Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was released in 2010 and was developed by Spanish studio MercurySteam, who made Clive Barker's Jericho, as well as having assistance from Kojima Productions. Don't worry, while Kojima was an advisor, we won't be seeing any Belmonts hiding in boxes. The game is on Xbox 360 and PS3 and I played the former version. Only thing to note about the two versions is that the PS3 is one bluray disk while the 360 is two DVDs, but that's the only difference really.
Now if I were to bluntly summarise the game, it would be this: it's a God of War clone.
Sackboy Kratos does not approve of imitators
However, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Despite the fact that this game borrows quite a lot from games like God and War and others, I still enjoyed the game for what it was, a hack and slash action adventure set in the Gothic horror setting of Castlevania. You play as Gabriel Belmont, a member of an order called the Brotherhood of Light, who's on a quest to stop the Lords of Shadow (title drop!) from doing their evil things, but more importantly to Gabriel, to get revenge and claim a power that can supposedly resurrect his murdered wife, Marie.
If you're wondering where this game fits in the chronology of Castlevania series, it actually doesn't. You see, Lords of Shadow is actually a reboot of Castlevania, not unlike the slew of rebooted things lately like DC comics, the upcoming Spiderman movie, the new Star Trek movies, Devil May Cry, Tomb Raider, etc. And the upcoming sequel and 3DS game continues this new timeline.
Nostalgia in early CGI format
I personally don't mind that the Castlevania series is being rebooted, as it presents new ideas and concepts for the series. Besides, the old games aren't going anywhere and I think they were starting to run out of dates for Dracula to come back to the point the had games take place in the near future.
So anyway, gameplay....it's a lot like God of War...okay, there is a bit more to it than that and I'll try and refrain from mentioning similarities too much...but it won't easy. Gabriel uses a combat cross, which is basically a cross with a chain whip. You do two main types of attack with it, standard direct attacks with the X button and sweeping area attacks with the Y button. There are different attack combos you can perform as well as purchasing new attack combos with experience points accumulated from killing enemies kind of like God or Wa- er, sorry, looks like I'm already falling into that.
Gabriel's combat cross can also be used to grab smaller enemies as well as latch onto prompted things to climb up/down walls and even swing across gaps similar to Super Castlevania IV. In addition to the combat cross, Gabriel acquires items along the way. Such as sub-weapons like the familiar daggers and holy water and new sub-weapons faeries, which distract enemies, and the crystal, a one time use item that unleashes a demon that obliterates everything nearby. There are also relics and upgrades Gabriel gets that allows him new abilities to progress, sort of like the metroid style Castlevania games. Some of these include a gauntlet that allows you to punch and move certain objects, an ungraded chain for your whip that "saws" and destroys certain statues blocking your path, and boots that let you dash and jump over gaps.
Another key part of the combat is the magic system, which there are two types of to use. Light and dark, which are activated by the left and right bumpers respectively. Light magic makes Gabriel glow blue and heals him with each hit you make on enemies while dark magic glows red and does more damage. The game is pretty centered around the duality theme of light and dark and there attack combos you can do with them such as blinding enemies with a bright cross or spewing hellfire at the cost of more magic, making it quite diverse. You replenish magic by clicking the sticks (again with the left and right correspondence) and drawing in magic essence that you get at certain statues or left behind by enemies. Speaking of which, as you fight without taking a hit, a gauge will start to fill at the bottom, and when it's full, foes will drop essence with each hit until you get hit. It's a nice risk reward system that encourages you to be skillful, especially when blocking and counter attacking at the right time and doing heavy attacks increases the gauge faster.
The rest of you gameplay is pretty standard of games of this nature, but there are still a few things worth mentioning. While the game does use context sensitive and quick time events (surprise, surprise), it is done a bit different. Most of these usually have two white rings appear and you can just hit any button to your liking when one is over the other to do it. These usually appear when you grab small enemies, perform finishers, and during cutscenes with bosses. There are also button mashing prompts that randomly choose between the four face buttons, which is more conventional, but overall I didn't think the QTE's in this game weren't badly executed or over bearing.
