Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 586 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 418 out of 586
  2. Mixed: 85 out of 586
  3. Negative: 83 out of 586

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  1. jaysummers
    Jan 5, 2015
    2
    I have played the original Castlevania on the NES, and I grew up playing these types of platform games. If you are a fan of the theme of the original games. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!!! You will be disappointed.

    The storyline is broken because of some sort of crazy notion to depict the story from the vampires view while providing generic game play and sub par graphics. If you are a    I have played the original Castlevania on the NES, and I grew up playing these types of platform games. If you are a fan of the theme of the original games. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!!!! You will be disappointed.

    The storyline is broken because of some sort of crazy notion to depict the story from the vampires view while providing generic game play and sub par graphics. If you are a Castlevania fan, you will want to piss on this game and set it on fire.    … Expand
  2. MrGarb
    Apr 25, 2015
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Heres what I found to be the best and worst of the game, in order of presedence.

    Positives

    Good story line
    Very good visuals, particularly the scenery (it seemed this is where they put their most effort into.)
    Fluid, responsive, satisfying combat. Completely reminiscent to the God Of War series.
    Good characters/voice acting. I personally enjoyed watching all of the cut scenes.
    Partially destructible environment. Cans clutter and such.
    Challenging boss fights.

    Negatives

    It wants you to play with a game pad. The game does not seem to be designed for a mouse and keyboard. Every Single Time there is a quick time event the UI will come up telling you to spam things like the left trigger to an Xbox controller. Made me have to consult the key mapping way way too often.

    Claims to be partly open world when it really is not. You get to revisit previously traveled to destinations. Imagine one massive hallway the entire game through. (a rail system) they call it open because you can run all the way back to the beginning if you really want to.

    Dracula does not act like Dracula. You find yourself with menial tasks, and small obstacles that make little sense. You're supposed to be the Prince of Darkness.. Satan is concerned with how powerful you are.. but hold on I have to run down stairs to turn on a power switch to activate an elevator to go to the next floor. Tell me that's something a Vampire Lord would do.

    Silly stealth sections. Again, knowing for-well that Satan fears you, you decide to morph into a rat and sneak around a guard or two, here and there. WTF

    Invisible walls. If a spot is not game essential, you're not going there. Don't expect an Assassins Creed style of play here.

    The game holds your hand the whole way through. The camera will usually show you exactly where you need to go, how to get there, and have either a glowy thing waiting for you, or a character shouting to you with explanations. Yet, some parts you just haven't the foggiest bit of a hint of where to go.

    I had 16 hours of game play with one run through. Medium difficulty, average pace.

    Low replay value. There are elements present to keep you busy after the main story is over, however I can't see entertainment value lasting with that; or starting a new save; albeit there are always different difficulty levels if you're into that.

    The only way to die in this game is in a giant explosion of blood. The enemies almost always blow up, or burst into blood. I think that greatly takes away from the feel of it.

    Also, if you want the exact same outfit but in black, you can spend $1.00 on steam. hooray

    In conclusion, I would only recommend this as a rental at best.    … Expand
  3. Astrocow
    Mar 10, 2014
    2
    Don't fall for the fanboy hyped ratings, the professional critics are spot on. C:LOS 2 is a colossal disappointment.. From the unnecessary stealth missions, to the unimpressive enemies, the poor pacing to the underwhelming gameplay, this game is simply not as powerful as the first C:LOS. The game simply has disappointed me to the point where I simply want to dumb it down to the easiestDon't fall for the fanboy hyped ratings, the professional critics are spot on. C:LOS 2 is a colossal disappointment.. From the unnecessary stealth missions, to the unimpressive enemies, the poor pacing to the underwhelming gameplay, this game is simply not as powerful as the first C:LOS. The game simply has disappointed me to the point where I simply want to dumb it down to the easiest difficulty and plow through it. It's a shame because the first one was the most favorite game I played last year (waited for the PC version). I really wanted another magical journey like the first C:LOS, but instead you are tossed around disconnected environments and thrown into ridiculous stealth missions that break you from the few enjoyable moments in the game. I was really looking forward to this title, sadly, it has not only missed my expectations, but is beginning to feel like a chore to finish. Time to pass the torch to another developer, this series needs a wrap.… Expand
  4. giskarduk
    Apr 29, 2015
    2
    A truly awful Console port to the PC. It makes no attempt to support standard PC controls and even the tutorial names gamepad buttons. Leaving new players on the PC guessing which key that should be. Everything PC users hate about console ports can be found in this game. It is interesting story, but the piss port job of porting it to the PC means I cannot recommend this to PC users. Buy itA truly awful Console port to the PC. It makes no attempt to support standard PC controls and even the tutorial names gamepad buttons. Leaving new players on the PC guessing which key that should be. Everything PC users hate about console ports can be found in this game. It is interesting story, but the piss port job of porting it to the PC means I cannot recommend this to PC users. Buy it on a console, keep it on the console, do not bother PC users with this none sense.… Expand
  5. Fuz
    Jun 24, 2014
    3
    Decent game, worse than the first one but still somewhat enjoyable.
    The problem here is that it's a terrible port, showing you gamepad keys even if you're playing with the keyboard/mouse combo (which is extremely confusing, especially during QTEs) and some keys aren't redefinable. Said so, the K/M control themselves are precise and responsive.
    But the worst flaw is that the exploration    Decent game, worse than the first one but still somewhat enjoyable.
    The problem here is that it's a terrible port, showing you gamepad keys even if you're playing with the keyboard/mouse combo (which is extremely confusing, especially during QTEs) and some keys aren't redefinable. Said so, the K/M control themselves are precise and responsive.
    But the worst flaw is that the exploration parts use a shoulder camera angle that is extremely annoying and, personally, makes me feel constantly out of balance and gives me trouble aiming and looking around... why not leave the character on the center of the screen? Would have been WAY more enjoyable. Pairing that with a really low fov makes exploring a terrible, stressing pain.

