Castlevania: Lords of Shadow review

Ever since I saw a preview for this game roughly a year and a half ago, I had been extremely excited to see the Castlevania franchise make a proper leap into the 3D realm on the newest generation of consoles. Sure, there were the N64 games and the PS2 games, but none of them were overwhelmingly praised. I've noticed that this game has also received mixed reviews, ranging from some mediocre to "one of the best games of the year." Without question, I fall into the latter category, as I had a blast with this game. It was well worth the wait.

The game has been aptly described as a mix of different popular genres. There is God of War style combat, Tomb Raider/Uncharted platforming, and Shadow of the Colossus type boss battles. While it does borrow from these games, developer MercurySteam has added enough to make the game seem like its own thing and I think that it all flows together really well. I should be able to incorporate everything else into the Like and Dislike sections, so here it goes....

LIKE

-The story. Apparently, this game is a complete reboot and has nothing to do with the timeline and events from past Castlevania games. However, you do play as Gabriel Belmont, member of the Brotherhood of Light and possibly the ancestor of the other vampire hunters in the series (Simon Belmont, Trevor Belmont, and Richter Belmont). Gabriel's wife has been mysteriously murdered, he hears about a magical device that can bring her back from the dead, so he sets out to find it and bring her back. There's a lot more going on and it's pretty engaging, but I'll just keep it at that to avoid spoilers.

-The game structure. You see a world map with 12 different chapters on it. Each chapter is divided into anywhere from 1-8 stages. After you complete each stage, it unlocks a "trial" for that stage that you can go back and play immediately for bonus XP and ultimately achievements, if you so choose. I really like this, as it adds a level of challenge and replayability to the game. Also, there are three different color gems to collect, which extend your Life bar, Light magic bar, and Shadow magic bar. There are also Brotherhood arks to find, which supply you with weapon upgrades. Sometimes you can't collect everything on your first playthrough because you won't have the skills to reach a certain point, which I why I really like the fact that you can go back to any level at any time.

-The movement. Analog controls. Slightly tip the control stick to walk, full tilt to run. Take note, Rockstar.

-The combat. What seems to be pretty standard button mashing at first soon becomes a combat system unlike anything I've played before. You can roll (and it's a much smoother roll than the God of War roll, thank goodness), block, counter, direct attacks (strong) and area attacks (weak). Then they add in the Light and Shadow magic. Activate light magic and every hit you land on an enemy will refill part of your life meter and drain your Light magic meter. This is extremely important due to the fact that this is the only way you can refill life other than finding a VERY rare healing fountain. Conversely, activate shadow magic and it boosts your attack as well as adding a few more combo choices for more damage, while draining your Shadow magic meter. You can refill your Magic meters at Orb fountains (much more common than healing fountains) or by absorbing out of the air after killing enemies. There's one final meter (the Focus meter) that fills up as long as you're landing hits on enemies and not taking any hits. When you fill the Focus meter, every hit you land puts out a TON of neutral orbs. What this all means is that you have to manage your focus meter and magic meters wisely instead of just button mashing or else you will be in a world of hurt and frustration. Got all that? It's quite deep and challenging and takes some getting used to, but very satisfying and I think it really sets the game apart from others in the genre.

-The weapons. Instead of a plain old whip, you have a Combat Cross. It's basically a stake shaped like a cross with an extending whip. You get multiple upgrades which let you stab enemies and rappel from walls. You can buy different combinations for more devastating attacks, but you honestly rarely get to use the huge combos, because you'll get hit before you can complete it. Secondary weapons include silver daggers (great for werewolves and flying enemies), holy water (for vampires), fairies (which hold enemies still so you can really pummel them good) and crystals that summon some weird-looking dragon lady that does uber damage to everyone on screen.

-Game length and difficulty. The game is quite long. I don't know exactly but I would put it at 20 hours, which is HUGE (almost unheard of) for a game like this (12.7 GB and 2 discs on the 360). It's also quite difficult in the combat. Guys gang up on you and it can be tough sometimes. You just have to make good use of your secondary weapons and magic, though, to succeed.

-The voice acting. Patrick Stewart does most of the talking through narration and he does well. He starts to ham it up towards the end, but I didn't mind. Robert Carlyle voices Gabriel and he doesn't have too many lines, but I really enjoyed him. Also, the bellows that come from Gabriel in combat are very cool.

