Say Hello to the New Castlevania on the Block.
This game looks Great, Plays Great, and pays close attention to details.
Lords of Shadow is a Reboot of the Franchise, meaning most of the basis and characters remain, but a different yet alike story is told with these elements. Most of the fans that has played from the NES era and up can see the Homages of this game, but I endlessly see those who started with Symphony of the Night complain that it does not feel like a Castlevania game, yet they fail to play the classics and their judgment is invalid.
To Start with the first thing introduced, the combat. I've played God of War and I gotta say, it feels nothing like it, if anything it feels more like Lament of Innocence with Devil May Cry, which is alright to me, the Grabbing is pretty unique, you wait until the outer circle shrinks into the inner circle and press any button to trigger the effect. My only problem with the combat is the Gauntlet, which is LT+X, when your whip-n-dodging it will be no surprise that you'll punch here and there.
The Difficulty Is about Right For First time plays, I've Started on Normal mode and had my fair share of many deaths, in which I love, the more you die the more of a challenge you have to overcome, which is foreign to games nowadays where it takes forever to die. the difficulty switches the damage received and build up of your focus meter so there isn't much of complexity to difficulty but it does not mean the game is still easy to Second play-throughs.
Experience builds up pretty well through combat. I'm a person that doesn't pay attention to how much experience I get, as long as it goes up quite a bit through levels. the best thing about the experience is that it is saved even if you die.
The One thing that should be mentioned about this game is the fixed camera angles, in most games its a major pain but in this one it shows off the landscapes like no game I have played before, and to help this is a beautiful, detailed and mood setting environment properly accompanied by fitting music and a nicely detailed main character exploring through it. a Notable piece for this is Pan's Temple, there is an area where the camera moves back to show two birds in the foreground, and this kind of detail is throughout the entire game.
As for the Plot, I cannot give spoilers, the loading screen introduces the mood and setting of the story, narrated by Patrick Stewart who also plays a main character in this story, when the stage starts you play of course, but you will seamlessly enter cut scenes that do not interrupt game-play, If this game kept 60fps through the whole time this would be the most fluid game ever. but due to the technology there is frame-loss, but the sheer awesomeness of the graphics and game-play quickly overshadow such a thing.
This game's concept is within its own Franchise, Taking Most of the elements from Super Castlevania IV, the Climbing from Castlevania 64 and most of the Feel from Castlevania Lament of Innocence, trust me, play those three then Lords of Shadow and you'll say "yeah I see that from that".
The Music is surely something else when it comes to Castlevania nowadays, most people were looking for a tune that sticks out and hum with it, but sadly this is not the case, the tracks are more environmental and moody, but this isn't bad at all, one track is a direct remake of a certain Castlevania IV song and is very well composed.
The replay value Is extremely high, each stage has its own trail and many upgrades to come back to when you are fully equipped, and best of all, it does not feel like a chore.
I am going to tackle this game's main issue, the haters. This game wasn't even out but clearly had haters who never played it bash on things they think about it, I say ignore them because they have no idea what they are talking about, take it from someone who has the game, beat it and got a few friends sucked in just by letting them play it, don't listen to someone whose knowledge mainly consists of youtube videos of the game.
All and all, this is not only the best 3D title that the Series has to offer, its also one of the best titles Castlevania has to offer. With a Sequel and DLC confirmed, you will have much to do with this game in the future so don't be dissuaded or miss this game, you might just regret it.
Pick this game up and love it, trust me, the demo doesn't have enough to offer on this game to get a good feel of it.