    The shoulder camera angle is a terrible trend and a terrible design choice.    … Expand
  6. DEATHSTROKE
    Mar 12, 2014
    4
    I was eagerly wating for this game. During the first stage i thought it was pretty cool being a dracula but in the second stage you have to become a rat and sneak around . Seriously? You are a dracula and you have to hide from bad guys? I read the professional reviews on sites and thought their reviews are wrong, this game must be good. But now i have witnessed it first hand it is reallyI was eagerly wating for this game. During the first stage i thought it was pretty cool being a dracula but in the second stage you have to become a rat and sneak around . Seriously? You are a dracula and you have to hide from bad guys? I read the professional reviews on sites and thought their reviews are wrong, this game must be good. But now i have witnessed it first hand it is really terrible. The combat system is nowhere as good as DMC or God of war. Also weapons are copied from other games(shamelessly).… Expand
  7. powermad80
    May 30, 2014
    2
    Throughout the bland sections of modern-world gameplay littered with forced stealth sections that are as fun as a root canal, the repetitive combat that becomes boring before the tutorial is even over, the linear climbing sections, and the vast, open, and notably empty castle world with a pretty environment and nothing else at all of interest, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was nothing butThroughout the bland sections of modern-world gameplay littered with forced stealth sections that are as fun as a root canal, the repetitive combat that becomes boring before the tutorial is even over, the linear climbing sections, and the vast, open, and notably empty castle world with a pretty environment and nothing else at all of interest, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was nothing but a big chore to play from the start to the moment I couldn't stand anymore and turned it off.… Expand
  8. nono5551212
    Mar 3, 2014
    3
    Disappointed. Lords of Shadow 1 was great. But part 2 is a let down. They rip you out of the game play every second for some overly dramatic fly by or cut scene. I've been playing for 4 hours and I have no idea what I'm fighting for as the story is non existent. Is this a continuation of the first game? I have no idea. Managing your powers in the first game was fun. In part 2 I barly useDisappointed. Lords of Shadow 1 was great. But part 2 is a let down. They rip you out of the game play every second for some overly dramatic fly by or cut scene. I've been playing for 4 hours and I have no idea what I'm fighting for as the story is non existent. Is this a continuation of the first game? I have no idea. Managing your powers in the first game was fun. In part 2 I barly use them. Now the enemies block a lot which takes the Hack & Slash element out of the game. And let's face it this is a hack and slash game. The art work is not even close to the first one. The level design is very poor. Voice acting is pretty beat Except for Patrick Stewart. He can do no wrong. They got rid of the quick action when fighting boss guys. This is a really dumbed down version of the first one. I'm not even sure the same people made it. I hope part 3 is better. It reminds me of Darksiders.. Darksiders 1 was great and Darksiders 2 was crap it was one big fetch quest. Sorry for the bad review but I was so excited for this to come out and now I'm so disappointed. Castlevania LOS 2 = Crap. LOS 1 was a visual masterpiece that took you on a journey. This one feels like work.. Dam Ii'm mad… Expand
  9. yoli82
    Jan 17, 2015
    0
    Rating 0 because of the stealth sections. .
  10. blackmoonwolf
    Sep 19, 2014
    1
    Debilitatingly disappointing. I can't stand this crap pile of code. The story is excruciatingly slow. The dialogue is awkward and is comprised mostly of overly-exaggerated acting.

