Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review

That’s not to say that Lords of Shadow is ruthless, it just asks you to give it your attention and once you start understanding the mechanics, you will find the combat system to be very rewarding and everything will start falling into place as you dismember and terrorize anything that gets in your way with precision.

Even though Castlevania does still use the typical combat and upgrade systems found in most other games in the genre, it has included some neat ideas as well. Light or Dark magic can be activated during combat and modifies your existing attacks as well as opens up new possibilities. While on a basic level Light magic attacks heal you and Dark magic attacks do more damage, they will also modify secondary or special weapons and can also open up special combos that only work while activated.

You fill your magic meters by killing enemies (or finding an orbs dispenser) and absorbing orbs by holding either your left or right thumb stick (for the light or dark meter). Another element in this new scheme is a focus meter that fills up the longer you are able to attack enemies without getting hit. When the focus meter is full, enemies will start dumping tons of orbs during combat but be warned, just one hit and the meter resets back to nothing.

This new system is very interesting indeed, especially with regards to the healing properties of the Light magic as you will often be sent through long areas where you as a player have to rely on your own abilities to be able to constantly generate enough orbs for your meters to keep refilling your health.

Castlevania is also what some might call a seriously damn fine looking game. The framerate can be a little inconsistent at times (high and low) and some of the characters might not look so hot up close, but that’s about it.

This is an amazingly gorgeous looking game that not only benefits from good tech, but also some of the most phenomenal art direction and settings that you will have seen in this generation ranging from giant titans and massive castles to lush forests, frozen lakes and old ruins. It keeps up with the best of the bunch most of the time, and often had me pausing to appreciate the view. A very nice extra touch was included in the form of moves/combo descriptions being animated with pencil sketches in the book interface.

Lords of Shadow also benefits from a high-quality orchestral soundtrack that is memorable, atmospheric and as good as anything that you would expect to hear in a big budget Hollywood film. To add to even that, they recruited some top notch voice actors as well such as Robert Carlyle as Gabriel and Patrick Stewart as another character who also serves as the narrator of the game.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a long, engaging and challenging action/platformer title to keep you busy for a good while, then Castlevania will serve you well. It’s got some problems and can cause some heavy frustration at times but once you get into it, you won’t want to put it down.

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Scoring:

Gameplay: 8.8

Combat requires your full attention and can be very rewarding. Platforming is fairly solid but can be frustrating at times, especially when the camera is at fault.

Presentation: 9.0

I love great looking graphics, who doesn’t. I love great art direction even more, and this has both. Presentation is, on the whole, pretty wonderful even though there are a few issues to be found here and there with the tech.

Sound: 9.0

Wonderful soundtrack and great voice talent go well with an overall good sounding game.

Value: 8.5

The 18-20 hour story mode has plenty to offer and there is decent incentive to give it a second or even third play-through.

Overall: 9.0 (not an average)

I admit that it took a little while at first, but over time, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow won me over with its lengthy campaign, great visuals and rewarding gameplay.

[Reviewed on Playstation 3]

Last Updated: October 20, 2010