When Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was announced, gamers had a lot to discuss.  Common soundbites included,
"Wasn't this just 'Lords of Shadow' before?"
"What, did Konami just tag a 'Castlevania' name to an existing project?"
"Well, it will suck, because all 3D Castlevania sucks"
"I saw gameplay, it's a God of War clone"
"When is Konami going to finally release an HD remake of Roc 'N Rope?  What?  Look at the Lords of Shadow platforming?  Wha..."

Being a longtime fan of the Castlevania franchise and having played most of the titles to completion, I knew I'd have to pick it up as I have every other western title in the series.  I purposefully limited my exposure to the title prior to release so as not to form judgment (heaven knows I did not enjoy Castlevania: Judgment), though I knew from the last few console entries that I should not have very high expectations.  The portable editions on the other hand, of which I've finished each since Circle of the Moon, have been a pleasant and regular gaming staple.

After completing Lords of Shadow, I was more curious than ever about the development history and my research helped explain the final product.  It also gave me fuel to address a relevant gaming topic concerning franchise reboots and restarts.

But first, is Lords of Shadow any good? 

As with any of my reviews, I will try to write something relevant that isn't immediately gleamed from a few seconds of scouring game reviews from countless sources around the 'net and therefore redundant.

In many ways I consider Lords of Shadow to be this year's Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Both came from relatively unknown developers, both took franchises with unpopular gaming histories (Many agree that the NES versions of Batman were gaming's best with possible exception to the Genesis version, and despite some love for Lament of Innocence, 3D takes on Castlevania are traditionally scorned.)  Both titles are crafted in dark, brooding atmosphere that plays heavily into the game and mechanics.  Both feature lauded combat systems and inventive mechanics.  Each have excellent, moody soundtracks, and grand set-piece battles. 

Both are also derided for occasionally terrible textures and graphics errors (made all the more obvious because most of the time both look fantastic.)  Each are known for their game-breaking bugs and occasionally bad camera.  Glitches and technical errors abound in both games, seemingly displaying a rush to complete the game and ship before artificial deadlines.  Lords of Shadow takes special exception with a few battles clearly containing too many enemies for the game engine to handle, as the frame rate nosedives into a literal slideshow.  The fact that each of these enemies are the only thing in the game that require only one or two hits to dispatch hint at an issue the developer realized but was unable to repair in time.

I did very much enjoy both games more than I expected, but as a Castlevania fan I have far more to discuss over Lords of Shadow. 

Let me reference the three things most important to the game, both as a Castlevania game and as a standalone title: the combat, the platforming, and the narrative.

The combat is nothing like previous iterations, and once the player has most of the techniques and abilities unlocked after a few hours the game feels less of a God of War clone and develops its own personality.  The way magic, items, and combos are utilized together feel well developed and strategic, less button-mashy, and very fluid.  Definitely a highlight, and very fun to play.  Only the camera would sometimes become an unfair enemy, rarely shifting the view to an angle that obscured the avatar behind a wall.  It didn't happen often, but it happened on a few boss fights.  For a 15-20 hour experience it didn't happen enough to stop me, but it was an issue.

The platforming is more divisive.  The locked camera only became a problem for those who don't like the use of viewing angles as a purposeful technique to hide optional items.  The action itself was rarely hampered, save for a few jumps that weren't immediately obvious.  I assume this was part of the puzzle solving challenge, though it does have the potential to frustrate.  If you enjoy the platforming style of Uncharted, Enslaved, or the 2008 Prince of Persia, you'll feel right at home.  (Disclaimer: the 2008 Prince of Persia is one of my favorite games of this generation.)  Some find this current design of platforming lackadaisical and boring; I find the safer and relaxed pace less frustrating and more entertaining, especially in a 3D space where the camera angle is a greater villain than any Bowser or Dracula.

Finally we get to the narrative, and since I enjoyed the first two reviewed aspects of the game, this was the piece that I find myself in a hate/love relationship with.  Hiring actual voice talent is always a big plus for me, as it shows a commitment to good presentation and attention to characterization.  Here I enjoyed the subtle and restrained Robert Carlyle's Gabriel Belmont the most, though Natascha McElhone and Aleksander Mikic both give superb deliveries for Marie and Pan respectively.  The voice casting overall was a great joy, save for an unexpected turn; I know having Picard as a voice in any product elevates its status to a divine plain for some, but here I found Patrick Stewart's delivery to feel unnatural and his vocal intonation inconsistent, as if reading Shakespeare to a kindergarten class.  He wasn't bad, mind you, just less understated than most of the cast. Unfortunately, the high school drama level dialogue written for the narration and characters strained noticeably between Stewart's voicework and the higher level the other three main characters were going for.  Then again, after all these years, perhaps Patrick Stewart is just being Patrick Stewart, which is enough for most of us.

