Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

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This is not a game to review until you have completed it. As I moved deeper and deeper into the game, my opinions began to deviate from my first impressions. Many times, it seems that once you play for two to three hours in a game, you get a basis for what the entirity will be like. This is an exception. It's a lengthy game. It's a game that you probably shouldn't take a month long break before picking it back up because it can be difficult. But it's a game that will reward you for playing, by getting better and better until the end.

Graphics:

Backgrounds are stunning. Character models are very detailed as well. Often the game's camera will pan out allowing you to view a large area. This is primarily the platforming portions of the game. But it will definitely cause you to stop and look at the scenery from time to time (especially when you get to the castle). You do not have an option to adjust the camera angle and 80% of the time, you won't need to. However, there are times that you will seemingly be whipping the screen not knowing where the enemies are. And it did cause me to die a few times.

Audio:

Am I playing Lord of the Rings? Most of the tracks made me think that I was in a battle for Middle Earth. The chanting and orchestrated music are very similar to the LotR movies, which may or may not be a good thing. Personally, I felt some of the tracks were way overdone and intensified for no apparent reason. It was especially awkward as I walked through a serene forest with no enemies AT ALL to have the music start blaring, trumpets, choir and all. My heart stopped as I thought I was about to be killed by some unknown demon, but what? Nothing. Must have been the wind. As I progressed through the game, the music toned down and became a bit darker and softer. It became more Castlevania-like, but still not what you might have expected. There are a few Easter Eggs in the game where you will hear some classic 8-bit tracks and those were definitely welcomed. The voice dialogue was well done. Patrick Stewart did a good job narrating and playing the part of Zobek, an ally of yours. Robert Carlyle's (Gabriel) voice sounds Scottish which is cool, but seemed a bit subdued at times. I ended up having to turn the voice tracks up to hear him speak. No spoilers, but the last boss fight and ending's dialogue were top notch. I wanted to beat the last boss twice just to watch the ending again.

Gameplay:

There is a balance between Uncharted-like platforming, Tomb Raider puzzle solving, and fighting a plethora of enemies. There are dozens of types of enemies, ranging from the easy Mummy to towering Titans. There are also two ways to fight in this game. I personally enjoyed the classic whip-slashing action. However, a good bit of the game's bosses involve button timed events, which are fun, but stressful. I died mostly during these fights and a few times, it sent me back to the start of the battle and I was flat out frustrated. The most enjoyable aspects of the game for me involved Uncharted style climbing. It felt just as fluid as Uncharted (with the exception that you can only climb certain things versus virtually everything in Uncharted). Jumping from platform to platform is somewhat flawed and can be irritating, but that is not too often as you are mostly climbing and swinging.

Replay Value:

As you progress in the game, you are rewarded with different abilities. These abilities make replaying one of the games previous levels much easier and fun. There will be items/upgrades that you can't get in your first play through of a level, but after gaining a new ability such as double jump, you realize you can now go back and acquire it. That leads me to how the game is structured. There are twelve chapters in the game, with multiple levels scattered throughout each chapter. You can go back and play any level over again on one of four difficulties. Upon completing a level, you also can go back and beat its trial, which is an added challenge. Try to 110% the game(one thing to note: You can't 110% the game until you beat each level on Paladin (the most difficult) difficulty. However, you can go back and replay the levels on Paladin with your upgrades intact, making it manageable). Konami has also thrown in some Easter Eggs once the final stage is completed as well. You can slightly change the appearance of Gabriel but I won't say how.

