Rating
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Gabriel Belmont learns of a mask with the power to raise the dead and sets out on a mission to obtain it to bring his recently murdered wife back from the dead. Lords of Shadow builds upon the combat systems first explored in this series in 2003's Lament of Innocence and adds more violent kills to the mix. Inspiration for these changes seems to ha...
Details
- Released
- October 5, 2010
- Developer
- MercurySteam
- Genres
- Action · Hack and slash/Beat 'em up · Adventure · Horror
- Publisher
- Konami
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Lords of Shadow is exactly what the Castlevania franchise needed to find popularity with a new generation of gamers - and us oldies too. One of the best games of 2010.
Mirror of Fate’s overarching story, though designated in chunks to a handful of the series’ well-known faces, ends up adding little of importance to the experience. From time to time, it takes small breaks to address the larger plot in the form of graphic, darkly lined animation. But what defines and legitimizes the experience is its deft framing and execution of environments and situations, not the Belmonts’ melodrama or having to check itself to series’ expectations. Mirror of Fate is a confident interpretation of well-trod mechanics and themes, and the Castlevania name is stronger f…
It’s unavoidable that, by shirking the labyrinthine puzzling the series has become known for in recent years, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow will have its detractors. However, taken on its own merits, there’s ample to enjoy here and, despite MercurySteam’s merciless cribbing from other action adventure titles, it’s the confidence and quality of the game’s design that give this latest series outing its own identity. It mightn’t be especially original but Lords of Shadow’s rock solid core mechanics, creative flourishes and assured sense of pacing all combine to form a game that, despite a few roug...
Lords of Shadow has a neat set of magic mechanic you receive early on. The first is light magic which you switch on with the L1/LS button and whenever you hit an enemy you’ll gain health with each hit while hitting R1/RS will activate shadow magic that boosts the damage you dish out. These will also open up new skills/combos you can perform and can be turned on/off instantly within combos giving fights a bit of strategy. The puzzles scattered throughout the game aren’t anything special, but they do help break up the pace from the combat and platforming sections. There is one puzzle that I did ...
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a new action-adventure IP, a story of one man's journey to discover the true meaning of sacrifice amidst murder and betrayal. Set in Southern Europe during the middle ages, Lords of Shadow has beautifully realized locales that play host to an epic battle between good and evil.
A heavenly romp in a hellish locale, sweet and brief.Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's first DLC, Reverie, starts off with a change in tone. Highly stylized moving painting [...]
When it comes down to it, it doesn’t seem like the developers have put too much more work into this game following the release on the 3DS. At the end of the day, it isn’t a bad game. On the contrary, I found myself dragged down the rabbit hole of the beautiful art style and ultimately I didn’t care about the less than impressive combat. With that said, on the basis of there being so many spectacular games out there, it’s hard to say that a decent combat system is not table stakes for any game that hopes to be considered part of the big leagues.
Overall the game was enjoyable to play, the graphics and scenery were beautiful and the story was amusing enough to keep me guessing if the final boss looked like me but naked(spoiler: he does). The Titan battles were a nice reminder of how much I enjoyed Shadow of The Colossus. If there is to be a sequel, I would definitely look forward to it.
It's a violently stormy night as a lone, hooded figure on horseback gallops through the forest, coming to a muddy clearing in a remote village. He steps down off his steed and lowers his hood as lightning illuminates his robed form. Say hello to the enigmatic Gabriel Belmont (Robert Carlyle), Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's chain-whip wielding hero, who is little more than a mysterious cipher when first embarking upon his adventure, but he soon develops into a complicated and tortured soul, gr...