Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Limited Edition)

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Let me start by saying that I am only about 2 and a half hours into the game which is far from beating it. However, I feel compelled to write something as this game just was released today. I want to let others know what they can expect in case they are on the fence about buying the game.

I have uploaded a video of the packaging and it's contents (Limited Edition). I have to say that over all the presentation is a lot nicer than I was expecting. The one thing I sort of didn't like was that the art book is attached into the packaging. It made it harder to flip through and enjoy.

Getting into the game I was curious as what to expect. I read a lot of pre-release reviews comparing this game to God of Way. But was hoping for more than just another hack and slash and so far this game has delivered BIG. I have played through all 3 god of war games and can say I never honestly used the block button one time. In this game I found myself using it quite a bit. Also i think this game takes a bit more defensive strategy than just going toe-to-toe and mashing one button over and over.

There are so many incredible things about this game that stand out. I will be careful to not give anything away as I want you to enjoy all the wonderful surprises just like I have. But, the way the game intertwines cut scenes right in the middle of battle adds a whole new level of depth to the game-play. It was like battle with a real quick cut to cut-scene, than battle ,cut-scene,battle,battle,cut-scene, battle all with what seemed like no load time. Added a very high level of energy to the battles without taking the gamer out of the experience. It should be said that you have no control over the camera at any time. But, I think they did a great job with always keeping the camera at an angle that seems so natural that not once did I find myself frustrated by not having control. The levels are set up where you are encouraged to explore and in just the first few levels their are multiple paths you can go down. In the first 5 levels I not completed more than %60 of any one level and I pride myself on being an explorer. This will add to the value of the game for me as now I want to go back and replay the levels to find everything missed. Also, there are items you can see but can't reach until you have upgraded later in the game and have to come back.

Some other subtle things I thought were worth mentioning was the 3rd person perspective. the weather elements interact with the screen so you feel like you are with the character. The rain in particular is cool as the drops run down the screen after hitting. Also , when your character is stopped the screen has a swaying, bobbling effect like you are carrying a camera on your shoulder following the character. So, far every single environment I have been in has added a deep layer of atmospheric effect, whether it is rain, mist, or windy snow. It always keeps you from seeing everything 100% crystal clear but really adds another cool layer of realism. speaking of realism I thought it was worth noting that when you interact with a tree the branches move as well as when you are walking through tall grass...Don't think your efforts went unnoticed Konami! I have to say I am an artist who has drawn in one form or another my whole life. I really appreciate art and the effort that goes into creating it. I cannot count how many times in the first 2 hours I said WOW! out loud. The scenery is so well done I found myself almost enjoying the times between battles more than the battles themselves just so I could soak in the environments and scenery they created. Truly beautiful work on the environments!

The voice acting is top notch! I should mention for any adults reading this that may want to buy the game for a young child. That there was one moment in the first 2 hours of play with a full frontal nude fairy (nips and all). That may be the only moment in the game I am not sure as I said before i am only about 1/12 of the way into the game. But I imagine if it's there once it will probably be there again...(ehhhhmmm ehhhmmm Dante's Inferno.)

They also have added an RPG element. You gain experiece as you battle enemies and can use that experiece to unlock new moves or special extras like artwork in a gallery. The music is amazing! The milted edition comes with the soundtrack as you can see. I can actually see myself listening to it and enjoying it.

Hope this helped answer some questions about the game. Thanks for taking time to read my review.

