As you well know, the return of Dracula en Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 It has been a return that has generated very different opinions about this game from the Madrid studio MercurySteam. Right here in Mundi Videogames, we offer you our review with very bad impressions on this title, in the same line in which many other media of analysis of the sector have spoken, although among gamers the debate is much more heated, as has been usual.
Enric Alvarez, one of the founders of MercurySteam and director of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, has come to the fore to defend his game from criticism that he considers unfair, even calling into question the professionalism of some video game analysts. His statement is somewhat ambiguous at times, but it reveals some nuances, at least curious.
«We are happy and proud of the work done […] Lords of shadow 2 it is the dark chapter of the series, where we no longer intend to show a world, but rather it is a chapter fundamentally focused on the character and his conflict ", without losing the opportunity to defend the end of the game, which could lead to future dlc: «The game has to end like this. We didn't want to offer a final moral conclusion, we wanted the player's own morality to decide how it ends. "
Enric He also had the opportunity to make a comparison between the plot development of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and the classic action movie Total challenge, film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1990: «in video games you tend to be obvious, you tend to make everything very obvious with the fear that people will not understand it. So people don't understand it and they tend to classify it as bad, not worth it, etc. With all this, perhaps there was a certain risk with a complex story that, in fact, it is not so much, if you look at it is a story very similar to that of Total challenge, is a character who weaves a plan and is not aware of it until a certain point in history. In the case of Total challenge, the character does not discover the truth until the middle of the film, not here, here we wait until the end. This twist will be caught by a small percentage of people, and it's a shame. And that's what makes the abrupt ending make some sense, because we're really playing at ambiguity. He is a character who has gone through all the nuances from the first game and we wanted to reflect that.
And we get to the point where the creative reflects on the disparate notes he has received Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, which affirms that it fits on the positive side and does not hesitate to accuse the press of "lack of professionalism to judge things for what they are and not for what some would like them to be. According Enric, «There are many people who analyze video games and are not up to the level of the video game they analyze. This is a problem because later this influences people's purchase decision, and later it also has an influence at the level of opportunities for developers (...) Don't get me wrong, there are very good people writing about video games, have the opinion that have. I'm talking about very good people who, for example, destroyed the first LOS. It's not about being right or wrong, it's about talking about what you have to talk about. When you say in a review that the textures or the engine of a video game are not up to par, or that the gameplay is not up to par, you have to know what you are saying. You can't just say 'I didn't like it, and since I don't like it, it's bad', that's infinite arrogance ».
For the director of the game, these bad reviews have been due to Lords of shadow 2 It is a sequel with many differences with respect to the first installment of 2010 and that is why many who hoped to find a more continuous title have not liked it, although he assures that «the majority of people are liking it and, indeed, the game has its defects , but they are not defects that can mask the rest of a job well done and all the sensations it produces. He also concluded by saying that versions were discarded for PS4 o Xbox One and that relationships with Konami they are still solid: "a normal relationship between two companies, an editor and a developer, who have been working for seven years and, as I always say, when we signed with them we found people who were people who were totally in sync with us and let us work."
Honestly, analyzing a video game is not an easy task. It is difficult to set aside personal preferences and tastes to put more objective criteria and judgments that can be shared by most readers, but when something is leaking everywhere, no matter how much you try to reduce the liquid with statements that may even sound like tantrum, a disservice to one's work being questioned - in fact, this reminds me a lot of the case Too Human and the childish anger of Denis dyack-. And be careful, the one who subscribes these lines is adept at series B and there are not a few titles that I have in my game library that have been described as dire but that I have known how to squeeze or I have preferred to keep for one or more reasons. It must also be said that part of the controversy that is being generated around Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 comes from the statements of a former employee of MercurySteam who denounced the despotism and lack of professionalism of the company's senior staff, who, despite the directions set by designers, artists and programmers, were ignored to adapt the game to the director's preferences, knowing that the staff Operational was very against this because it put the quality of the product at stake: this same worker assured that it is easy to notice ups and downs in the development of the program or that it gives the feeling of being in pieces, since many professionals did not support the work methodology and they left the project, with a constant entrance and exit of personnel. A sad story that we will see, despite Enric's words, yes Konami he will know how to forgive the hit in press and sales, although I fear that the Japanese will not be exactly forgiving.