Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review

[honkyjesusownsu]

Just remember you are playing God of Warlords of the Shadow of the Colossus. This title's devs didn't even copy the games well, some of it was so obvious I imagine you must own stock in the actual game to not think it's a mediocre at best low-budget ripoff with so many things wrong it seems like the game was done as a joke.

Is this an actual game that people think anyone who has played games the past ten years isn't a silly and over-the-top ripoff? It's not an advanced Castlevania game, it was an extremely rushed POS and you clones buy it up and ask for seconds.

On second thought, maybe I'm wrong. It's really awesomesauce.

 

[gickle]

I think everyone must realize that games do borrow from each games. It's actually how most company's work. If you think of many of the most popular movies or games they were based off of something and had to start somewhere. Dead Space for one is definitely an all time favourite of mine but sould I not like it because it borrowed elements from other games? borrowed gameplay mechanics that worked?

Does anyone remember Halo? haha that was a completely original idea right?

Of course it ultimately boils down to fun. If you had a good time playing this game then thats great, good! That is what games are meant to do. If you didn't and you must gripe about the fact that it borrowed from games you loved playing instead of enjoying elements of the games you loved in a story that is great then I think maybe video games are not for you.

I for one found this game to be fantastic! I loved the fact that it had giant bosses. Do you know how long I have been waiting to do? Ya, since Shadow of the Colossus. haha

Anyway, good gaming all. I hope you enjoyed this game as much as I did.

 

[Nuklez14]

Yea i dont understand what the dumbfuck reviewer is talking about this game was the best game ive played in a long time beautiful graphics LONG story which u never see n games these days and i hate games that dont let u control the camera but this game made me love it all the angles were used in such a unique way where it made me feel like i was n an actual world and i have the xbox 360 version and no framerate drops for me it was a smooth ride the whole way i honestly recommend this game to any RPG/action/adventure fan, this game is simply a must have!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bongus87]

awesome game. that is all.

 

[BaCkSpaCekilla]

I agree with the score but not with what the reviewer says about the game not being nothing like Castlevania of past. It has alot of subtleties that reference Castlevania of past series especialy the ending. This review led me to believe that the review e' had no previous exp with playing past Castlevania titles and would enjoy the game more if had. I mean do you really think Kojima san would let that happened? he would want players to experience nostalgia and subtleties in his titles garanted he hardly had a hand in this title but the dev's are big fans and thus why they where granted to work on such a series. I reccomend this game to Castlevania fans cause it DOES have Cstlevania gameplay.

 

[Zangetsu468]

I agree with the score but not with what the reviewer says about the game not being nothing like Castlevania of past. It has alot of subtleties that reference Castlevania of past series especialy the ending. This review led me to believe that the review e' had no previous exp with playing past Castlevania titles and would enjoy the game more if had. I mean do you really think Kojima san would let that happened? he would want players to experience nostalgia and subtleties in his titles garanted he hardly had a hand in this title but the dev's are big fans and thus why they where granted to work on such a series. I reccomend this game to Castlevania fans cause it DOES have Cstlevania gameplay.

Spot on, one thing though: the reviewer (let's call him "Demon Heartfelt") didn't like it because it wasn't enough like previous Castlevanias, but then if they had made it more like previous Castlevanias it wouldve got slammed anyway. I agree, the gameplay is Castlevania, you feel every lash of the whip and imo they even could have taken out area attacks and the gameplay still wouldve worked well, I hardly used area attacks at all.

The other thing stubborn fans just aren't getting about the feel of this game is that it's a RE-BOOT of an existing series (fucking hell ppl!) i.e. It's not meant to feel the same as previous iterations of Castlevania. The lack of gothic overtone and the more dark-fairytale ambience was intended, I'm not saying it's better but it's there out of design intent....If fans aren't willing to accept that they shouldnt play it and then hold it against the game. This constitutes the line between criticism and whinging. If you think it's the shittest game ever, fine. If you think the game is worse than Zool for the Snes and you'd trade it for a chuppa chup then fine, go trade it. But if you're another "Demon Soft-on"-critique-a-like who hasnt bothered to play the whole game and is only using Castlevania SOTN/ GOW as a pre-cursor, then go F yourself with an shopping pole.

For the people saying the game copied SOTC, I havent played it but it's plainly true. However there have been massive golems, giants, and dragons in previous Castlevanias, so for logistical reasons and not just being able the whip those enemies to death I will assume that emulating the method of killing the Titans from SOTC was a smart move on MS' behalf.

 

[speedballfury]

Yeah I agree that this totally feels like a Castlevania game to me as well. My favorite game of all time is Castlevania 2 and I thought this was one of the best ones since that whole era of the franchise. Anyway, there are some things that maybe needed a little attention but nothing in it was so game breaking you couldn't enjoy it. I loved this game and thought it was beautiful. Scoop!!!

 

[animecrazy2881]

After playing through this game, i have to say that the reviewer was right on somethings. The gameplay felt like part castlevania, part god of war, and part SOC amongst other things. I did like the stage with the remixed castlevania music. It was a good game, just had to get over the fact that it did "feel" like traditional castlevania.

 

[Unholycheb420]

i love this game, cant wait to get 2 the end. for all u crybabies go play simons quest or wake up and smell castlevanias new fresh air!!

 

[oceanpharaoh]

I finally picked up the Limited Edition of Lords of Shadow. I think this is a great take on CastleVania for the 3D realm, and possibly the only way to make it work (as all other 3D CastleVania games have been bunk).

I love Symphony of the Night as much as the next gamer, but we have those classic games to play. If people want to keep playing CastleVania games that feel like old-school CastleVania, then go back and play those games again. Ah well. For me, Lords of Shadow is awesome. I am excited to see where they are going to take this series.

