Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Hands-On & Off Preview

[Michael Epstein]

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Hands-On & Off Preview

We had the opportunity to go hands-on (and off) with the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.

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[MrBaskerville]

I really hope the series returns to its original art and music style when Mercury Steam leaves, in my opinion this has nothing to do with anything that ever made the Castlevania games what they were. Castlevania fan bias aside, i hope this game is more competent than Mirror and Los, Los was almost decent but far from great and mirror was complete rubbish :/. I'm still not convinced that Mercury Steam is particularily talented, but i hope they prove me wrong with this title.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I only played the one that was recently released on the PC. Graphically it is awesome, considering the original release date. Music was perfect and it was fun for the first 2 hours. But then it just got extremely frustrating. I don't even know why. There's nothing specific to point out. It's just the combination of little things that made it a chore to play.

 

[Worgen]

I wish they would realize we really want a return to the side scrolling days.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

I only played the one that was recently released on the PC. Graphically it is awesome, considering the original release date. Music was perfect and it was fun for the first 2 hours. But then it just got extremely frustrating. I don't even know why. There's nothing specific to point out. It's just the combination of little things that made it a chore to play.

I would say it was probably the whip being your only weapon that felt about as effective as a feather duster against most of the enemies making most of the combos worthless, the slow combat, the large hitboxes enemies have, the filler moments like the chupacabra, and the really tedious platforming.

 

[flare100]

Fantastic series. Really looking forward to this entry and hoping they improve on things from the first one at the same time.

 

[otakon17]

I only played the one that was recently released on the PC. Graphically it is awesome, considering the original release date. Music was perfect and it was fun for the first 2 hours. But then it just got extremely frustrating. I don't even know why. There's nothing specific to point out. It's just the combination of little things that made it a chore to play.

I would say it was probably the whip being your only weapon that felt about as effective as a feather duster against most of the enemies making most of the combos worthless, the slow combat, the large hitboxes enemies have, the filler moments like the chupacabra, and the really tedious platforming.

Agreed. And the timed Titan trials, whoever came up with that needs to be beaten with a sack of oranges. Enemies don't give you large enough windows to use any of the fancier moves so you're stuck usually doing 1-2 hit basic combos before you HAVE to dodge/block or you'll take a fair amount of damage. Combine that with wonky hit detection where you can get hit by attacks going under you while you're in the air and sometimes unresponsive controls.

However, it's still a decent game and well worth the 7 bucks I paid for it on sale. It looks like the new one will be like a 3D version of the Metroidvania style we're all more familiar with. I hope it works.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I actually liked Lords of Shadow, there are plenty of traditional Castlevania games, having a few that go against the mold isn't such a bad thing. We have dozens of 2D side scrolling Castlevania titles, when people complain about games getting stale etc, wishing for them to stay exactly the same is part of the problem. They will release more games like the classic games, I'm sure, the franchise is just taking a break.

As for those saying the combat was slow and never got to use combos, if you blocked at the right time it would stuns opponents and then you could unleash hell on them. At least that's how I found it. Some of the trials were stupid and the game did drag its feet at points when it came to progression of the story. LoS had its problems, sure, but over all, I really did enjoy it. I look forward to this title as well.

 

[IrenIvy]

I just recently played C: LoS and I liked it quite a lot, but I'm stuck on timed escape sequence in Resurrection. Fixed camera + PC controls with no diagonal-move buttons + running in hurry along a circular path = not a good combination. Strange that review didn't mention if they fixed the camera somehow.

What I'm disappointed is that fully revived Dracul looks pretty much as Gabriel from part 1, only paler. I like gray-haired thinner look from the ending of LoS quite a bit more and I don't really like that red pompous Dracul's outfit from screenshots. Even if it is a tribute to previous Castlevania games.

I wonder if Dracul will meet with a lot of gunfire and other military weapons and devices from the modern age. It would be a waste of setting if developers just used modern setting as a backdrop and didn't play all strengths of outdated character being dropped into more evolved environment.

BTW, at the end of the LoS one pedestrian can be noticed to film Dracul on her phone. I curiously wonder if this moment would play its role (even as an Easter Egg) somehow in C: LoS II.

 

[Scars Unseen]

I really think that they're going for the wrong influences here. I think that a combination of Prince of Persia's platforming and combat similar to that in Dragon's Dogma would be a closer match to what I would want to see in a 3D Castlevania game. Then again, pretty much anything that can be described as "like God of War" tends to turn me off since I never liked that series or anything too heavily inspired by it, so I'm a bit biased here.