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The game: The graphics are very, very well done. The voice acting is great and I enjoy the story even if it is a bit simple. The game takes you to many atmospheric areas and all the locations are well designed with an expert artist's eye. There's always something to notice in the background. The game has visual depth other games dream about. The gameplay at first is basic 3rd person action game fare. Then you get into the sub-weapons (dagger, fairies, holy water, a dark crystal for summoning a demon) and eventually you get into learning to use your magic. You get light magic, which when activated turns the damage you do to enemies into health regeneration for you. And you get dark magic, which makes your attacks stronger. And various subweapons are altered depending on which magic state you are in. There are loads of new fighting moves to buy and learn with the credit you gain from solving puzzles, killing monsters / bosses, and clearing levels. The game is rather large, with 12 chapters, each containing anywhere from 2 or 3 to close to 10 stages within them. And once you beat a stage / level, you can go back to find new sub-weapon upgrades and life / light / dark gems for gaining more life / magic. And when you beat a level you also unlock the trial for that level, which is just a challenge specifically for that level. For example: After you defeat the Ice Titan at the end of Chapter 1, you unlock the trial to defeat it again in under 1 minute 30 seconds. This is impossible until you unlock a dark crystal, but you get the idea. When you complete challenges, you gain credit and you also gain more completion percentage. It's possible to get 110% in each level (Beat it on all difficulties, complete the trial, find all sub-weapon upgrades and gems). The combat is more about evasion than attacking in most cases, as you will die easily if you're not careful. Thankfully there are no enemies with cheap moves and you can see all enemy attacks coming early enough to dodge. Not early enough to make the game easy or boring, but if you pay attention, you'll stay alive. The boss battles are surprisingly fun and exciting. I haven't had a problem with the camera being fixed at all. I'm currently on Chapter 10 and should have the game beat soon enough, though I'm not rushing it. I think it's taken me about 12-15 hours to get this far, but I've also gone back and done challenges and searched for missing gems, so it hasn't been a straightforward play-through.

Now about the Collector's Edition. I really enjoy the cover art. It tells you: You are playing a Castlevania game. Now, the "art" in the art book, which is inconveniently inseparable from the game case, is disappointing. It isn't art at all, but the rendered 3D models of the characters and enemies. I wanted art like the cover, hand drawn and beautifully Castlevania-like. But no. Though the game does come with a soundtrack that is actually very well done. It's the best video game soundtrack I've heard since Silent Hill 2. It's over an hour long and has a good sense of theme to it, unlike the terrible scene-based music of God of War III, which was a soundtrack I regretted purchasing and was highly forgettable. I've listened to the Lords of Shadow soundtrack from beginning to end about 9 times now and I notice little aural nuances I hadn't heard before each time. The soundtrack is just as layered as the visuals, which is a plus. Overall I'd say if you can find the soundtrack from another source, skip the Collector's Edition, as that's the only good thing about it. Other than the embossed cover art.

The game itself still stands as an incredible journey through a dark land filled with interesting characters and bloody battles. The action is fun and the game is always throwing something different at you so it never gets stagnant. A worthy purchase for anyone who is a fan of video games or even just action games.

Also, God of War II being one of my favorite games, I'm getting sick and tired of the God of War comparisons. God of War III was beautiful but highly overrated and had a terrible ending. This game is better than GoW3 in my opinion. More variety in gameplay and combat. There were games like Devil May Cry out before God of War that were kicking ass and taking names, but these God of War fanatics don't seem to realize just how much their precious game took from other, better games before it. Yes, this game has similar elements to other games, but I won't get into that, because it is irrelevant. In any entertainment medium, good ideas live on through other iterations. Bashing a game for using another game's ideas is stupid and pointless. A good idea is a good idea, regardless what color it is or what buttons you have to push to make it happen. And Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a good game, regardless of what it has borrowed from others.

And to the people who are complaining about "hitbox issues" and "poorly designed puzzles"...I just don't know how to fight ignorance of that magnitude.

Okay, I'm finished.

Buy Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Limited Edition) Now

******************************REVIEW OF THE LIMITED EDITION**************************************

Here are 3 reasons you should spend extra bucks to buy Limited Edition of the game. If you are interested in the review of the game just scroll below.

BOX: Clearly seen as in pictures, the box is different than standard addition, it has more art to it. The box is actually like a hard covered book with art pics, sound track DVD and game in it.

SOUND TRACK: This is the main reason, I bought the limited Edition. I loved the music, especially main theme and theme of certain boss fights. As I am assuming you haven't played the game I don't want to spoil it by giving names of perticular songs.

ARTWORK: There are 20 or more different pics of main characters and villians in the game. I really like the pics of some of the villians.