In addition to brutally finishing off deadly creatures, some larger ones in certain stages you can weaken and even mount them, destroying enemies and obstacles in order to proceed (in before God of War did it first). These include giant trolls, warthogs, werewolves, and even spiders. Those with Arachnophobia may not like the idea of the last one.
Gabriel's combat cross can also be used to grab smaller enemies as well as latch onto prompted things to climb up/down walls and even swing across gaps similar to Super Castlevania IV. In addition to the combat cross, Gabriel acquires items along the way. Such as sub-weapons like the familiar daggers and holy water and new sub-weapons faeries, which distract enemies, and the crystal, a one time use item that unleashes a demon that obliterates everything nearby. There are also relics and upgrades Gabriel gets that allows him new abilities to progress, sort of like the metroid style Castlevania games. Some of these include a gauntlet that allows you to punch and move certain objects, an ungraded chain for your whip that "saws" and destroys certain statues blocking your path, and boots that let you dash and jump over gaps.
Simon Belmont would be proud
Another key part of the combat is the magic system, which there are two types of to use. Light and dark, which are activated by the left and right bumpers respectively. Light magic makes Gabriel glow blue and heals him with each hit you make on enemies while dark magic glows red and does more damage. The game is pretty centered around the duality theme of light and dark and there attack combos you can do with them such as blinding enemies with a bright cross or spewing hellfire at the cost of more magic, making it quite diverse. You replenish magic by clicking the sticks (again with the left and right correspondence) and drawing in magic essence that you get at certain statues or left behind by enemies. Speaking of which, as you fight without taking a hit, a gauge will start to fill at the bottom, and when it's full, foes will drop essence with each hit until you get hit. It's a nice risk reward system that encourages you to be skillful, especially when blocking and counter attacking at the right time and doing heavy attacks increases the gauge faster.
The rest of you gameplay is pretty standard of games of this nature, but there are still a few things worth mentioning. While the game does use context sensitive and quick time events (surprise, surprise), it is done a bit different. Most of these usually have two white rings appear and you can just hit any button to your liking when one is over the other to do it. These usually appear when you grab small enemies, perform finishers, and during cutscenes with bosses. There are also button mashing prompts that randomly choose between the four face buttons, which is more conventional, but overall I didn't think the QTE's in this game weren't badly executed or over bearing.
In addition to brutally finishing off deadly creatures, some larger ones in certain stages you can weaken and even mount them, destroying enemies and obstacles in order to proceed (in before God of War did it first). These include giant trolls, warthogs, werewolves, and even spiders. Those with Arachnophobia may not like the idea of the last one.
Not for the faint of heart...or if you just don't like spiders.
As for how it all plays out and controls, I'd say it's good. If you are familiar and enjoy games like God of War, then you should feel pretty comfortable here. The level design is mostly linear with a few hidden nooks with fallen Brotherhood soldiers to get information scrolls and health and magic upgrade pieces, which five are needed to increase them.
There is also no camera control in the game, which is par for the course of games like this naturally. Thankfully it's done well enough, though the odd occasion it did abruptly change on me in certain spots, making things a bit disoriented, but overall, I was able to see what I was doing just fine. The game also helps out by making ledges and things to interact glow, making things like where to go easy to find. A good part of the game is platforming, staying true to castlevania, but most of it is just climbing around and up ledges like Nathan Drake while sometimes using your whip to climb, repel down, or to just jump off and reach and another latchable ledge. These sections do control well enough, but may be a bit too inspired by other games, especially when Gabriel has to walk and balance over narrow walkways or support beams without losing his balance and falling off. Thankfully those sections don't show up that often and don't feel too tedious.
Dear developers: The main God of War series stopped doing this, there is no need to
do this anymore, they're not all that fun.
