A fantastic reboot and a phenomenal start that the
franchise desperately needed- Castlevania is BACK!
Being a huge Castlevania fan, i was hoping that the series
was eventually given an A star treatment, especially after the series had
become lacklustre with an endless amount of hand-held "Metroidvania"
clones. The 3D ones of the past hadn't been amazing but a solid start, having
enjoyed Castlevania 64 and Lament of Innocence, though Curse of Darkness was
severely lacking. Still, it seemed that the Castlevania franchise would wallow
in a sea of mediocrity unless someone took it seriously. And thankfully, Konami
finally did- with a lot of help from a fresh new talent. Spanish studio Mercury
Steam were brought on board with gaming mastermind Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear
Solid fame to give Castlevania the boost it needed, and boy, it was worth the
wait.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a bold new re-imaging of the classic franchise, and it is a phenomenal piece of work. The first thing you will notice is how beautiful the visuals are- simply jawdropping. This universe is not traditional Castlevania at all, but is still very much similar. This Castlevania's world now is more like Lord of the Rings' Middle-Earth, complete with wargs, goblins, steeds, knights and trolls. But the core elements remain true to the roots and are recognisable. Gabriel Belmont is the protagonist, on a mission to rescue a loved one- traditional Castlevania fare at first glance, but revamped into something fresh and new. The story is much more epic than this now, a deep and powerful, enthrallingly well developed plot providing twists and turns along the way- i was on the edge of my seat as I was playing, it is expertly written, told and executed. The world is truly epic in scope, and the game itself is very long indeed- there are at least 20 hours of gameplay here, so you get your money's worth. The graphics are truly stunning. The art and design is mesmerising, they did a brilliant job in visualising everything here- from the enemies to locations to even the menus- and because the game is so long, it has you traversing through many levels; lush magical woodland realms, crumbling temples, dark caverns, snowy villages to huge towering Gothic castles- yes, everything that makes a Castlevania game is here, and it looks simply amazing. Top marks for the visuals- it all looks spectacular. Whilst it retains the classic romantic-gothic theme of Castlevania, it's re-imagined into more brutal medieval fantasy world, reminiscent of classic NES/SNES games, but with an added Tolkien and even Guillermo Del Toro vibe (developers Mercury Steam, have clearly looked at the director's iconic visual and art style for inspiration, and it works a treat). The monsters are also very varied too, you get familiar Castlevania faces as well as new ones, and there are loads of them- from spiders to zombies, all with a new look and equally terrifying to encounter. The boss battles are fantastic as well- some of them huge giants that usually have you climbing their massive bodies to kill them; most huge, some small- all epic. The music is outstanding; fully orchestrated and beautiful to listen to, elegantly capturing the atmosphere like a true big-budget film. The voice acting and cast is magnificent, you get the likes of Robert Carlyle as the protagonist, to Patrick Stewart, Jason Isaacs and Natascha McElhone; top class British actors that bring A star quality. All the characters are fully fleshed out very well.
The gameplay is brilliant with a tight combat system, plenty of moves and combos and a wide variety of attacks- it is very comfortable to control. You get special dark and light magic as well which give you even more attacks to play around with, and this gives way to some very solid, tactical fighting; you'll have fun mixing the magic up and using them on different enemies with different combos, identifying strengths and weaknesses and what works best on particular enemies. And because the fighting system is so fluid, combat all flows extremely well. As you make your way deeper into the game, Gabriel will have the ability to ride on various different creatures as you traverse through the game. The game is split up into mainly 3 types of gameplay- combat, platforming and puzzles- all of this is done really well and split up nicely- lots of climbing inbetween fighting and puzzle-solving gives it a nice blend of styles. There's also a lot of exploration to do, too. Although the game's paths may seem linear, you will be traversing back to many areas you missed before for collectibles via alternative multiple paths, giving rise to more playthroughs, especially if you're an achievement/trophy enthusiast.