Since I am a big fan of Vampire, werewolf, necromonian genre I LOVED THE GAME and I personally thought LE was worth the price (specially because of the soundtrack). So this is 5 stars for me.

******************************REVIEW OF THE ACTUAL GAME**************************************

I have never played a Castlevania game before, so I was hesitant to buy this at first. However, each trailer I saw for this game looked great and when I played the demo, it kinda reminded me of God of War 2 (one my most favorite games of all time), so I had to give this one a shot. After I finished it once, here is what I thought.

PROS.

SOLID AND FLAWLESS ACTION: The combat system in this game is just perfect. Last time I enjoyed punishing enemies was in Devil May Cry games. Everything works just as you want to. Controls respond very well. Tactical use of dark and light magic adds whole new dimension to the combat. Once you master the different moves, the joy you get punishing the enemies using them, is just indescribable.

SPECTACULAR SUSPENSEFUL STORY: It has been a while since I have experienced a story in the game that makes me go wow. While the game does starts out a bit abruptly, things will make sense in the end. Don't want to spoil much.

UNANITICIPATED AFTER CREDIT ENDING: If you are familiar with character names than you may see this after the credits ending I am talking about, but I sure as hell did not see it coming. I was very surprised by it and quite frankly could not get this ending (LONG VIDEO) out of my head for days. Don't want to spoil much, but please FINISH THE GAME, trust me, after the credits will make it worth your while.

BEAUTIFUL GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION: This game will make you go through jungles, valley, barren towers, huge castles etc. etc. Frankly, they are very nicely designed and the game looks great in 720p.

GREAT VARIETY IN ENEMY: It has been a while I have seen SO MANY different types of enemies in the same game. Different types of werewolves, vampires, goblins, deads and other creatures I can't remember names of. All of these gothically designed. I am telling you artwork in this game is just magnificent.

RIDING HUGE ENEMIES GAMEPLAY: I personally loved it. Once you weaken huge enemies such as big warewolves, spiders etc, YOU CAN RIDE THEM. Use them to unleash devastating attacks, solve puzzle etc. etc. Truly remarkable.

TONS OF CHALLENGING BOSSES: Slaughtering hordes and hordes of enemies and moving forward in the game will reward you with some really compelling boss battles. Just like levels and small fry enemies, these bosses are also very aesthetically animated. To me boss battle was the third strongest aspect of the game (after story and art). As soon as I defeated a boss, I look forward to the next one. Such anticipation and mysterious story really drives you forward in this game.

ACROBATIC GAMEPLAY AND PUZZLES: If you like puzzles there are tons and tons of them in this game. If you don't like puzzles no worries. Spend your experience points and you don't have to solve them. HOW WONDERFUL IS THAT? I salute this game for providing that option. Genius! The acrobatic gameplay, which would be hanging from cliff, then jumping from cliff to cliff, is pretty good. Kind of like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time games. What I particularly found interesting was use of the chain to do acrobats. There points in the game you can jump off of cliffs, use chains to hang somewhere, use the momentum of chain to break through weak structures etc. You have to play it to get a feel for what I am saying.

UPGRADABLES AND HIDDEN ITEMS: In this game you can buy new combat moves and upgrade them by trading your experience. While most of the moves can be purchased through the first gameplay (assuming you don't trade experience for solving puzzles), to get all moves and all hidden items, you will have to play different chapters in the game over again.

TREMENDOUS REPLAYABILITY: The game itself is long enough. If you want to go for 100% of the items, it will even take longer since you will have to revisit chapters and use your upgrades. In addition it comes with 4 different difficulty levels and a minigame. This will keep you engage for a long while.

CONS.

MINOR ISSUES WITH PUZZLES: Honestly the only con I found in this game was I was too used to God of War 2 controls. Because of that I was stuck in puzzles such as clocktower puzzle. Fortunately I figured out the difference in controls and was able to solve the puzzle. An example: In clocktower puzzle, ever time I tried to raise a platform, it would rise halfway and then fall as my character would let go of the lever contrary to the fact that I was holding the button. THE KEY IS TO LET GO OF R2(or L2 whichever is to hold the lever) once you hold the lever. The character will hold it himself without you having to hold the button. Other than this I think some puzzles are a bit too challenging. But again every one of them is solvable and if not, YOU CAN ALWAYS SOLVE THEM BY TRADING EXPERIENCE.

