Don't listen to the critics!!! Judge for yourself....and here's why!!!!
First off, if anybody has played this or the demo the first thing you may notice are the graphics. They are stunning in the fact there are many times where the backgrounds are awe-inspiring. The graphics at this level have not been made for many other games, there was ALOT of time by designers & developers to put this much detail into the vision of how the game looks.
The soundtrack is on par with the graphics, a majority of it is done with orchestrated music and truly fits the theme of game...simple as that.
The gameplay, ok now I do agree it is a VERY familiar combat system that anybody who has played the previous games like it would agree picking up the controller and playing this is not much different. It revolves around you gaining experience, unlocking new moves, and pushing certain buttons during combat and boss fights to get the right action and continue. It's pretty straight forward and I can imagine that it may be even difficult for those who are not fans of this "hack and slash" type combat system. But, regardless if it's nothing new, it simply works well....all the moves are fluid and combat in this game is not sticky or unresponsive. The other half of the game aside from combat is exploring and puzzles. Exploring is merely jumping around from ledges or platforms to the next and looking for upgrades and what not. Nothing special, but coming from a platformer style lineage...it's safe to say they do this well and make it easy enough for you to get from one area to the next without difficulty by lighting up the way your suppose to go (now that's not to say you shouldn't look around because many of the hidden items are stashed in areas that out of camera view or backtracking to previous areas). The puzzles are not extremely tough if you take the time to read the notes of the deceased brothers and take time to figure what the puzzle is looking for you to do. The only time I found myself getting stuck is in parts later in the game and I'm over thinking the puzzles on how to get by when the answer was just to do a simple battle roll or something (the puzzle box...wasted a good amount of time there). But if you just remember what skills you have, and usually it's the skills you picked up most recently are the ones that will get you through the majority of the puzzles.
The characters are all new to me. From playing all of the Nintendo Castlevania games, Symphony of the Night, and the most recent Harmony of Despair I don't recognize any of the characters from previous games I have played. But that's fine with me, many of the previous games you played as a Belmont which you do here...and you work your way to end the supreme master Dracula countless times. I'm not going to give any spoilers, but the IDEA is still the same. So this game does introduce many new faces, all with some relevance to the story of the game. I personally didn't find myself thinking they ruined the game by using a new cast of characters, although I would have liked to see some of the characters more and get a better story...I wouldn't go as far to say they could have done better though.
Overall, I enjoyed this game very much. With everything balanced very well in this game as far as graphics/soundtrack, game play, etc. It all works just as good as any other game if not better. The boss fights are pretty epic and unforgettable, and the game is filled with cinematics playing out the story of your character which in mostly done in a dark mood, expressing revenge, loneliness, betrayal, etc. Castlevania is a solid title and hope to see some DLC for this game to continue the story more and add to the experiance of the game. I suggest don't listen to critics and rent or borrow this game if you have your doubts, but this game does everything in its own right extremely well. Not taking anything away from games like it, but I would prefer to play this over many of the other games in this genre and style. This game is not flawless however, it does have its minor gliches and hiccups throughout the game but it's nothing outrageous. I would hate for people not to experiance this game because of bad reviews like many other great title before it that are now hidden gems due to bias and judgemental reviews which many many good games fall under, and players never experiance because the word of a critic carries the weight to scare off some people from trying games. I say, if your interesed try it... rent it, borrow it, get the demo online, then make a judgement call on what you though of it.
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DO NOT READ THIS SECTION UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY THIS GAME IS MADE THE CERTAIN WAY IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When playing the game you can tell that it is set back in time during the 12th century or so, just as old as many of the other classic Castlevania games if not a little predated in time. I would safely say that this game is a prequel to ALL the Castlevania games in the series. The reason being is the character you are playing and who he becomes at the end of the game. Note that you must watch after the credits roll to understand this. But yes, you do play as Gabriel who later in fact IS DRACULA!!!! So it easy to see why people are not accepting this game because they want to fight Dracula, but it works itself on how he came to be pretty well throughout the game. Needless to say, I wish there was much more story to it...but you can only ask for so much and they did a great job using the means they did. Knowing this it's easy to see why all of the characters seem new and unfamiliar & the game is not exactly like the others of its series, although keeping many of the same elements....but you're looking through the eyes of a hero turned against himself after he has lost everything and chooses to outcast himself for centuries.
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