Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Reviews
It may have all the right tools and the gorgeous scenery to go with it, but Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is like a beautiful person with a horrible attitude.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 doesn't do everything right, but the solid combat, breathtaking environment, and wonderfully orchestrated soundtrack more than make up for its annoyances. If this truly is Mercury Steam's last go with the series, it's a good exit.
Lords of Shadow 2 squanders a great premise - playing as the King of Vampires in a modern day city - with mediocre execution.
Despite the transformation from Belmont to Dracula, combat feels is largely the same and buying your combos over again feels like a cheap excuse for not bothering to come up with anything new. Some design choices seem to have disrupted other core elements too; gone are the beautiful crisp visuals and varied fantasy/gothic settings, replaced by stealth sections and modern day concrete. This is not the ending I was expecting for the Lords of Shadow series and it's certainly not the one it deserves.
The lack of anything not done before and the run of the mill story still leave the game a decent gaming experience, there's still plenty to see and plenty to kill, and, as mentioned before, there is a great sense of games and level design competency which oozes from the seams. For third person action veterans it probably won't quite cut the mustard, but for Castlevania fans who are still digging the reboot this will be another good title in the reimagining of a classic series.
A miserable blend of flawed game mechanics that's a giant leap backwards from its predecessor.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 features memorable combat in a forgettable world.
A reworked engine, new locations, and a heroic anti-hero. Much has changed since the original Lords of Shadow, but will the Dark Prince reign supreme or will he be all bark and not bite?
Lords of Shadow 2 may not surpass its predecessors' surprise rise to AAA status, but MercurySteam's last foray into the series still provides a fitting, if sometimes flawed end to the trilogy.
Lords of Shadow 2 is a shocking misfire.
For all its physical beauty, it can be an ugly game—remember that family-murder, remember that awkward, stilted script. How well can you look past this ugliness to find the redeeming qualities within?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 looks gorgeous and could have been wildly original, but it squanders its polish and potential on archaic contrivances, banal writing, and an overall shallow experience. It's fine if you want a factory standard combat game, but in the year 2014, it's just plain dreary.
It's a tragedy to see Lords of Shadows 2 arrive in this form. Rather than focus on what made the first game so much fun, the designers seem to have totally misunderstood what gamers wanted from the sequel, and delivered something that was utterly alien to the first game.
If Lords of Shadow 2 were a film, I'd say it's well constructed in every way aside from editing. Unfortunately, editing is as crucial to a movie being watchable as its visibility. So for this game, it's all well and good that it's pieces are of quality, but they are arranged so carelessly and without regard to flow that struggle is more about staying awake than merely making progress. This subfranchise's muted tone — another non-flaw out of context — doesn't help that cause.
The fresh take on the series in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow seemed to introduce enough fresh blood to resurrect what seemed to be a dying brand. The sequel unfortunately pollutes that bloodstream with an infection caused by too many ideas and too many cut corners. As far as single-player experiences go, there's plenty of meat on the bone thanks to exciting combat and some interesting boss designs. However, any sense of resolution or redemption in Lords of Shadow 2 becomes lost amidst poor storytelling and unsurprising plot twists. If this Dracula seeks eternal rest then as much as we'd love to see him stay alive for one more adventure, perhaps it's about time a stake was put through his heart.
Lords of Shadow 2 had limitless potential in front of it, and could have been the best Castlevania game of recent memory, but poor design choices, a questionable story and flawed mechanics will kill most players' interest before they even get half-way through.
There is some fun to be had in the combat, and the bosses are so creative that players will want to push forward just to see what's next, but the journey is ultimately an unfulfilling one. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2's lack of focus is its downfall, and plants it firmly in the mediocre pile.
It's a shame that you need some tolerance to stick with the game to get past its faults and slow start to get to the chunk where the game is gratifying, peaking close to what made the first Lords of Shadow a great game.
The game is as confused as its protagonist, and it's hard not to wish that the studio could have conquered its inner conflict and found its wings.