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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     3 of 3 users said yes
2. steveANARCHY

   5

   i originally said the game wasn't bad, i'm gonna stick with that due to the fact that i like to destroy baddies with all of furry of a thousand gods. what i feel they got wrong, the antagonist didn't transform over the corse of the game. he felt very stagnate. the story itself didn't get me hooked early on. maybe b/c killing the evil hordes of vampires, lycan, zombies, etc. as holy crusader just seemed all to blah. the combat system seemed a lil' to over the top and felt a bit clunky. it had to many moves while i only used the same move over and over and over again to get the job done. the puzzles felt like they were just thrown in at random times. finally, the main character is supposed to be some sort of savior and has to go where no mortal has gone before, so throughout the game you find gems and the like to help advance his cause, off of dead allies bodies. my issue with this is if i've gone further than any mortal has ever gone how can i keep finding my fallen brothers ahead of where i'm at and looting their bodies to advance in the game. little things like this can, for me, make the story just average or great. what they did right was the graphics of this game, there is some really stunning artwork in it. they took a few things from other games that were and made it their own in a new light. so all in all if they adjust a few things here and there like the voice acting for the MC, the sequel has a chance to be great. this game doesn't have a high replay value for me.… Expand

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     0 of 0 users said yes
3. Robosaurous

   3

   One of the first things that you'll learn through reading any review of this game is the is that it borrows heavily from other games in its game play design. What it borrows it borrows well and implements in familiar yet suitable ways that anyone familiar with the genre will pick up easily and has most likely not yet tired of. What it does poorly is everything else. Robert Carlyle's voice acting sounds more like he lost his pet goldfish than his beloved wife with an inability to find a middle ground between apathy and overacted anguish. While Patrick Stewart adds more than Carlyle, his long droning monologues can be tedious at times. More than that they attempt to fill in parts of the story I'd rather see and feel then have explained to me in monotone detail by Captain Picard. The level design appears to want to have each of its levels feel like open world areas the player is free to explore but none of them actually achieve this quality. Even the rare level that has multiple paths to follow is just a facade over what is ultimately just a linear experience leading the player to an inevitable goal. Not to mention the indescribable futility one feels when trying to jump over a waist high railing only to be blocked by an invisible wall when moments earlier the player witness the character sail across a vast crevasse on angle wings. The scant few truly well hidden secrets in the game are lost amongst the countless 'hidden' items which one easily stumbles across and must simply come back later leading to the kind of paint drying monotony that is the gaming equivalent of Ambien. I could forgive all of these things and call this game a decent action adventure title were it simply to drop the Castlevania title and simply call itself Lords of Shadow. There are certain expectations that have been brought about over the last 24 years of the series, namely: Dracula, and a damn castle. To simply have what has become the staple of the series, the arrival at and exploration of a vast castle full of secrets, cease to be a part of the series is a travesty. Instead the castle is a brief pit stop between our opening village and some bizarre necromatic underworld that reeks of a developer's desperate need for editing. Then once we reach the end of our journey we find Satan! An entirely attenuated, completely unrelated, newly introduced character that will leave the player wondering why they bothered to pay attention to the rest of the storyline to this point. A fitting end to a game featuring a character from a long line of vampire hunters, wielding a weapon called the vampire hunter in a series about vampire hunting. An ending that could be called bittersweet if it were at all redeeming but as it is its just bitter.… Expand

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     2 of 8 users said yes

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