Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 –Mercury Steam/Konami — PC/360/PS3 – Reviewed On PC – 02.25.2014 — $59.00
“Lords of Shadow 2” puts you once again in control of Gabriel Belmont (aka Dracula) as he struggles against his inner darkness. You could say that in a way the gameplay matches that struggle with its own inner demons while a split story has you jumping between a modern day adventure with transmogrification, stealth, and demons from Satan’s army. While Gabriel’s memory/past pits you against the expected cast of Castlevania monsters ranging from Succubus, Knights of the order, Skeletons and the like.
The story begins with Gabriel on his throne awaiting the assault from the Brotherhood of Light, once you have dismantled them and destroyed the giant Golem they have brought along the tutorial ends with you standing face-to-face with Alucard and you soon awaken in a modern age. Then the after credit scene from the original “Lords of Shadow” takes place. Gabriel is then sent on quests to investigate a Biochemical corporation, which is said to contain one of Satan’s acolytes bent on expediting his return to earth. Citizens that have been corrupted and turned of course overrun the modern day setting, and while they provide some challenge early on, they soon become an almost “trash-mob” experience.
Enemies from the present – future Knights of the Order.
While exploring Dracula’s castle in his memory the PC game really shows of it’s visual prowess where you have left behind bleak streaks with albeit beautiful skyline views, and stepped into the old Bernhardt castle. The castle treats players to a beautifully detailed interior, mixed gorgeous outdoor skyline views and a wide arrange of landscape displays and zones. This portion of the game unfolded much like the 2d Castlevanias we have become so accustomed to, the player is sent through different portions of the castle, which are stylistically created to reflect the areas master. The Toy Maker’s lair for example is bright and colorful, and his final area is in a grand ballroom, while Carmilla’s lair is musty and full of books/statues. While playing you are also able to be guided to and fro the two areas via a wolf medallion, and discover map rooms. These map rooms much like the teleportation rooms in the 2d games allow you to warp to different areas and run on a blood sacrifice from Gabriel, a great addition to the 3d games.
The Hooded Man – The Present
The combat system is a serenely polished recreation of the first game allowing you to lock your opponents (at least the basic ones) into incredible combos, and allows a bit of creativity to be used in the killing. Each enemy is available to be stunned and their health siphoned off through the obvious vampiric methods, or can simply be destroyed be emptying their health bar. Unlike games like “DMC” or “Bayonetta” where you are able to dodge mid-attack this system requires more of a dodge and parry approach before beginning a large assault. Once you have begun a series of attacks the enemy is also able to parry or counter if they are blocking your onslaught, so timing and thought is required before diving into an altercation. The system of filling up Chaos and Light stayed from the original and is one of the portions that I didn’t enjoy as a mechanic. While holding down either the left or right thumb stick next to magic wells wasn’t frustrating, but it really become more of a time waster than something that added to the challenge or allure of the game. During the modern day there were stealth sequences that involved turning into a Rat or distracted large “Golgoth Guards’ while you possessed their counterpart, or simply ran past that really didn’t fit the entire idea of being The Lord of Darkness. While it may be heavy battle, you are able to dismember the daughter of Satan and her peers with your intense strength and abilities and yet a few creatures that look more like a Helghast than a ‘vania monster with big guns are just a little too much for Gabriel. As you progress through the game you’d expect that maybe while he is building up his abilities they are too powerful but at a certain point you begin wreaking your vengeance upon these obnoxious guards. But even close towards the end you are forced into awkward stealth scenes where Gabriel is playing your typical “sneaky monster.” The mechanic stopped feeling like something to drive the story and intensity and became more of an annoyance that simply stretched out the length of the game. The length of the game, by the way, was an impressive 20 or so hours on hard, so I guess the stealth served its purpose.
The Gorgons
The soundtrack is a stunning blend of orchestral music and rock tracks all focused around the same central theme. While listening to the game you can’t help but notice that the eerie piano melody playing over the menus finds its way into almost every piece of music, and it really ties the experience together.
Control wise the game is really built to be utilized with a game pad and even lets you know when you disconnect your controller. The controls for the PC version ran akin to the Xbox 360 setup and felt very natural from the get go.
As a whole this game is something for fans of the series to sink their teeth into (pun intended) and gives a great wrap up to the trilogy. Unfortunately it doesn’t hold up to its predecessor in terms of quality and consistency. While the combat system, soundtrack and characters keep up with the previous title, the odd mechanics in the modern day and disjointed universe created by them can be enough to scare of those not highly dedicated to the series. While this is not candidate for game of the year it definitely has a large amount of merit to balance out a few of the frustrations. Fans of the series should pay full price and not feel the sting too strongly while those looking for a solid explorative hack-n-slash should wait to snag it on discount a few months down the line.