Closure:

I was very pleased with Lords of Shadow. I am a Castlevania fan. But I never enjoyed the 3-D games. The N64 and PS2 games were awful to me and pushed me towards having a 2-D bias. However, this game has rebooted the series nicely and has set itself up for a sequel. While the majority of the game is not reminiscent of what we've come to love, nostalgia is still there with one-third of the game being related to the Vampires and the castle (clock-tower, garden maze and all). The new ideas are very welcomed and create a game that is not dependent merely on one's nostalgia, but stands on its own as a fun and exciting action game. Were there times where I was bored? Maybe in the first three chapters. Where there times where I was frustrated? Maybe playing a timed event boss battle for the first time. But was the game fair and balanced? Absolutely. If I were scoring the game, I would give it a 9.5 for a great, 20+ hour action game with a few camera glitches along with some repetitive action scenes and music. A must have for any Castlevania and action game fan. Feel free to ask me any questions, as I am nearly 110% complete with the game.

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I would need to clarify that I am not a long standing franchise enthusiast. My first and only Castlevania aside from this was SoTN. I never held a candle for the Belmont clan (pun intended) or for the franchise, aside from how awesome SoTN was. So in that regard, I am biased.

Moreover, this game is NOT perfect, so let me get the bad out of the way:

1. Camera angles. Very pretty, very engaging, very cinematic. And they have made me die a lot. Reminiscent of the Resident Evil franchise pre-4, and MGS3, static camera angles are...a love it or leave it issue. I like them. But to be honest, they can be a hindrance. Not being able to see a 2 ton Worg about to swipe me out of existence can be a setback.

2. Difficulty curve. I'm playing this on normal (I didn't want to breeze through it, but I didn't want to not get through the game either) and so far, I have lost my cool a few times. I want to call the difficulty curve merciless, but that's unfair. It is steep, though. This game will be quick to punish button mashers. There is an element of strategy in this game, having to switch around strategies according to enemies, cycling through combos, and cycling through shadow or light magic... it keeps you on your toes, and I would daresay that it is a characteristic missing from some of the titles that this game is compared to the most (such as GoW and DMC. This is just my opinion, maybe someone will argue that both franchises do have an element of strategy in their hack and slash, and I totally missed it. I welcome any disputes on the matter)

Those are, to me, the only scratches in an otherwise polished game. And I hesitate to call them a real detraction from this game.

This game is presumably a reboot of the franchise, which works for me, as I never had an attachment to the previously established canon. You are Gabriel Belmont (the name, taken from the hills from his childhood. Bel mont. Had never put those two together) He was an orphan taken in by the Brotherhood of Light, and was married to Maria ( I forget the name now, I hope this is right). Maria was slain, so far in my playthrough, under mysterious circumstances, and so he set forth to exact revenge.

The story set up, I will admit, is a bit shallow. But the game has been accused of being light on story telling. I would have to disagree. That the story telling was relegated to sequences at the beginning and end of each stage is not the most organic way to tell a story is true. But in this particular case, the way the story is woven, namely as a fairy tale of old, I think it works. There is much to be said of the voice acting and narrating on Patrick Stewart's part. At first the story is a bit too ' in medias rex' , but soon enough the blanks are filled out, and the intrigue builds up. I keep hearing the ending is phenomenal. We shall see.

The presentation, I will say, is not pushing any envelopes, but it is setting a mark for what action games can accomplish. The look of the game, albeit not groundbreaking, is simply awe inspiring. I had never seen a prettier snowy medieval landscape. The style and the aesthetic lends itself well to the sort of gothic undertone that always accompanied Castlevania games, but this time, in a grander fashion. The desolate, the desperate, the god forsaken aspect of some of the more European settings is simply entrancing, whereas some of the more fantastic settings, such as enchanted forests, forgotten cities and crypts break up the monotony of just seeing castles and towers for 20 hours without seeming out of place. The rain effects are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. The soundtrack is, I will say, among the best I've ever heard on a game. I don't know who Oscar Araujo is, or what he composed before this track, but he is now on my radar. It has a certain quality that aims for grandiose, while at the same time remaining memorable, and just works so well with the story telling. Fans of the series might be a bit disilussioned, because it's nothing like the Castlevania theme. I've read the original theme is hidden somewhere in the game. Haven't heard it yet.