CONCLUSION:

I frankly am quite impressed by this game. As listed above, Pros. easily outweighs Cons. My score for this game would be 9.5/10. God of War, Prince of Persia and Devil May Cry fans, THIS IS A MUST BUY. Only thing I recommend is play it on the hardest mode possible for those of who are veteran to God of War type of games.

Read Best Reviews of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (Limited Edition) Here

This game takes the traditional 3rd person adventure platform and supercharges it. The attacks take a little getting used too, but the game eases you into this format slowly and efficiently. Definitely worth the price of admission. If your looking for a 3rd person adventure game that feels different but is still incredibly fun while adding a decent story line this is the game for you.Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Limited Edition

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is the game that bleeds fresh blood into the 20 plus year history of the Castlevania franchise. Like many other classic titles made famous on the Nintendo console back in the 80's, Castlevania has suffered from not following a timeline or staying true to one. The Legend of Zelda probably leads the pack, nobody knows which Link they are playing with or if it's a different version even though they all have the same name and more or less look alike. Almost all Final Fantasy games are not connected one to the other and that has somehow become one of the main draws of the series because each game can hold its own without a sequential storytelling and are really fantastic to play. The games usually are benchmarks of all role playing games. I can't think of another series that defines a genre better than Final Fantasy. In First Person Shooters I can pull 3 series out of a hat that are brands to measure up to: Call of Duty, Halo and BioShock.

Castlevania has not defined its genre. The series has never revolutionized the industry. The games, however, have been entertaining for the most part. The story, at first, was clear. Main character comes from a lineage of vampire killers and goes after the biggest threat to the land, vampire king Dracula. Every century or so Dracula comes back to life and a descendant of the Belmont family has the duty of ridding the world of Dracula's presence again.

Simple plot, maybe handcuffed to the game cartridges they came in, but definitely entertaining to play. Now other series ( most notably Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear ) held substantially more plot in their games in the same media size, so you can't blame the simple storyline on a lack of kilobytes. One of the main knocks I've had on the Castlevania series is the fact that in most of the games, some way or another you ended up battling the same end boss: Dracula. I have beaten almost every game they threw out there, even the incredibly awful Castlevania64. Now it's not like Konami Xeroxed the game like CAPCOM did with MegaMan, but I thought that they would have come up with better creative results for the end of their games than to battle a different version of the same character, through the years, across different platforms, and definitely not in a higher advanced era of gaming. To my knowledge only The Legend of Zelda has been able to pull that off successfully on a commercial and critically acclaimed level.

What becomes even more unforgiving how the series bore after a while is when you consider the source material, the inspiration from which the Castlevania series was born. It came out of the fantasy novels that started in 1984 called Vampire Hunter D. It borrowed key elements from the novel ( and later films ) including the vampire theme, the use of the whip, more importantly Dracula as a main adversary to humans ( although in the novels he is known as the Vampire King and was long gone when the story starts ). Having read 4 of the novels now available in a language you and I can understand it is bewildering how the Castlevania series has had a thin plot line in most of the games and too many turns in the wrong direction. Those novels are fantastic, and I encourage everyone to rent and see the 2000 anime film of Vampire Hunter D so you can get a taste of what I am talking about.

Being a long time fan of the series, I was rather frustrated on how other series made successful leaps into the 3D realm but my favorite series wavered. It began to dominate the hand-held universe however, using the same formula they applied to their most critically acclaimed game, Symphony of the Night, released in 1997 for the original Playstation. Year after year good ( or decent ) games were released for the Gameboy Advance and later Nintendo DS. The year 2003 saw a very good 3D Castlevania game for the Playstation 2, but it arrived 2 years late after a certain CAPCOM created a series called Devil May Cry. This game gave me the illusion of what a great 3D Castlevania could be, so I thought why did Konami get beat to it? The lead character, Dante, is one of the deepest characters created for a video game that I have ever seen. The world it is set in/against are demons not vampires but the landscapes and structures feel Gothic giving it somewhat of a Castlevania feel. So I understand when Lament of Innocence which was released 2 years after that most people would feel like it was sort of a Devil May Cry rip-off. Main character looked similar, pre-set cameras throughout the game, life bars were identical aside from the color scheme, to name a few. In my point of view CAPCOM just defined the third person action/adventure genre with that game so everybody else would have to try and 'catch up' to them...and in this case rather copy.

