Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (demo)

[PeteJ]

360 demo is now up.

It looks absolutely stunning, up there with the best on the system. Presentation is also good and it is clear they've put a huge amount of money and effort into this. Gameplay wise I'd probably describe it as... functional. The demo is taken from the very start of the game where you have very few skills so the combat was always going to be limited, but it doesn't feel as brutal or as slick as God of War. There was nothing to make me turn my nose up although the horseback section was a strange piece to demo and hardly made me run for my credit card.

Hmmm...I hear it improves and I can see the combat being more fun with more abilities, and I'd love to see what the game offers graphically...but I have to say I enjoyed the Enslaved demo more! After playing both I'm just as undecided as I was before. Great.

[teddymeow]

Lashing rain accompanied by thunder and lightening along with the voice of Patrick Stewart. What's not to like?

Combat is very God of War but thats no bad thing. It feels more polished when compared to other plagiarists like Dante's Inferno.

I'll defo buy this on Friday over Enslaved. Or I'll cave and just buy both!!

[Charlie]

Was really excited about this but thought the demo a little disappointing. It had great production values but the gameplay felt rather tired and lacked dynamism. That said, I've not lost all interest in the game and will inevitably pick it up in a few months time when the price drops as I still feel the full game could surprise me in a pleasant way.

[SUMIRE]

If you took the title off, "Castlevania" you wouldnt even know this was a Castlevania game. I will pick it up, but i'm kind of dissapointed it doesnt use the assets of the previous games.

[rmoxon]

I think people need to remember when they put the series in a different direction with Symphony of the Night there was actualy must left that played like the old games. You didnt have a whip, there were no levels with bosses at the end, you didnt play as a belmont ect, these things were all hallmarks of the series that they removed, in fact it was not much like the previous games besides being 2d and having simular music and enemies.

In that respect, If anything this game is actualy more like the original games than the newer ones are actualy.

Course I think most people would have liked the metroidvania type level design to be present in this though.

[arcnas]

iTS going to be be an awesome game and how ign mark it down for being 20 hours long is madness, thats what i call value for money, yes its not like a castlevania title but you cant take away the fact that the game itself looks pure class.

[Number45]

Something being long isn't a guaranteed plus point. Yes you can argue that the value is there, but if you're just dragging out 12 hours worth of content out to 20 hours you should expect some criticism.

I'll take a fantastic 12 hour experience over a somewhat less than fantastic 20 hours any day of the week. Of course a fantastic 20 hours is even better.

Looking forward to this either way.

[Strider]

If you took the title off, "Castlevania" you wouldnt even know this was a Castlevania game. I will pick it up, but i'm kind of dissapointed it doesnt use the assets of the previous games.

Not at all. I'm around 10 hours into it and it's Castlevania through and through.

[Charlie]

That's good to hear. I have to confess the demo didn't feel very Castlevania or very impressive, but Edge and Games TM's 8's have me suspecting the full game is much better.

[Eight Rooks]

I think a lot of people marking this demo down already are the kind of, ah, silly people for whom nothing short of Castlevania IV done note for note in HD will ever be good enough. Castlevania is some guy with a whip, vampires in a castle and over-the-top Japanese gothic. That's it. Keep your treasured childhood memories out of this, please. As a demo, it wasn't up to much - but only because it's a tutorial stage and one long QTE race. Still fun to play, and artistically it was astonishing, far more impressive than anything in the franchise so far. I've watched the long-form trailer about ten times or more, and with the early reviews looking good simply cannot wait.

[Shoju]

I think people need to remember when they put the series in a different direction with Symphony of the Night there was actualy must left that played like the old games. You didnt have a whip, there were no levels with bosses at the end, you didnt play as a belmont ect, these things were all hallmarks of the series that they removed, in fact it was not much like the previous games besides being 2d and having simular music and enemies.

That's actually how I felt about SOTN the 1st time I played it. I grew to like it a lot later on but initially it didn't feel like a Castlevania game (non linear, rpg elements, effeminate anime designs, silly voice acting, no whip for the main character and some tunes that didn't fit). I'd really enjoyed CV1 and CV4 and never really played rpg or metroid games before that so it felt really strange. I also didn't like CV2.

[Strider]

It comes down to what you expect of the franchise I guess. Before the Metroidvania rut set in there were always good ideas. The core is always the same though (usually) Belmont, whip, atmospheric music, explorative levels, hidden secrets causing you to return to those levels, epic monster fights.

So far Lords of Shadow has all of that.

[Golgo]

I've still got an untouched copy of Order of Ecclesia. Think I may have to crack it open alongside this and have a month of pre-Halloween vampiric goodness.

[Shozuki]

well im about 3 hours or so into the main game - and I think its pretty good I dont have any complaints at all - it looks sublime, plays well with an excellent combat system and even some of the platforming bits are interesting and fun. I wholeheartedly recommend it. The only thing that worries me is it will begin to get to that overly stretched out bit like in Zelda TP - I just hope it doesn't ruin the experience.

[Charlie]

Is this out already then? One of you should start a First Play thread for the full game.