Pete Sellers of Galaxy Next Door writes: A friend of mine asked me, prior to writing this review, to describe Konami’s recent reboot of Castlevania to him in five words or less. Initially, I wondered why he chose the number five, as I normally ask people to describe things using but one word, but, being the maverick I am, I indulged his bizarre conundrum and provided this thoughtful response:
“The game sucks donkey balls.”
That was my short answer and I stood by it. Though my cohort’s expression was certainly quizzical, he didn’t feel the need to press the matter further and we went on our merry way, discussing something that was probably ridiculous and equally unimportant. For the sake of this review, however, I must be very, very clear about this ball sucking assertion, justifying, objectively for you, dear reader, just why you want to steer clear of this rape, er, I mean reboot of a beloved franchise. Let’s start at the very beginning…
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.
Note to the writer: when trying to appear articulate and pedantic, don't use terms like "donkey balls" and "rape". They make you seem base and struggling to put on airs of intelligence.
Moving on. People in the industry really need to remind themselves that they are reviewing games FOR OTHER PEOPLE. Not themselves. The inability to separate personal taste from appeal is rampant in review circles.
There's also this bizarre nostalgia that crops up where the reviewer seems to think that the "Castlevania" heritage is some great and prestigious title to honor and uphold. Really? Has he popped in SOTN (came free with the PS3 version, don't know about the 360 one) lately? What a hokey, terribly written game. Game-play is decent, for it's time.
Castlevania, is a regurgitation of every stale, stereotypical Nosferatu, Transylvanian, monster flick that there is. There's little that is original to the series or it's lore. At least with this iteration they tried to inject some story into it.
Numerical review scores are woefully inefficient at summarizing the merits and flaws of a game. But if forced to use them, I'd give the game an 8. Personally, it's a "9". But I can see how there's gripes and minor concerns that might detract from the overall experience. The production values, re-playability and length alone make it worthy of a purchase.
i vehemently disagree. castlevania, along with enslaved and vanquish, is one of the best games this year. i'm honestly surprised how much i'm enjoying castlevania.
First of all, forcing players to replay levels in an effort to acquire items they need artificially and unnecessarily adds length to the game - and not in a good way.
Second, re-playability is, again, something that only exists because the creators of the game require you to revisit every level in order to complete trials - which is wholly unnecessary as well.
Thirdly, the review is dead on in most every respect. Gameplay is sorely lacking in almost every area, mainly because the creators sought to utilize elements from other, better games, only in a way that doesn't work nearly as well as the source they stole them from. How about the generally dull action sequences and a combo system that is completely and utterly flawed? How about a camera system that simply stinks? Add the terrible weak story, ridiculously overdramatic voice acting and awful, simply awful ending and you're left with a game that could have been a lot better than what they delivered. Not to mention that it was not a Castlevania game to begin with...
I'm sorry, but this is not a game that was done well. This game is a regurgitation of other BETTER games and it's painfully obvious. It's awful, in almost every way, apart from visuals and sound (and even the MUSIC is repetitive).
Everyone has an opinion, but the simple matter is that this isn't game that should be receiving eights and nines - it doesn't deserve them. It deserves far less than a 6.5, frankly, but has enough merit, I believe to keep it at least at that level with justification.
I read this review, too. WAY better than the Kinect review.
I agree with dude. Castlevania could have been a ton better.
Kind of like the site dude writes for. The rest of the reviews there SUCK. HARD.