Review | Castlevania Lords of Shadow

Konami’s Castlevania series has been around for so long it has even earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records: “Most titles in an action/adventure series.” That’s right, the vampire hunting Belmonts have been bursting into Dracula’s castle and causing gothic mayhem for over 20 years, spanning platforms and outlasting technologies with a single-minded focus reserved only for the most highly trained undead killers.

Fans of the series will acknowledge that the enjoyment found in each title comes from the faithful adherence to a tried and true formula of awkward anime cut scenes, enormous, gothic castles filled with beasts of all different shapes and sizes, larger than should be physically possible bosses and a main character who grows in skill, power and prowess as the game progresses. The joy to be had exploring the maze of rooms collecting items and money to spend at random shops dotted through the castle is both exhilarating to the player and incomprehensible to those not fitted with the Castlevania enjoyment chip mod.

When we heard there was a new Castlevania title coming we had chills; whether from excitement or fear at the time that an abomination was about to be born we’re not quite sure, but sadly we have to inform you that in this case it turned out to be prescience of the latter: Castlevania: Lords of the Shadow is for the most part a shitter and has neither remained true to its roots nor successfully progressed its genre.

Of course, being a release made for the current generation of consoles, there was a need to take a look at how to breathe new life into a traditionally 2-dimensional platform title. We get that and we’re OK with it. Developers MercurySteam have tried to drag our gothic hero by the velvety cape into the present and sadly in doing so have lost much of what made Castlevania unique and turned it into a generic action/adventure game that feels like a confusing jumble of other games wrapped up in a plot that’s just not going to appeal to the masses.

From the moment you fire the game up it’s clear the game is going to have a solid emphasis on combat. Immediately after the opening credits you, aka the dark and brooding Gabriel Belmont, are thrown into a battle with some werewolves and a giant warg; this battle serves as a tutorial of sorts but a few taps of the buttons and it becomes apparent that if you played any of the God of War series you’ll be instantly familiar with the controls. Gabriel, ably voiced by Robert Carlyle, uses the Combat Cross as his weapon of choice which whips and stabs as he rolls around the world. The Combat Cross does get upgrades here and there which gives it new powers and opens up more combos and special moves. Later on the game introduces light and dark magic which can be used in conjunction with your weapon to make your battles a bit more bad-ass; magic is earned by being a bit more creative with your moves so you can’t just rely on good old button mashing and expect to get your money’s worth.

The main gripe we have with magic though is that while it’s nice to be able to use it, they’ve made it so hard to earn it and keep it that it makes it almost a chore and we found we just didn’t bother. Likewise with healing yourself; to heal during combat you use light magic and attack your enemies but you earn so little health with each attack we ended up just hacking and slashing our way through and using the health fountains you find dotted about once we’d finished a battle.

It’s not all bad though; the game is incredibly beautiful, with epic scenery on a scale on par with the God of War series. A lot of attention has been placed on making everything look good with gorgeous lighting and great weather effects. The voice acting is sublime, with Captain Picard narrating the story and Robert Carlyle doing a grand job portraying the broody Mr Belmont. Cheer up, Emo Kid.

The rest of the game continues in a similar vein: progressing from battle to battle by navigating across various platforming elements, after an hour or so you start to see a pattern forming. It’s all a bit of a mash up of God of War, Prince of Persia and Shadow of the Colossus. “But, jaded games reviewer, what’s wrong with that?” we hear you ask, and with good reason. Well, open-minded and accepting games review reader, nothing in particular. If you take the game on face value, you have a very well made, good looking action/adventure game with large beasts, plenty of fights and the odd bit of exploration thrown in for good measure. Not to mention it’s of good length too, weighing in at around the 20 hour mark. It will, if you let it, give you plenty of enjoyment. The main problem is that it’s supposed to be a Castlevania title. There’s nothing of what makes a Castlevania title enjoying and what you’re left with is a diluted mess, a mix of other titles you’ll probably enjoy playing more. Want epic battles? Play God of War. Want awesome platform action? Play Prince of Persia. Want to fight huge lumbering beasts? Play Colossus. Or don’t, you know, it’s cool.  In fact you know what? Go outside, climb a tree or swim in a river.  Whatever. We’re done here.