Lament of Innocence is a very good game. It suffers from poor level design however and that is essentially what sets the game back. The gameplay is fantastic, the boss battles are mostly great and the graphics are quite good. The story is OK, tries to set a platform for the series to go on. The other entry in the 3D realm came in 2005 with Curse of Darkness, which was less of a game because it still suffered from poor level design, although it had a better story to go on, same graphics, forgettable boss battles ( aside from the fight with Isaac and his Innocent Devil ) and the main character, a former bad guy, looked MORE like Dante from Devil May Cry. I remember pledging to never buy a new video game retail after Curse of Darkness ( $50 for the PS2 ) until I knew for sure a game was great. It took 2 more years for that to happen, God of War 2. I kept on playing the 2D hand-held versions of Castlevania ( Portrait of Ruin being my favorite of those ) wondering when a day would come that Konami could make a great 3D Castlevania game.

That day has finally come.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is my favorite video game of all-time. Where other games failed this one surpassed, expectations were met then blown away and when I thought this is where it is going to fail, it kept on going seamlessly. I had never played a game where I was looking for it to fail someplace and I finish the game and it left me searching for something that wasn't there. The previous game to hold the honor was Resident Evil 4. My only requirement for this award is the answer to this question: if you were stranded on a deserted island, and you were only allowed to take one game with you, which game would that be? The answer cannot take more than 2 seconds. It must be clear cut or unanimous. Lords of Shadow is now the hands down winner.

I bought the Limited Edition PS3 version of the game, which comes on a single disc and only has the box art, soundtrack and book case presentation to differ from the regular version. It is good to note that the Xbox 360 version of the game comes on TWO discs ( which was used on the IGN review ) because PS3s use Blu-ray discs which hold more memory than the HD-DVDs that the Xbox 360 uses...yes the game is that long.

Lords of Shadow starts when Gabriel Belmont, a knight from the Brotherhood of Light, sets out on a mission to find the evil that murdered his wife and has apparently distanced the earth from the heavens; cutting off communication with God allowing evil to flourish on the land. You arrive in a town looking for the god Pan, after a brief fight with some werewolves you are shown the way and the adventure begins.

PRESENTATION: Very good. The story is told through in-game cutscenes mostly, narrated through your 'log book' by the secondary character Zobek. Pause menu is a small screen capture of the moment you actually paused the game. This 'log book' holds the beastiary, weapons and items you have, explains the combo systems you can acquire and also shows what they look like once you perform them in a rather storyboard film or black & white cartoon way. Very cool. There is no map per se, but there is a progress map that logs your completion through the areas you have gone through, shows you how much of that level or chapter you have completed, and what items are to be found there. This is key in the way that you don't have to wander aimlessly through the WHOLE game looking for example for those 3 red gems you are missing. This progress map shows you what is to be found in each level and if you have found all the items in that specific level.

