Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 Review
Developer: Mercurysteam
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: Playstation 3, X-box 360 and PC
Release date: Out now
Back in 2010 Mercurysteam rebooted the Castlevania franchise with Lords of Shadow, I don’t think anyone expected the stellar response it received. The Lords of Shadow game brought a lot to the table, a deep combat system, enthralling story, challenging puzzles and gameplay along with some of the most satisfying boss fights and soundtrack to accompany. Its success led to a trilogy being created, Lords of Shadow was followed by Castlevania: Mirror of Fate which was released for Nintendo 3DS and later for digital download as a HD port. This game expanded upon the Belmont clan along with Dracula in the Lords of Shadow universe. It also set up events for the highly anticipated Lords of Shadow 2 that acts as the conclusion to the Lords of Shadow saga. With so much hype around the Lords of Shadow trilogy now four years later there is one question on all the fans minds, does it deliver?
Lords of Shadow 2 takes in a lot of fan feedback from the first Lords of Shadow in terms of fixed camera angles. These are now gone in favour of a freely adjustable camera. The game features the return of voice talents from Robert Carlyle, Patrick Stewart and Jason Isaac’s along with Richard Madden from Game of Thrones. Lords of Shadow 2 also adds in more secrets, collectibles and hidden paths that require backtracking later in the game to reach in a similar fashion to classic Castlevania games where backtracking to collect better equipment or power ups was paramount. I find this a nice fan service for the game and it adds to the overall gaming experience that you do not need to collect these in order to go through and complete the main story. The game itself also makes a huge departure from the original Lords of Shadows level based system where the story was divided into levels that the player navigated through, Lords of Shadow 2 instead has a more open world approach where you can navigate around the games world seamlessly. I thought this was a great addition.
Moving onto gameplay the player assumes the role of Dracula, in favour of the previous games Combat cross, and the light and shadow magic weapons. Dracula uses the Shadow whip along with the Chaos claws and void sword. Each of these is fully upgradable and offer unique attacks. The game also features relics that Dracula can use to heal himself, replenish magic, slow time for enemies and other effects to assist the player in combat. Dracula also has access to a variety of abilities from turning into mist to possessing others. The game takes place in two distinct locations, a modern day setting and Draculas medieval castle. Both of which feel unique and although I found the modern setting a bit strange for a Castlevania game it does grow on you throughout the playthrough. Visually these locations, the lighting and characters for this game all look amazing and once again an amazing soundtrack accompanies and compliments the game.
Though despite all its great improvements Lords of Shadow 2 is not perfect, the addition of stealth sections is a strange move and personally I found most of these to be trivial and took me out of the natural flow of the game. Also without throwing out any spoilers I think for the finale to the Lords of Shadow saga I expected a greatly satisfying ending and there is a huge build up throughout all three games stories but in the end I felt disappointed with the games ending. I have seen a number of people feel the same and I don’t think it’s a great note for Mercurysteam to finish up on with the Castlevania series.
Overall there are a number of great references within the game to old Castlevania titles and I found a hilarious nod to the Konami code within the game. I think the overall game is very compelling and does a lot right that in retrospect outshine its few shortcomings. With a sizeable story mode that took me over 20 hours to complete, great voice acting, soundtrack, locations, outstanding boss fights and characters Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 is a good entry into the series but may leave some expecting and wanting more from it by the end and unfortunately it is here the game does not deliver. There have been rumours of files found suggesting an upcoming dlc for the game that will expand upon the story. Let’s hope it expands and delivers the epic conclusion we waited four years for.
Score 4/5
Reviewed By David Kiely
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