Konami should be a shamed of themselves for attaching the Castlevania name to Lords of Shadow 2. I say that with a heavy heart as I greatly enjoyed Lords of Shadow 1 up until the ending boss fight against Satan, which was weird. Lords of Shadow 2, and yes I am intentionally leaving off the Castlevania name like Konami should have insisted on Mercury Steam doing, started up with a bang. The introduction is cinematic and fun, the combat feels really nice and heavy, the dialogue is solid, and you get that general feeling that this game is intended to be epic with a serious story. That first 15 minutes of Lords of Shadow 2 hypes you up for the game and Dracula even does a classic line from Symphony of the Night, "What is man, but a miserable pile of little secrets." The game feels like it is going to live up to and surpass everything that Lords of Shadow 1 delivered.
Then you face off against this huge Titan and that's where the game starts to go wrong. It isn't that the fight isn't grand in scale or epic feeling. The problem is that you have to do a bunch of platforming to climb up the Titan while an enemy is firing explosive arrows at you that can knock you off the Titan and apparently one hit kill Dracula, why Dracula just doesn't turn into a bat and fly up the Titan is beyond me. In fact, why Dracula doesn't just fly and avoid all the platforming together in the whole game is beyond me. This is as annoying as it sounds, now add to this to the fact that the platforming doesn't flow well and you have a formula for annoyance. Even this could be forgiven if Mercury Steam made the decision to keep these parts to a minimum, but no Enric Alvarez (Writer and Director) seem to think it would be cool to have as many platforming/climbing sections as possible. Even when you aren't being attacked while platforming and climbing, the mechanics just don't work properly or there is no real freedom of movement. For instance, when the player has to jump from one chandelier to the next they need build up momentum than make the jump. Unfortunately, all of a sudden four directional tank controls are being used, because why not. If you ever played an older game with four directional tank controls you know how well they work, which is to say not very well at all.
On the issue of controls, you aren't explained all of the controls in the game at all. One of the most essential controls of switching items isn't explained to the player at all. You have to stumble upon it by randomly guessing at what to do. This becomes a major issue as you constantly collecting items yet you have no idea how to actually select them.
Then there is the stealth parts of the game. Quite frankly, every single stealth part is just horrible. In these parts, your character (Dracula) needs to sneak past guards by turning into a rat. Yep, a RAT. Not just any rat, but a rat with eight way, limited movement, tank controls. This would just be "interesting" if you weren't expected to do some miniature puzzle solving/platforming like jumping over electric wires to eat through a cable. That sounds easy, but because the controls for the rat is bad and the electric wire is jumping around something as simple as making a small jump becomes a monumentally annoying task. Then there is the stealth mission in the later part of the game which is just terrible. This mission is easily the worst part of the game, but don't worry because there is still plenty of other bad parts of the game to go around.
The writing in the game is laughable at best and offensive to Castlevania fans at worst. The problem is that the game takes itself incredibly serious while saying some of the stupidest stuff imaginable, that barely fits in the Castlevania universe at all. The whole Satan versus God storyline turns into Satan versus Dracula. It is just absurd and very poorly written, but well voice acted and delivered. I really must say that Patrick Stewart (Zobek) and Robert Carlyle (Dracula/Gabriella) did a fantastic job of delivering this absurd, poorly written story. The character development, is fairly solid right up until the end. In the end Dracula/Gabriella makes a statement that is completely opposite of the character and the relationship that has been established up until that point. The statement he makes erases the character progression up until that point for no real reason at all and just leaves you wondering what was even the point of the entire game that spent building up that relationship.
Overall, I would advise people to play this game. Rent it of course, because no way is this game worth $60. People should experience this game so they can understand what a truly horrible game Lords of Shadows 2 is and how close this game was to being really good. There is something so good about Lords of Shadow 2, yet it is covered in incredibly poor level design, gameplay design, and extremely bad writing. Truly, Konami should be a shamed of themselves for attaching the Castlevania name to Lords of Shadow 2.
From memorable boss fights to chilling lore revelations, here's why Lords of Shadow 2 may be the most underrated Castlevania game.