GRAPHICS: Spectacular. After playing God of War 3 early last year I thought that it would take some time before I saw a game that came close to the graphical prowess of that game, but I was wrong. Lords of Shadow looks incredible. The environments are vivid, fluid colors, the framerate is fierce, no visible slowdowns and the action in this game sometimes never stops. Quicktime events are seamless, the markers are better placed than in previous games in the same genre and do not interfere with the action performed in the least. Enemies and bosses are detailed and modeled well, main character model is very good although not as polished as Kratos in God of War 3, and the female characters look good but not great like the ones in Dante's Inferno. There is a noticeable difference between the two models in this game ( male vs female ) yet at the same time looks intentional, not unfinished. The scale of the game makes the graphical aspects of this game seem more impressive. ( You will remember that chain walk in the snow trust me among others ) SOUND: Excellent. The voice acting in the game is very good. Patrick Stewart lends a hand as the narrator and does a great job with it. Sometimes the narrative itself is too long and that diminishes the effort as you kind of get tired of hearing his voice in that specific segment. Robert Carlyle does the voicework for Gabriel Belmont which result in several memorable quotes throughout the entire story and lends to the intensity and the resolve of the main character. The music is very well composed and plays an intricate part in the game and fits the mood of the game perfectly. Initially you think it might be the same song over and over again, but the reality is far from that truth. There are 20 unique songs in the game, some are similar and used in specific situations but carry the 'charge on' theme to them that makes the game feel more 'epic'. At the same time sounds pertaining to walking or moving through different surfaces are crisp, whether you are walking through leaves, snow or a brick floor. Weapons clash are clear, blocking effectively is magnified and heard without compromising framerates and critical hits cries encourage the player to pile on some more damage to your foe. Some would advocate why no classic tunes were remastered in any way, but I think it's fine, it is time to create new ones. Fact is the music made me feel like I was playing a movie. Yes the musical score is that good.

GAMEPLAY: Fantastic. This section carries the heaviest weight for me when analyzing a video game. Normally I really don't care how good the game looks, I mean there are more games with great graphics that are terrible that you and I know about. However, there are few games with great gameplay, and this is one of them. High on the fun factor, spectacular combos to pull off and a long variance of simple attacks that are too long to list. Eventually you will pick a good set of moves to master and you carry on from there. There is no way to bulldoze through the game so using the same combos against different enemies will only get you annihilated. What has certainly separated Castlevania from other games initially was the use of a whip as your main weapon. Konami went full force on it here and stuck to its guns. You can eventually whip, saw, climb, swing, and stab with the thing. You also gain access to a gauntlet that can move objects, block, and make earth shattering attacks with. A couple of simple sub weapons include daggers, holy water and some fairies that stall smaller enemies from attacking you. There is a dark crystal that once you collect all the pieces can unleash some serious hell on whichever foes you desire to wrath the beast to. Several moves you can perform in this game are perfected versions of ones from the Leon Belmont character in Lament of Innocence, which were very cool to pull off. The dynamic of Light magic to replenish health and the Dark magic to inflict more damage which you decide to apply to as you kill enemies away brings a nice pace to the game. Although health fountains do exist in the game, there are actually few and exist more at the start of the journey. Inflicting damage without getting hit fills up your focus meter which at full capacity makes EVERY hit turn into a magic orb to which you can decide, on the fly, to apply to either the Light or Magic bars by pressing down on L3 or R3. Gabriel is fast ( Then again the bosses are no slow Joes either). He moves around quickly and the response time of the game is impressive. Dodge, block, jump, attack while all the enemies move around can be pulled off easily. There are no 'BS I hit block and I got hit anyway' moments. I played it on hard, trust me.

LEVEL DESIGN: Superb. No more wandering endless hallways like in previous 3d entries. You actually feel immersed in this world of fantasy. The atmosphere in the game is one of its strongest points and captures the theme it wants to portray with incredible accuracy. You will feel the world your character is fighting through and wonder if he will be able to pull off this feat to save the land from eternal darkness. The transition from one area to the next is coherent, and you can actually envision the areas you traverse through translated onto a 2D map. Portals are used occasionally when there is an abrupt change of scenery but for the most part the levels stay true to the chapter and environments. The level design influences the pace of the game greatly, and what also stands out is that none of the platforming gets overwhelming in the veins say of Uncharted. It is balanced enough that there will be hordes waiting to attack you once you get comfortable thinking 'oh this is the jumping around stage' or something like that. I had no problems uncovering which ledges were to be jumped onto nor did I die aimlessly trying to get to a ledge that was not meant to be jumped on. If you try to sweep through the game though I think you might get that effect, taking an extra second or so to move around would erase this mishap. You will see that the ledges to access are visible and easy to reach. The puzzles in this game are very clever. They are not frustratingly difficult like in some of the painting puzzles found in Assassin's Creed 2 ( thanks to History of Art & Architecture classes 1, 2 and 3 that I took in college was the only way I was able to get around those ) they make you think, offer a hint to its solution, and give you some sense of accomplishment when you discover the answer. I mean the level inside the music box is a fairy tale moment...Only knock I can give to the level design is that most of the boss battles occur in some type of circular platform, although they were able to camouflage it well for the most part, and I was only able to pick this up my second time through the game on the Paladin difficulty.

