While it has stunning production values, Lords of Shadow fails to provide original, intuitive, and engaging gameplay.
Despite the negatives that will be covered following this statement, Lords of Shadow has one major thing going for it: production values. The environments are stunning in both architecture and variance, providing the highlights of the game. Castles, forests, bogs, caves, wastelands, and more all come together to make Lords of Shadow one of the most impressive-looking games I've ever seen. In addition, the soundtrack is equally as grand, utilizing a full orchestra to punctuate the key moments in story and gameplay and enhancing the overall experience. Thirdly, the voice acting is fantastic, seldom delivering a flat or awkward line, which also attributes to the stellar writing of this lengthy adventure.
Lords of Shadow centers around Gabriel Belmont, a knight of a holy order in the 11th century who is tasked with connecting humanity to the heavens once more after an event caused humanity to lose contact with the divine. The manner in which Gabriel's quest unfolds is through various wonderfully-directed cutscenes that deliver key plot points. However, due to the story's long length, there is a bit of tapering off here and there that causes certain characters to leave almost as suddenly as they are introduced, only to appear much later in the narrative.
Now, with that, there is a laundry list of components wrong with this game.
First, and most apparent, of the issues is the derivative nature of the gameplay. I would go into a lengthy explanation of which aspects are taken from which game, but the short (and painfully true) answer is: this is God of War. No really, it is.
Very, very little of Lords of Shadow refrains from taking ideas from God of War in the gameplay department. Combat controls, ledge-based platforming, quick-time events (though in this the player is allowed to press any button as long as the timing is right), and overall structure of gameplay is carbon-copied from God of War without shame. However, though it is a small part of the game, there are sections in which Gabriel has to scale giant monsters in order to take out certain points on their bodie...oh wait, I forgot to mention it also rips off Shadow of the Colossus from time to time. Compounding the issue of derivative gameplay comes the odd manner in which tutorials are presented.
Tutorials are essential for allowing the player to understand the ins and outs of gameplay as to prevent diving head-first into the fray with no idea what to do. While this is a positive for any game, Lords of Shadow twists it into a negative by not being able to decide if the player is an average human being or a lobotomized chimpanzee.
In the beginning, the game allows for the player to learn the basics of combat, which pans out quite well given the easy nature of the first level. Tutorials are also used when an ability is being utilized for the first time, which is also a positive. Learning to find new paths, scale walls, hit enemies, ride animals, and use special set pieces are all covered quite well in the first chapter...but then the game likes to repeat those tutorials. For example, an action that allows the player to maintain their grip on a ledge when it shakes is explained by the game in a picture of the R2 button and telling the player to hold it. Fine. However, this tutorial shows up EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. THIS. ACTION. IS. REQUIRED. In the end, it becomes a severe annoyance.
On the other side of the coin, sometimes too little is told, particularly with the agonizingly frustrating puzzles. In fact, very little is said at all beyond incredibly vague implication of "turn this thing this way and turn those things that way." As a matter of fact, there are times when the game outright lies to the player about a puzzle. For example, there was a puzzle in which the player had to punch a button to get a gate open. However, whenever I came up to the gate, it closed in my face. Repeat this process ad nauseam until I look at a walkthrough and it appears that I had to combine a type of magic with a throwing dagger to press the button from a distance so I could be close to the door when it opens. Although I fault myself for not thinking of using a throwing dagger, how would I be able to find out about combining it with magic on my own when something like that was never explained to me? This, compounded by far too many similar incidents, had me looking at video walkthroughs far too often.
Speaking of confusion and frustration, the environments tend to draw some less-than-fun moments by looking too complex while requiring a simple path, which can also be attributed to the fixed camera. There are times in which the camera will suddenly shift in the middle of platforming to an angle that barely shows where Gabriel is, forcing me to look sharply at the screen like I'm playing Where's Waldo until I finally spot him in a corner, zoomed off near oblivion. Also, the jagged texture of most surfaces would suggest plenty of ledges to grab on to, but only have a set path of them that can actually be used. The aforementioned problems contributed to countless pitfalls and the only positive about this is that Gabriel only loses a minute amount of health instead of full-on dying.
However, despite all these issues, the one thing that serves to ease the frustration is the frequent save points, sometimes happening during the lengthy boss battles so the same cutscene doesn't have to be seen over and over. However, this small perk does little to detract from the fact that gameplay took a severe blow in favor of everything else.
In the end, Lords of Shadow would be better suited as a movie. The excellent story, voice acting, and variance are astounding to say the least. However, very little attention was paid to the gameplay, making its worthiness as a purchase debatable at best. If you're a die-hard Castlevania fan, go ahead and rent it. For everyone else: play God of War.