-The graphics and multitude of settings. Holy insanely gorgeous game, Batman. You traverse all kinds of terrain in this game, from a rain-soaked village, to Pan's forest hideout, to a mucky swamp, mountain passageways, abandoned castles, not-so-abandoned castles, Frankenstein's lab, a clocktower (of course), and a desert wasteland. At one point, you even get shrunk and run around inside a music box. And everything looks astounding. At certain points, the camera will zoom out (the camera is 100% controlled by the game) to show you just how epic it all is.

-Platforming. I really enjoyed rappeling all over stuff and jumping around on the sides of mountains, fortresses, etc. The game makes it easy to figure out where to go by highlighting ledges you can climb on. Rappel points also glimmer a bright blue. I also liked the fact that instead of having to hold the control stick away from an opposite wall, the game would have you lean back automatically to let you know that there's actually something you can grab onto instead of just jumping to your death. I enjoyed these sections because they break up the combat and puzzle sections.

-Enemies and bosses. Enemies are quite varied and you never have to fight any one type for too long. Each time you enter a new area, you'll get a new set of baddies to deal with. Sometimes you'll have to ride on bigger enemies like spiders or trolls to smash obstacles, too. I really appreciate the fact that this game doesn't do that thing that many games like this do when they have a boss, and then in the next stage start throwing that boss character at you as a normal bad guy. Bosses are bosses. I love how they also refrained from having those really annoying boss fights where you have to fight 20 smaller guys at the same time as the boss. There are a few bosses where this does happen, but they don't make the smaller guys annoyingly difficult. I really like the end-boss cutscenes. They are appropriately gory and satisfying (but especially the Vampire lord death). There are some Titan battles, too, and these are sweet. Climb up on them and hit certain parts of their body to topple them. Hold the right trigger to keep from getting knocked off. Lots of fun, especially for me since I've never played Shadow of the Colossus. The third Titan battle is ESPECIALLY awesome.

-Gabriel's expressions. Every so often, you'll be in the middle of a fight and Gabriel will notice something about the environment or enemy and it will show his face with an expression like, "I know something you don't know." The best was during a boss fight where you have your whip wrapped around a guy's sword. You're having a tug of war for a few seconds, then you see that look on the hero's face as he lets go of the whip, which causes the other dude to stab himself in the face with his own sword. Sweet.

-QTEs. Unlike other games, instead of having you hit one of the 4 face buttons randomly for QTEs, this game handles them by having a big white circle shrinking into a smaller white circle. As soon as the bigger circle shrinks into the smaller circle, hit any button to nail that QTE. I much prefer this as it just cuts down on frustration. The big circle also shrinks at different speeds, so it's not a complete breeze.

-and finally.....the ENDING! After being highly disappointed with God of War III's story and ending, and Bayonetta's nonsense plot, this was a breath of fresh air. I was genuinely surprised by a few things at the end, specifically the post-credits sequence which sets up future games in the series (it's confirmed: MercurySteam is already working on a sequel, YES!). I'm having trouble interpreting what I saw but I've read a few and there is one explanation that I would really like. I'm very curious to see where they go with this. This surprise ending is the one part of the game where I felt Hideo Kojima's presence. Let's just hope they have a RATIONAL explanation for this ending instead of making things all insane and nonsensical like Metal Gear.


DISLIKE

-Honestly, I've thought about it and there wasn't really anything I disliked, but I was let down by a couple things, so here they are.

-The music is not quite as great as I had hoped. That's not to say it's bad AT ALL (it's really quite well done), but previous Castlevania games have some of the best music in the industry in my opinion and there was nothing here that REALLY blew me away.

-The clocktower stage was a little short and easy. Typically the clocktower is brutally difficult.

-The puzzles. Again, I didn't dislike them, but they were just kinda so-so. A necessary part of the game to break up the platforming and combat, though.

-The camera can cause you to run in the wrong direction occasionally. What I mean is that when the camera changes angles, you'll often have to let off the stick completely and pick a new direction instead of just shifting your direction. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I don't know how else to explain.

-During the Titans, the framerate drops slightly, but other than that, I never noticed any problem in this department.

CONCLUSION

Obviously, I really dig this game. Very satisfying from start to finish. I would probably give this my Game of the Year award at this point. It was well worth the wait and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes AWESOME SAUCE!!!!