BEASTIARY: Fantastic. Castlevania Lords of Shadow throws an extensive onslaught of enemies at you and holds a large number of bosses to defeat. Anything from Goblins, Werewolves, Lycans, Skeleton Warriors, Chupacabras, Knights, Giant Spiders, Vampires and everything else they forgot to put into the previous installments they are found here. You would think with such a large number of enemies that the quantity and quality of the bosses would suffer. That is not the case at all. They're are 20 unique boss battles to be found in the game, which are quite epic for the most part. Three of them are larger than your TV can handle size, dwarfing the boss battle experience I had in Tartarus on God of War III. True to Castlevania form, some bosses do not let you wink until you defeat them or Quicktime event them to death or it will end up costing you your life. The battles are usually long and have in-battle checkpoints due to the length of them, but if you made it there with only one more blow to endure, you will end up having to finish the battle as is if you do not have any Light Magic to replenish your health. ( I went through this mishap on my battle with Cornell, although it made it more interesting, it was difficult to finish him off, albeit on hard ) The boss health bar has two distinct colors, a reddish/orange tone which depicts its normal state and a silver gray one which calls for a special move to be executed in order to proceed damage. This could be either a Quicktime event, a puzzle to be solved, or a simple press of the action button ( R2 on PS3 ) There are several memorable battles, The Gravedigger, Carmilla, all 3 Titans, the Giant Ogre, to name a few. You are not going to feel like any boss is a cheap one, although the first one pales to all the rest in every way but it does a good job of pacing you well towards the rest of the game. My only complaint would be that you do not battle the Grim Reaper per se...but that is later explained in the story.

DIFFICULTY: Above average. Most videogames these days are rather easy or have no difficulty setting at all ( Assassin's Creed 2 ) which can take away from the overall feeling of accomplishment once you go through them. This game stays true to the difficulty settings found in former and old school games as it is not an easy one to finish. The game itself lingers around the 20 hours play through on any setting because of its length so real time would be somewhere north of the 30 to 40 hour range. This means that you will die...a lot. There is no 'wall' in the game, a place where you will die twenty thousand times trying to get through it like in Dante's Inferno or God of War III, but figuring out the patterns of the bosses and miscalculating a jump or two will set you back a couple of hours as you face the red screen of death. I must have died at least once facing the 20 bosses in the game, so be prepared. This is not a game to bulldoze through. But don't worry, it's nowhere near the sadistic levels of difficulty of Ninja Gaiden II on Xbox360. There is a difficulty setting, and it apparently only affects the damage you can endure and the damage you inflict on the enemies & bosses, hence the easier the setting the faster they die, and vice versa. I saw no difference in the number of enemies thrown at you from hard to very hard, something quite prevalent in Dante's Inferno, but there is a trophy or achievement to be gained this time around from actually beating the game in a higher difficulty setting. Awesome.

LASTING APPEAL: With incredible boss battles, a terrific atmosphere and an incredible storyline, Lords of Shadow is a must play for any action/adventure fan. It executes tried formulas effectively and has a clear theme to the game weaved into the music, its look, plot and pace that when you look at the game as a whole after you've finished it you will realize how well done the game is. Two Downloadable Contents will be released early this year that will further enhance the experience, something unthinkable as there is so much already packed in the main game.

LAST THOUGHTS: This is the best action/adventure game of 2010 and probably one that many people stay on the fence over because of the failures of its predecessors but make no mistake, if you have not played this game yet you are missing out on one of the most epic games you will ever play.

I rate it a 9.2 / 10.0