And for anyone who really needs to scratch that old-school CastleVania itch, try Bloodrayne: Betrayal. It has that tongue-in-cheek feel with over-the-top horror/action, and it looks great. The demo is up on XBLA. But be warned--that game is not easy.

 

[reza666]

Recently started to playing this game and loving it so far. Its a bit annoying that some times i cant go back to some areas unless i replay the area but so far its not a problem since areas arent that big. I love the design and characters so far.
This is for sure Castlevania of new era

 

[arcel808]

Don't get me wrong, this game is awesome. Although, I feel that compared to the other Castlevania's games, I must say that this one feels out of place to me. I feel that this game lost what Castlevania was all about. If you think about it, Castlevania started because of the whole theme of Dracula. What happened to that?

The game concept also feels very similar to God of War, and Dante's Inferno. I feel that half and half of the concept was GOW and Dante's Inferno. The titan in this game looks way to similar to Gaia in God of War. The concept of the wife dying in this game and trying to tell him something is almost the same as when Dante's wife died and he was trying to search of her.

As for controls, I hated it or I didn't care for it that much. I feel that the controls weren't set up right and I didn't like the fact that you couldn't change the settings of the controls of the game. I believe that developers or creators should of make that available so that players can play comfortably to whatever controls they feel are comfortable. The control L2 in this game feels like there was too much things going on. L2 is used for blocking, and dodging, and other special effects which is the relics for example, it's also use for tremor crush (L2+square), earthquake punch (L2+triangle), shoulder crush, flame dragon tail, etc. Overall the L2 section was just too much for me, and it would have fit much better if the dodging section was R3 or it should have given you the ability of being able change video perspective and what happen to R2? is it honestly use for only grabbing things? Initially, R2 is usually for grabbing things, but in this game, I feel that they could have improved it a little.

What I also didn't like about this game was that, it gave you too few options of where to go. It's very direct and specific where you should go. It didn't give you enough choices to explore where you want to go. In my opinion, the pretty and marvelous game graphics went to waste, because I feel that it was just for display. It should give you the ability to being able to explore because this game can be considered as RPG/Action game and most RPG games are adventurous

Overall, I am rating this game 5 out of 10 because of the complication of controls, and the concept of the game wasn't original. I feel that this Castlevania series didn't meet up with my expectation of Vampire Hunter and Dracula. It felt like it was all over the place for me both controls, story, and with the skills that was provided or move skills, and also.. not to forget the layout of the game.

Don't get discourage if you want to give it a try. These are just my personal opinions of what I thought about this game.

 

[datruff]

This game is no less than a 9.0 overall. Graphics 8.5? This could easily give even Uncharted 3 a good run for its money in some instances with the graphics...I didn't have an issue with framerates like the review says. Sad indeed with how this game gets criticized for being a clone, when Castlevania is the originator of them all. I'm glad that people went out and bought it, regardless of reviews like this.

 

[datruff]

GOW owes everything to Castlevania, and it pre-dates Rygar.

 

[mfeeney1987]

If you're thinking about playing this game then don't let the 7.5 score make you pass on it, it is easily atleast a 9-9.5 in my opionion. The graphics are some of the best I have seen, I would even say they are close to if not as good as the Uncharted games! The fighting is alot like the GOW style but there is much more items and moves you can upgrade than you were able to in GOW. The story is pretty damn good, I'm only in chapter 5 and can't wait to see what happens next. I know alot of people are against playing it because it is Castlevania but nothing like the old games, but you need to come in knowing that it's supposed to be a reboot and isn't supposed to be like the older games. In my opinion everyone should play this game it is one of my favorites and an amazing game! The 7.5 is WAY to low! It is atleast 9-9.5! So if your trying to decide whether to play it, then you most deffinetly should, don't let this review make you think it's not

 

[mfeeney1987]

Also, as datruff said I had no issue at all with the framerate as the review claims it does. I played it on PS3 and I'm sure there is no framerate issues on 360 either.

 

[ThulsaDoom1987]

man, i loved this game, it was very good and did not deserve the bashing it got from sites like gametrailers, id definitely say it was my most enjoyable game experience of 2010, well that and mass effect 2. Fight mechanics from god of war? climbing from uncharted? boss fights from shadow of the collosus??? how is this not one of the best games ever? lol stop bitching about it being a god of war clone, god of war is just improving on mechanics from games like devil may cry and other hack and slash, u know, like the original castlevania games that involved hitting monsters with a whip/chain...... waa its not original waaaaaa, come on, original smells like neverdead


actually the ONLY reason id give this game a 10/10 instead of an 11/10 is because chapter 2 was so very long and dull, other than that, one of the best games of the genre, and i played the entire thing in one sitting, on both xbox and ps3, the game doesnt have that many glitches and the platforming all works fine.

 

[mpmojo]

Hi, If you want to play the original castlevania games, climb the basement steps, get your grandma to take you to gamestop, buy them for your play station and shut up. Life is about change dude, things are suppose to move forward, this is a crap review by a person who is stuck in the past. If you want a flawless rpg, that's not hack and slash, theres a a little series called THE ELDER SCROLLS, maybe you heard of em? But you'd probably be mad at SKYRIM because it's not the exact same as MORROWIND, what a douche!! Get a life man, all your reviews are way off. Let me ask you something. How many video games have have produced? And this game is wonderful. I am not a fan of hack and slash, but this game is so gorgeous and flawlessly executed that I loved it. 7.5 my BUTT dude. The next time you leave the family basement, stop by the drug store, get some tampons, and plug that bloody vagina of yours, douche_bag!!