The voice acting is top notch. I thought Robert Carlyle was a bit of a strange choice for taciturn Gabriel Belmont, but he's grown on me. My main issue was the accent at first. I always thought he should have a French accent, or, I dunno. Mr. Carlyle makes it work though. Patrick Stewart makes game text intended to narrate the bulk of the storyline sing. I have no idea how he does it. Some people are complaining that it's too similar to Oblivion. I don't see it. These samples of acting are better, in my opinion. Jason Isaacs is in the game as well, but I haven't bumped into him yet.

The gameplay itself is the strong suit of this game. The control scheme is one of the best and most intuitive I've yet to find on an action game. I wondered if they would do this thing where you can control the whip with one analog stick, but that would lend itself to disaster, in hindsight. Mercurysteam made it simple: jump, area attack, direct attack, secondary weapon. Done. It seems restrictive, but I assure you...there's something about less is more, that just makes this set up wow you. The camera will sometimes work against you (happens to me anyway) when trying to time a block for a parry, but other than that, the control is great, and the whip mechanics are pretty much near-perfect. The whip is a seriously underrated weapon in video games. Seriously.

A lot of people are, again, comparing the action to GoW or to DMC. Back when Dante's Inferno came out, I played the demo first, and did not enjoy it, precisely because it felt like GoW: Renaissance style, and I couldn't shake that feeling that the game was so similar. I will admit that there ARE similarities, but the way the similarities are implemented just keeps the game feeling fresh: in GoW, you will fight multitudes of enemies at once, or a reduced number of stronger enemies at the same time, and depend a lot on dodging out of the way, and blocking in time, and absolutely brutal chain combos. Kratos is just set up that way, with the ability to keep hitting enemies throughout hundreds of hits. The chains, even though in principle are whiplike, in a sense Gabriel however will be confronted more often than not against enemies that will require more reaction than proaction I think in a sense this sets it apart, a BIT, from GoW. The platform actions of the game are somewhat less polished than the fighting, but the game never really veers into parkour action, and it is being compared more to Uncharted. I can see the similarities there, save for the presence of the whip which put Gabriel in far more acrobatic situations than Nathan Drake. Eventually you start acquiring new abilities (such as the ability to dash, and thus, do a long jump) which will break those similarities up somewhat. Some of the boss fights are comparable to Shadow of the Colossus. These are very similar, I can't say that there's something that sets Castlevania apart, save for the use of the whip to scale up the titanic bosses, but the similarity is not a bad one, in my opinion: Shadow of the Colossus was a great game, and I don't think that its brand of action had ever been repeated to say that now that Castlevania made use of the similar sequences is cliche.

Overall, this game might be a sum of other action games, and in a way, it's true. The parts that are being summed up into this game however, do not feel segmented (ie, I never felt " oh, now I'm playing Uncharted, oh, now it's Shadow of the Colossus). It always feels like playing Castlevania, and the feeling is quite epic.

Buy Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Now

So far this game has caught me off guard. This is not an exact clone of "God of War." Although the gameplay is very similar, the style and atmosphere are completely different. Rather than greek mythology you have gothic monsters and settings. I'm personally enjoying this more so than I did "God of War." I like the werewolves, vampires, and ghouls much more than I like medusas, cyclops, and cerebus. Also, so far this game seems to be more difficult than the "God of War" series. You really have to make use of that dodge button. But as one reviewer already said, don't worry it's not nearly as difficult as "Demon's Souls." I'll be updating this review once I finish the game. But so far I will say that it's turning out to be a great game. Easily as good (if not better)as god of war.

Oh yeah, and don't listen to those couple review websites who gave this game a 7.5 out of 10. So far I'm saying this game deserves no less than an 8.8 out of 10, although by the time I'm finished I'm betting that I'll feel it deserves a 9.5 out of 10. Yeah its gameplay is similar to god of war, but what game doesn't draw inspiration from other games? Practially all FPS games are alike, but you don't here people crying and complaining every time a new one comes out... do you? And practically all sandbox games are similar to the GTA series, but once again no one seems to care. Castlevania is doing nothing different here. They are using a winning formula (God of war) and improving on it. Just like "Halo" used the exact same first person perspective from "Doom" but made improvements on it. Bottom line is we can't expect every new game to reinvent the genre. Ok enough of the preaching. Anyways, so far I recommend this game to anyone looking for a gothic adventure.

