The story of Gabriel Belmont makes it’s long-awaited close. How does Mercury Steams epic finale stack up compared to other Castlevania titles and the original Lords of Shadow?

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is a 2014 action-adventure game and the finale to the “Lords of Shadow” trilogy. It is developed by Mercury Steam and published by Konami. It is available on PC, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.

Lord Dracula looks over the dark town.

I’ve played a number of Castlevania games since I was a kid starting with the (in my opinion) amazingly great Castlevania 64. However, when the original Lords of Shadow released it was the only time I had any real reservations towards a main entry in the Castlevania franchise. There was something about it that just felt different compared to past titles, but after trying my damnedest to hold off purchasing the title for as long as I possibly could, I finally buckled down, caved in, and gave it a go and it was one of the greatest gaming experiences I’ve ever had. Everything about the original LoS was fantastic, the characters, environments, music, boss fights, lore, all of it fantastic. While Lords of shadow 2 admittedly struggles a bit in comparison to its predecessor, it does give a bit of a satisfying close to the story.

The beautiful environments return in Lords of Shadow 2.

THE GOOD: Firstly, the graphics in Lords of Shadow 2 are absolutely beautiful. In fact, someone could unknowing;y mistake it for an Playstation 4 or Xbox One title without doing research beforehand.  The story of Gabriel Belmont reached it’s much anticipated climax, however there was some issues with the story. The opening 30 minutes/hour of gameplay provided some excellent context of what’s to come.

Dracula doing some damage and healing some wounds with the Void sword.

Light & Dark magic from the original Lords of Shadow have been revamped into the Void & Chaos magic. Unlike in the previous title, Void and Chaos magic are used for more environmental purposes to help Gabriel get around the world. However, both are extremely handy in battle as well and are even required for certain parts of some boss fights. The music and details of the world to Lords of Shadow 2 are also an excellent addition.

Gabriel prepares to face an enemy.

THE BAD: I previously noted in our early hands-on article that the demo made the game feel incredibly easy to play, with not much difficulty, and unfortunately that feeling held true with the final build of the game. I’m not so sure Lords of Shadow 2 was the right game to dumb down for new players. Admittedly, it’s understandable considering the game originally released in 2010, but even so it just felt like it was too low key on difficulty. I recall dying quite a bit in Lords of Shadow 1, which makes the dumbed down difficulty even more annoying.

Dracula preparing his Dragon transformation, one of the really awesome cinematics in the game.

Here’s where things almost pissed me off a bit, the forced stealth. I didn’t enjoy it with Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, and I didn’t enjoy it very much in Lords of Shadow 2. While, Lords of Shadow 2’s forced stealth wasn’t nearly as annoying as Liberation’s was, I’d still rather have the option of doing so, especially considering stealth had absolutely nothing to do with the original game.

Dracula needs a drink.

THE UGLY: While cool for awhile, transforming into a rat in order to hide from more powerful enemies or squeeze through tight spaces was cool at first, it got quite annoying a bit later. When transformed into a rat gameplay is extremely clunky, and it feels like you have to put extra force on the analog stick in order to get it to move sometimes, not to mention it moves incredibly slow.

Dracula vs the Paladin

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Lords of Shadow 2 provided a great close to an epic trilogy. Gabriel Belmont i perhaps the greatest character in the franchise to date, thanks to Mercury Steam and their efforts. However, with Lords of Shadow 1 being as great as it was, Lords of Shadow 2 just had too much hype to fulfill, one might even say that it was a bit unfair. The traditional Lords of Shadow gameplay is there for the most part, along with some cool additions. However, there were a few more problems than necessary with the highly anticipated sequel. Gameplay felt too dumbed down and lacked challenge, while the forced stealth and rat gameplay was pretty annoying.