There have been many games over the years that have made the change from 2D to 3D, and there are many in that set that didn't make the change very well. The Castlevania series was amoung that list, it did 3D so badly that it went back to 2D, until now. LoS is the first 3D Castlevania in over a decade and they have finally gotten the formula right.
LoS is an action adventure that focuses on the action part of those two. The story takes place in 1047 and you play a man named Gabriel Belmont. This man is on a quest to find a means to revive his wife, who has just been murdered. He learns he must journey through the lands of darkness and defeat 3 lords of shadow in order to collect 3 items that will bring his wife back when combined.
Now the important thing about this story that people need to know is that this has absolutely no impact with any pre-existing Castlevania game. LoS is the first in its own series, so if you've never played a Castlevania game before, this is a perfect place to start.
The controls for the game are simple to pick up on, but difficult to master. You'll have three forms of attack; a straight forward attack that does more damage but is limited to a single target, a wide angle strike thats hits all around you but does lower damage, and a set of sub weapons that has various uses depending on the situation. Like with most actions based games, you have to link these attacks together in different combos in order the defeat your enemies. Now there is also a magic system in the game that lets you add one of two effects to your attacks. One lets you heal yourself with each successful attack, and one that doubles your damage. Now coming from a person who doesn't play these type of games very often, this control setup works out very well. There wasn't a single time when I was fighting the controls in order to do what I wanted.
Where LoS has its weakness however is the camera. You are limited to a fixed camera throughout the entire game. These days, players can't stand that but personally I've played other games with camera views like that so I was already used to it. However, I will admit that there were two times that I died from the camera, but in both cases the path to go was towards the screen and out of view. The trick to fixed cameras is when the angle changes, stop moving for a split second to allow the control to reset. Now the reason for the fixed camera is there are alot of hidden paths and secrets in LoS and they are much harder to find when the camera isn't pointing straight at them. And I know item hunting completionists will want to explore every nook and cranny. Bottomline, camera isn't perfect, but its not a game breaker either.
The sounds of LoS were very good. Voice acting was top notch with all people really getting into their characters. Robert Carlye plays the voice of Gabriel and he is joined by Patrick Stewart who takes on a second character named Zobek and also doubles as the narrator for each levels intro. And I must say, Patrick Stewart can read a book. There were many times I finished reading the intro before Stewart got done, and I still let it continue because Stewart just nailed the atmosphere of every level. It's a pity he wasn't nominated for best voice actor in any game of the year awards.
Now sad to say, the music was a let down. It wasn't bad don't get me wrong, but nothing was really memorable either. There wasn't any points in the game where the music really stuck in my head and there even times when I didn't even hear any music which is not something I'm used to in a Castlevania game. It's minor, but I was hoping for a tune to get stuck in my head while playing.
Now since LoS is a single player game, it keeps the player going with a long and slightly difficult campaign, which is a reason this review took so long. An average player will get at least 16 hours worth of play time into this game, if not more. I had many of my friends ask me if I was done with that game yet as I was playing it. And I've recently read that new levels will be released soon as downloads, so it is well worth the money. Now I say slightly difficult because there are parts where LoS just simply get brutal on you with the combat, but this was mostly on the bosses. They have their patterns and weaknesses, but you will die a few times as you figure out what to do. Good news is, there are plenty of checkpoints in the game so you'll always start back close if not right at where you died.
Lords of Shadow turned out to be alot of fun, and alot of challenge. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants to play a action game with a good story behind it. One needs to play this game just to see the ending by itself, I promise your jaw will hit the floor when your watching it. And I don't mean watching it on YouTube, you don't get anywhere near the same effect that way. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow earns a final score of an 8 out of 10, and a good buy.
Next time on GameFawx, grab your disks, and rev up your light cycles. We're going to the game grid of Tron: Evolution.
See you on the next posting of GameFawx.
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