Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 Review-Dracula’s Back

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is the final entry in the trilogy (counting Mirror of Fate, of course) developed by Mercury Steam. The Spanish developer flourished with the first Lords of Shadow game, which was highly praised despite a few limitations, such as the fixed camera perspective.

However, the game was co-developed with Kojima Productions, so there were a few doubts on Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, since this time Mercury Steam worked on it alone. I’m glad to say that it is a fine action/adventure that should be considered by every fan of the genre, even though it is far from perfect. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The big news is that this time around, following the storyline of the Lords of Shadow DLCs, the main character is now the legendary vampire Dracula. In Resurrection, Gabriel Belmont is forced to steal the Forgotten One’s power in order to prevent him to break his prison, but doing so corrupts Gabriel and ultimately turns him into the immortal Dracula.

I’m not a lover of all things vampire, but honestly, this plot twist adds a a lot of charisma to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. The great Robert Carlyle returns to voice Dracula, and as anyone who is familiar with his roles in movies and TV series could tell you, he is an outstanding villain/anti-hero.  The character model created by Mercury Steam is also simply fantastic, with raven dark hair and a beautiful long red dress, and the overall package translates to a badass representation of Dracula.

 

Moreover, his moves in combat are also great looking, ranging from the Shadow Whip to Void Magic and  Chaos Magic. The Shadow Whip has the longer reach and is Dracula’s basic weapon, while Void and Chaos Magic need to be unlocked and properly charged with souls to be used; Void Magic is effectively Ice Magic and equips Dracula with a long ice sword, which enables him to steal enemies’ life and even freeze enemies in place, while Chaos Magic is effectively Fire Magic and charges Dracula’s fists with fire, enabling him to do more damage and break through blocks ((the downside is a shorter reach, though), not to mention hurling fire balls.

There are many more tools at our disposal though, such as the sleek dodge move which can also tackle enemies to the ground, or the synchronized block that stuns enemies for a few seconds aftewards. Later in the game Dracula unlocks the Mist power, which will prove to be most invaluable as it essentially makes him invulnerable to physical attacks; there is a cooldown, of course, but overall I’ve found this to be often useful, especially with boss battles; Mist is also used to move through doors in order to get to otherwise inaccessible (and usually optional) areas.

There isn’t anything particularly new in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2′s combat system, but it is very solid, competent and fun nonetheless. This isn’t the hardest action game on the market, but you’ll still need to carefully learn the patterns and abilities of your enemies in order to succeed. Moreover, boss battles have been nailed by Mercury Steam in my opinion, as they hit the fine line between easy and frustrating; in order to prevail all of Dracula’s powers will need to be exploited, but you won’t throw your controller away in exasperation. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that all of the encounters look very epic.

However, not all of Lords of Shadow 2′s gameplay is equally interesting. Just as its predecessor, this is a very long game by action/adventure standards, which means that Mercury Steam thought wise to add some non-combat sections to increase variety and break up the frantic pace for some time. Unfortunately, they are not as successful, especially the “stealth” sections, in which Dracula is forced to go into a predefined spot in the shadows and change into a rat, enabling him to sneak past guards undetected and sometimes to reach otherwise inaccessible areas.

While the rat’s theme obviously fits with Dracula, the problem is that this so-called stealth is rather tedious and unimaginative. There is only one predetermined way to progress, so your creativity is thrown away and if you don’t do exactly as needed you end up dying at the hands of the Golgoth Guards, which are impossible to fight; early on this is explained with Dracula’s weakness after his awakening, but even when all his powers are back these Guards remain unassailable foes, which doesn’t make the slightest sense as Dracula successfully fights all of the strongest demons from Hell, including Lucifer himself. Clearly this is a design issue that leads straight into some disappointment - I would have expected better stealth options for the “Prince of Darkness”; perhaps a similar approach to Batman: Arkham could have suited the game better, with Dracula having stealth as a choice with which to deal with enemies instead of direct combat.

There is also a decent chunk of platforming in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, as the series’ heritage demands. It is fairly good and rewarding, for both story and gameplay perspectives, as it is possible to learn more on places and even enemies by collecting the various diaries; moreover, Dracula can increase his health, void magic and chaos magic bars by collecting Pain Boxes, which are scattered around the levels. However, on a couple of occasions the path wasn’t really clear, which led to some minor frustration.

Graphically, the game looks quite good on PC. Some textures aren’t exactly breathtaking up close, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 won’t win any award for technology, but overall it’s still eye-pleasing. This is also thanks to the great art style displayed throughout Dracula’s castle, since Mercury Steam was able to perfectly capture the gothic theme. Sadly, the same can’t be said about the modern environments, too often dull and repetitive. Oscar Araujo’s soundtrack is consistently awesome, though, fitting Dracula’s lingering sadness like a glove.