Lords of Shadow offers the best Castlevania game outside the realm of 2D to date.
Lords of Shadow employs more heavy emphasis on veing cinematic and telling a grand story than all past games in the series. Employing fantastic voice actors all around, including the legendary Patrick Stewart, (Captain Jean Luc Picard, to most of us) which really helps the story shine. It's great when a developers wants to tell a story, and recognizes that their is an ability for poor voice acting to undermine it severely. We've come a long way from Jill Sandwhich, baby. They've also implemented a cinematic fixed camera angle, while it does give a fantastic view of the pain stakingly well designed and gorgeous environments of the game, it can actually be a pain at times as well.
On occasion I could not see the way forward, as in one instance where I was supposed to grab a hook point with my whip, but the camera angle had the hook point, which sparkles blue, against the background of a blue sky, making it very hard to discern for quite some time. So that can be the one major flaw that keeps this game from breaking into the superb category, at times, the camera makes it too hard to see where to go, and makes finding hidden items and powerups a matter pf going back to a beatn level and essentially humping the environment hoping Gabriel steps into a hidden pathway or cave the camera just makes it way to hard to see.
With some patience though, you can adapt quickly and learn to pay closer attention to every nook and cranny, and by the middle point of the game, in a castle which is plainly Castlevania, yet is oddly not called by name by anyone or any document, you can really nail it down to the point that it eventually becomes a non issue. However, the fact that it is an issue at all does bring it down somewhat. The bulk of the gameplay is in combat, and exploration. The new character, Gabriel Belmont has a great new weapon called a Combat Cross. It's basically a stabbing weapon and retractable morning star style whip in one.
The combat cross is a joy to use, and is a fantastic way to implement the classic Vampire Killer whip into a modern day game. It has a large number of upgrades that you can purchase with experience points earned in combat. Combat is in fact, derivative of God of War. However, seeing as how God of War's combat system is very good, and that this packaging of it is very good, that's not so bad a thing. It would be great to see them add a bit more of their own original flavor next go round, though. The exploration is pretty basic. You climb, jump backwards from ledges, and swing around on your whip. Think the climbing sections of God of War 3, just more of it. The controls work well in these situations, and in some set pieces it can be rather exciting.
Fantastic fantasy environments, solid and exciting combat, epic boss encounters, challenging yet reasonable, and a great story add up to an exciting new start for the Castlevania series, which will hopefully be built upon in the way Lament of Innocence should have been last generation.