Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Ultimate Edition Review

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Published on October 11, 2020 1:00:04 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaWHsVszCjo

Game:

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (2010)

Category:

Review

Duration: 12:39

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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Ultimate Edition was Spanish developer Mercury Steam’s 2013 DLC-included re-release of their 2010 attempt to reboot the franchise.

First off, some people seem to feel strongly that this game should have been developed as an original IP and not as a Castlevania reboot. I think the main argument of these so-called Castlevania purists is that casting the Belmont family in a successful 3d hack-and-slash format would only reduce Konami’s interest in developing another classic 2d entry somewhere down the road.

But anyway, for better or worse it’s called Castlevania, but it’s nothing like Symphony of the Night or the earlier 3rd and 4th gen console releases. About the only similarities are: you’ve got a whip-like weapon, which is actually this sort of retractable cross-thing; you’ve got some werewolves; and early on you get this clumsy sort of montage to bookend the levels, which comes off as a strange design choice until you realize it’s supposed to remind you of this map-screen from the NES game.

You play as Gabriel Belmont, who sets off to investigate the source of a metaphysical imbalance supposedly causing an increase of demonic presence. And Gabriel, as it turns out, is a highly skilled warrior and member of a select order of knights known as the Brotherhood of Light. The Brotherhood, yeah, has got a little religious ideology mixed in here and there, which explains their interest in the whole metaphysics thing, which turns out to be more than a little ironic considering there’s nothing about this game that’s metaphysical at all—every god or demon or spirit Gabriel meets along his quest turns out to be entirely physical and literal, proven by the copious spattering of blood gushing forth from the NPCs’ bodies as Gabriel beats them with a chain, his preferred method of social interaction.

You get two basic attacks: a direct attack, which inflicts more damage on one enemy at a time, and a weaker area attack, which can hold off enemies if they start to surround you. You also get some secondary weapons—the daggers and holy water from the previous games make welcome comebacks, and the daggers are actually pretty strong in this game. And you can jump.

All in all, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a great game, the word Castlevania in the title or not. Sure, it’s a little pricey for a 10 year old game, but you get a lot of content, and so for the money I think it makes sense. My advice, though, as always, is to pick Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Ultimate Edition up from your favorite online gaming distribution platform during their next seasonal sale. Just put it on your list in the meantime!

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