The main issue however is that the game does almost nothing new- everything is taken from previous games in the genre, it's just a mish-mash of God of War, Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Collousus (boss fights), Uncharted/Prince of Persia/Tomb Raider/Assassin's Creed (climbing and puzzles) Rygar, Onimusha 3, Ninja Gaiden and previous CV game Lament of Innocence. Still, it takes the best aspects of those, and makes a great blend of it, though it does seem like i've played this game before and there are many scenes of plain deja vu. But it's a minor gripe as it's what the basis of video games are; taking things that have been done before, and adding your own spin, as long as it's fun to play then it doesn't matter. And Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is an absoloute blast to play through- wholly engaging throughout.
Other, again minor, problems are the lack of manual camera control (though the camera positions the action well enough and is very cinematic, i would have at least liked to control it myself because i'm very fussy like that and need control), and the lack of actual traditional Castlevania music, which there is none of, sadly. The music, whilst fantastic, has a tendency to repeat itself over and over, and considering there's only a few tracks in the game, means you will hear these a lot. The game is also mostly on the quiet side, very sombre and moody (it's a depressing story so I guess this fits it), but when the drama kicks in there are suitably bombastic music cues to contemplate this. Also, some inclusions of classic Castlevania themes would have been nice in some way or form, since the series' history has given away to some iconic music. But this is a reboot and re-imaging, so i can see how they want to carve it's own identity.
Other than that, it's a solid game and one of the best hack/slash adventures i've ever played. Being a long term Castlevania fan it didn't disappoint me at all, Mercury Steam, Hideo Kojima and new producer Dave Cox really nailed the concept very well and delivered what i've been wanting to have for a long time- a visually stunning adventure game with a deep soul that is truly epic in scope that harks back to the traditional action adventure days of Castlevania rather than the RPG-heavy "Metroidvania" ones which have become boring and oversaturated to me. At first glance, it may seem that it's not a Castlevania that younger fans will instantly recognise (having been fed a psuedo Japanese-heavy Anime style for the last decade or so), but the older fans of the series will see the roots well, as it has enough things in there to remind you that at it's heart, it very much still is classic Castlevania. This is fantastic start and a grand new reboot to what now seems a very promising future for Castlevania.
Graphics- 10/10 Art and Design- 10/10 Music- 8/10 Voice Acting- 9/10 Gameplay- 8/10 Control - 9/10 Story- 10/10 Replayability- 9/10
Overall- 9/10
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a bold new re-imaging of the classic franchise, and it is a phenomenal piece of work. The first thing you will notice is how beautiful the visuals are- simply jawdropping. This universe is not traditional Castlevania at all, but is still very much similar. This Castlevania's world now is more like Lord of the Rings' Middle-Earth, complete with wargs, goblins, steeds, knights and trolls. But the core elements remain true to the roots and are recognisable. Gabriel Belmont is the protagonist, on a mission to rescue a loved one- traditional Castlevania fare at first glance, but revamped into something fresh and new. The story is much more epic than this now, a deep and powerful, enthrallingly well developed plot providing twists and turns along the way- i was on the edge of my seat as I was playing, it is expertly written, told and executed. The world is truly epic in scope, and the game itself is very long indeed- there are at least 20 hours of gameplay here, so you get your money's worth. The graphics are truly stunning. The art and design is mesmerising, they did a brilliant job in visualising everything here- from the enemies to locations to even the menus- and because the game is so long, it has you traversing through many levels; lush magical woodland realms, crumbling temples, dark caverns, snowy villages to huge towering Gothic castles- yes, everything that makes a Castlevania game is here, and it looks simply amazing. Top marks for the visuals- it all looks spectacular. Whilst it retains the classic romantic-gothic theme of Castlevania, it's re-imagined into more brutal medieval fantasy world, reminiscent of classic NES/SNES games, but with an added Tolkien and even Guillermo Del Toro vibe (developers Mercury Steam, have clearly looked at the director's iconic visual and art style for inspiration, and it works a treat). The monsters are also very varied too, you get familiar Castlevania faces as well as new ones, and there are loads of them- from spiders to zombies, all with a new look and equally terrifying to encounter. The boss battles are fantastic as well- some of them huge giants that usually have you climbing their massive bodies to kill them; most huge, some small- all epic. The music is outstanding; fully orchestrated and beautiful to listen to, elegantly capturing the atmosphere like a true big-budget film. The voice acting and cast is magnificent, you get the likes of Robert Carlyle as the protagonist, to Patrick Stewart, Jason Isaacs and Natascha McElhone; top class British actors that bring A star quality. All the characters are fully fleshed out very well.
