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I enjoyed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow about as much as one can enjoy a fairly commonplace action, beat-em-up game. It had some good art direction, high production values, and solid mechanics. The only problem was that it did not resemble Castlevania in the least. Even having only completed 2 Castlevania games in my life (Lords of Shadow and Dawn of Sorrow), I can say with confidence that the clearly superior experience can be found in just about any of the 2D ("Metroidvania") style entries. Without the constant backtracking, exploration, and satisfying character progression, Lords of Shadow felt like another adequate but largely unnecessary God of War clone.
To no one's surprise, Lords of Shadow appealed to a more casual audience and subsequently sold a shit ton (pardon the technical mumbo jumbo). A couple of years later and we now have a sequel on the horizon that appears to be continuing along the path that began with the original. The cinematic trailer is easy on the eyes but hardly says anything about the game itself. If I were to infer anything from the cinematics, there will be an emphasis on using wildly powerful vampire abilities to decimate large groups of enemies. My guess is that Mercury Steam will hone their original vision while trying desperately to distract true Castlevania fans with constant references to classic Castlevania characters and lore (SPOILER - It wont work).
We will discuss this game along with our impressions of the recently announced Castlevania title for 3DS (also by Mercury Steam) after we get our hands on them at E3. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes to keep track of our E3 coverage!
Comments
12 years, 6 months ago
I'm not seeing any major changes. There are some things I noticed in the trailer that resemble previous mechanics from the 1st game. Its really depressing hearing Igarashi not working on a Castlevania title. Why can't IGA at least do the 3DS game?
12 years, 6 months ago
If you guys don't mind i'm gonna wait for Brad's rant, cause we all know his thought on the first one. Seriously, how does he come up with stuff like that Jericho thing.
12 years, 6 months ago
I'm only interested in this game if I can play that Belmont to rip Gabriel a new one.
12 years, 6 months ago
Hitman Gameplay (Fans will be very pleased)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9_pal859keA#!
Uncharted: Female Edition (Looks like it could be pretty good eh?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pory8OJKfak&feature=channel&list=UL
12 years, 6 months ago
return of.............INVISIBLE WALLS
12 years, 6 months ago
wonder what game mechanics Cleveland Steamer is going to steal from this time? Other than the usual Shadow Of The Collosus and Dante's Inferno stuff.
12 years, 6 months ago
Really looking forward to this. Hoping Mercury Steam can improve upon Lords of Shadow. It's just a CGI trailer but at least we can tell the production value will be through the roof again. I'll wait for a gameplay trailer to help me form a better opinion.
12 years, 6 months ago
Meh with soo many other hack and slash games in the works and are more higher up in the "must have" list...this game is just not very interesting from what ive seen. Like others have said very little changes and invisible walls....i wonder if not being able to control the camera is back....i wanna hear what brad has to say on this
12 years, 6 months ago
If its just bland hack and slash again... cmon.
12 years, 6 months ago
Was that supposed to be a trailer or a music video somebody at Konami or Mercury Steam threw together? lol
Joking aside, from a setting standpoint I'm at least glad that they're exploring events between the end of that first game and it's epilogue. There really wasn't enough exposition at the end of Lords of Shadow to make that jump believable. But this now begs the question; Do they have a full trilogy/saga plotted out? Or was it just a carrot on a stick to make new fans believe that this is eventually going to be building up to something big while the dev team is really just just winging-it? Just some food for thought.
And while I'm not of particular fan of the LoS continuity, I do believe it's a very well put together and competent game. It just needs to find it's defining mark, something that sets it apart from modern Hack'n'slash platformers.