I have been catching up lately on all the “Buffy the Vampire” episodes I missed out on in the past, and something about Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory struck me as familiar. Remember that bad guy in “Buffy” who was built out of all these random parts from different demons? Adam? Season 4? Well, when I saw that the main character in Rengoku is a cyborg named A.D.A.M. who can attach pieces to himself from the enemies he fights, I was like (in best Keanu voice), “Whoa!” Is Rengoku a Buffy throwback? Read on...

The way the game looks is certainly gothic enough, although it’s a techno-gothic approach to be sure. Think “Battle Angel” or some other dark, robotic future anime and you get the picture. The good news is that the effects from weapons and explosions are vivid and the layout of menus is pleasing to the eye. The bad news is that every level in the game looks very similar and lacks any real differentiation visually. Bland would be a good word to use, I think. I know the world may look different in the “dark and distant future,” but can we put less focus on the dark stuff?

In the end, the “gee-wiz” factor over effects isn’t enough to keep your attention in Rengoku and you’ll find those drab background and character models blurring together.

There is a strong hack-n-slash element in Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory, similar to Diablo. In fact, the comparison to Diablo could run pretty deep, because Rengoku also includes a fairly good upgrade system that allows you to add body parts from the foes you vanquish as a way to enhance your character’s ability.

The story goes that in the future, instead of fighting one another, we will have created the Tower of Purgatory where androids battle for human sport. Kind of like “Running Man” meets “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” meets “I, Robot,” if you can follow that chain... So, at some point a “mysterious foe” ascends to the top of the tower, leaving it to A.D.A.M to climb Purgatory and discover who is really running the show.

The way these androids fight is with patched-on body parts and weapons attached to their head, torso, or arms. Want a big blade? Put it in your left hand. Want a gun? Put it in your hand, embed it in your chest, or mount it on your noggin’. And then proceed to dish out mayhem to your opponents, with the understanding that they all have the same upgrades.

Rengoku sports randomized levels, meaning that replay value should be high. And if you like the hack-n-slash format and mad button-mashing action, Rengoku might be your game. I found the levels to be too bland, the enemies too overpowered, and the controls too dodgy for me to really get into, but there’s no doubt that this type of game on the PSP is a neat concept. Fighting individual enemies turns out to be a matter of whirling around like crazy and throwing everything you have at them in an effort to get the kill and steal their looted body parts. Grisly, I know. Boss fights are probably the coolest part of Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory, along with upgrading weaponry. Bosses come in after you clear each level, and the battles with bosses are some of the more interesting in how they look and how strategic you can be to win the fight.

In the end, you wade through each level several times, since getting killed means going back down to the bottom and working your way back up again. With the wireless multiplayer and deathmatch features, much of the drudgery goes away, so it may be that Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory just doesn’t hold up well for single-player – which is basically true of most hack-n-slash games, anyway.

The enemies in Rengoku are not easy to kill. Each one may come at you with slightly different weaponry, so you must learn to exploit your ranged weapons against enemies with just swords and to close in against enemies with ranged weapons. But, the advantage always seems to be with the enemy, and there are too many cheap moments where your life force is suddenly cut by 25% after some fiend deals out a devastating combo. When it comes to fighting more than one enemy, just press the power button and avoid the disappointment.

Enough button mashing usually wins the day, and there is real advantage to be gained by upgrading parts and pieces on A.D.A.M. When an enemy defeats you, other than a boss, you find yourself back at the bottom of the tower, having to work your way up again and earn back your weapon add-ons. The justification for this is hard to make, but there is a feature that levels up your ability to use weapons like guns and swords. This means that once you become good enough at using missile weapons like a gun, you have a distinct advantage over other enemies at a lower level. In theory, that sounds nice, but in practical application you get your ass smacked so many times in this game you’d think you’re back in grade school bent over the principal’s desk.

Like those games with creative uses of the analog stick (Ape Escape, especially), Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory has to win points for devising a neat way to simulate the many points of attack your android contains. The downer is that the analog slider doesn’t do much of anything beyond letting you twirl your android around in the viewing/modification menu. The D-pad buttons move you forward and side-to-side, and there is a simple lock-on and strafe feature controlled by the shoulder buttons. The neat thing is that the buttons on the right side control one of four weapons. The head, either arm, or the torso can be controlled independently, which sounds like a lot of fun. In truth, they all just make for big button mashing until you run out of energy or overheat, which isn’t to say that there isn’t fun to be had, but it’s not as strategic and you might think.

The strategy that you won’t find in the combat doesn’t make its way into the customization of the character, either. Sure, there are lots of parts you can add, custom abilities you can enhance, and items you can trade with your PSP friends, but the manual is lacking in any useful detail on how to know what items or enhancements do for you. It’s not even easy to know when you’re able to upgrade a particular component because the menus are so vague. But, you definitely can’t complain about the control of the character, because it’s pretty darn smooth.

If only smooth control and a good concept could make a great game, right? The Rengoku experience isn’t terrible, but it isn’t anywhere as deep or engaging as it could have been. More variation within the levels and from level to level would have made a big difference. More balance in combat and more clarity in the customization process could have taken this from being a curiosity to a real winner. As it stands, look at Rengoku: The Tower of Purgatory if you really, really love the hack-n-slash format, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.