****UPDATE: I wanted to share more of my feelings about this game now that I've progressed a bit further. I'm now beginning the 4th chapter (I know it's not that far, but I'm in college full-time and I'm busy with work). This game has me hooked so far. Amazing boss battles (and lots of them), great soudtrack, awesome action gameplay, it's all just great. I've just finished the land of lycans (werewolves) and now I'm heading into the land of vampires... very excited! This is one of the best games to come out for a while. If you like action games and gothic themes then you owe it to yourself to pick this one up, it's amazing so far. I will conclude this review once I finish the game (not sure when that will be since I'm so tied up with school, I hardly have time to play).

********Review Conclusion: Ok I have just completely finished this game. Castlevania LOS was a great experience all around. I would personally rate this game a 9.2 out of 10. It has a good blend of action, puzzle, and platformer. There are tons of different monsters to fight in this game, extremely varied. I don't think I've ever played a game with so many boss fights. The music here is beautiful, and at times I stopped playing just to listen to it. This game really does feel epic, and Gabriel Belmont is a character that I was rooting for the entire time. Also, I wanted to remind you that if you play this game make sure that you wait for the credits to roll when you beat it. After the credits are done rolling you get a good idea of what the sequel will be like (and it's going to be pretty crazy). Now I can hardly wait for the next Castlevania game.

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Castlevania Lords of Shadow is simply put not a Castlevania game. Yes there are nods to the previous series but this is a reboot not a sequel. That shouldn't scare anyone away though as this is a great albeit flawed beginning to a new saga.

First we'll start off with the presentation. The graphics and music are top notch. The diverse and beautiful environments look amazing. The graphics are only topped by the sweeping musical score that adds a lot of intensity to the action. There is however one complaint that I have in this department and that is Patrick Stewart. I love him as an actor but he added way too much drama to his character and it was way too over the top. I hope that he can redeem himself if he is in any more games in the franchise.

The gameplay overall is solid. Yes it does play like a God of War clone but the core combat is without complaint. You unlock new powers and combos as the game progresses to keep your interest in the combat. Though it does lack variety the first few hours as the game developers kept most of the cool weapons and combos for later in the game. You have two rage modes that can be used at any time and are replenished by killing multiple enemies in a row without being hit. One of them fills your health bar with ever crack of your chains and the other simply does more damage.

Another main part of the game play is platforming. The game seems to copy Uncharted here and does it pretty well. Yes there are times when you don't know where to jump to and others when you can't seem to land on a platform correctly. These times are not that frequent but the platforming is certainly not that responsive or intuitive at times.

The Boss battles while epic are mostly your run of the mill block, dodge, and counter attack type of gameplay. If you think that sounds bad wait until you hear what the other type is. There are four or five bosses that require you to crawl on them and hit critical areas to take them down. Now this is pretty common in GOW style games but the enemies shake ever ten seconds and you have to hold the R2 button to stop from falling off. It gets really frustrating when you have almost beaten a boss just for them to knock you off and you have to do that last part over again.

The puzzles in the game range from fun and challenging to ridiculously hard. I had to look up a few myself and I normally stay away from walkthrough guides. Sometimes they simply don't give you enough information to complete the puzzle unless you use trial and error. In the end most of the puzzles feel like a road block instead of a fun distraction.

The final piece of the puzzle is the story. The game comes out of the gate quickly and you invest in Gabriel's plights, but then after the first few hours the story really drops off and not much character development is made until the final chapter. When I read about this game I thought this was going to be its strength but it turns out to be its biggest weakness. Yes I loved the ending and I wanted more after the game was over but the middle section of the game was downright boring at times and I had trouble keeping interest. As a result Gabriel was not really that developed as a protagonist, and I hope that they change that in future installments.