The gameplay is brilliant with a tight combat system, plenty of moves and combos and a wide variety of attacks- it is very comfortable to control. You get special dark and light magic as well which give you even more attacks to play around with, and this gives way to some very solid, tactical fighting; you'll have fun mixing the magic up and using them on different enemies with different combos, identifying strengths and weaknesses and what works best on particular enemies. And because the fighting system is so fluid, combat all flows extremely well. As you make your way deeper into the game, Gabriel will have the ability to ride on various different creatures as you traverse through the game. The game is split up into mainly 3 types of gameplay- combat, platforming and puzzles- all of this is done really well and split up nicely- lots of climbing inbetween fighting and puzzle-solving gives it a nice blend of styles. There's also a lot of exploration to do, too. Although the game's paths may seem linear, you will be traversing back to many areas you missed before for collectibles via alternative multiple paths, giving rise to more playthroughs, especially if you're an achievement/trophy enthusiast.
The main issue however is that the game does almost nothing new- everything is taken from previous games in the genre, it's just a mish-mash of God of War, Devil May Cry, Shadow of the Collousus (boss fights), Uncharted/Prince of Persia/Tomb Raider/Assassin's Creed (climbing and puzzles) Rygar, Onimusha 3, Ninja Gaiden and previous CV game Lament of Innocence. Still, it takes the best aspects of those, and makes a great blend of it, though it does seem like i've played this game before and there are many scenes of plain deja vu. But it's a minor gripe as it's what the basis of video games are; taking things that have been done before, and adding your own spin, as long as it's fun to play then it doesn't matter. And Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is an absoloute blast to play through- wholly engaging throughout.
Other, again minor, problems are the lack of manual camera control (though the camera positions the action well enough and is very cinematic, i would have at least liked to control it myself because i'm very fussy like that and need control), and the lack of actual traditional Castlevania music, which there is none of, sadly. The music, whilst fantastic, has a tendency to repeat itself over and over, and considering there's only a few tracks in the game, means you will hear these a lot. The game is also mostly on the quiet side, very sombre and moody (it's a depressing story so I guess this fits it), but when the drama kicks in there are suitably bombastic music cues to contemplate this. Also, some inclusions of classic Castlevania themes would have been nice in some way or form, since the series' history has given away to some iconic music. But this is a reboot and re-imaging, so i can see how they want to carve it's own identity.
Other than that, it's a solid game and one of the best hack/slash adventures i've ever played. Being a long term Castlevania fan it didn't disappoint me at all, Mercury Steam, Hideo Kojima and new producer Dave Cox really nailed the concept very well and delivered what i've been wanting to have for a long time- a visually stunning adventure game with a deep soul that is truly epic in scope that harks back to the traditional action adventure days of Castlevania rather than the RPG-heavy "Metroidvania" ones which have become boring and oversaturated to me. At first glance, it may seem that it's not a Castlevania that younger fans will instantly recognise (having been fed a psuedo Japanese-heavy Anime style for the last decade or so), but the older fans of the series will see the roots well, as it has enough things in there to remind you that at it's heart, it very much still is classic Castlevania. This is fantastic start and a grand new reboot to what now seems a very promising future for Castlevania.
Graphics- 10/10 Art and Design- 10/10 Music- 8/10 Voice Acting- 9/10 Gameplay- 8/10 Control - 9/10 Story- 10/10 Replayability- 9/10
Overall- 9/10
