The central idea behind LOS2's setting is taking this style into the modern age, ornate gothic stylings meets high-rise cityscapes, but all it ends up with is endless sewers and a series of grey environments where the most distinguishing feature is car parks. At times LOS is so beautiful it takes your breath away. It had fun combat and an interesting story, but more than anything the lush gothic aesthetic was married to a sense of grandeur that few games match. Dracula is one of fiction's most enduring character archetypes for a reason, but there's none of that here. Dracula, meanwhile, has moved from the tragic figure of the original to an overcast goth who's bummed out that his wife and son are dead – and of course both then turn up multiple times in order that Carlyle can mum some pretend anguish into the studio mic like this is storytelling. "I have opened a portal!" intones Stewart at various points, doubtless just before sipping down a good cognac and wondering why he bothers. An enormous amount of money has been spent on the celebrity voice talent for this game, including Patrick Stewart as Zobek and Robert Carlyle as Dracula, but there's honestly no point in hiring quality actors with a script like this. What fun there is in the scale is soon lost by the constricting blanket around your possible interactions, which is basically the rule for all of LOS2's large-scale boss fights.įrom here Dracs somehow ends up in the modern day, under the watchful eye of the chain-smoking Zobek. The opening's big setpiece is taking down a giant holy golem of some kind through a linear climb up the thing's sides, interrupted by constant miniature cutscenes and topped off by a series of rote battles along the way. You begin, pleasingly enough, ensconsed in Dracula's castle, drinking blood from a goblet atop a grand throne before a pesky human mob turns up to try and stake you out.įrom here everything goes downhill. I'd be curious as to whether anyone played this game through in its entirety before completion, because by far LOS2's biggest issue is its lack of direction and focus.
LOS2 may have some good qualities but this is one of the most mixed-up, messed-up, abominably directed games I've played in a long time. Bad as this is it's only the worst in a long, long list of culprits.
I'm sorry but what? "Don't step on the leaves?!?" I'm not one to throw out the ludonarrative dissonance card for no reason, but GTFO. A small part of a huge game this may be, but it amply demonstrates why LOS2 totally sucks. It's the worst stealth section I've ever played in anything, ever, and topped off by the fact that immediately afterwards you rip goatman's face off with no trouble whatsoever. Then a few hours in you're told not to step on leaves in case they rustle, and attract some goatman who'll instakill you via cutscene. Phenomenally mighty! Even god's afraid of this guy! In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 you play as Dracula, who over the course of many tortuous cutscenes is established as one of the most powerful beings in this game's universe.