Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition is the complete edition of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a dark and vivid new re-imagining of the Castlevania mythology. It is the end of days and ungodly powers isolate the Earth. The world's alliance with the heavens has been threatened by a dark and malevolent force – the mysterious Lords of Shadow. Across this shattered land, the souls of the dead wander unable to find peace, whilst creatures of evil wreak chaos and death upon the living. Gabriel Belmont 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.
Steam User 15
I'll preface the review by saying that I liked the game enough to go for all achievements and look into buying the other games in this series, but I could still see the game's flaws.
I went in with no expectations and really liked it, but I don't know if that would be the case for people who played more Castlevania games. This series reboots the story with religious themes and its own set of characters. The story is decent enough, but far from being one of the best things about the game. Still, the game has quite the presentation, with animated cutscenes, voice acting and a narrated opening for each level.
It plays like the PlayStation 2 God of War games, a 3D action game with hack-and-slash combat with combos and special abilities. The combat is ok but can get somewhat shallow: it's not really clear what will make enemies stagger, so if you're playing on the higher difficulties and can't afford to get hit, you'll usually do the first moves of a combo and roll away to avoid being hit. Rinse and repeat. There are lots of air combos but I found that I was barely using them, since you can't really dodge midair and most enemies just swat you away if you're messing around too long. Besides the combat, there's puzzles and lots of parkour sections in which you use your chained weapon to jump and climb around. Those were generally a nice change of pace, but were also a part of the worst thing in the game: Shadow of the Colossus-like bosses. There aren't many of those, but each one of them is a drag. "Hold RT to grip" is just not an entertaining game mechanic.
The game works with levels spread around chapters, and has a level selector accessible at all times. This makes the "metroidvania" aspects of the game somewhat awkward, since after you acquire new abilities, you got to replay previous levels to get whatever you couldn't get before, making you replay some levels two or three times. From the level selector you can see each level's completion rate and missed artifacts, so at least you won't replay levels looking for stuff that doesn't exist.
The part I liked the least were chapters XIII and XIV, chapters that were part of DLCs that got integrated in the base game in this version. These chapters include sections in which you play as a weaker and more rigid character, some of the worst puzzles of the game and an infuriating final boss. The boss has a lot of phases but uses the same attacks across all of them. The safe time window for damaging the boss after his attacks is quite short, so the entire fight is just a test of patience in which you dodge until he does the move you can punish, get a couple of hits in and retreat. The DLC barely has healing spots, so it's quite common to reach the boss while 1 or 2 hits away from death.
Still, this is a positive review. I had a blast playing and really think it's worth to give it a go.
Steam User 12
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Ultimate Edition is a beautiful little gem, albeit imperfect. I confirm the fixed camera is annoying initially, but I've gotten used to it after 4-5 hours in the game. I even started to appreciate that all the superb scenery was always put in the best perspective. This is also the time needed to enjoy the game mechanics: having played the original (2D) Castelvanias, I found many similarities: For example, the whips and other powers, the breakable object giving small collectibles, how some parts of the games are not accessible until you get the right power (a great feature - although limited compared to early Castlevania) The game is epic, with an excellent soundtrack and theatrical storytelling (sometimes a bit exaggerated :) and God of War like boss fights are stunningly beautiful and exciting. I enjoyed the game and recommend it to the Castlevania franchise fans and the God of Wars fans, especially if you can buy it at a discount.
Steam User 16
Good slasher. Basically a mix and match of the Castlevania lore with God of War gameplay. You play as Gabriel Belmont, a knight of a holy order who must defeat evil using your whip/chain.
Pros
-Good combat controls based on God of War
-Good visuals for an old game with great atmospheric environments
-The 3d platforming is decent enough
Cons
-Combat gets tedious after a while as you use always the same weapon
-Really annoying quick time events, where if you miss, you die
-Story is too simplistic and predictable
7.5/10
Steam User 14
I don't know why the swamp is the first "regular" level because it is not very good and is not representative of the quality of the game as a whole. Tough it out because the game will get much better.
