Wow, what a serious let down this game is. Not only did the combat take a step backwards, the game is still linear as the first and has forced stealth b.s. I've put in about 5 or 6 hours into the game and I cannot take it anymore.
COMBAT: Ok this is my main gripe with the game. First off every single enemy has an unblockable attack. Think that's bad? Those unblockable attacks also follow you even if you do evade so you get hit anyway. One hit will deplete your focus bar down to zero. As soon as you get your focus bar, you get hit with a heat-seeking unblockable attack, goodbye focus bar and any chance of getting your chaos or void powers refilled. Your chaos and void powers are pretty cool tho. Void gains health, chaos breaks guards and armor. To bad the chaos powers take about 10 hits to take the armor off one enemy, and by then your chaos powers are depleted and you cannot regain them back because of those unblockable attacks. Combine those problems while being surrounded by fast enemies, all with armor. Sounds like a fun time, especially since EVERY ENEMY DOESN'T FLINCH AT BEING HIT, WILL GO RIGHT THROUGH YOUR COMBO AND HIT YOU. Not fun.
The first Lords of Shadow had combat down just right and it was fun. Lords of Shadow 2 seems like the whip is shorter and not as effective.
ENVIRONMENT: This game was compared to a zelda-ish type. Well I'm here to say it's not. EVERY SINGLE SET PIECE OF THE ENVIRONMENTS ARE LINEAR AS PHUCK. No, the world isn't open like a zelda, darksiders, skyrim game. It's open as in you can back track through the same linear corridor to find secrets you couldn't get in the beginning of the game. That's bad enough, but what makes it worse is that you only take so many steps before you are climbing like McGiver as Dracula. THIS GAME HAS WAY TO MUCH CLIMBING, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. You cannot actually just walk and take in the environments, well because you are climbing a good 80% of the game. That doesn't feel like exploring to me, it feels like a mountain climbing simulator game.
FORCED STEALTH B.S.: Well this shouldn't even crossed in the devs minds when creating this game. Just because stealth is implemented in every game doesn't mean it should be. Especially when it's this bad, forced and you turn into a rat....yep. When you go into the stealth parts, you cannot attack at all, and if you are caught, you lose and you have to restart at the last checkpoint. Why? Just why?
So ya, this game isn't that great and I don't recommend it at all.