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We are now officially in a new generation of gaming. The Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are all available for purchase and enjoyment. But that doesn’t mean we should completely neglect the last generation. There’s a lot of games to immerse ourselves in while we wait for more heavy hitters to land on our shiny new consoles, games that can only be played on the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 due to said new consoles’ lack of backwards compatibility. One such game — or rather, games– is the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection houses the game I gave my first perfect 10 review on this site, Lords of Shadow, as well as its DLC and unnumbered (but just as major) sequel, Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD. The blood-stained bow tying the package together is an exclusive Lords of Shadow 2 demo. You can check out my in-depth review of each game included by clicking the links below:
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD /original 3DS review
But that doesn’t mean I’ll be delivering you guys a mini-review for the collection. No. I can never be brief with my love for the Lords of Shadow saga. So allow me to go in-depth and tell you why this Collection trumps most modern triple A games in terms of bang for your buck and excellence.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow tells the story of Gabriel Belmont, a knight serving the Brotherhood of Light, who embarks on a quest to rid the world of a spell that’s disabling dead souls entry into heaven. Not only do you have to solve the mystery behind this curse, but you also have find a way to bring back your dead wife. Delving into more story talk will bring out spoilers from me, so I’ll leave it at that. But rest assured, Lords of Shadow provides the best story the series has ever seen. It’s a tragic tale in every sense of the word and a true quest. Many games in the genre like to declare themselves as “adventures,” but they end up being quite short affairs. Lords of Shadow defines what an adventure means.
Players have a good 15-20 hours or so to enjoy with this game, not counting the DLC. It’s a massive single player experience that doesn’t care for multiplayer or other features most publishers tack on just to meet certain criteria to list on the back of their game boxes. The game keeps getting better and better the more you delve into it, resulting in one of the most memorable endings and post-credits scenes of the generation. It sets up the rest of the saga perfectly and left questions to be answered. That’s where the DLC came in.
While feeling a bit rushed in some areas, the two DLC chapters, “Reverie” and “Resurrection,” were superb in their own right. They explained a few things players may have been left wondering during the game’s epilogue, and provided its own set of memorable moments. The Forgotten One is the highlight of the DLC offerings. Classic line spitting aside, the encounter with this ancient being is wonderful and plays out in a manner that’s nothing short of epic and challenging. It fit right at home with the level of engagement and tension found in the other bosses from the base game.
Lords of Shadow’s combat is as fun as it can get in the genre. You have your traditional heavy and light strikes with the combat cross as well as supweapons to utilize and magic to perform. The magic comes in the form of light and dark; light heals you with every blow you deal on foes and dark increases your damage output. Once you get comfortable with the many combos you can perform you’ll be switching back and forth with ease between both magic states, making for smart use of the mechanics. God of War clone this is not. If you want to get technical, this is a Castlevania 64 clone (but astronomically better, of course!). The only downside were the puzzles in the game. Not that they were bad, but they just hindered the otherwise breakneck pacing. I believe puzzles were handled better in the next game I’m about to cover.
Mirror of Fate is the perfect modernization of the old-school side-scrolling Castlevania formula. We all know MercurySteam is done with the series after they conclude the Lords of Shadow saga with next year’s Lords of Shadow 2, but I sure hope Konami keeps the template they put in place for this former 3DS exclusive. The HD edition, as expected, is the definitive version of the game. Barring a few visual downsides that are to be expected with such a conversion, you have a game that feels right at home on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It’s pure old-school gaming bliss, and due to its more traditional gothic nature, it should definitely appeal to fans more than the original Lords of Shadow probably did. And what made the experience even better was that the team opted to reimagine the series’ iconic trio of heroes: Simon, Trevor and Alucard. In many ways, this trio can be seen as the holy trinity of the series, and MercurySteam did them justice, providing versions of the characters that I’ve come to adore just as much as their original incarnations. This Alucard I love even more than the original Dracula’s Curse/Symphony of the Night one as well. And that’s saying a lot!