Beyond delivery, the story is a complete re'vamp' (sorry) of the canon timeline.  In actuality, it ignores 26 years of loosely connected story completely.  There are some interesting name drops, though most are completely incompatible with their relevant characters from other Castlevania games. For a non-spoiler example, the name Brauner is given to a well dressed. elitist humanoid vampire with two children in Portrait of Ruin, with the story taking place in the 1940s.  In Lords of Shadow, set in 1047, Brauner is a savage, beast-like winged variant of a vampire who uses violence and force, and has none of the nobleman-like upper society traits as his previous namesake.  Lords of Shadow is peppered with such disassociated connections in name only to other Castlevania characters, though the art and design occasionally references the other series entries directly.  It can be a frustrating thematic choice for a series veteran like myself to see these names used for characters who are completely alien to their namesakes in other games.  Instead of a sly reference, it comes across as needless cannibalization.  Then again, complaining over needless cannibalization when discussing a series known for reusing the same sprites and animations for some enemies for over a decade seems a bit moot at this point.

Anyway, the story is interesting, maybe better than the delivery, and gives players the chance to explore vast landscapes and gorgeously realized locales.  The palpable sense of dread and despair are there by design and detail, from the faces hewn in rock to the captivating rain and water effects.  The game gives an excellent sense of mood, using sweeping angles and changing perspectives for scale, and heightens the sense of the epic, of loss and desperation, until...a screen slaps up seemingly at random, splashing the statistics of score and items against your tenderized eyes, because you crossed an invisible line that signaled the end of the level.  For as much mood as the game generates, it lacks the elegant tack of Shadow of the Colossus or Prince of Persia, which would be fine if the game were simply trying to stay in line with other Castlevania games as a gothic cartoon.  But the presentation tells us it wants to be more.  We all know this is a game, but for as hard as Lords of Shadow tries to sell you on the experience, the rhythm is lost because the transitions are so jarring and needlessly reminding.  Yes, I see from the flashy yellow excited letters I have a new combo available, was that necessary to punch into my view the second after the lead character cried from a conversation with his dead wife?  Something a little more unobtrusive would have been appreciated.  Especially after all the effort the developer put into making me care about what was going on in the game for half a second.  Odd design decisions like this produce a thematic tug-of-war between selling the game as a sublime experience and jumping up and down to remind you that its a video game.

Still, these design decisions mirror the amalgamated beast Lords of Shadow really is.  It is a composite of other games, marinated in an alternate idea of Castlevania themes.  About a third of the game is puzzle-solving, much more than traditional games in the series. The handful of items used are more spiritual successors than derivatives of those found in previous games.  A few boss fights aren't borrowed so much as completely wholesale copied directly from Shadow of the Colossus.  The music, while somber yet grand, only hints at the original themes.  The game's use of Dracula himself comes a bit out of left field, though obvious to those paying attention to the unfolding story.  The flow and feel is not directly what we associate with other Castlevania games, yet we have to keep in mind that the series has entries as diverse as Simon's Quest, Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night, and even Judgment.  Like it or not, 'classic' Castlevania is not easily defined.  There are gamers who still prefer the original Legend of Zelda over Ocarina of Time, feeling that the transition didn't do the original series justice.

I do appreciate that a different tone and style were used for this post-God of War generation.  I just feel that a good chunk of classic Castlevania charm was sacrificed on the 'must-be-modernized' altar.  There is good reason to believe that the old methods of successful Castlevania gameplay will live on with the 3DS iterations.  If not, we have probably lost a great heritage with the series, but to be honest, with so many excellent Castlevanias already released perhaps the series needs a few years resting in the coffin, growing stronger while its Frankenstein-created brother romps about awhile.

I for one very much enjoyed Lords of Shadow. I would have enjoyed it sooner had I dumped my baggage of what I expected of a Castlevania game and enjoyed it on its own terms.  It does invite the comparison by carrying on the legendary name, but like Dracula himself, the Castlevania name resurrects itself different every time.  If left alone, this one stands up pretty well without needing to be propped up from its parent games' heritage.

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