Or maybe they could finally make a console 2D sidescroller again with high resolution sprites and environments. We haven't gotten one of those yet.

 

[strumbore]

Did The Escapist have to borrow one of IGN's writers or something, because I have never seen an article this poorly written (and full of errors) on this website before now.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Did anyone proofread this at all before posting it? Wow.

OT: I really liked LoS, but I had never played a Castlevania game before so I had no previous experience with the franchise. I thought the combat was fun and the environments were really entertaining to fight and traverse in. I thought it had a lot more heart and personal identity than most games do, and I dug the mystical/fantasy vibe. Plus the giant bosses were pretty cool to fight, and it had some decently tough puzzles that stumped me for a while.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I really think that they're going for the wrong influences here. I think that a combination of Prince of Persia's platforming and combat similar to that in Dragon's Dogma would be a closer match to what I would want to see in a 3D Castlevania game. Then again, pretty much anything that can be described as "like God of War" tends to turn me off since I never liked that series or anything too heavily inspired by it, so I'm a bit biased here.

Or maybe they could finally make a console 2D sidescroller again with high resolution sprites and environments. We haven't gotten one of those yet.

That could be cool personally i'd like to see something Dark Soulsish (less difficult, more platformy) with classic Castlevania styled music and an art style resembling a baroque(spelling?) picture. Visually i think they were on to something in the first 3D game on ps2, but i feel they have missed the entire point in these LOS games. To me the core of the franchise is the artstyle that draws a lot of inspiration from classical horror and mythology, something that is completely missing in Mercury Steams entries.

I'm all for something fresh and new, but when it's part of the franchise in name only, it's a little hard to swallow. The only thing that remains is basically a couple of names and some hidden musical cues. Tonally and gameplay-vise it's entirely different from anything that came before.

 

[Joel Bridge]

Before this the Only Castlevania game I beat was LoI but love LoS maybe you could say I really jabe by eastern archetype and cliches. Again feel castevania just western, I found quite enjoyable and does need scoure it gets.

 

[major_chaos]

Well I'm glad they are at least trying to give the game an identity this time, but I'm not holding my breath for it to actually be good. My biggest wish is that MC can go fail at something else and we can get an actually Castlevania game, although the odds of that aren't high because as a wise man once said: Konami is Konami and Konami is the worst"

 

[katsabas]

Castlevania in my opinion peaked with SOTN. I didn't buy LOS cause there were no vampires (no Dracula ? are you serious ?) and I couldn't explore. Not being able to explore in a castlevania game was a travesty. They rectified both of these things so I am happy and I hope it turns out well !

 

[Vargras]

Castlevania in my opinion peaked with SOTN. I didn't buy LOS cause there were no vampires (no Dracula ? are you serious ?) and I couldn't explore. Not being able to explore in a castlevania game was a travesty. They rectified both of these things so I am happy and I hope it turns out well !

There actually were vampires in LoS.

 

[Joel Bridge]

Everyone who wants a 2D Castlevania, just hear me out:

We don't need to be under the impression that what they give us is all that we're going to get, that we should be thankful any Castlevania game being is getting released at all. We don't have to humor Konami's delusions that Castlevania fans want a God of War clone. Because otherwise we'd play God of War; we don't have to buy this. We don't have to give them our money. Because the more you give to them, the more you convince them that we'd prefer God of Warsylvania over a 2D game. And we shouldn't stop at Mirror of Fate and be satisfied, we should stop giving them money until we have a 2D game with tight gameplay and mechanics.

We didn't want anything more to come out of the Lords of Shadow mythos, right? It was an experiment, and it failed, right? Shouldn't we just let this demon die a whimpering death?

I mean, look at Order of Ecclesia. It was the last good 2D Castlevania to be released in years, and the combat formula was mixed up, but we still knew it was Castlevania, because it had tight controls, incredible music, and great 2D sidescrolling gameplay that, in hard mode, actually made you think and use your glyphs in ingenious ways. That's what the series needs, more Order of Ecclesias. Isn't that what we want?

Once more, guys. I'm begging on my knees here; please, stop giving them money for Lords of Shadow. If you want to give your money away so badly, then give it to the Chasm kickstarter. Just let Konami realize this whole Lords of Shadow series was a mistake so they can get this series back on the right track.
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Not being able to explore in a castlevania game was a travesty.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/24/Castlevania_NES_box_art.jpg/250px-Castlevania_NES_box_art.jpg

I find the game quite successful, it good going in different direction just because small vocally minatory rather see series die in stagnant water is sad.