    The graphics are sub-par. Even on the highest settings on a newer high-end Samsung plasma TV and a gaming PC equipped with SLI'd GTX 780 Ti's, I am reminded more of a PS3 game than a PC game. After much    Debilitatingly disappointing. I can't stand this crap pile of code. The story is excruciatingly slow. The dialogue is awkward and is comprised mostly of overly-exaggerated acting.

    The graphics are sub-par. Even on the highest settings on a newer high-end Samsung plasma TV and a gaming PC equipped with SLI'd GTX 780 Ti's, I am reminded more of a PS3 game than a PC game. After much experimentation with the graphic settings, I have come to the conclusion that they used motion blur to cover up the shortcomings and inadequacies of their game engine. Motion blur has clearly been implemented to bridge and smooth the gaps between stuttering frames rather than to create a more realistic sense of motion. (Turn off motion blur and you'll see what I mean.)

    The combat gameplay is utterly terrible. Gabriel is incredibly sluggish for being the badass that he's supposed to be. The camera angles are unmanageable and frequently interfere with the direction of your attack. Even the minor improvement after you disable the "Combat Assist Camera" setting, you are still left to struggle against some unidentified form of 'aim-assist' that frequently targets random objects to your sides and behind you rather than the bad guys - which is completely infuriating.

    On that note, let's talk about enemies. Enemies are as cheap as they come. Their attacks will always interrupt yours where, conversely, your attacks rarely ever interrupt theirs. To make matters worse, the enemies constantly rely mostly on their 'unblockable' attacks. They are so frequent that fighting multiple groups of monsters results in more dodging and - invariably - dying over and over again rather than a well-balanced challenge. The unblockables are either back-to-back or followed up by a second attack that changes oblique angles to follow Gabriel in more of a 'homing' fashion. All of this requires a lot more room to maneuver than is often provided.

    Forget blocking. It worked well in the first game but here, blocking is inconsistent in success.

    Worse still; as you progress through the game, you are faced with armored enemies whom you can not damage until you fist-pound the armor off of their bodies with the chaos claws. (This supposedly makes the armor "hot" until it either shatters...OR the AI decides that it's too hot to wear - at which point they strip it off.)

    Attacks don't just glance off of the armor. They bounce off. This makes targeting the lesser enemies around an armored enemy IMPOSSIBLE as your blows land squarely on the armored enemy rather than on any of the non-armored enemies. This makes fighting infuriating as you can't target the armored enemy without having to constantly avoid the attacks of the lesser enemies and vise versa. (Again, most of these attacks are unblockables.)

    It is also obvious that the developers generate challenge in the game using cheap methodology. The whip's reach is ridiculously short and enemies purposefully stay just outside of it's range. The sword and claws are nearly useless as they are limited on usability due to rapidly-drained energy meters which must be saved for various tasks. It's also irritating that ground attacks still catch you in-air - despite what basic relativity/logic would otherwise dictate.

    The bosses are ridiculous with typical lather/rinse/repeat tactics. Many of their attacks feel cheap and, at first, unavoidable. (Again, Gabriel is ridiculously sluggish.)

    Also... Why is a terrible creature such as Dracula spending so much time skulking in the dark as a rat? LAME.

    Then there are the little maze/stealth 'puzzle games' you play with various main story characters. (Carmella, Agreas (Pan's brother,) etc.) Here, you have to sneak through the areas unseen as the characters hunt you with intent to kill you on sight. These are incredibly irritating. This is NOT what Castlevania games are about. The controls are difficult enough but these control difficulties are highlighted during these maze/stealth puzzle games.

    All of this does little more than to make your character seem weak and not AT ALL like someone who once defeated the most powerful foes the world's history has ever known. This is unforgivable.

    It definitely wasn't long into the game to realize that it's an atrocity. Not only does it quickly prove you right, it actually makes you realize that you underestimated it's terrific level of crappiness. It's definitely the type of game that makes you wonder in fury if the studio has ever heard of "quality assurance." ("Did they even PLAY the damn game after making it!?")

    NOTE: Dying finds you having to re-watch all videos and re-gather all items you find unless you passed a save point - including shards that increase your stats. (WHY, Mercury Steam? WHY!?)

    Don't feel bad if you finally give up on playing this crappy game and resort to Googling the videos to finish Gabriel's story instead. Trust me. I should have. It's NOT worth the time it takes to play it.

