Castlevania Lords of Shadow 1 is a truly wonderful, Gothic adventure game that dabbles with both a dark and light universe.
A world that feels alive, beautiful and intriguing. A world where you play as Gabriel Belmont, a holy warrior set out to save his beloved, Marie.
Now. We all know what the game is about by now so I'll get to why Im reviewing this as well as the sequel after all these years.
After being hyped and wanting the sequel after completing this, loving it to death I began realizing some grim errors and amazing aspects in both games. Things that need to be called out.
What I found that made Lords of Shadow 1 so outstandingly impactful and epic in every sense of the word was its setting, its music, its beautiful combination of Gothic adventure, horror and action in locations and creative sequences that never once felt boring or lifeless.
Obstacles could occur, but not in the shape of losing immersion or sense of emotional connection to this adventure.
The game upon every mission start or completion would give you an impactful dialog, narration by Zobek ( Patrick Stewart) who'd explain every bit of lore to you, make you care and feel for the character.
The plot twist at the end, revelation of Gabriels most haunting action, let alone his dramatic change into Dracul was ever so powerful. But aside from that... the way the game ended left you feeling for the character. The tragic hero. Who saved everyone, including himself.
The 1st game left me feeling like a true hero in a cool, medieval fantasy world, fighting werewolves, trolls, beasts, vampires, massive stone elementals and more.
The level design was VAST. Lots of different zones, variation in enemy design, boss design, locations, settings, platforms, even nice advantages to upgrading your weapon.
It kept the game moving forward in creative, cool ways that never felt out of place. yet still allowed for wonderful variation and freshness.
Something I feel that Lords of Shadow 2 completely messed up. Looking back on the 2, I was much more hyped for Lords of Shadow 2 than I was Lords of Shadow 1. But the experience playing them, the joy, immersion, feel and love is a thousand times stronger with the 1st.
Because LOS 1 didn't break with my immersion and feel of the game after its 1st sequence. LOS 2 did.
Gave us the epic cinematic. Gave us the epic medieval, superbly executed boss fight versus the holy knight and the massive machine.
Only to throw us into a cool vampiric sequence where we feed on a bunch of humans only to NEVER do that ever again, not see ANY humans at all... for the rest of the game except for other Belmont warrior.
Only to establish a bleak, urban, lifeless, completely lacking in any form of enemy variant as well as level design, kind of game.
I simply don't understand how. You needn't take my word for it. Just watch the cinematics of them both on YouTube to get a quick idea.
LOS 2 never changes its formula... EVER. You're in a city or you're shortly in Castle Dracula. Thats it. You will backtrack constantly... you will find yourself in places you've been running past often. You will realize the world is very small. And this especially goes for Castle Draculas underground. The zones were never interesting outside of Draculas Castle which WAS OPTIONAL for the most part. The city was nothing but a big labyrinth of a ruin. And some consider that dark and vampiric. Its not. If you wanna see that done right, Watch Underworld. This reminded me more of Devil May cry than anything remotely vampiric. And Castlevania is NOT Devil may cry.
Its sad to me... when I re-watch LOS 1 only to feel like a true adventurer who's constantly moving forward, enjoying the constant, heroic and lively narration of Zobek, feeling like I'm truly achieving something.
Where as in LOS 2... all I remember is sneaking behind insta-fail guards or using my invisibility power to fall through vents or open doors.
Mechanical, cold, bleak, urban bull-crap. Mixed with Dracula who was so much cooler in the start, but who's amazing coolness simply cannot save the game from being so boring. No matter how improved the combat was.
LOS 1 was a true Gothic, romantic, horror adventure story. And a true favorite of mine. I wish LOS 2 had been the same instead of simply being dumbed down and simplified in favor of better graphics and more combat.
9 out of 10. Not perfect because the combat system wasn't really my cup of tea and the game was quite linear in level design. But its all made up for by its story, music, artistic levels, creativity and variation. Plus EXTREMELY well done characters and epic boss fights. Something the 2nd game managed to screw up except for the music which is simply sad when it had every chance to learn. WHen it had every chance to continue doing what its prologue had begun. Its very selling point.
A damn shame because Im a huge Dracula Enthusiast. But I cannot deny how terribly bored I feel playing LOS 2 compared to LOS 1.
