem ever more pointless.

Graphics:
The graphics are much better than the gameplay however and some of the effects are quite pretty. It does feel like there is a lot of visual depth to the levels, making a very convincing 3D effect. Bump-mapping and particle effects are used very well, coming from the 'less is more' school of graphical FX. The lighting is thankfully fantastic. Being that the game is based around this type of eye candy, it seems that most of the work has gone into creating visual loveliness for the spells and leaving little time to concentrate on the core of the game itself.

Sound:
Again, the sound in Nightcaster is above average and the music is very atmospheric, as are the sound effects. Meaty spells are backed up with thunderous crashings and explosions, complementing the hectic action on screen perfectly. However, nothing really stands out as being special but again, if as much care had been taken with the game as with the sound and graphics, Nightcaster would have been a solid game.

Longevity:
Not everyone is going to agree with me on this, but I'd imagine a lot of you would be feeling as unimpressed with Nightcaster as I am. Once you have the grasp of the game, it's not long before you want to explore more or have the story turn a sly twist. Likewise with the gameplay, it's bland and repetitive which doesn't make me want to find out what is deep inside the game and battle my way to the end.

Round Up:
It's a shame that Nightcaster turned out like this because from the early stages it looked like it would be great fun to play. Pretty environments and effects mixed with good music and sound effects won't help any game if the backbone of the gameplay is as shoddy as this. A hollow experience awaits, thankfully Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is on its way soon, so all you D&D freaks out there (me being one of them, and I don't use that word in any derogatory fashion) won't have long to wait for some 'proper' RPG action.

Pros:

• Good try at the control system
  
• Cool effects on spells
  
• Lovely environments
  

  Cons:
  

  • Control system unfortunately badly implemented
    
  • Gameplay is as bland as a flour and water sandwich
    
  • No drive to keep you playing