Reviews// Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

So, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow starts off reasonably well. Impressive visuals, entertaining combat, a gothic storyline, demon-slaying and a likeable lead character. But after that, well, read on...

There's no denying that presentation was one of the top priorities of Spanish developer Mercury Steam – after all, if you're going to reboot a classic Japanese vampire-hunting series, there's certain things you just can't screw with.

So, I begin playing this game with an open mind, but pleased that some core themes are being maintained. The hero, an orphan named Gabriel who has assumed the surname of Belmont, wields a Combat Cross which can be used to hack the hell out of all kinds of shadowy creatures. Its chain extends like a classic Belmont whip, giving you some good range in combat, and the first stage sees you battling a horde of Lycans in a dark, rainy village against a full moon.

The immediate reaction when experiencing these first few stages is just how much like God of War it all feels like. You have your jump button, your light and heavy attack button, grabs, blocks and dodges. But you quickly learn all kinds of tricks – such as blocking at the right time to give yourself a counter opportunity – that have the potential to really spice up gameplay and reward you for not spamming the attack buttons.

Down the toilet
After playing the game for several hours however, your enthusiasm for Lords of Shadow will start to go down the toilet. Playing the game starts to feel like you're just going through the motions, and any feeling of this being a Castlevania game that you know and love will be long gone. So what's the problem? How does a game go from a good first impression to a shallow grind?

Put simply, its all about lost opportunities on almost every level. The very first chapter offers great gameplay promise and an intriguing storyline – narrated by none other than Patrick “Jean-Luc Picard” Stewart, whose hammed-up Shakespearian readings add to the idea that you're going on this truly atmospheric gothic adventure.

As you progress, you realise that Lords of Shadow is more like a Tolkien-esque retelling of the Castlevania saga. This is by no means a bad thing in and of itself, if the story itself was engaging. The fight against evil to bring back a loved one, making friends with a Sean Connery lookalike (voice by Patrick Stewart – perhaps Connery wasn't available?), battling trolls in a castle and fighting goblins in a forest swamp. If it was on paper, it wouldn't exactly be a page-turner.

Don't make it so
What actually makes the story more silly is, ironically enough, Patrick Stewart's level introductions. Although great at first, you quickly notice that he in fact reading vacuous passages that serve absolutely no purpose other than to say “Gabriel's going in here now” in 200 words. There's constant references to how this next stage will be his toughest challenge yet, and how his hate consumes him and blah blah blah. When you think of the kind of stories associated with Castlevania games, it's pretty underwhelming.

The second great casualty in the lost opportunities department is in the combat which, thanks to the rather obnoxious camera and overloaded control scheme, pretty much forces you to ignore all of the funky little tricks you learn over the course of the game and resort to... you guessed it, spamming the attack buttons. It really is a crying shame because Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's combat and combo system is pretty good, all things considered.

The camera either pans out too far when battling demon creatures, or sits just behind you forever more so you can't see what's happening behind you. Because you have to carefully watch an enemy's movement before you can even hope to try block-countering, it becomes too hard to read your foe.

Encouragement
So, you smash the light and heavy attack buttons instead, stopping every now and then to dodge or jump over some shockwaves. And since you don't want to get caught from behind while this is going on, button-bashing works well for the other camera problem too. What's more, you'll end up dodging whenever you want to block, because the same trigger is used for both – thus you won't see the point in even trying after a while.

On the plus side, the inclusion of magic later on allows you to either regain health or increase your attack power, and you'll need to use your Combat Cross chain on some enemies to wrench off shields or to tame beasts, which helps keep it interesting. In general though, the opportunity to encourage some great combat has been wasted.