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[Corpsepyre]

Seriously, how did Mercury Steam fuck this one up? LoS1 had a lot going for it, with the DMC/GoW/SoTC/PoP fan-service, and the globetrodding adventure at its core. I finished LoS1 recently, and just started re-playing LoS2, in the hopes that I would like it more this time around as I was more into the series after ending LoS1 (yeah, I played and ended LoS2 before LoS1), but NO!

There's just so much wrong with the game that it almost feels as if it's made by a wholly different studio, not even a different team at MS. Terribad modern-day levels, ranging from bland subways, science laboratories and more, to the AWFUL stealth sections that kill the pace entirely, and make no sense whatsoever, to the story that, again, makes very little sense (I still don't know why Dracula keeps going back into the past, and if those levels are even real, or in his head)..

Ugh.

So much potential wasted here. Atleast the boss designs are suitably awesome. The Toymaker is one incredible setpiece. Same with the Gorgon boss fight and Inner Dracula.

The game opens on a great note, ends with a whimper. Mercury Steam fucked this one up!

 

[Kain]

That's what usually happens when you have bad management.

 

[User 479360]

Even though I was able to get a refund within seven days, I still regretted buying LoS 2. It was crap, but the completionist inside of me wanted to complete it.

The first game was no masterpiece, either. They padded its length to such an extreme that the first part of the campaign (chapter 2, I believe) went on forever. It really destroyed any such pacing, and made me hate the thing for a while.

Things got better once unnecessary, one-note quests such as one where you had to collect crystals disappeared, but it was never a great game.

Please die, Lords of Shadow.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

LoS1 wasn't that good so it's surprising people though LoS2 would be much better. There was no weight to the character, ran assy on the consoles, was full of filler sections making the game wayyyyyy too long, and the game that preceded LoS2, Mirror of Fate, was also a dud.

Maybe they'll be real smart about Castlevania and just let a good indie 2D dev take a shot at making it, or maybe try doing something like what capcom did with megaman 9 & 10.

 

[User 479360]

LoS1 wasn't that good so it's surprising people though LoS2 would be much better. There was no weight to the character, ran assy on the consoles, was full of filler sections making the game wayyyyyy too long, and the game that preceded LoS2, Mirror of Fate, was also a dud.

Maybe they'll be real smart about Castlevania and just like a good indie 2D dev take a shot at making it, or maybe try doing something like what capcom did with megaman 9 & 10.

Mirror of Fate was better, but also far from spectacular or noteworthy. Kind of boring as well, too.

 

[Corpsepyre]

Even though I was able to get a refund within seven days, I still regretted buying LoS 2. It was crap, but the completionist inside of me wanted to complete it.

The first game was no masterpiece, either. They padded its length to such an extreme that the first part of the campaign (chapter 2, I believe) went on forever. It really destroyed any such pacing, and made me hate the thing for a while.

Things got better once unnecessary, one-note quests such as one where you had to collect crystals disappeared, but it was never a great game.

Please die, Lords of Shadow.

The first game took a while to get going, I'd give you that. But once it did, I really enjoyed it. The combat opened up once you started getting those new weapons and relics, paired up with upgrades. It just reminded me a lot of Darksiders and a massive adventure as its foundation, and it was a blast going through the different locales. The Necromancer's Abyss was my personal favourite with all the mirror puzzles and platforming. All of that took a backseat in LoS2 with shit level design (atleast in the modern sections) and bland narrative. it's like a schizophrenic game.

 

[adamsapple]

Yep.

They fucked up bad.

 

[thelatestmodel]

I couldn't force myself to even play through the first one.

I'm an old fart when it comes to Castlevania, I believe that any future games in the series should try to improve on Symphony of the Night or just not bother.

 

[Vanillalite]

It's still not as bad of a fuck up as

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Loved the first one, but LoS 2 was just disappointing, besides the castle levels. The modern levels and stealth sections just flat out sucked.

 

[dugdug]

LoS2 was one of my most anticipated games of last year. The one-two punch of this game and Dark Souls 2 was just the start of a massively disappointing year for me.

