"Castlevania is one of the longest running and most popular retro game franchises in existence. When the gameplay became outdated for some (still plays fine for me), it must've been time for a remake. What we got wasn't the 3D sequel to Symphony of the Night like many were expecting (Thank God. Too much SotN fanaticism for me to handle.), but instead, a reboot to the entire series. A shocking thing to do to fans? I know I sure as hell was shocked, so I'm guessing many others were going to be as well. To be truthful, I, too thought this would suck as it was a 3D Castlevania game. When the release came closer and closer, I quickly changed my mind and it became one of the most anticipated game on my "To Review" list (Yeah, I have one. Look at the bottom for a list of games I'll review up to next early year). After getting my hands on the final product, only one question still lingers: Is it a good 3D reboot (and does the 360 version have framerate issues)?"
Contrary to other beliefs, the PC Gaming is home to many great hack and slash titles. The list will tackle them.
Edgar writes: "To celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, let's take a look at the gothic world of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow."
Although being linear, which I wish it wasn't, the first game was absolutely incredible. A mix of old school God of War meets Date's Inferno; I was highly impressed by this title. I heard the sequel was trash so I ever played it but I think LoS was a good example of how a 3D CV game could be.
I was very happy the game was Linear as I hate exploring. The first game was one of my all time favorites and the 2nd game was a total letdown with the lame hub system and stealth sections. Playing in current times sucked too. I wish they would make a remaster of part 1.
It is a great game, but just like DMC is not a Devil May Cry..this one was not a Castlevania :-)
Give Castlevania to Igarashi team, and they will nail it as they did with Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness.
If you decide to play a Castlevania game, make sure it's in 2D. Unfortunately, the series has never been able to make the jump from 2D to 3D successfully. Publisher Konami has tried. Six times in fact, but whether trying to build it in-house or with a third party developer, they never captured the essence of the series or make a good game for that matter. So just to be sure you know what to look out for, here are the six 3D Castlevania games that have been made.
I loved the hell out of lords of shadow, lords if shadow 2 had its moments but just didnt leave as much of an impact on me as the first did, still loved it though. They are both great games IMO, maybe not the best "Castlevania" games but great games in their own right.
Yeah that first game was legit good. Really wish they hadn't taken a step back for the second, this series really looked great in 3D.
According to one of the former devs of Mercury Steam the higher ups kept interfering with the sequel to the point where the game was nothing like what the dev team had envisioned for the sequel so we got the mess that was Lords of Shadows 2.
I enjoyed Lament of Innocence and Lords of Shadow. They were entertaining titles and I wouldn’t mind trying Lords of Shadow 2 on PS Now.
Just because a game isn’t GOTY worthy does not mean it’s not worth playing. You could do a lot worse than those exceptional titles.
I really liked lament of innocence and Lords of shadow! Havent tried the other 3d games. But ive played most of the 2d games!
I don't know why Castlevania: Lament of Innocence gets a bad rap. It was one of the best in the series at that time and really was a compliment to the Devil May Cry 3rd person style of action that was getting popular at that time.
I rented it on a fluke and was seriously surprised on how good it was. So much so I went out and bought a used copy of Curse of Darkness and instantly returned that trash.
The problem with Nintendo 64 games is they all tried to mimic the Mario/Zelda 64 style of gameplay and how could they not with that whacky ass N64 controller. Almost every game outside of Nintendo's own felt horrible and incomplete.
Awesome review!! I couldn't agree with you more I have played through twice and I absolutely love this game. It's by far my favorite game this year and damn close to being my favorite for this generation. Many fans will complain about the lack of being in one castle for the ENTIRE game while I like the fact it's similar to Castlevania 2 & 4 where you traverse through many lands before reaching the castle.
My only complaint really is the lack of camera control really, other than that I think this game is really setting up something extremely huge in the future with it's sequel coming hopefully 2012. Hopefully we will see Simon tracking down Dracula, with many of the classic tunes redone in full bombastic glory!! Excellent job Mercury Steam and David, I couldn't ask for a better game.