Overall Lords of Shadow was a fun 15 hour campaign, but it also left a lot to be desired. The story was never really that strong and the game play was not brilliant or original enough to completely save the game. If you like GOW or hack and slash type games then pick this one up when the price goes down. It is a fun game but without a story to keep you hooked I had trouble staying interested.

Rating 3.5/5

Want Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Discount?

What is supposed to be a reboot of the beloved Castlevania series will leave fans confused and maybe a little angry. Disguised under the Castlevania title is a different game entirely. Lords of Shadow doesn't feature any of the common gameplay mechanics or a story you would expect from this series. What you will find is a decent action adventure game with beautiful visuals and a generic storyline.

Lords of Shadow introduces Gabriel Belmont, a member of the holy order known as "the Brotherhood of Light." The Brotherhood are sworn to protect the innocent from an evil darkness that is a constant threat to the world. Gabriel sets out to destroy this evil, but also has a more personal missionto kill the ones responsible for the death of his lover (where have we heard this before?).

After about five minutes of this game you will no doubt ask yourself "Where the hell is the castle?!" Well, there isn't one till the very end!!. Lords of Shadow is set in an open world environment with level to level progression and doesn't allow a free roam map exploration (Metriodvania) like previous games in the series. The game does encourage backtracking to reach previous unreachable items once you upgrade your skills, but I found the benefits of doing so are not worth the time.

If you've played any of the God of War titles, the fighting mechanics are more or less the same. Gabriel is equipped with a chained cross weapon that will extend with light and heavy attacks. Killing creatures will gain you experience points used to unlock new weapon upgrades, combos and magic abilities. Even with all the combos unlocked, I found the best way to kill mini bosses and small creatures is by spamming light and heavy attacks while using the roll ability to evade enemies. The magic system is broken down into light and dark magic, with light magic being heals and dark increasing your melee damage.

Marlyn Manson?

Boss encounters vary some are extremely fun and others are just stale. This game features a lot of mini boss encounters in which you must use the environment around you to defeat them. Bigger bosses (just like Shadow of the Colossus) have you climbing around to hit weak spots on their body while they try to shake you off. These fights would have been more exciting if we hadn't experienced similar encounters in so many other games. I was also very disappointed with the last boss, SATAN! Not only was it not Dracula, but I couldn't help but laugh that he looks like a singer in a heavy metal band that isn't wearing any clothes!

Lords of Shadow features some of the best graphics I've seen in any game. Developers did a spectacular job creating a dark environment with such high level of detail. Each level will feel entirely different from the last, ensuring your eyes wont be bored through level progression. In addition, climbing on walls and using your cross as a grappling hook was an enjoyable addition to the game, this really made me appreciate the level design and architecture used in each level.

Captain Jean Luc Picard

Lets not forget the appearance of Patrick Stewart as Zobek, Gabriel's Brotherhood companion who is also the narrator though the game. Stewart does a great job with the narration but gets a little melodramatic with his acting.

If you're a fan of the old Castlevania titles, I wouldn't suggest this game. You wont find anything related to the franchise other than the games title and the family name Belmont. I would suggest this title if you enjoy action adventure games such as God of War or Shadow of the Colossus. What this game really lacks is identity. Developers did a great job with level and graphic design but failed to take any innovative steps with the gameplay. Castlevanias' 3D titles have been severely lacking. I hope in the next installment they go back to the 2D landscape with castle exploration that made the original Castlevania what it is todaya CLASSIC.

Presentation: 7

Not associated with other installments of the franchise but a fun action adventure title.

Graphics: 9

Stunning visuals with some frame rate hiccups.

Sound : 7

A great performance by Patrick Stewart but a little too melodramatic.

Gameplay: 6

God of War gameplay with Shadow of the Colossus Boss fights.

Lasting Appeal: 7

A very long game that encourages backtracking for unlockable treasures.

Violent Score: 7 (out of 10)

more over yonder.