1. Sandrick

   10

   I absolutely love this game. It builds upon the story and tension beautifully by weaving elements of many of today's best blockbuster games into the age old tapestry that is Castlevania mythos. At first, I was a little dismayed that it didn't "feel" like that old Castlevania that I was used to, but this is EXACTLY what the franchise needed. Let's face it, the Symphony of the Night clones on the DS were not breaking any new ground and the other recent forays into 3d Castlevania have been pretty sub-par. As a die hard old school Castlevania fan, even I had to admit... Castlevania had gotten stale. This game blew me away. Not only does it continually build up towards an amazing ending, but you truly feel like you are on a journey. It is a very atmospheric and gorgeous game to look at and I absolutely could not get enough of it. I can't wait to play through those long 20 hours again. Besides the story, the game play is spot on and the replay value is high. I simply cannot recommend this title enough. When you start playing it, please get through at least 4 or 5 hours before rating it. It only gets better and is full of surprises from beginning to end.… Expand

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2. Xabong

   5

   As a long-time fan of the series, I went into this game with tempered expectations. I already knew it was going to be Castlevania in name only, despite the developer promising over and over that this was going to be the most castlevany Castlevania ever. It's God of War plus the wall climbing of games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed plus a couple bosses ripped off from Shadow of the Colossus. This would be fine if the game mixed these elements well, but it doesn't. Basic combat is fairly well done even if it lacks the variety of God of War and is even more focused on QTEs. Most other aspects of the game are pretty mediocre. Handling Gabriel is a chore... mostly because of the fixed camera constantly changing angles forcing you to take a few moments to readjust the controls while Gabriel runs into a wall. Sometimes you'll flip a switch, the camera will cut away from Gabriel for an instant, before coming back to Gabriel standing on the opposite side of the room. Sometimes the camera will change and your view of Gabriel or a ledge you need to get to will be blocked. Even simple things like getting him to face a statue so you can push it are frustratingly different. The puzzles (and there are a lot of them) are among the most poorly explained, obtuse imaginable in a game. Even the game's mechanics are poorly explained to the point that 15 hours into this 20 hour game, you'll still be getting tutorials on what buttons you need to press to get Gabriel to smash through a wall. The battles against the "Titans" look great, but are pretty dull to play and are so heavily scripted that you will watch the bosses do the same animations over and over while you scale it looking for the glowy parts. They totally lack the dynamism of the boss fights in Shadow of the Colossus. The game in general looks absolutely beautiful and makes some of the game's flaws a little more tolerable, but again, some of that beauty is diminished when you realize that the world is fully of annoying invisible walls. There are better ways to keep players on the proper path, but Lords of Shadow does not bother. It makes it really hard to tell what platforms you can jump on and which are just part of the background. Finally, platforming, combat, puzzle solving and cutscenes just seem to be thrown together over the course of the game's length with little regard to pacing each element properly. I realize that pacing a 20 hour game is a daunting task, but maybe that means they should have focused on making a good 8-10 hour game instead of a mediocre one that's twice as long. Lords of Shadow is not terrible. It's beautiful and has some good voice acting (Robert Carlyle and Patrick Stewart are great, even if the latter's monologues between levels start to get really cringe-worthy in the second half of the game) and the combat is fairly satisfying. I think MercurySteam could make a really good Castlevania game their second time around by refining what they've done here while also making the game feel more like a real Castlevania game (how about throwing in some of the old tunes, for example?). As it is, I can't really recommend this to Castlevania nor to God of War fans.… Expand

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     1 of 1 users said yes
3. TechnologoDoom

   4

   There's not much redeeming about Lords of Shadow. It's a betrayal of the series that smacks of pandering and a complete lack of an understanding of the franchise. When the last 10 minutes of the game, all in cut scenes, are by far the best of the entire endeavor, you know something's really wrong.… Expand

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     0 of 0 users said yes

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