In 2010, a MercurySteam, which had only launched the grotesque Clive Barker's Jericho for PlayStation 3 y Xbox 360, surprised locals and strangers with his review of the mythical saga Castlevania, materialized in a Lords of Shadow which was cataloged by many as one of the best games ever made in Spain and which was also accompanied by a success in national critics and was crowned as the best-selling installment of the series.
However, not all that glitters is gold and those of us who squeeze that Lords of Shadow that it had a series of quite serious playable weights, and above all, an unharmonious game rhythm, these blemishes taking care of ruining the experience of the program. Despite everything, the numbers spoke and Konami decided to grant the people of Madrid the opportunity to make a trilogy that comes to an end with this Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
The story of this latest episode begins with a Dracula besieged and immortal but centuries later awakens completely weakened thanks to the intervention of an old acquaintance. This entity alerts you to the return of a great common enemy, Satan, and proposes to help him end him in exchange for offering him the eternal rest that the vampire craves so much. We will have many familiar faces back, although with some somewhat striking entries on the scene, and it is that the script of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 it's worthy of a low-budget B-movie.
The worst thing is not that, but the plot is poor, insulting, insipid and does not arouse any interest in the player. Perhaps the story of the first was not worth pressing, in addition to having some somewhat candid tones at times, but even the air of epic task has dissipated in this installment, where we wander from one place to another between very chaotic combats, some simple puzzle, infiltration sections that do not work and interspersed cinematics that almost seem taken from the famous manga of Akira Toriyama.
We all remember that the first Lords of Shadow It had a sublime artistic direction, where beautiful landscapes or majestic panoramas stood out, with very successful fantasy scenery designs, in addition to having a team of creatures with an impressive and very credible finish. However, in this sequel, it is noted that the artistic direction has been orphaned and that it has changed hands at different stages of the game's development: the setting of the castle of Dracula It is the most striking of the game, and by far, while the rest of the locations are bland, empty places, lacking in details or with a finish worthy of games from the first batch of titles on the consoles where it runs LOT2. As for the infernal beings, they all stand out for the incredible bad taste with which they are designed, and that if we speak in generous terms, because it would be fair to point out their filthy appearance. To top it off, the soundtrack, although it has some good pieces, few are redeemable and of course it is a work inferior to that heard in the first LOS.
At a stroke, we see that two of the signs of the previous game have been vilified in the sequel, and now is when we run into one of the critical points of the program: the gameplay. This time we have a free camera - 90% of the time - which is still not of much use amid so much crazy combat that gives us almost no respite to position it to our liking, so that we are once again striking blindly on the edge of the screen without knowing what happens; the control is still not fluid, especially in timing, and is far from the silky response of the best of the genre; The skirmishes are very chaotic, the enemies have great resistance, insist on launching unstoppable attacks and we even run into vampires or mutants with shotguns and grenade launchers - yes, you read that correctly -: in short, the gameplay is far from being a fun experience and Many times we will prefer to run to the starting point marked on the map to fight the hosts of Satan.
Much was said that in this game powers seen in the mythical Symphony of the Night, although they take place in very specific moments and with limited utility. There is the possibility of transforming ourselves into mist to pass through bars or pass between enemies; throw bats to stun demons; release the dragon form of Dracula -Very useful for the tightest fights, although with a vulgar staging-; possess bodies and become a rat. These last two skills are used quite a bit within some stealth sections that every two by three are interspersed in the game, with very simple playable propositions that are reminiscent of those we saw in programs 15 years ago, in addition to not having much felt that the Prince of darkness, able to stand up to the very Satan, have to flee from coarse enemies turned into sewer rodent.
On a technical level, the game doesn't measure up either. It is true that the frame rate is somewhat more stable, but those frequent and exaggerated drops that were discussed in their day of LOS they weren't true. Even with everything, the treatment of both characters and settings is very uneven: austere environments, elements or characters with a polygonal aspect, poor texturing -sometimes even pixelated-, terrible recreations of hair, some other clipping problem, teeth of very striking saw ... Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 it is not saved in this aspect either.
I wish I could say that this game has corrected the errors of its prequel, but I fear that it has not, rather just the opposite. In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 The art direction has been completely blown up, both the scenery and creature design can be greatly improved, the fighting is chaotic, the camera continues to give problems, the stealth sections are ridiculous, the control has not improved and the story is of no interest. Unfortunately, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is one of the greatest disappointments of the generation of PlayStation 3 y Xbox 360, With which MercurySteam He has not only driven a stake in the heart of the franchise, but also in his own and the fans'.
FINAL NOTE MUNDI VJ 4