Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Castlevania has been introduced to the public back in 1986, and since then the series has been a great success with thousands and thousands of fans dying for a brand new title every single year. While the majority of them were great games, Castlevania...

The original Lords of Shadow is one of my favorite games of the past generation. The work developer Mercury Steam did to revitalize the series and bring a new take on the Castlevania lore was both interesting and well-crafted. Sure, the original had its...

Environments are boring and repetitive, combat is uninspired, platforming is a joke and the stealth elements are some of the worst ever conceived from a major publisher. It’s a dismal affair through and through and an absolute slog to finish. MercurySteam has publicly stated that they...

Combat might be improved, but forced stealth sections cause nothing but dismay and frustration. The end result is something that doesn’t come near the level of overall quality found in the original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

MercurySteam has certainly proved itself as a studio that can competently handle a pre-existing franchise. If anything, their own gothic vision of this franchise, coupled with their expertise of engaging combat, gives MercurySteam a solid portfolio if they were ever asked to take on say, the Darksiders series.

The follow-up is a hostage to a story it tells badly, and a prisoner within a dull urban maze that refuses to become a characterful exploratory playground. To live on but to be diminished - that's the fate of the vampire in Castlevania's lore. Sadly, it's a bit of an epitaph for this well-meaning but bloated game as a whole.

It may not strike newcomers to the Lords of Shadow tale with such force, but it's nonetheless a surprising and fulfilling conclusion to Lords of Shadow 2's distinct plot. Regardless of your experience with the saga, if you have the patience to get through the rough start, you'll discover a much better game waiting for you on the other side.

It’s baffling that developers who garnered such acclaim for their successful 3D reinvention of a long-running series could not only fail to improve on their formula with the sequel, but make a game that’s distinctly worse in almost every possible way. Who ever thought playing as Dracula would be so thoroughly dull?