-Sincerely, Gamers.
There are also area puzzles to solve to help spice things up and not make the game one big repetitive hack and slash fest. These usually range from activating plates with combinations of light and dark magic and moving mirrors to reflect beams of light just to name of couple of examples. Most of them are pretty conventional and can be solved through enough trial and error though, but the creativity behind some of them is interesting enough. What's also interesting is that you can find a dead soldier scroll near these puzzles that, while already give you hints, gives you the option to reveal the solution to you. The only catch being that if you get the solution, you won't get any exp. reward for it. I guess it is a considerable option if you get stuck and just want to move on...or you could just use Gamefaqs...whatever.
But even if you decide to skip ahead, the game is still fairly long. The game is twelve chapters long, which each having anywhere from one to eight stages. Which is the main reason why the 360 version is two disks, so at least the adventure isn't short and at the same time didn't feel too long and dragged out for me. The diversity of the stages and areas also helped with minimizing the feeling of repetition.
One final thing to mention about the gameplay is a certain boss type you face. While most bosses you face are what you expect, and are done well, but there are giant bosses that you have to climb on and hit glowing weak spots all the while pressing the right trigger now and then when prompted to hold on when they try and shake you off. For those of you that played a certain Playstation 2 game, this should sound familiar...
Shadow of the Colossus bird also doesn't approve of imitators
But like I said earlier when I explained this game was a God of War clone, it's not really bad. These fights are definitely inspired by Shadow of Colossus, but does this it it's own way and are mostly just Uncharted climb to weak point and use chain whip when something glows. Besides, there are only three of these fights in the entire game, so they don't overdo it.
While the game may be a bit too influenced by God of War/Uncharted/Shadow of the Colossus for it's own good despite still being a solid game, the best thing I can say by far is the presentation. The graphics are probably some of the best I've seen this generation and at the very least, in the top best looking games of 2010. It makes me appreciate my HDTV I got last Christmas even more. Not only does the game technical wise look great, with gorgeous varied areas and cut scenes being in-game, but the art style is a very appropriate dark Gothic style that fits very fell with the game. I know graphics aren't everything in a game, but this game looks really good.
Hang on, jaw fell on the floor, give me a minute
The music is a very nicely done orchestral soundtrack with sound effects being satisfying as well. Voice acting is well done too as the roster is quite talented. Gabriel Belmont is voiced by Robert Carlyle, who does a good job making Gabriel a weary, but determined protagonist. The rest of the cast of characters and villains you come across are good too, but the best is Sir Patrick Stewart as Zobek, an older member of the Order, who not only is a key character in the game, but narrates the story from his character's perspective before each stage. And really, even though I will admit to be a Patrick Stewart fanboy, him being in the game is awesome.
The said initial story is pretty serviceable, with the aforementioned narrated story and cut scenes not dragging out too long...but gets a bit strange at the very end. I won't spoil what happens, but it has definitely left a "WTF" moment for fans and me a bit confused as well. Perhaps the sequels will shed a bit more light on why, but until then, the epilogue is one of the more confusing twists I've seen in a game ending.
So with everything that I can think of said, do I recommend this game if you like Castlevania? Sure, but just be prepared that this game is heavily influenced by the likes of God of War for it's combat, Uncharted for it's climbing, and Shadow of the Colossus for it's clinging onto giant boss fights. It's not an amazing game because of it's lack of innovation, but still a solid game and is beautiful to look at. Also, Patrick Stewart.
Patrick Stewart is in this game, your argument is invalid
Besides, if you think about it, this isn't the only Castlevania game that borrows from other games, Symphony of the Night took from Super Metroid and Lament of Innocence took from Devil May Cry. As long as I still enjoy a game, I don't mind copy-cat games too much. I would rather have a well done clone than a blatantly lazily made one. That, and I would gladly play this over Judgment. I still have a "sacred gift" to give you in the face Maria...and by sacred gift, I mean punch.
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