LoS2 is just so all over the place, tonally and gameplay-wise. The ending of the first game set up such an excellent idea for a sequel, and, it was just completely squandered. And the wet fart of the ending was just the icing on the shit cake.

Looks nice, though.

 

[Elginer]

You're not wrong OP.

 

[Corpsepyre]

LoS2 was one of my most anticipated games of last year. The one-two punch of this game and Dark Souls 2 was just the start of a massively disappointing year for me.

LoS2 is just so all over the place, tonally and gameplay-wise. The ending of the first game set up such an excellent idea for a sequel, and, it was just completely squandered. And the wet fart of the ending was just the icing on the shit cake.

Looks nice, though.

It's how they think. That epilogue set up SO much. They squandered all of it with the sequel.

 

[LaunchpadMcQ]

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

 

[User 479360]

I'm mad at this series for wasting so much of my time.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

I haven't played LoS2, but I thought MoF was surprisingly decent after hearing so much crap about it. Played the HD version on PC and it was a bit shallow but moderately enjoyable, and it had far fewer annoying sections than LoS1 did, to be honest (such as the Chupacabra levels, the horrid QTE spam, the boring swamp, etc.). IIRC puzzles were a bit better too.

Ironically I thought LoS1 was massively overrated. It was a gorgeous game with awesome art but little else going for it. Gameplay was as shallow as MoF turned out to be. MoF was probably less annoying overall because it had fewer cut scenes and annoying bits and it didn't overstay its welcome.

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

I would commit criminal acts for a Vanillaware-like HD 2D SotN-like with Michiru Yamane composing....

 

[Chinbo37]

LoS1 I loved.

MoF was awful, I forced myself to finish just to understand the story.


LoS2 I am playing now. its just so MEHHHHH. Nothing compared to LoS1

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

hold up son, there were perfectly good Castlevania games before it went metroidvania. Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood are both classics.

 

[rhandino]

It has his rough part, that's for sure...

The sad thing is that some of the parts are excellent but the bad ones are really really bad. A mess tbh

 

[Blablurn]

Yop. It was pretty bad and boring.

 

[thelatestmodel]

hold up son, there were perfectly good Castlevania games before it went metroidvania. Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood are both classics.

I love them both dearly, they are classics, but there's something about adding the Metroid element. Having a huge castle to explore at your leisure, rather than on a linear basis, it was just incredible.

 

[dugdug]

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

Unless a western team develops it, I'm almost positive this franchise is in the can, now.

I'd love to be wrong, but, well, you know.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

This game was doomed from the moment that closing cinematic for LOS1 happened. Whoever thought that dragging the franchise into the present day was a good idea should be slapped.

 

[th4tguy]

I didn't like los1 and people generally like it. I'm going no where near the second one

 

[Fbh]

Yep.

I loved LoS 1. Sure, it was derivative and not every idea worked but I loved the setting, and all the different locations. The gameplay was fun and mixed things up with some puzzles, it had strong art direction and the story was surprisingly good and allowed for somenawesome boss battles.

But LoS2 was just terrible. I think they could have made the modern day setting work but then they went and used the most uninspired and boring locations they could come up with. "Factory" and "Sewers" and "abandoned parking lot".
The boss battles were not as good, the badly designed insta fail stealth sections sucked and they did a terrible job at making you feel like "the lord of darkness" (who has to turn into a rat to sneak around).

The only enjoyable part was the castle setting. They should have really made the whole game take place there.
After LoS 1 Mercury Steam entered my list of "devs to look forward to". After the next 2 games they are back at mediocre tier

 

[TheSpoiler]

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

We've already had a bunch on the portable systems. Hell, if anything, it was starting to stagnate.

The thing is, CVfans are a pretty divided lot. You could say "bring back the SotN gameplay", but many others find the classic CV style to be more fun due to the focus of level design.

And SotN didn't really make CV a franchise - it was already that before SotN.

