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Generally favorable reviews - based on 62 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 262 Ratings

  • Summary: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow takes place at the end of days. The Earth's alliance with the Heavens has been threatened by a dark and malevolent force - the mysterious Lords of Shadow - darkness reins the world. Across this shattered land, the souls of the dead wander unable to find peace, whilst creatures of evil roam free wreaking chaos and death upon the living. Gabriel is a member of the Brotherhood of Light, an elite group of holy knights who protect and defend the innocent against the supernatural. His beloved wife was brutally murdered by the evil forces of darkness and her soul trapped for eternity. Neither living nor dead she realizes the horrific truth of what is at stake and guides Gabriel to his destiny - and hopefully salvation for the world... but at what cost? Thus, Gabriel must travel the destroyed world, defeating the evil tyrants in order to use their powers to bring balance back to the world. Armed with the versatile Combat Cross - the world's last hope must encounter the three factions of the Lords of Shadow and end their unholy rule. Mercury Steam has created a rich, open game world that traverses snowy mountain ranges, Gothic castles, and undead-strewn wastelands in a devastated Southern Europe during the Middle Ages. [Konami] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 60 out of 62
  2. Negative: 0 out of 62
  1. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a profoundly generous action-adventure game. Filled with content, gifts for fans of the series, but for video game lovers as well. It's full of nods to other games and movies, rich with a large variety of gameplays and lush environments... blessed with an overall Castlevania feel, which is a consistent mark of respect for its forebears. Kudos to Mercury Steam. Despite some rare issues with some gameplay tunings, we can only hope for them to meet the success they deserve as we'd welcome a follow-up!
  2. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is konami's first successful attempt to bring the legendary series into the third dimension. A great atmosphere meets gameplay in the mold of God of War. Only a few faults like a confusing camera and an uneven upgrade system hamper the fun. Lords of Shadow is a great restart for the vampire saga and has sleeper hit written all over it.
  3. Jan 16, 2011
    85
    Fabulous action game with nice riddles and cool fights, but with lacks in camera perspectives.
  4. Oct 25, 2010
    60
    Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a great amalgamation of the genres and games it combines. It makes sure they all come together effortlessly, but it never really owns the gameplay it borrows. It's a fun game, but not a revolution.

See all 62 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 77 out of 86
  2. Negative: 5 out of 86
  1. 9
    It must be stated this genre isnt for everyone. If you hate button mashers that could potentialy cause sore digits through pure button mashing mayhem then this game you should give a wide birth. I hate first person shooters, they last about 4 hours in a single player campaign and to me that is a complete waste of money. games like call of duty and whatnot. I also dislike fighting games like streetfighter where after about 10 minutes its just a huge repeat snorefest. Thats me though, others may think their the best things since sliced bread.
    Ok now that that is over this game is awesome, i love this genre- gow series gives me palputations, and even the dante's inferno, although not of the same calibure is still thoroughly enjoyable. Even conan which was a poor poor mans gow i liked even through its many flaws

    gow fans will thoroughly enjoy this one, im a huge kratos fan but i have to say that gabriel is certainly a new contender on the block. No its not original, it has more of a platformy feel than gow- a love child as the result of a gangbang that involved of gow, prince of persia and uncharted. die hard fans of this franchise may gripe about continuity or story - i wouldnt know as ive never played any prior but heres what i think...............
    The graphics arent on par with gow, close, the scenery is very beatiful but the models arent nearly as polished, more puzzles though, which is awesome, i like a little challenge or two thrown in where you have to use that brain, between the button mashing mutilation. The light/dark magic combo and implammentation and refined qte events is where castelvania pulls out of gow's shadow, if ever so slightly in an attempt to take this genre in a new direction and it does work, its fresh. the qte events are simplified- any button will do but theres still a timer, and i do think it works better than gow's. gow is undoubtanbly awesome but there was so much more that could have been added to it to tie up loose ends, where was acchilies, ajax and the last gorgon sister, and apollo and the other titans? they could have added much needed dlc to perfect the game., especially as it was supposed to be the finale.

    Castelvania surpasses gow in terms of content and the ability to revisit earlier levels and castelvania has room to expand now upon a sequel, it has its little gliches, the occaisonal freeze, or occaisonal issue where gabriel might get temporarily stuck and theres loading times which gow 3 nipped in the budd but the story i really got roped into- a nice twist on the usual mythos about creatures that go bomp in the night, yes it's borrowed allot from gow but gow borrowed stuff from dantes inferno and shadow of the collosus- gow done for this genre what wow did for mmo's, these titles werent original themselves but created a mould or benchmark for what works and what doesnt in a certain genre and castelvania shouldnt be chastised for using a formula that works and from what i can see the little innovations they have made have worked

    all in all i'd say i give this a 9 a superb game gow 3 should have been this long, especially as it was the end of gow3. Cant wait for dlc and the next castelvania game
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  2. I rented the PS3 and this game for four days and got through 80% of it before having to return it. This game has the best graphics I've ever seen in a video game, and it really sets the mood. The combat can be quite fun in parts, and it sends your character through all sorts of jaw dropping climbs and amazing fights. Unfortunately, it departs from the Castlevania mold and there will be parts where you will be asking why this is in a Castlevania game. Some parts are needlessly frustrating and the controls are somewhat lacking, with needless emphasis on QTE and button combinations. It makes me miss the simple and intuitive controls of Castlevania IV on the SNES. Still, overall a good effort. Expand
  3. This game was okay, would have been awesome if it was open world and could rotate the camera, I love dracula though, so I enjoyed it.
  4. Anyone who says this is Castlevania has clearly never played any other Castlevania games. Yes, it's a "reboot" (which is a huge cop-out in itself) but that aside: 1. Soundtrack - Castlevania songs are famously upbeat and orginal, blending rock/pop with gothic feel. This game goes for bland symphony which is indistinguishable from any other average medieval themed game. 2. Atmosphere - Aside from the Vampire level which was quite well done (duh) the feel was more like Darksiders than CV. A great example of lack of atmosphere is how they reference God and Satan, ok so they are embracing the christian mythos like previous CV games, but there is a total lack of crosses and christian imagery - instead is "Agharta" a weird city with a blend of Mayan/Egyptian/European feel that supposedly existed before Europe. Another example is "the Brotherhood of Light"? C'mon what a generic vague and lame concept. Also the guy helping you is "Pan" - why not an angel? Also where is this all happening? It supposed to be "southern europe" if you believe the reviews but the map is a big island - definetly not Romania/Transylvania. Again all these countless little things add up to a generic fantasy game - maybe even you like it - but it's not CV. 3. The Gameplay - Everyone already pointed out the rip from other games but how about the fact it's too easy? Platforms are obvious one ways, dying restarts you where you fell, the advanced moves are varied but completely unnecessary to win in combat, the puzzles are simple and obvious (in fact you can cheat at the expense of exp. points used to buy the worthless advanced moves.)
    4. The Ending - I won't spoil it but it makes zero sense. A total letdown.
    Conclusion: I have to assume this is all happening because Konami and their Metal Gear crew are full of ego - more obsessed with creating superfically epic games than tightly wound stories with deep gameplay that fits into the pre-existing universe that fans have come to love and want to revisit.
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See all 86 User Reviews