A safe way to fight any monster is to hit once or twice with quick attacks and then dodge its retaliation. It will take a long time to kill anything but you will not take much damage. Useful when you just need to survive a battle.
Don't be afraid to use your dark crystal. It will clear the screen of anything that's not a boss and it doesn't take very long to get back.
The challenges, should you want to do them, can be accomplished on any difficulty.
Make sure to stick around after the credits for one final, bizarre scene.
There's a few unreachable areas that will unlock later in the story with upgrades. Keep note of crumbly walls, or chests slightly out of reach.
If you're into floating damage numbers, you can enable them in your options screen.
Your whip never gets stronger as far as raw damage.
You lose out of xp rewards if you auto-solve puzzles.
Bosses will have QTEs. Don't put your controller down when you finish them off.
Burn through all your sub weapons. The game gives you plenty.
Unlock whatever skills look good or cool to you. The earlier stuff tends to be the more important and new skills that are unlocked with story progression. Regardless you'll have them all by the end of the game.
Steam User 10
A hack and slash metroidvania platformer, Castlevania Lords of Shadow is situated in a medieval fantasy setting. The game was a little slow to begin with, but it picks up a lot of interest after a few hours. The game's lore is great, and the puzzles are quite difficult. Later on, the fighting can get a little repetitive, but all in all, it's an amazing experience that everyone should enjoy.
8/10
Steam User 11
I bought this game years ago and played it for 30 minutes and it didn't appeal to me, I can't remember why.
I decided yesterday to play it again and past the 30 minute mark and its actually quite good, it just a bit of a slow burn at the beginning unlocking moves. The graphics are good for the time, voice work is great but some camera positions can be frustrating. The fighting system is competent and the boses fun to beat.
Steam User 9
TL; DR Castlevania: God of War edition. I think that this is a great sub-30-hour action game with some minor puzzles and exploration in-between combat encounters but do not expect this to be a metroidvania.
Note if you are playing with KBM change your keybinds immediately
Story
This is a reboot of Castlevania and is set in a new timeline, and these are dark times, times without hope, this is a world that God has abandoned, and which is dominated by the three Lords of Shadow. Your quest is to destroy them, fulfil the prophecy by becoming God’s Vassal on Earth and bring back your wife.
This is generally told from the perspective of the main character Gabriel Belmont, a warrior of the Brotherhood as he travels leagues across the lands all for the sake of his wife. However, a lot of things cannot be shown from his perspective because he rarely talks to himself, and we are not privy to his thoughts.
Instead, we receive something similar through the perspective of another character, one introduced within the first Chapter who sets the mood for any area with his narration, who tells us of Gabriel’s state, and who arrives to aid Gabriel at points during his journey.
These are really, really cool, it is a good quiet reprieve for a few moments, and can tell us things that would feel forced in-game, it also has a certain atmosphere about it that you will pick up on.
Some more worldbuilding can be found in the Knight Scrolls, they are hardly a necessary addition, but they give you some tips for how to complete areas or info on where to find upgrades. They are basically glorified hints, and I like their inclusion since it shows what other warriors of the Brotherhood are hopelessly trying to do.
Presentation
This game looks great even today because it is carried by its beautiful environments and a number of outstanding designs. This is further highlighted by the cinematography as the developers knew exactly how to show off an area and its world. Something is always centred, and it looks great, this is how fixed camera angles should be used.
Naturally the cutscenes are about on par with this but they are heightened even further by the voice acting, because the cast does a really great job to bring emotion and some nuance to the characters. Perhaps that is not so surprising considering that a few of them had received awards even before this game was released.
Another important note is the music, on the whole it is beautiful, however, a handful of tracks can sound rather generic which is not much of an issue since tracks are often specific for chapters or bosses. This has the added benefit of giving areas their own distinct moods though there is always an underlying feeling of hopelessness and ruin, which synergises well with the art style and, naturally, the story. This score received an award, and I think it deserves it.
