Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

A miserable blend of flawed game mechanics that's a giant leap backwards from its predecessor.

Lords of Shadow 2 is a shocking misfire.

Lords of Shadow 2 squanders a great premise - playing as the King of Vampires in a modern day city - with mediocre execution.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 features memorable combat in a forgettable world.

There is some fun to be had in the combat, and the bosses are so creative that players will want to push forward just to see what's next, but the journey is ultimately an unfulfilling one. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2's lack of focus is its downfall, and plants it firmly in the mediocre pile.

Regretfully, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 came and went like a wet fart in a dark rainy night. It was the last new Castlevania game made, and its not hard to see why. It’s an expensive and bloated mess of ideas that don’t mesh well with trite gameplay.

n 2010, the rather enjoyable Castlevania: Lords of Shadow ended with a major plot twist revealing that Gabriel Belmont was alive during modern times and was now called Dracula, taking on the famous vampire’s persona and visage. This left fans to wonder how the sequel would continue the story, either as Dracula or fighting against the protagonist from the original game. Four years later, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 answered the question, but it’s a question that probably was more interesting to think about than how Konami approached it.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is a study in contrasts with wildly fun combat levels separated by monotonous stealth levels.

Like all sequels, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 attempts to improve on the original in almost every area, but ultimately fails to do so. New ideas and mechanics are let down by sloppy execution.

Even basic exploration quickly becomes more trouble than it's worth, thanks to a scarcity of waypoints, overly lengthy transitions between areas, and the lack of an overall map.