This game was doomed from the moment that closing cinematic for LOS1 happened. Whoever thought that dragging the franchise into the present day was a good idea should be slapped.

Soma's adventures take place in the present day, and so did that big ol' battle of 1999 (I think?) that we never got to see in a video game.

 

[Yonafunu]

Really not surprised LoS2 turned out like that. The first was wholly unremarkable (bad, even) aside from the art.

 

[Tizoc]

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

What was the aeries before sotn?
Are you really downplaying the nes castlevania games and its succesor 2d games before sotn?
You already have like half a dozen games that play like sotn and dozens of games based on sotn concept.

 

[Omegasquash]

They dropped the ball on the LoS storyline, pure and simple.

 

[Candescence]

Yahtzee pretty much summed up all the things that were just awful about LoS2. Seriously, if we're gonna be playing as Dracula, he better be a classy, badass motherfucker who doesn't give two shits, LoS2 should've been the gaming equivalent of Hellsing. Even Soma Cruz is a far more interesting Dracula than Gabriel is, despite actively going out of his way to not be Dracula.

Of course, LoS1 wasn't exactly amazing either, though you can't really go wrong when you rip off God of War wholesale. Seriously, I don't really get why that game gets so much praise, it's just so hopelessly generic.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

What saved the game for me were the boss fights - art direction - OST and battle system.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

I liked it. ::shrug::

 

[Defuser]

With IGA already gone from Konami and Mercury Steam more or less killed Castlevania with LoS2. Would we ever get another Castlevania game again? Who is left in Konami who can do a competent Castlevania game?

Enric Álvarez shouldn't have let his ego went to his head which resulted this trash and the hatred from his colleagues.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

It has his rough part, that's for sure...



The sad thing is that some of the parts are excellent but the bad ones are really really bad. A mess tbh

This is even funnier when you remember that Gabriel absolutely towers over an average sized person.

Soma's adventures take place in the present day, and so did that big ol' battle of 1999 (I think?) that we never got to see in a video game.

But doesn't it mostly take place inside Dracula's castle?

 

[RPGCrazied]

It was decent, but doesn't hold a candle to the first game. But the ending was really bad. I had fun with the game though.

 

[Rymuth]

The behind the scenes drama was even more horrifying

http://www.destructoid.com/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-2-s-development-was-troubled-271310.phtml

 

[sn00zer]

There was a very long rant from one of the devs that the LoS2 director was a bit of a megalomaniac, and it resulted in a huge purge of devs including LoS1's excellent art director.

 

[Pyramid head]

This game was doomed from the moment that closing cinematic for LOS1 happened. Whoever thought that dragging the franchise into the present day was a good idea should be slapped.

The thing is though, for all intents and purposes, it's not remotely anything like a modern day setting. Certainly not the one we saw at the end of LoS1. What we got in LoS2 was an ugly mash-up of a gothic castle, no different from any other Castlevania, and some sort of futuristic, industrial alien landscape which looks more like the Strogg homeworld from Quake than modern day London or wherever the fuck it's supposed to be.

Lords of Shadow 2 is a massive pile of shit. Shame because I loved the first.

 

[ShinAmano]

Agree.

LOS1 best action game of last gen.

LOS2 biggest dissapointment.

 

[akidnamededdy]

Agree.

LOS1 best action game of last gen.

LOS2 biggest dissapointment.

Are you high?

I mean your second statement is accurate but I've never seen even the biggest LoS1 fan claim it was the best action game of last gen.

 

[Haunted]

It has his rough part, that's for sure...



The sad thing is that some of the parts are excellent but the bad ones are really really bad. A mess tbh

still hilarious

 

[explodet]

This game was terribly uneven for me, most of it landing on the "dislike" side of the fence.

I liked the theater puzzle, the Toymaker boss, and when Big Trouble in Little China invaded the game. And like a bunch of other Castlevania games, the fight with

Spoiler

Death

was better than the final boss.

All of the stealth sections can kindly go get stuffed, though.

And I've already banged on about the ending a bunch of times, blech.