If I have any complaints, it will come down to the enemy designs, they look great, it is easy to tell them apart, however, some of them are a bit generic, but that is ok because the game also has designs like the Creeping Coffins that look nightmarish.
On the other hand, the architectural designs are superb and even the ruins make me stop to appreciate them, while others are simply imposing on account of their massive, supernatural scale.
Gameplay
First things first, the first Chapter is in many ways not representative of the rest of the game, but it does give you a taste of things to come. There is combat, there are puzzles, and there are puzzle bosses, but after the first Chapter they are paced out much better and feel less compartmentalised.
So, besides the combat there is platforming and puzzles to shake things up. However, none of these things are particularly difficult, and the game gives you the option to solve the puzzles automatically which would negate any experience you would have gained if you had solved it.
Of course, there is also exploration, but it is not open exploration, you are either looking for the path to progress, a key or you are straying from the path looking for collectibles. This is disappointing, collectibles are not hidden, and you are often given explicit hints for their locations through documents.
You do not backtrack in this game either, in fact individual areas are so short you can easily do them in a few minutes once you know what to do, however, the game does incentivise you to replay chapters by placing collectibles behind double-jumps or breakable walls that you can only access later. In other words, do not expect this to be a metroidvania since it is not.
There are also the Trials, one for each area, most of them are trivial and a few are tedious, then there are the timed ones. I do not like timers in video games, and even when playing perfectly these can get very close, but even then, they should only take a few tries once you get the method down. Thankfully they are completely optional, but it might be fun to try out a few that sound interesting, if only to play certain maps in a different manner, or to discover things you did not know were possible.
Combat
Fighting in this game is rather simple and does not need much explaining, at its core is the combos and magic. The latter comes in two varieties, Light which heals you, and Shadow which deals extra damage, both of these have their own unique combos, and both require mana.
So how do you get mana? You attack enemies to build your Focus and once your Focus meter is full, they start dropping mana. However, whenever you get hit your meter resets, this would incentivise a more defensive playstyle, but parrying not only keeps you safe but it also gives you a massive boost to your Focus. This means the most effective playstyle is parrying paired with aggressiveness, dodging whatever attacks cannot be parried, and spacing.
Killing an enemy unlocks their bestiary page which gives you some further info on them such as what sub-weapons they are resistant or weak to. The weaknesses are in general very obvious, take for example the werewolves, what could they possibly be weak against?
However, you can easily underestimate the strength of these sub-weapons when you first start playing, because they are shockingly strong and remain useful until the end of the game, especially when paired with magic, since this can change their effects and their effectiveness.
Objectively the worst part of the combat is a few quick time events. These QTEs are terrible primarily due to their implementation with a keyboard and require you to do the equivalent of spinning a joystick in a circle but with WASD within a short timeframe. That is very unintuitive, but it is not impossible, so it may take you a while to get the rhythm down. One boss fight makes a lot of use of this mechanic, so you might be better off using a controller if you are struggling.
For the most part the other QTEs are fine, and some are pretty cool, if you count the grabs then I like those too. It is just very satisfying to finish enemies off, and its quite funny to activate a goblin's grenade and throw it towards a group of them.
It should also be said that the game has pretty great enemy variety and that they are spread out in such a way that each Lord of Shadow has their own roster of servants. This means that new enemies are constantly introduced and that you will need to adapt to new tactics and resistances at a regular basis which keeps the gameplay fresh throughout the story.
This also hold true for the bosses as while they follow the general flow of the combat, they also have some sort of mechanic to make them stand out from each other. If not requiring you to complete a QTE, they might have adds, and sometimes they will make use of equipment that will help you in the future. On the whole they are fun, especially when they force you to think differently and not rely on tactics like parrying or spamming.