Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Just beat the first one and the epilogue got me pumped about the second one. I really hope the stick with the modern times story line.

Just finished LOS and definitely liked it despite it's minor flaws. The puzzles were a bit out there but whatever. I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and story and can't wait for part two.

Two new trailers debuted at gamescon. Story trailer is the best one of course...

did he say "Victor Belmont" or "Richter Belmont" ?

Sounds like Victor to me.

Utnayan_sl said:

Is this game any good?

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You are you referring to the first one?

The first one is solid. Not GOTY material, but it's a good game. The difficulty level is perfect. It's not punishingly difficult, but you have to be on it to progress.

Yeah the art direction is gorgeous. The textures are a bit low res and the poly counts are kinda low since it is a console game but the art style makes up for it. Some of the puzzles are a big wtf though lol. The titan boss fights were pretty lame at least for me,. I preferred the regular boss fights. The titan bosses were just a bunch dumb QTE events tied together. I did appreciate the fact that they did not telegraph everything you had to do but sometimes you were left standing in the dark and have to go search on what to do next.

best game ever? not by a long shot... but the atmosphere alone is worth the $20 or whatever it's selling for now. it's funny because i didn't initially remember the difficulty when i reviewed it a few days back in one of the other threads, but good lord. that game was unforgiving at times. you'd be plunking right along dodge rolling and whipping to victory then some dude would come along and roflstomp you for an hour straight. i don't remember the boss or anything, but it was like... some giant armored dude and i have a permanent bald spot from pulling my hair out. very few games hve actually made me cheer when i killed someone.

So, I never played Mirror of Fate. But, from what it looks like, it brings in pretty much every storyline of Castlevania. Gabriel the original Dracula, Trevor is defeated and risen as Alucard then sets off to finish his mission in killing his father.

Ugh. I just don't want to buy a whole new system just to play one game. :<

Yeah, honestly Lords of Shadow is probably top five this generation in terms of art direction and cohesiveness. When you first come upon the fort in the mountain pass I had chills. The biggest problem with the game is that it just takes so darned long to really get moving

Kuriin_sl said:

So, I never played Mirror of Fate. But, from what it looks like, it brings in pretty much every storyline of Castlevania. Gabriel the original Dracula, Trevor is defeated and risen as Alucard then sets off to finish his mission in killing his father.

Ugh. I just don't want to buy a whole new system just to play one game. :<

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It's being released on ps3 and xbox with a good chance of a pc release as well.

which is brilliant really... my kid has a 3ds and there is no way you'll find me caught dead on that thing. i'm not going to the store to buy myself a 3ds game... if i wanted a handheld game i'd play it on my phone. but releasing it on the ps3 and 360 will be a week one buy for me.

Got the demo with Mirror of Fate on PSN - it is a long demo- I like the system they replaced the light and dark magic with- it fits in. I have a feeling you are going to be playing through generations like Mirror of Fate - I hope the game is longer than the first, it should almost be two games with all the different timeframes it looks like you will be in.

The demo is sprinkled with quotes from past CV games, it made me smile I hope that kind of thing goes through the entire game. The visuals are insane, cleaned up from LoS but keeping the same feel... demo was only running 720p but never a drop in fps or anything throughout. The only thing visually in LoS that bothered me was the (no pun) shadows- the jagged wiggly shadows where so off putting- in the first opening screen of the demo its in-game models and real time- and the shadows are perfect- then on the next part where the 'real' demo starts its back to the jaggies- I hope they fix all the shadows for final release.

I also think they are kind of short sighted to make this the final chapter in the trilogy- I know Murcery Steam basically used this project to put themselves on the map and do not want to get bogged down in it- but they have done such a great job its a shame and we will keep wanting more.

On a side note, I tried the PSN demo of Mirror of Fate (so the HD port of the 3DS game) and I found it to be shockingly craptacular in just about every aspect. I was surprised to see it at around 70% on metacritics.

EDIT: Oh there is a topic dedicated to it... nm...

So I've been playing the first on since I got in on Steam sale, and HOLY SHIT! This game is everything a game like this should be. The combat is like darksiders/GoW, but I feel its more fluid and tactical. Combat decisions should not be made lightly. So far I've found a few different combos that suit each need, but I wouldn't say it's ultimately varied. I did just start though and could be wrong. Some combos seem like nub traps (chain saw one), while others are absolutely god like (the hold[STRATK]STRATK....) seems the go to on bosses, unless they hit with a ground slam then you do that attack in the air. The light side, shadow side powers are fucking awesome and bring another decision element into the battles. Do I go light side for more defense, or dark side for more offense. Luckily you don't share resources for those.

The level design is beautiful and pretty top notch. So far in chapter 4 I'd give level design a 8/10, with backdrops a 10/10. I kind of wish for a more metroid like open world, ala darksiders. But there are downsides to that with backtracking. However, with the 100% and weapon upgrades your already backtracking as it is. Maybe it's better they did it the way they did with level selections and trials/collectibles ect; or else back tracking would have become way to tedious.

The story is pretty good so far. Nothing outstanding, but enough to keep you interested. 7 or 6.5 out of 10, but I'm not even 1/3rd through the game so that is a very inaccurate number. Nice little tid bits of lore through out the story that are well done. Bestiary entries and so forth. I like those things but IMO games need to gravitate to more of how Dark Souls gives lore. Very subtley. But it works for this game.

The platforming is done well and there are lots of off camera secret areas to explore in the levels. The camera is done kind of halfway isometric which works well for the game. However camera can fuck you as it always does in those types of settings.

The only complaint I have about this game is I feel cheated on some of my deaths. The hit boxes don't connect yet I will die. I never felt like that in Dark Souls. But oh well.

Overall I would highly reccomend to purchase this game while on sale.