PixlBit

Imagine for a moment that you’re the world’s perfect predator, and you have an open and sprawling city that is now your playground after being at rest in the shadows for hundreds of years. You’re sneaking up on your prey, salivating at the heartbeat that is about to feed you when you suddenly step on a twig. The echo of this twig somehow alerts every known enemy of yours, and you’re suddenly flanked and flayed mercilessly without ever being given the chance to fight back. This is Lords of Shadow 2: everything sounds great in theory, yet nothing works the way it’s intended to do so.

I initially welcomed Gabrielle Belmont back into my console life with a joyful heart, only to later shun him away as if he were the sunlight to my vampirism. From the combat to the newly established open-world concept that pushes the player into horrendous stealth scenarios, Lords of Shadow 2 has so many highs (great combat and weaponry) and lows (almost everything else) that I frequently found myself seasick and unwilling to really push myself forward.

Lords of Shadow 2 follows the same basic formula instilled in its predecessor: tight combat that is expanded upon by gaining experience and unlocking new moves to enable better and better combos. Blocking and dodging are keys to survival, and being prepared for a quick time event at any given moment is essential. Luckily, the QTEs can be turned off, but disabling the QTE feature actually makes the combat rather boring and makes biting an enemy for a wee bit of health regeneration much less engaging.

The combat isn’t all based around the classic Castlevania whip-slinging you might expect, for you have two other primary weapons at your disposal. My favorite is definitely the Void Sword. Its attack range is a bit smaller than the whip, but its kicker is that it leeches health from the enemy every time you strike, often leaving you invigorated and ready for more. The other weapon Gabrielle can wield is the Chaos Claw, which easily dismantles an enemy’s armor and shield, leaving them open for whip lashings and other cruel combinations.

That’s right, enemies are now capable of using various plates of armor and a variety of shields. The weirdest part, though, is that demons can now wield guns and rocket launchers, and human enemies are now able to use various mechs to take out our lord Dracul.

The oddities don’t stop at the various enemy weapons and other equipment either, the most disappointing parts are the various stealth missions you’re forced to endure. Not only is the most powerful vampire ever known to the Castlevania franchise scared of a fight, he now has the option to turn into a rat, run past his enemies, and hide in the walls like a coward. The game explains that Dracul is entirely too weak for the enemies he’s avoiding, shattering the lore of Castlevania’s Dracula that has been built up over the last twenty five years.

Stealth missions also bring an entirely new level of frustration when the situations are clearly unfair. Whether you’re attempting to prowl around a silent library and activate five symbols while a faster demon is hastily looking for you, or you’re attempting to sneak through a garden covered in the loudest and crispiest leaves known to man, you’ll continually ask yourself why you’re bothering to push onward. It’s these faults in the stealth missions that paint the biggest picture: the game just isn’t fun. It almost feels as if the developers went the extra mile to drain any sense of enjoyment from Lords of Shadow 2 and left fans with a hollowed shell of this branch of the franchise.

The open(ish) world sounded great at first, but after spending some time navigating through it, I discovered it was really a closeted experience which required a lot of backtracking as I was trying to figure out which way to go. The world is extremely deceiving, for it offers an open and expansive world, yet you are required to obtain certain power ups in order to move onward. You’re forced to walk a straight and narrow line instead of freely exploring the vast city of tunnels. Couple this with the horrid transition sections that force you to flip a switch and wait for a door to close behind you while another door in front of you opens (they probably thought they were cleverly hiding a loading screen), and you’re constantly left wanting more than what was presented to you, much like eating a Twinkie without the filling.

The combat may be tight, but it becomes awfully repetitive with the same enemies spewing at you over and over again. Sooner rather than later, you’ll wish you had something to rest your head against as the game throws yet another shotgun-toting demon at you that requires you to guard-break them back into oblivion--again. My boredom made me realize that this game’s story simply wasn’t worth the effort. The blandness of the tasks and the mediocrity of the storyline made everything seem to drag on forever as I was slaying countless demons and mechs.

Atrocious isn’t a word I like to use too often, but I feel that it is rather fitting for this particular installment in the Castlevania franchise. While the combat flow is spectacular (albeit monotonous), there are no other redeeming elements in Lords of Shadow 2. With a story that felt forced and illogical and an open world that was poorly executed, there simply isn’t enough redemption in the world to forgive this game’s faults.