Well i enjoyed my time with it and thats all that matters too me, i could not care less what others thought. Please bring 3 out Konami or at least a 1 and 2 remasters.
Same here. I own it on PS3 and PC and love the title. The soundtrack is amazing and the tone they paint for the character of Dracula with Robert Carlyle's great voice work is perfect.
Same here, I’m a huge castlevania fan, have all of the games. Even the remake that was made on the Wii.
And I have the PS3 and PC versions of both games as well.
They look really cleaned up on the xbo through bc. The LoS games are some of my favorites.
it was ok. but the hide and seek BS was some of the dumbest stuff in the world.
I remember the intro being fun an action packed. Then the game became "OK" with a lame hub system and sneaking around as a rat. The modern time frame levels weren't the great either. Lord of Shadows 1 was much better and I wish they had continued with that formula.
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "It’s been a Castlevania-packed week here at Link-Cable as we’ve spent nearly every day covering the series and reminiscing about our favorite moments from the revered franchise. But now it’s time to turn away from the light and take a deep dive into the darkness that is the worst games from the series. Yes, while the vast majority of games that bear the Castlevania games are genuinely good there’s enough monsters lurking in the shadows to fill us with dread of ever stepping back into Dracula’s castle. So grab your whips and your wall-meat, things are about to get"
It's unfortunate how LOS2 turn out, great gameplay mechanics let down by mostly bad level design and dull story.
LoS1 is among the best games i played, it reminded to rush into judging a game without trying it.
LoS2 had good combat.
It's how the end of the game was lackluster and felt unfinished.
Knew that Number 1 was going to be Castlevania Judgement. So many people judge the game without even playing it. It was a fine game with some flaws like most games, no where near the worst.
Simon's Quest is one of my favorite games of all time and ahead of its time. It felt like an action rpg, the day/night cycle was awesome and different, and when I figured out how to take the tornado to the other side I was excited. I beat the game in the early 90's and still have great memories playing it.
I know this would never happen but I would love to see a From Soft remake of Simon's Quest with Miyazaki developing it. It would hold up well as a souls-like experience.
Simon's Quest is always the bastard child of the good Castlevania. It was frankly ahead of it's time.
It's "cool" to hate on that game. Apart from being obtuse because of the localization, the atmosphere, gameplay and music still makes it one of the most memorable Castlevanias. It laid the groundwork for 2D exploration games down the line.
It's not rare for the hero to become the villain in video games. Luke Lube looks at five of the best good guys gone bad from Big Boss to Jill Valentine.
I would disagree with this review but only that it should be lowered as the combat is every bit as garbage as the first.
I'm Dracula and I have no unblockable attacks yet rank and file baddies all have it....and they spam it all day long....off screen. The timing for these attacks are also off and damn near every enemy has perfect tracking kinda like a cheap version of Demon's Souls. So of the larger enemies attacks have this weird splash damage thing going on so even after evading you still get hit.
It's the same problem with the last title. Powerful badass regularly has his attacks ignored so in the middle of a combo, even the weakest enemy will break it. Break Dracula's combo....wtf.
I stopped playing right around the 2 hour mark as it's clear it won't bet any better. I'd agree that anyone interested should rent this game or go play a better game.
This game reminds me of Dante's Inferno. Wants nothing more than to be a cheap clone of better games....
Good review of a huge disappointment of a game for me. I`ve just played Lord of Shadow of the Castlevania games before this one, but i never think i`ve been this close to throwing the controller into the TV in frustration.
It really is a shame because there is a great game in here somewhere, but it`s just ruined with horrible crap that dosn`t make sense. I mean in some cases i could`ve just jumped and grabed a ledge to collect a pain box, but guess what, no you have to go around and use the fog ability instead. Right. I guess Dracula can rip ten buliding tall demons to shreds in cutscenes, but can`t bend some bars when you`re playing.
The map system was to be the most horrible that i`ve seen in ages and the dodo`s that is supposed to help you find secrets dosn`t do a damned thing.
The ending was also the worst i`ve seen in ages. Didn´t make any sense.