It’s not just a straight up HD port of the game, though. Oh, no. MercurySteam also decided to rectify some issues players had with the game’s original handheld release earlier this year. Issues such as a lack of mouth animations during cut-scenes, existence of checkpoints during boss fights, and the biggest one of all being an abundance of quicktime events. That last one I personally didn’t find any issue with, but I know many did. So away with those QTEs! The game’s memorable boss fights are now completely seamless and even more challenging when tackled in higher difficulties due to those in-between checkpoints being plucked out. The only instances where QTEs are still prevalent are during a couple “titan” boss encounters. They’re breathtaking and I wish there could’ve been more player interactivity in them. This HD version also adds online leaderboards and the much beloved series staple: boss rush mode. Be prepared for quite a challenge, especially if you want to make it to the top of the boards. But you’ll love every second of it. My own minor gripe with the extra mode is that you can’t select which character you want to tackle the bosses with. I would’ve loved to have fought the end boss as Gabriel for reasons related to fan fiction brewing in my head. Shh, don’t judge me!
Each character in Mirror of Fate has their own special abilities that allow them to access different parts of the titular castle. Each also has a distinctive style (Gabriel is only playable in the prologue): Simon’s is straight up old-school action platforming, Alucard’s is more adventure and puzzle/back-tracking friendly, while Trevor’s is a combination of both on an epic scale with some truly memorable moments. Trevor’s part is the best, if you ask me. However, all the scenarios are wrapped together in an excellent and atmospheric presentation. From the haunting design of the castle and its monster-filled innards, to the beautiful music underlining the adventure, your ears and eyes are in for a great erie treat with Mirror of Fate HD. And with Mirror of Fate you’ll get a good 10 hours of playtime, which becomes elongated if you desire to seek out every last unlockable, which in turn scores you a secret ending that’s a little underwhelming after all the work put in to achieve it, but still satisfying to longtime fans. Coupled with the original Lords of Shadow’s duration (including its DLC), you’ll be getting nearly a 40 hour epic tale. And it’s not over yet…There’s also a demo for Lords of Shadow 2!
This is the demo we’ve seen from this year’s E3 festivities. It takes place during an early part of the “Dracula at his prime” scenario as I’m calling it, centuries before he awakens in modern times, weakened and yearning for freedom from his immortality. The demo starts out with a picture-perfect image of Dracula on his throne, sipping some fine blood enjoying the coldness of the night. Until the Brotherhood of Light comes knocking on his door. And by knocking I mean disrespectfully bursting through it. Well, trying to at least. They’re able to eventually pour into his throne room and the action commences. Dracula’s movement is swift and the combat is as intuitive and satisfying as you remember it from the original game. This time, players get to toy around with a couple of new weapons to some wonderfully gory results: the void sword and the chaos claws. These new weapons represent the evolution of the first game’s light/dark magic system. The void sword heals you upon contact with foes. The choas claws on the other are all about dealing a greater amount of hurt on your enemies. They’re awesome new additions that fit right at home with Dracula’s special abilities, and I can’t wait to see what other weapons/abilities are in store for players when the game comes out next year. Oh, and should I even have to mention how awesome it is to suck the blood from the knights in the game? Never gets old.
Aside from the introductory combat sequence that eases you into the game’s controls, you also have a neat little platforming bit that follows it. Dracula, platforming instead of just flying around? Hell yes, why not?! Platforming is fluid and there’s even a neat optional ability that highlights the path you’re supposed to take to get to your destination. I won’t be using it, but it’s nice that it’s there for people who can’t tolerate being stuck in one place for too long. The optional features continue with the use of everyone’s favorite quicktime events! You can make them optional if you so wish, but I find that doing so just strips away some of the grand scale of the bosses, especially the one featured in the demo. It’s by no means QTQ-galore, but they’re used extremely well here. The titan boss you face here is an awesome mechanical giant constructed by the Brotherhood to destroy your castle. It’s a towering foe that’s awesome visually and functionally. But he’s not the only boss you’ll encounter. You’ll also be faced with a golden knight, not unlike Pan’s Silver Knight form, who spits some classic Symphony of the Night lines at Dracula before their bout begins. I jumped out of my seat in excitement, because it fit so perfectly and didn’t just feel shoehorned in for the sake of it. This boss is relentless and you fight him while you make your way to the top of the aforementioned titan to dismantle it. It’s all set to an orgasmic score by Oscar Araujo that made me stretch out the battle longer than I should’ve just to hear more. It ends with a big tease at the final part of the boss fight that left me salivating for what happens next.
The Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection is worthy every penny. I actually think it’s a steal at its asking price. You’ll get hours upon hours of single player entertainment that you’ll remember long before the credits roll, especially if you’re a fan of Dracula lore and that particular mythology. Castlevania fans will dig it, especially those who are more enamored by the series’ roots than the more recent Symphony of the Night style.
(9 / 10)
Amazing
(9 / 10)
