Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 is out! We tried the demo in E3, which was actually the beginning of the game. It included the battle between Dracula and the Brotherhood of light when they assaulted his castle with their robot, a huge construct of iron and wood. Once you’re done with that part, you will watch a cut scene which reveals the past events in Mirror of Fate, where Trevor and Simon team up against Dracula. Mercury Steam has done a lot of changes which resulted with an amazing action adventure packed game that surpassed the first one.
Story: 8
The story is kind of confusing; you’ll be playing as Gabriel Belmont, who once was a warrior of light but now the Vampire Lord Dracula. After the short tutorial, you find out that the great dark prince has lost all of his powers. He is awakened from his slumber, only to find that he is in the present and with all of this he has to face his old nemesis, Satan.
An interesting part in the story reveals that Gabriel’s old friend, Zobek appears after all those years asking for help against Satan in exchange for freeing him from his curse of immorality. As you play on, you will recover parts of Gabriel’s power with the help of his son, Trevor who appears as a child who guides him through his castle. As you progress, you get to meet familiar faces like his wife Marie and his old enemy Carmilla; which I believe are part of his memory yet I’m not so sure.
Gameplay: 9
The gameplay in Lord of Shadows 2 has improved a lot with its combat system and upgradeable weapons. This time you can use a whip which is created from Gabriel’s blood, which is also assisted by the Void Sword and Chaos Claws. The thing that made me really happy was the ability to control the camera view freely, which resulted in satisfying changes in my opinion.
The difficulty in the game is similar to the previous games, where you have to wait for the right moments in order to attack the enemies. However, at times you need to use different tactics. For example, if the enemies are too fast then you’ll need to freeze them using the Void Sword or destroy their armor with the Chaos Claws. The game also has amazing boss battles, which prevents you from using the same method of killing over and over again.
A new stealth system has been included in the game, and it was one of the most horrible things they could possibly add. Draculla possessing a rat to get through tight places, or possessing others to get past through others was more annoying than fun. The upgrades this time are not same as the first game, you actually earn experience on each new skill you have bought. With that it shows if you are close into mastering all the moves or not, which actually makes players more into trying out different combos over and over again to master all the weapons.
Graphics: 9
The graphics of Castlevania: Lords of Shadows 2 gives its far best performance on the pc, I really fell in love with the game environment, as it felt a lot improved and polished than the first game. They have managed to truly blend cinematics with the combat, building your excitement as you battle on. The levels in the game look epic, especially when the environment changes from the modern view to his old castle. A small but pleasant addition was the inclusion of multiple finishers for the same enemy, which helps remove the feeling that you are grinding through the game.
Overall, this game was simply great. If you’ve decided to get the game after reading this review, I would really recommend the PC version!
