Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a game of contradictions. Its lead character, Gabriel Belmont, finds himself equipped with great combat abilities and more than enough special skills to combat the forces of evil and avenge the death of his love. But for the player, it's almost overkill--a good portion of Belmont's unlocked special skills are only truly necessary when solving environmental puzzles. Similarly, Lords of Shadow is an astoundingly beautiful game filled with expansive views of a broken world dotted with solemn waterfalls; sinister forests; and decaying, ancient cities. But, you won't be exploring much of these locales because the game is very strict about where you can go and how you can get there, delivering only an illusion of freedom conjured by a combination of invisible walls and platforms just out of reach. As these and other facets of the game continually butt heads, it becomes clear that Castlevania is largely a mishmash of mostly incongruous ideas taken from some of gaming's finest moments. And it's those very same moments--previously seen and played in other games but well executed here--that ultimately define the game but sadly strip it of an identity to call its own.

That isn't to say the game fails in giving these moments context within the Castlevania universe as constructed by Lords of Shadow. In fact, the story does a reasonable job in setting things up and explaining why Gabriel Belmont fights massive titans, as well as hordes of werewolves, zombies, vampires, and other mainstays from the vintage horror assembly line. As a member of the Brotherhood of Light (a holy order of knights), Gabriel sets out on a quest to retrieve an item that can potentially bring the dead back to life--in this case, his murdered wife. Of course, to find the item, he first has to learn where it is and how to get to it. Eventually, Gabriel runs into a character named Pan, resembling the mythological creature of the same name, who tells him that he must venture to the lands where the Necromantic Wars took place to retrieve his prize: the God mask. It just so happens that these lands are also infested with lycans (werewolves) and vampires, which are agents of evil from the Necromantic Wars. Meanwhile, the forces of good have long since collapsed, with only scant traces of their once massive and proud civilization lying in dust--their defenders, save a few functioning titans, fallen and scattered into pieces. Gabriel presses forward and ultimately discovers new allies, the origins of the Lords of Shadow, the Lords' involvement with the Brotherhood of Light, and the true nature of the God mask.

It's a rich universe, to be sure, but Lords of Shadow rarely ever uses it as more than background filler. In other words, most of what is described of the world comes in the form of notes from an in-game bestiary and narrated text displayed at the beginning of a level. While Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek fame) does a fine job of speaking these lines, they rarely elicit the same kind of connection to the world and its characters as the game's own cutscenes do. The problem is the majority of these worthwhile expository sequences occur near the beginning of the game and at the very end, leaving very little meat in the middle of the sandwich that is Lords of Shadow's story. Sure, there are bits and pieces throughout that deliver explanations for boss characters and the like, but the most important character is almost completely neglected. More specifically, there's a significant stretch of game where it seems as though Gabriel has fallen completely mute--an unfortunate occurrence for a potentially good character and a great voice actor (Robert Carlyle).

To be fair, producing an abundance of character-driven story sequences doesn't automatically make for engaging character development, but the desire to see more should count for something positive. And to its credit, Lords of Shadow never implements (or even needs) cutscenes as a balance for lack of content because it's a surprisingly long game with dozens of levels that present a solid challenge. On normal difficulty, without being too compulsive about discovering hidden items or completing special objectives, the game takes about 15 to 20 hours to beat, and that time is peppered with good and bad experiences. Those good moments are usually quite entertaining, but the bad moments are just downright irritating and not for the right reasons. One aspect floats between these two extremes, however: hand-holding.

Gabriel stands in the shadow of a colossal battle.

Having a tutorial-like structure at the beginning of a game--something that eases you into the experience and gets you comfortable with what you can and can't do--is not the issue. Indeed, in the early parts of Lords of Shadow, the helpful messages at the top of the screen serve their purpose, helping you navigate ledges, open locked doors, and complete other environmental puzzles. But then they appear in the third level, the fourth level, the fifth level, and further into the game--giving hints in areas that only require the slightest bit of thought. Ultimately, these breadcrumbs and their ubiquity convey a lack of faith in not only the game's ability to present a logical solution or path, but also in your ability to find those solutions within a reasonable amount of time. Along those lines, actual puzzles (mechanical devices that require some brain power to complete) have solutions that you can purchase, which sends a similar message. It's all quite odd because Lords of Shadow is at its best when these scenarios are solved on your own terms, without such aids. These occasions lead to some trial-and-error gameplay that can be frustrating, but thanks to a rather generous checkpoint and death system (for example, falling into pits only takes off some energy), it's never so egregious that it overrides the sense of reward for completing a difficult task.

Granted, there are also those moments--with or without hints--that are completely infuriating, and it's not because of difficulty spawned out of cleverness but, rather, difficulty spawned from Lords of Shadow's own limitations and shortcomings. It can be anything from a ledge or enemy partially obscured by the game's fixed camera to a timed puzzle that requires Gabriel to deftly move in a way he obviously wasn't intended to move. After all, his default walking speed is more like a sprint, so navigating a series of electrical fields with slight taps of the analog stick presents more than its fair share of issues. Sometimes issues stem from situations where Gabriel has to use a special ability--like a powerful punch--to move an object. While that special skill may have moved a similarly weighty object previously, the very same attack may be useless against this new object for no practical reason, other than a shoulder seems to have the magic touch and a fist does not. Actually, there's almost a superfluous aspect to Gabriel's special abilities--those granted to him upon receiving sacred items from fallen enemies. It's immensely frustrating to struggle with a seemingly simple puzzle for far too long, only to realize that the key is a particular ability you used only once more than six hours ago.