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Castlevania Lords of Shadow Review PS3

Story



Gabriel Belmont is one of the members of Brotherhood of Light, and searches a way to resurrect his murdered wife, Marie. During his adventure, he learned that he need to collect the pieces of the God Mask, by defeating the Lords of Shadow, the possessors for each pieces of God Mask.

The story is well told, tragic, epic and awesome. The narratives by Zobek before each chapter is well done, which provides some insight about the story. However, some characters lack development, leading the story may not satisfying to some people.


Gameplay
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The gameplay is similar to recent action adventure games like God of War III, Dantes Inferno, etc. Platforming, defeat your enemies, solving puzzles, etc. There are 12 chapters, but there are more than 20 levels divided unevenly for each chapter.

Gabriel uses his Combat Cross to defeat his enemies. He has a lot of moves for his Combat Cross, with many deadly new techniques. Gabriel can execute light attacks or heavy attacks using Combat Cross. Gabriel also have sub weapons like throwing daggers, holy waters, etc. Each enemy has their own weakness, so using a different sub weapon can give you the advantage when fighting them. You will also get new Relics for your Light and Shadow Magics, as well for upgrading your sub weapons.

To learn a new technique, you must spend Experience gained by defeating enemies. Different enemies give different Experience Points, with bosses give out the most. You can also spend your Exp. points to learn new techniques for your Relics, like new Light Magic technique or Shadow Magic technique.

The Light Magic and Shadow Magic is an interesting feature. Attacking your enemy while using Light Magic will recover your Health, while using Shadow Magic increases your attack power. Using Light Magic is essential for surviving, since you do not have healing items, and there are only a few spots of healing points, which increases the challenge. Using Shadow Magic is vital to defeat your enemies faster, and it is essential for harder difficulties.

Gabriel can also execute grab attacks. You may think this is similar to God of War III grabbing system, but it is different. Once you have grabbed an enemy, there is a Quick Time Event. If you successfully time your button pressing, you can execute a powerful grab attack. If not, the enemy will escape and may deal you damage. There are also Quick Time Events for boss fights, etc.

Blocking and dodging are important in this game. You need to master both skills to survive, since you have limited way of recovering health (Light Magic and sparse healing fountains) and enemies deal big damage to you every time.


Gabriel will also need to jump, climb, crossover to other place with the Combat Cross. It is needed to progress, and for uncovering hidden items.

Most of the levels require you to solve puzzles to progress. Finished a puzzle without uncovering the solution rewards you Experience bonus, whereas getting the solution will net you no Experience. The puzzles are well made, and can be challenging.

The game also used fixed camera, like God of War games. Some may like it, some may not. I am however, have no problem with the camera system.



The boss fights in this game are extremely challenging, and requires strategy to defeat them. The Titan fights are similar to Shadow of the Colossus battles, with the scale and the ways of defeating them, which is attacking the weak points while grabbing to your enemys skin/surface.

I have no complaints with the gameplay, except that the game is too similar with other games like God of War III, Shadow of the Colossus, Dantes Inferno, etc. If the gameplay have more originality, then I think this game will be a masterpiece.

Graphics



The graphics are awesome, with well made environments and great designed characters. The enemy designs are especially noteworthy to be creative and awesome, like the Titans. No complaints here.

Sound



One of the things noteworthy things about this game is the voice acting. Sporting an all cast English voice actors like Robert Carlyle, Sir Patrick Stewart, and other voice actors. The voice actors did a commendable job, with my main praise to Robert Carlyle and Sir Patrick Stewart as Gabriel and Zobek. Zobeks narrative for each chapters is great, intriguing, and pleasant to listen.

The soundtrack is purely orchestral, which is a departure from other Castlevania games. The music is epic, beautiful and soothing. Each theme fits each situation, and the theme played while fighting the Titans are especially epic. Castlevania fans however, should not expect much gothic rock music from this game.

Replay Value



If the difficulty of the game is easy for you, you can try the harder difficulties to test your skills after finishing the game. You can also do Challenges for each levels, but they are extremely challenging, and a number of it is tough to do.

Conclusion
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Personally, I think this game is awesome, except lack of originality. I would personally recommend the PS3 version since you do not have to change discs while playing, but the PS3 version has a bug where it will corrupt your save file and force you to play a new game. Although the Xbox 360 version has 2 discs, but the game is no different than the PS3 version, and it is the safe choice to buy the Xbox 360 version. However, I have yet to encounter the bug, so I cant say much about it.

It is a worthy purchase, and it is a good reboot from Castlevania series. I can only hope that the DmC game will be great reboot for Devil May Cry series as well. New players and Castlevania fans should able to enjoy this game, even though the game lacked originality.


Score

Story - 9/10
Gameplay - 6/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 10/10

Final score: 33/40 or 8.3/10.0.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Epic, awesome story.
- Great characters.
- Superb voice acting.
- Epic music.
- Interesting gameplay.
- Lengthy game playing time that will make your purchase worthwhile.
- Great graphics and visual.
- Challenging game.

Cons

- Borrow too many gameplay mechanics, like God of War games, Shadow of the Colossus, etc.
- Gabriel has only one main weapon.
- Story takes time to develop fully until the end of the game.
- Fixed camera may appeal to some people only.
- Hard difficulty for some people.
- Minor bugs and glitches.
- Some lip syncing during cutscenes are off.