A world that feels alive, beautiful and intriguing. A world where you play as Gabriel Belmont, a holy warrior set out to save his beloved, Marie.
Now. We all know what the game is about by now so I'll get to why Im reviewing this as well as the sequel after all these years.
After being hyped and wanting the sequel after completing this, loving it to death I began realizing some grim errors and amazing aspects in both games. Things that need to be called out.
What I found that made Lords of Shadow 1 so outstandingly impactful and epic in every sense of the word was its setting, its music, its beautiful combination of Gothic adventure, horror and action in locations and creative sequences that never once felt boring or lifeless.
Obstacles could occur, but not in the shape of losing immersion or sense of emotional connection to this adventure.
The game upon every mission start or completion would give you an impactful dialog, narration by Zobek ( Patrick Stewart) who'd explain every bit of lore to you, make you care and feel for the character.
The plot twist at the end, revelation of Gabriels most haunting action, let alone his dramatic change into Dracul was ever so powerful. But aside from that... the way the game ended left you feeling for the character. The tragic hero. Who saved everyone, including himself.
The 1st game left me feeling like a true hero in a cool, medieval fantasy world, fighting werewolves, trolls, beasts, vampires, massive stone elementals and more.
The level design was VAST. Lots of different zones, variation in enemy design, boss design, locations, settings, platforms, even nice advantages to upgrading your weapon.
It kept the game moving forward in creative, cool ways that never felt out of place. yet still allowed for wonderful variation and freshness.
Something I feel that Lords of Shadow 2 completely messed up. Looking back on the 2, I was much more hyped for Lords of Shadow 2 than I was Lords of Shadow 1. But the experience playing them, the joy, immersion, feel and love is a thousand times stronger with the 1st.
Because LOS 1 didn't break with my immersion and feel of the game after its 1st sequence. LOS 2 did.
Gave us the epic cinematic. Gave us the epic medieval, superbly executed boss fight versus the holy knight and the massive machine.
Only to throw us into a cool vampiric sequence where we feed on a bunch of humans only to NEVER do that ever again, not see ANY humans at all... for the rest of the game except for other Belmont warrior.
Only to establish a bleak, urban, lifeless, completely lacking in any form of enemy variant as well as level design, kind of game.
I simply don't understand how. You needn't take my word for it. Just watch the cinematics of them both on YouTube to get a quick idea.
LOS 2 never changes its formula... EVER. You're in a city or you're shortly in Castle Dracula. Thats it. You will backtrack constantly... you will find yourself in places you've been running past often. You will realize the world is very small. And this especially goes for Castle Draculas underground. The zones were never interesting outside of Draculas Castle which WAS OPTIONAL for the most part. The city was nothing but a big labyrinth of a ruin. And some consider that dark and vampiric. Its not. If you wanna see that done right, Watch Underworld. This reminded me more of Devil May cry than anything remotely vampiric. And Castlevania is NOT Devil may cry.
Its sad to me... when I re-watch LOS 1 only to feel like a true adventurer who's constantly moving forward, enjoying the constant, heroic and lively narration of Zobek, feeling like I'm truly achieving something.
Where as in LOS 2... all I remember is sneaking behind insta-fail guards or using my invisibility power to fall through vents or open doors.
Mechanical, cold, bleak, urban bull-crap. Mixed with Dracula who was so much cooler in the start, but who's amazing coolness simply cannot save the game from being so boring. No matter how improved the combat was.
LOS 1 was a true Gothic, romantic, horror adventure story. And a true favorite of mine. I wish LOS 2 had been the same instead of simply being dumbed down and simplified in favor of better graphics and more combat.
9 out of 10. Not perfect because the combat system wasn't really my cup of tea and the game was quite linear in level design. But its all made up for by its story, music, artistic levels, creativity and variation. Plus EXTREMELY well done characters and epic boss fights. Something the 2nd game managed to screw up except for the music which is simply sad when it had every chance to learn. WHen it had every chance to continue doing what its prologue had begun. Its very selling point.
A damn shame because Im a huge Dracula Enthusiast. But I cannot deny how terribly bored I feel playing LOS 2 compared to LOS 1.