Останні рецензії користувача MarioFanaticXV

Lords of Shadow is not your typical Castlevania game... It is neither the adventure game that was popularized by Symphony of the Night, nor the pure platformer that most of the games before it were. Instead, Lords of Shadow is much more a hack and slash in the style of Onimusha, with platforming elements that feel similar to the 3D Prince of Persia games. But how well does it manage to blend these elements?


Visual Presentation: 2.8/3

Visually, the game is absolutely stunning; it's one of the finest looking games I've ever seen... And to top that off, its system requirements are surprisingly low for such an amazing loking game. Every scene has so much detail put into it, every motion is fluid and smooth, every creature has nuances that add to their designs. Graphically, there is nothing this game lacks, and for the most part, graphics this good would be good enough for a pure CGI movie.

Story wise, the game spares no expense in making sure that it has an elaborate tale to tell... And in ways, this both strengthens and weaknes the experience. On one hand, any game this long should have something to connect the journey, but on the other hand, there are times where it feels like it's dragging on- especially during the first half of the game.

Furthermore, there's the DLC which is automatically included in the PC version... But to avoid major spoilers for the main game, I'll not discuss that here. Just know that there's definitely some problems with that in the art and story department.


Audio Presentation: 1.4/2

There is constant voice acting throughout the game... And it's some of the best you'll ever hear in a game. They actually pushed this as one of the main selling points- if you haven't seen the trailer yet, give it a watch and you'll see what I mean. There's nothing to complain about here.

As for the music, however... Don't get me wrong, the music has this amazing, epic feel to it... Every song is beautiful, grandiose, and powerful; but therein lies the problem. While the songs are all amazing on their own, there's an art to placing powerful pieces of music into a game... They should be saved for key, critical moments, to further emphasize their importance. Duel of the Fates is one of my favorite songs of all time, but it would not have felt nearly as powerful if every song in Star Wars had the same power behind it- and unfortunately, that is the trap that Lords of Shadow has fallen into. When all the songs instill a sense of awe, never does it feel like the game truly knows what parts are supposed to be awe inspiring and which are not.


Gameplay: 3.6/5

As touched on before, the game feels a lot like Onimusha meets Prince of Persia... Though make no mistake, the game does have a unique style all its own.

There two main portions to gameplay, combat and platforming. Platforming is secondary to combat, so we'll touch on that first; if you've played the 3D Prince of Persia titles such as Sands of Time, you'll know much of what to expect; scaling ruined castles and crumbling mountains, with lots of hanging onto ledges and scaling steep walls. Where the game comes into its own for this portion are through the upgrade items that you get through the game, allowing Gabriel to perform feats the Prince would be unable to. Overall, the execution of these elements is well done, though the challenges are rather on the easy side.

The other major part of the game is the combat, where Lords of Shadow truly shines. It takes basic whip play of Lament of Innocence, and vastly improves upon it enough that the game may indeed focus on it as the primary portion of the game, instead of merely being a means to the end of exploration. Combat is fast and fluid, and takes a couple cues from Onimusha, with enemies dropping spheres you can absorb for magic, and timed blocks being a critical element against stronger foes, allowing you to break their attacks and counter attack for heavy blows. Grabriel's moveset starts rather modest, but as you gain experience, you'll unlock a plethora of attacks which serve different purposes, allowing for a great ammount of variety in combat.

In addition to the whip, Gabriel also has magic and subweapons to use in combat. Returning from previous Castlevania games are daggers and holy water, while newcomers are fairies and the dark crystal. Daggers act as your basic projectile weapon, and can be empowered by dark magic. Holy water can be used as a grenade-like explosive, or can be used with light magic to create a shield which protects you from certain melee attacks. Fairies can stun enemies, or be combined with light magic to act as homing projectiles. And finally the dark crystal acts as your typical screen-clearing super weapon. Unlike classic Castlevania titles, Gabriel can hold all these items simultaenously, and may also hold multiple of each- with the exception of the dark crystal, which is limited to one at a time.

Back to the subject of magic, it is divided into two types: Light and dark. Light magic heals you with every attack you make, while dark magic increases damage dealt. They also each have their own unique combos, including combining with supweaons as mentioned before. When you're NOT using magic of either type, you build up focus; when your focus meter is full, every hit against enemies causes them to spawn neutral essences, which you can absorb to refill your magic, very similar to how soul absoption works in Onimusha. If you go for a while without attacking an enemy or if you take damage yourself, your focus resets to zero.

That being said, while the combat is excellent, there is the problem of quick time events... Quick time events are constantly appearing throughout the game, not only in boss fights, but as finishers for most stronger enemies, and even in most grab sequences for minor enemies (which, I might add, is generally the best way to take out weak enemies early one). While they're interesting to see the first time, they really detract from the flow of the game, and beyond that there's few things more frustrating then a boss inexplicably healing because you failed a quick time event... Yes, they do that here.

Beyond the main focuses of the game, there's also various puzzles scattered throughout... These are of many different varieties, and range from simple to clever, though none of them are overly complicated- Mensa trials these are not. That being said, most are well designed and won't require any outside help. For the exceptions, most puzzles have a scroll hidden in the level that will outright give away the solution if you're willing to forgo the XP reward for the puzzle.

Finally, I should touch on the problem of backtracking... There are plenty of items hidden throughout the game (and plenty not-so-hidden) that you simply cannot reach on your first run through a level. This made sense in the exploratory games like Symphony of the Night, where getting new abilities to explore more of the castle was a pivotal part of the game... But with a stage-by-stage linear design like this, it just feels like it's breaking immersion. You have to use abilities which, storyline-wise, make no sense for Gabriel to have at that point- because that's how the story flows, level by level, with each clearly coming before the next, in a set order that wouldn't allow him the time to backtrack to a previous area.


Final Verdict: 7.8/10

All in all, Lords of Shadow is a great game, but not without a few glaring flaws. If you go in expecting what you know of Castlevania, you will invariably be disappointed. But if you go in looking for a new action game, you might be pleasantly surprised... What Lords of Shadow does, it actually does quite well, and I'm eager to get the chance to play through its sequels in the future.

-The Fanatic