Nobody was really asking for a Castlevania reboot when the original Lords of Shadow landed back in 2010. The series has (for the most part) always shined in its handheld iterations with the GBA-DS entries all being excellent games in their own right. But Konami has never had much luck with porting the formula to 3D. Castlevania 64 was well liked enough but Legacy of Darkness, Lament of Innocence, and Curse of Darkness never really hooked people in the same way other games in the series did and that’s to say nothing about Castlevania: Judgment which is best relegated to the furthest reaches of memory where you’ve repressed all those horrible summers at camp.
Lords of Shadow was relatively well liked by critics but fans took up issue with a lot of design choices, the biggest of which was the absence of a cohesive world to explore. Whether or not you liked the game, I bet you were intrigued when the epilogue rolled after the end credits. We can’t even begin to talk about Lords of Shadow 2 without spoiling the first game’s biggest surprise so if you’re still looking to play catch up you should probably just back away from this review now.
You’re going to go to the future! Well go ahead and stifle that excitement right now, the present day probably isn’t what you hoped it would be. But hey, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Lords of Shadow 2 opens with you ascending an enormous robot while simultaneously fighting off numerous paladins out for your head. The action culminates with you defeating your enemies and destroying the titan by vomiting blood all over its robo-brain. If you’re thinking “wow, there can’t be anywhere to go from there” you are unfortunately correct. Though the game attempts to bring you more spectacle it never actually manages to top the opening hour.
Everything is downhill from here.
For me the game’s first sin occurs when upon completing the tutorial you are stripped of all your powers. It works from a plot perspective but it’s hard to get excited about unlocking a bunch of the same stuff you unlocked in the original game. Gabriel (referred to as Dracula from here on out) has gained a few new tricks over the years though. Like Lords of Shadow you are given two forms of magic, one that leeches life from your enemies, and the other that is meant to break through their defenses, rather than simply enhancing your whips these abilities are tied to items. The Void Sword will steal life from your foes and the Chaos Claws will deliver powerful punches capable of shattering armor.
While the premise of the original game’s time jump is an exciting one to think about you might be disappointed when you see how cold and lifeless the world provided actually winds up being. The city is completely devoid of life, home only to monsters for you to battle against. The environments and art direction feel flat compared to the last game. There aren’t really any set-pieces to speak of, every building exterior looks like a gargantuan castle, every interior feels like an abandoned factory. Say what you will about the first game’s level setup, at least the fractured world meant that each zone felt different, here everything is connected but every zone feels identical to the one you just came from.
The game’s world is split into two and so while half of it takes place in the modern city the other half takes place back at the ruins of Dracula’s castle. You’re free to transport yourself between these zones at your leisure although it’s certainly not convenient to do so. If you want to get back to the game’s equivalent of a store you’ll have to find a spot on the difficult to read map where you can use your wolf medallion, the medallion calls a wolf who will guide you very slowly into the other plane. Depending on where you summon that wolf you may then also have to track down a map room and head to the appropriate part of the castle where the store is located. I found travelling back and forth to be such a pain in the ass that I just gave up on it midway through the game.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man this Castlevania game is great, but I sure do wish I could play as a rat,” or “Boy I love Castlevania, but where are all the stealth sections”? Well apparently the folks over at MercurySteam have been having these thoughts quite frequently. The first enemies that you will encounter in the modern world are some hulking tanks lugging around giant cannons. Dracula is in a weakened state from his years of sleep and so it’s deemed best to avoid these enemies, instead choosing to throw bats at them or mutate into a rat in order to sneak on past them. These stretches of gameplay effectively replace the puzzles that you would encounter in the previous game.
Don’t get too excited to put the smack down on these guys. The opportunity never arises.
Forget the fact that in between stealth sections you are mowing down bosses ten times the size and scope of these enemies. You will never actually get a chance to fight one, the game literally ends without you ever being able to stand toe to toe with a single one of them.
Stealth sections aren’t just limited to weird future monsters. At one point in the game you’re forced to hide from one boss in a graveyard. In order to move forward you’ll find yourself throwing knives at bells and steering clear of piles of dead leaves on the ground lest their crinkle alert him to your location. Why do you need to hide from him? Who knows, once you sneak past the zone you fight him just like a normal boss.
Combat, much like it was in the first game, is a pretty solid affair. You can use a targeted attack by pressing X (or Square) and a broader sweeping attack with Y (Triangle). The left trigger will allow you to block and if you time it just right you’ll perform a parry which will stun your enemy and get you significantly closer to filling up your combat meter which, when full, spits out refills for your magic.
The plot is all over the place and ranges from tongue-in-cheek to deadpan serious. No matter what the tone the whole thing feels goofy. Dracula’s goals and aspirations are difficult to follow, so much so that the game does its best to remind you of exactly what it is you’re working towards every time you get a game over. Before allowing you to begin your game again you first have to watch Dracula lament about his current situation.
When we initially catch up to Dracula he has just been resurrected from a long slumber and is quickly greeted by his old nemesis, Zobek, who informs him that Satan (whom you defeated in the first game) has been planning his revenge and has chosen now to wreak chaos upon the world. Zobek, not wanting to see the world destroyed, makes you a deal, if you help him he will give you access to Gabriel’s old weapon which is reportedly capable of putting a hard stop to his immortality.
If you haven’t had played the DLC from the original or the somewhat maligned 3DS title then you might not be familiar with some of the characters and items that you will encounter in Lords of Shadow 2. Although you can limp along without the knowledge you still may find yourself confused in certain situations, like when you’re tasked with tracking down the Mirror of Fate so that your ghost son, Trevor, can play with his dolls more effectively.
In the end it doesn’t feel like Lords of Shadow 2 adds anything of value to the series and in fact it takes things a step further by doing a lot of things worse than what you received in the original game. If you’re a fan of the series and want to see the conclusion to Dracula’s adventures that’s about all this is good for but even the game’s ending is a complete flop presumably in favor of expanding itself via DLC or another sequel. I think the best advice I can give is to skip this one and give the Belmonts the peace they supposedly desire so greatly.
