Baresark said:
I don't think this game deserves a score so low. I am almost done with it (DAMN YOU RESPONSIBILITIES!) and at this point I would give it a 7/10. I think they made a couple of design decisions that were bad. The weird part is, I can't even really complain about the stealth sections. Why you ask? Because they can mostly be beaten in less than 5 minutes. That is such a tiny part of the game that it bears hardly any mentioning at all. The thing that has made the game worse for me is actually the free camera and the open world design. The first one gets a 9/10 from me. I thought the locked camera would be annoying but I soon learned to really like it. I don't think it's worth having a free camera in a combat heavy game without a lock on. I get attacked by surprise so many times from the back that it's just annoying. Though I do feel the combat is still very very good. But the open world design is bad, IMO, because back tracking to find items is not happening. I don't want to run through those areas again. It's as simple as that. Those two things bring my score down a bit, but it's still a good game.
I agree with you on the part about the stealth sections. At first they seemed a bit jaring, but then I looked at it from the perspective of "You've been asleep for who knows how many years", and they really don't take that long too. Its odd though you should be frustrated by the open world and finding items later, because they included a mechanic specifically for that with the dodo bird eggs. In fact this is exactly like Curse of darkness on the PS2, in which later in the game you could return to areas with new abilities in a largely interconnected open world, and obtain them. so that was a feature I was quite happy to see return. only difference i believe is curse of darkness let you draw a note on your map for later, which would have been useful with a full map screen in this game. but ah well.
OT: I may be a bit biased, but I've beaten the game, and personally think its brilliant. I will admit there are some flaws, a few clipped corners with the mist form, some of the enemies get pretty op later on....but that being said, you play as a fracking VAMPIRE. compared to the first lords of shadow, i think that made the combat 100x better because you can dash around so easily, striking and meleeing, before switching very smoothly into one of your magics with awesome movesets and special attacks. the games not perfect. no game is perfect. but a 4/10 is rather harsh, and I berated mr Sterling on his review a bit too. I don't know about squandered polish, but its a 3d castlevania that's Beautifully dark, in my opinion has an interesting retelling of the story of the Belmonts (yes it barely touches on all the stuff in between, but still), and has some really interestingly designed bosses too, no shadow of the colossus style battles this time. 8/10, loses points for no full map screen, only letting you see the area you're in, and minor glitches here and there but nothing super game breaking.