I've been a fan of the Castlevania series in almost every one of its incarnations. While I think the high points of the series were Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood / Dracula X, I also thoroughly enjoyed the "Metroidvania" entries, especially the first one, Symphony of the Night. Just about every entry, even from the beginning with the first NES game, has been what I think a higher class of action/adventure game, with superior, moodier soundtracks, much more detailed and atmospheric graphics, uncompromising in its difficulty and challenge, and larger in its scope.
The exceptions, I always thought, were the 3D entries. They always seemed to fall short of the Castlevania standard, and seemed to slip into mediocrity as soon as it made the transition. This latest game, Lords of Shadow, I think is an exception to that rule and tries very, very hard to reach for the grand sweeping design of classic Castlevania games, and mostly achieves it, I think.
The game has been billed as a "reboot" of the Castlevania franchise and appears to take the path of an origin story, which I'm typically not a huge fan of, and I feel is often a necessary inconvenience. So as is typical of an origin story, I enjoyed the characters of this game: Gabriel Belmont (presumably the first of the clan) is a troubled hero, bent on revenging his wife's death and hopes to bring her back to life with a mystical artifact called the God Mask. This story isn't typical Castlevania lore, but you can excuse it as part of an origin story. We do deal with lots of typical Castlevania bestiary like werewolves, zombies, vampires, goblins, trolls, animated skeletons, and suits of armor, but the setting is what throws it off for me most of the time. There's a tour through a vampire castle, for example, but it is just a short stop along the path of a much longer journey that includes swamps, mountain cliffsides, enchanted forests, deep caverns, deserted wastelands, and ancient city ruins. While the Castle levels are mostly great and well realized (albeit a little non traditional, because it provides the game's obligatory ice and snow level), it's over quickly and there's easily a third more of the game left to get through.
While the gameplay mechanics of a castlevania game aren't what you would call unique or original, Lords of Shadow definitely flies in the face of any kind of originality and borrows HEAVILY from just about every popular action genre on the market. The core of the game is a combo-heavy beat-em-up with fixed camera angles, straight out of God of War/Dante's Inferno, complete with contextual quicktimer events and finishing moves. You also use experience points to purchase new combos and moves, which is typical fare for this genre. One little changeup is the magic system, which is pretty simple: activate light magic to regain health during battle, and activate dark magic to increase attack power. Both are surprisingly effective in battle, considering the ubiquitous health fountains are scattered pretty sparingly throughout the game, and some of the larger beasts require quit a bit of flailing to kill unless you turn on the dark magic to increase your hit power. Your health and magic levels are all, of course, upgradeable by collecting colored gems. Again, straight of of GoW.
Then there are puzzles, which are also very similar to God of War. It usually involves manipulating some kind of ancient mechanism to unlock a door or open a new path. Some are ingenious (including a neat little memorization puzzle that takes place in, of all things, a music box), while others are just plain tedious and based on little more than trial and error. There's even a minigame that's like a scaled-down version of chess but more frustrating to play due to some confusing magic rules. The worst is the second to last level, which contains two of the more tedious mechanism puzzles, followed by an entire level full of Lost Woods - style portals and enemies that can kill you in two hits. If you die, you have to start over from the beginning. It's a cheap, tiresome note on which to end the game.
If that's not enough variety for you, there are also three titan battles that are straight out of Shadow of the Colossus. These fight scenes come out of nowhere and seem to have little bearing on the story other than being yet another obstacle to overcome. While they're mostly enjoyable to play, they feel nothing like a Castlevania game and feel very tacked-on, like the developers thought they needed one more feature in this game.
Finally there's the ever-present platforming puzzles, which are a lift right out of the Uncharted games. While the mechanic feels mostly good and predictable, they're much less inventive than Uncharted ever was, and end up mostly being tedious. One highlight, though, is the inclusing of rapelling and swinging with your primary whip/chain weapon, which is a nice nod to Castlevania IV. Then there's the obligatory Clocktower level in the vampire castle, which ends up being a rather genious level-long platforming puzzle consisting of turning gears and levers that feels right at home in the Castlevania universe.
The game's saving grace, and the one that pushes it from being just a middling, derivative action game, is the graphics and sound design. This is easily one of the best looking games of the current generation, with incredibly detailed graphics, beautiful lighting effects, rich textures, fluid motion-captured animation, and intricate character designs. The soundtrack, which has little touches of the Castlevania IV themes here and there, is beautiful and dramatic, and at times addicting. They're nowhere near as infectious as the original Castlevania themes like Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, or Wicked Child, but they're remarkable in their own way.
In the end, Lords of Shadow is the definitive mixed bag. Audiovisually it's a great game, with amazing graphics and sound. The origin story isn't much like a typical Castlevania story, but it is enjoyable on its own merits and, to avoid spoilers, we get back on track with Vampire hunting when the end game epilogue rolls around. The level designs are impressive and nuanced, but again they don't mesh with the Castlevania universe very much. The gameplay mechanics are derivative at best, but they're still mostly fun, aside from a few tedious mechanism and platforming puzzles. I had fun with this game, and I'm excited about more Castlevania games in this format. The developers are obviously very talented, and with perhaps a little more focus, they can bring the true Castlevania "feel" back home in this latest incarnation. For now though, this game may not feel a lot like Castlevania but it's still a fun playthrough with enough unlockables and replay value to warrant a buy.