 

[Beerman462]

I loved LoS1, but atmosphere goes a long way in my book so that has a lot to do with it. I hated the DLC though.

LoS2 failed on that and every other level. One of the things that stuck out to me early on was basic traversal. It seemed to me that the way forward was pretty obvious, but they felt the need to use a swarm of immersion breaking bats to mark ledges and attach points. Other times when I would be lost as to which way to go...no bats. Use bats or dont. Hell, have them come in after a few seconds if the game feels you need it, but seeing a cluster of bats on every grab point really pulled me out of the game.

Also pointless QuickTime events. Turn them off, but what's the point. They were so bad.

 

[Diablohead]

It's still not as bad of a fuck up as

I own both this game and arkham blackgate on my 360, and sadly blackgate is the better of the two.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

This game was doomed from the moment that closing cinematic for LOS1 happened. Whoever thought that dragging the franchise into the present day was a good idea should be slapped.

Except that it was a fantastic idea. As said already the Sorrow games take place in modern times, though you never see much of that. You could make a 'Vania game in the present just fine if you design it right. This... is not one of those times.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

The biggest problems with LoS2:

• Attempting to convert the excellent chapter based format of LoS1 into a Metroidvania. None of the retreading was fun or felt meaningful. It also detracted from the unique feeling of each setpiece in the original, as if they had to compromise area design to accomodate backtracking. The best areas were the areas you visited once.
• COMPLETELY dropping the ball with Victor Belmont. I'll avoid spoilers, but his character is wasted entirely.
• Trying to paint Dracula as a Darth Vader type character: I.E. "good guy who turned really bad but is still actually good inside." Not only did we see very little evidence of the terrible things Gabriel did as Dracula, making his "Lord of Evil" role fall flat, but there was absolutely no indication that he had a good heart, at any point in the story - including the ending. His new fighting style of drinking blood and viciously ripping things apart didn't help.
• Alucard wasn't wasted, but he wasn't used as much as he could have been.
• The ending! What the heck? Nothing is resolved.
• Time travel? Why? For what reason? It felt so out of place. Everything about it did: kid Trevor somehow being a real, tangible character, the arbitrary wolf spirit...

Despite all of these problems, the game is good. Flawed, not excellent, but good. Some of the boss fights were really fun and the outdoor setpieces (including the factory) were as beautiful as ever. The Alucard DLC was great, too - better than the main game for sure.

 

[Petrae]

How many more of these ventures like LoS2 and MoF is it going to take before we get back to the style of SotN? You know, the style that made this franchise a franchise?

The Castlevania franchise is dead. The spirit of the franchise lives in through certain indie games, but that's as close as we're going to get.

 

[LaunchpadMcQ]

hold up son, there were perfectly good Castlevania games before it went metroidvania. Super Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood are both classics.

We've already had a bunch on the portable systems. Hell, if anything, it was starting to stagnate.

The thing is, CVfans are a pretty divided lot. You could say "bring back the SotN gameplay", but many others find the classic CV style to be more fun due to the focus of level design.

And SotN didn't really make CV a franchise - it was already that before SotN.

What was the aeries before sotn?
Are you really downplaying the nes castlevania games and its succesor 2d games before sotn?
You already have like half a dozen games that play like sotn and dozens of games based on sotn concept.

I'm not downplaying the importance (or greatness) of the NES and SNES titles, but everything post-SotN has been more or less in the same style and most people have not had any complaints about that. I certainly haven't; the GBA and DS titles were all amazing. SotN shifted the series in a different direction and it likely would not have had as much a success had it remained rooted in the style of Super Castlevania or titles before it.

I'm not saying they should shoot for a carbon copy Metroivania; we already have tons of that, that's true. We need a refinement and expansion of the genre. Just the core mechanics should be brought back, in my opinion.

 

[Mdk7]

Agree.

LOS1 best action game of last gen.

LOS2 biggest dissapointment.

It's not even the best action game of the year it came out, IMHO.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I liked it :/