Vampires, werewolves, crosses and a Belmont. Sounds an awful lot like the makings of a Castlevania game, but Castlevania this is not. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow follows Gabriel Belmont, a member of the Brotherhood of Light, who seeks to avenge and resurrect his fallen wife. Gabriel sets out to seek and annihilate the Lords of Shadow in an effort to reassemble the God Mask, of which he believes has the power to bring his wife back to the land of the living. Along the way, Gabriel encounters great evils and allies, such as the mysterious Pan, who lends his aid to Gabriel for unknown reasons. While LoS borrows names and mythology from the franchise, there a few ties to previous iterations, but that doesn’t deter Gabriel’s story from being a well told story. The story is told through a variety of devices including intros to each level narrated by Patrick Stewart as well as a plethora of cutscenes throughout the 15-20 hour game. Sadly, Gabriel’s role in the tale varies sporadically, with his character beginning as an interesting lead and dwindling into a silent protagonist for the mid-section of the game. While I enjoyed Gabriel as the hero overall, I do wish he had been a bigger component of his own tale. While the story is enough to pull players through the game, the scenery and wonderfully imaginative character design, especially some of the grandiose boss encounters all lend towards the games’ epic scale. That’s not to say there are some issues that keep Castlevania from the heights of it strongest brethren, but the narrative and overall design are some of LoS’ strongest points.
LoS implements gameplay elements from a variety of successful action and platformer games from the last decade. The combat is a hack and slash not unlike God of War with an explorative style akin to Darksiders. The primary weapon Gabriel wields is a whip/cross, which is one of the few Castlevania staples that make an appearance. Combat is mixed between two main attacks, a light and a heavy, which can be combined with a variety of moves to create aerial attacks, counter attacks, and a variety of others. Gabriel also gains secondary weapons over the journey, which can be used in tandem with attacks to devastate most small-scale encounters. On top of this, there are “light” and “shadow” modes that Gabriel can utilize to revitalize or increase attack power, respectively. There is also a heavy dose of platforming and climbing segments, including massive boss fights that can only be toppled by scaling their towering bodies. Outside of the colossus boss fights, the platforming is a mixed bag, often feeling sluggish and occasionally frustrating. Gabriel also gains new magic abilities as you progress through the game, which unfortunately are typically used for puzzles or to progress and emphasis on using these abilities in combat is minimal. The combat lends nicely to the game for the most part, albeit its’ repetitive nature as well as the fact that it has certainly been seen in other famed games from the genre. LoS departs from its famed predecessors by being a level based venture, as opposed to a large map that unlocks via exploration. That being said, levels can be replayed to access areas that were previously inaccessible due to the lack of an item or power.
There are varying amounts of levels within each chapter, 12 chapters in all. The environments within each of these chapters are well varied, and nary revisited other than for replays. For all of the strengths, Castlevania has a glaring weakness, and one of the most noticeable is the camera. Castlevania features a camera that steers its’ sights towards some of the games more gorgeous landscapes or towering enemies, but this comes at the cost of being able to control the camera directly. The lack of camera control is upsetting, mainly during combat, searching for some of the hidden items, as well as some of the platforming segments. The worst part of this debacle is that the right stick isn’t even being used at all over the course of the game other than as a means to absorb “shadow” magic by pressing the stick in. It not only feels like a missed opportunity, but a glaring flaw in the overall design. There is an upside to the camera and that is the stunning views and vistas that it often pans upon over the course of Gabriel’s travels. The environments and views within LoS are often gorgeous, and the camera does great to focus on these key locations. The camera highlights the massive castles in the distance or it stays behind to see Gabriel at the light of the end of a tunnel. The game is filled with boss encounters, and this is typically where the vast amount of enemy design comes into play. The smaller enemies are typically repeated more often than not, but the bosses are wildly varying, each having their own unique attributes.
On top of the (mostly) beautiful design, LoS is accompanied by an epic soundtrack, which plays well into the games different environments and encounters. Fans of the series won’t find much familiar in the sounds of the game, but the overall sounds of the game take the scenery that much higher in their impact. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow might have been better being called Lords of Shadow. There are so few ties to the previous Castlevania games that fans of the series looking for another fix will more than likely be disappointed with what they find. That’s not to say Lords of Shadow is at all disappointing. It is in fact quite the opposite. Most of the 20-hour quest is stunning, especially in terms of the variety in design. Gabriel’s trek to resurrect his wife will keep the attention of most, especially with the well directed cutscenes. Combat isn’t anything fresh if you’ve played a 3rd person hack and slash recently, but it is still well implemented and suits the games’ overall style. The only downside is that the combat can sometimes become repetitive due to the long nature of the game, especially since most of Gabriel’s gained abilities don’t mesh well with the combat system. The only other downside is the lack of camera control, which led me into plenty of invisible walls and awkward fights. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow may not be a Castlevania game, but that certainly doesn’t hold it back from being a fantastic monster hunt that gives me hope for future 3D games featuring the Castlevania tag.
