Let me start off this review by saying how my thoughts on the caliber of Xbox titles sways back and forth like a clock pendulum. You get teased with fantastic sounding titles, only to have them come out to be somewhat of a dud. (i.e. Azurik, Bloodwake, WWF Raw.) Which brings me full circle on my review of another "what could have been" title in the form of Nightcaster.

You embark on a journey as a boy named Arran, in an effort to lift the Layman's Curse and bring light to the never-ending night that has plagued the world. You are the chosen one (surprise surprise) and it is only you who can destroy this evil Nightcaster who has brought this. You are given a choice to take part in this journey, with the warning that in order to become a great magician you will lose your youth as you grow more knowledgeable in the arts. You agree and are thrown into the world armed with only a spell book and staff. It's these tools that will help you learn the essence of fire, water, light, and dark. You must use these wisely as they counter act each other when using them on particular enemies. Will you succeed in your journey?

Graphically Nightcaster doesn't bore, nor surprise you with anything in its graphical appeal. Starting off the game is a nice opening movie done in true story telling fashion, complete with the turning of pages of a book and a narrator whom tells you the tale. The game's engine runs at a decent framerate from time to time, but the textures are blocky, repetitive and dull and the environments are uninspired and unoriginal. Your character looks fine, but doesn't excel at all with any wonderful animations. His only uniqueness comes when he changes form from young to old as he becomes wiser in the magical arts. The things that do appeal to the visual senses are the nice variety of strange and odd enemies and the wonderful and unique spells. The nice variety of enemies and spells keeps the game fresh to the eyes, while the gameplay keeps on doing the same old song and dance. Nightcaster's story line doesn't rely on your magic, but it's the magic that is the one true thing that really stands out. You have 4 types of spells- fire, water, light and dark. As each type of spell becomes more powerful, the visual impact is more pleasing as well. Nightcaster isn't the game you would have all your friends come over to see. It just gives you an idea of what's to come in the fantasy realm with a little time and effort.

Audio in Nightcaster is actually pretty fair. The voice acting isn't overdone or even terrible for that matter. Sound effects help to immerse your senses into this world with well-done supporting surround sound. The musical score, while adequate, is mostly forgettable. Overall though, the game's sounds range from good to mediocre and are of normal fantasy/adventure fare.

Gameplay is where Nightcaster kind of trips over his own cape. Nightcaster gives new life to the hack and slash genre by doing so in spell form. What is distinctive is the range system your spells use while attacking. You click on the right analog stick to bring up an over the top camera, from here you have an orb that allows you to move away from your character and attack specific enemies from a distance. You are given a 360-degree range, but your range grows as your experience grows. The only downfall to this system is performing these spells quickly and accurately when larger groups of enemies appear. The rest of the game is pretty standard adventure style gameplay, wondering through each level, pulling up an on screen map, selecting spells, etc. Even with this new attacking system, the game still falls into the monotonous, repetitive game play that has affected the genre for years. Nightcaster isn't what you'd call clumsy in terms of game play, just not as precise as you would like.

After blasting your way through this somewhat short for an adventure game of this type, is Nightcaster worth revisiting for additional replay value? Not really, once you've seen the story once, there I nothing left to do.

All and all Nightcaster brings about some fresh ideas, spawns some average graphics and sound, and gives a unique twist to spell casting. Nightcaster doesn't push the limits of the Xbox, but it is an interesting ride nonetheless. Is it worth a purchase? Only if you have the Xbox as your sole system, and you're thirsting for some sort of adventure game that will tide you over for a few hours. Other fans should rent this one as it is easily beatable in a rental or two, and will be forgotten shortly thereafter. I will say one thing, it's better than the Xbox's other fantasy offerings, especially Azurik.