Lords of Shadow

Castlevania is a series that has had a lot of trouble transitioning into 3D. Unlike Mario, Sonic, and Link, the Belmonts have not had the type of success in the field of 3D as they had in 2D. Castlevania on the N64 was nothing to write home about, and the recent outings on the PS2, while better than the N64 game, where also nothing special. For a while it looked as if Castlevania was destined to stay within the realm of handhelds, downloadable games, and all of them 2D. So it was about time that Konami brought one of the oldest series roaring into the modern era with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

You are Gabriel Belmont, a holy knight on a quest to revive his lost love. You are armed with the Combat Cross, a weapon that reminds me a lot of the whip Belmonts of the past have used in their eternal war against Dracula and his minions of the night. As your journey unfolds you upgrade your weapon to help you progress through the maze like levels, and the upgrades also enable you go back to previous levels to find health and magic upgrades that alluded you before. The cross is also your primary weapon and what lets you partake in one of the game’s best features: combat.

Combat in Lords of Shadow demands a lot from the player. At first it may seem that you can mindlessly spam your two attacks, but you will soon come to learn that you have to use everything Gabriel has at his disposal to succeed. You have to pull off combos, dodge enemies, block and counter demons, and know when is the right time to use your light magic (heals you whenever you land a hit) or use your black magic (your attacks to more damage). Your two magic’s are powered by the souls that your enemies drop, and you have to choose which one you refill: push the left stick in, and the souls you absorb go to your light magic, push the right stick in and your black magic is refilled. You can also get more of these souls by performing combos without getting hit; this fills your combo meter, and once full, every hit you hit an enemy they drop souls. If you are going to get anywhere in this game, you have to master this combat system.

The game feels like a mashing of a ton of different games. A few bosses play almost exactly like Shadow of the Colossus, and climbing (which feels much like a combination of Sands of Time and Shadow of the Colossus) also plays an important part in traversing the world. But do not take this as a mark against the game, if you are going to take ideas from games, why not take them from games regarded as amazing? Lords of Shadow is amazing to look at, it’s a shame then that this is such a double edged sword when it comes to the 360; while the game does look great, it slows down quite a bit. From what I have heard this is not the case when it comes to the PS3, and if that’s true then you can really start to see the age of the 360. The slow down doesn’t affect the game too much, but it does take away from a bit of the amazing places you travel to on your journey.

The story is pretty good so far, and provides a nice framework for the series reboot that Konami has said this game is. Patrick Stewart provides a great performance as your fellow knight Zobek, and as the narrator, while Robert Carlyle as Gabriel also does a pretty good job. The supporting cast also shine, and help to provide a sense that this is a real (albeit very different) place in 11th Europe.

My biggest problem with the game is the camera. While it is nice to not have to babysit it since each area is individual shot much, like the original Resident Evil, it also comes with the same problems that Resident Evil had. More times than not I could not see the enemies who are attacking me, and with camera changing constantly, it can be trying to move Gabriel around the environments. Once you do get use to the camera, things do get easier but it never really feels right.

It has taken Konami forever to bring Castlevania to the world of 3D, but MercurySteam and Kojima Productions finally did it, and they were able to make a pretty good game in the process. Sure it does fall in a few places (camera and frame rate), the story and combat more than make up for it. Also be prepared to rage quit...a lot.