Devo was right: When a problem comes along, you must whip it!
It’s no secret that Castlevania is a franchise that’s struggled through low sales numbers and a couple of awkward previous attempts at transitioning into 3D gameplay. And yet, it’s perservered and remains one of the oldest franchises still active and still with significant mindshare among gamers. Recently it has found a home on DS with a series of three excellent 2D games modelled after the 1997 crowning achievement Symphony of the Night. The general rule has been: the 2D games are good, the 3D games are mediocre at best.
Enter Mercurysteam, a developer from Spain. Tasked with making a home for Castlevania on PS3 and Xbox 360, they created Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. At first glance, it’s your typical character action game, borrowing from the best of the genre. Look deeper, however, and the Castlevania building blocks are all there. Unlike the recent two-dimensional open world Castlevanias, this game is old school linear – taking its hero Gabriel Belmont, from chapter to chapter in a format reminiscent of Super Castlevania IV. You’ll meet all sorts of classic monsters like vampires, lycans, mandragoras, zombies, wargs, and more – and perhaps some familiar bosses.
The game’s a slow starter, introducing the basic gameplay consisting of some simple combos, but it soon intensifies as you gain new abilities, among which is the ability to switch between healing magic and destructive magic, each with separate combat advantages. The combat is ferocious and forces you to constantly develop your strategies as the game introduces new enemies in almost every chapter. Boss fights are imaginative and rarely seem unfair despite the difficulty spike they often represent. Though you’re probably left wondering why every game like this has to borrow the God of War style quick-time event finishing move. It doesn’t feel particularly inspired and seems to be included just «because».
Wall-climbing and whip-swinging sections are a welcome break from the intense action, and allows the player to admire the simply breathtaking, gothic visual design of the locales Mercurysteam have obviously put a lot of work into. Certain sections require you to solve puzzles to proceed, but they earn you XP and most of the time they’re not too taxing. You can even unlock the solutions if you don’t mind foregoing the XP reward.
Lords of Shadow is exceedingly generous with its visual and aural design (the music is great), and occasionally you’ll perhaps feel that the artistic brush strokes are laid on a bit thick. But it’s all really appropriate for a gothic setting like this. Also generous is the game’s length, and it seems mostly justified when it actually manages to introduce new enemies right until the very end. The combat is solid, never boring, and you really feel like you’re dishing out some serious pain with Gabriel’s Vampire Killer whip. And watch out for the absolutely insane, out-of-nowhere ending which I loved but no doubt will be divisive.
As a re-imagining of classic Castlevania, Lords of Shadow wholly succeeds. It amps up the action with each new chapter, never recycles its environments, and always switches things around just enough to keep you interested.
Duder, just buy it.
www.norsegamer.com