    This game is GARBAGE    … Expand
  11. golforoosh
    Nov 23, 2014
    0
    This game is really silly .The control sucks, game-play is like DMC but dmc is better,faster and More fun. I give the game 0 because This game does not have any positive thing .
  12. MadJaples
    Mar 15, 2014
    4
    I'd like to add that I hadn't bothered to read any reviews on this one anywhere, I just thought I liked the look of it, so I went and got it. Aaaaaaaaand then wish I hadn't.

    Graphics were nice - but this is nothing new we haven't seen before in the likes of Devil May Cry, which this game might as well be, just under a different wrapper. Same garish scenery, dark colours and moody    I'd like to add that I hadn't bothered to read any reviews on this one anywhere, I just thought I liked the look of it, so I went and got it. Aaaaaaaaand then wish I hadn't.

    Graphics were nice - but this is nothing new we haven't seen before in the likes of Devil May Cry, which this game might as well be, just under a different wrapper. Same garish scenery, dark colours and moody backdrops with the occasional soft bloom of innocence thrown in their somewhere to break the monotony. This is not new graphics wise. Or game play wise. Just mash the buttons as much as possible and hey presto you might get somewhere. You do - DO need a gamepad for this. Unless you're used to playing about with a lot of keys on a keyboard then you're pretty screwed for a while whilst you get to grips with e.g. pressing F on the keyboard when it asks you to press Y (on a gamepad - which you won't have if you're using the keyboard).
    The boss fights.....urgh. The first one was kinda easy really. It was the easiest. The second was immediately damn near impossible, and the one I've reached is so friggin hard I just rage quit. Several times - it's not because of that that I dislike the game. It's because of the logic of the game play (you'll see for yourself if you should dare to part dosh to get it - although I wouldn't recommend it, I suggest you rent it if you're going to play it), which is so bizarre in places that it just defies belief.
    There are points in the game that had me thinking that the person responsible for the game play must have been a weed-smoking pock-faced teenager with a plastic bag on his head - because it would take one to produce something like this.
    I noticed almost immediately that Patrick Stewart was in this, and therein lied my false hopes of something pretty damn good, because beyond the first boss fight, things just went further and further downhill.

    An awful effort that so clearly hadn't been done before that it must be done again. That was sarcasm. If anyone does this again they should be fired.
    Also, rating the game 10 because of other people's low scores is very misleading....eLipse. Stick to your original intentions.    … Expand
  13. valentino
    Feb 25, 2014
    0
    Awful - WISH I would have read a review before getting this game. It's 10 steps backward from the original. I was expecting so much more. The graphics aren't bad, but the gameplay just becomes a bore.
  14. Geralt123
    Dec 5, 2022
    0
    Pros
    ****
    Combat vastly improved The boss fights are really really good Very good graphics Better balancing than LoS1 Climbing Improved Cons **** Game wants to be too many things at once (stealth, modern, old, funny, serious) Modern day setting ruins the atmosphere Overall atmosphere not nearly as good as LoS1 Why must the main character look like a gaylord in his CSD    Pros
    ****
    Combat vastly improved
    The boss fights are really really good
    Very good graphics
    Better balancing than LoS1
    Climbing Improved

    Cons
    ****
    Game wants to be too many things at once (stealth, modern, old, funny, serious)
    Modern day setting ruins the atmosphere
    Overall atmosphere not nearly as good as LoS1
    Why must the main character look like a gaylord in his CSD costume?
    The game’s mechanics make a half baked impression
    Sometimes stupid dialogues
    Only controller buttons are displayed in the games help, even if you play with mouse/keyboard
    Some pointless mechanics like freezing waterfalls and ice in a doom-like level . . . so stupid
    Annyoing stealth scenes (Agreus in the garden…my god…worst stealth level in my whole life)
    Stupid puzzles (I wouldn’t even call it puzzles)
    Robot enemies don’t fit at all in the Castlevania world
    You transform into a rat in the stealth sections …ridiculous
    Inconsistent art style, some levels look nice like classic Castlevania while others (Theatre) look like Disneyland
    Level design is bad    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

47
#47 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 16
  3. Negative: 5 out of 16
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 7, 2014
    40
    A mediocre button masher at best, brought down by absurd design choices and low production values. [Issue #240]
  2. Thunderbolt
    Mar 14, 2014
    40
    An unfortunate conclusion to a once promising trilogy.
    Read full review
  3. Games.cz
    Mar 4, 2014
    50
    The creators have looked everywhere and were inspired by everything, but unlike the competition there's no quality in their endeavours. Instead of a great hack and slash title they serve us a merely stereotypically dull piece without brains. On top of that, the game looks off colour.
    Read full review
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