Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

 Xbox 360
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 271 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 198 out of 271
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 271
  3. Negative: 39 out of 271
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  1. GameZoneXtreme
    Apr 29, 2014
    0
    Complete crap. The worst Castlevania game ever made. Such a shame that it had to end like this. Hope another company takes over the series and does much better. Playing as Dracula is the worst idea ever. The sneaking missions were a joke. Just terrible. Wouldn't pay $9.99 for this crap.
  2. paleknight1
    Mar 29, 2014
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Terrible game even the first one sucked along with Mirror of Fate which is even sadder that those two titles got a chronicle pack and the 3ds one Mirror of Fate got an HD release. I don't know what they where smoking to come up with this it I mean I do like new gamplay, but not like this. I may only have played the first one yet this one gets boring as fast as the other one in combat. So here is how it goes the main story has a Belmont named Gabriel who becomes Dracula and is the new lord of darkness who is the hero of the game. Apparently it starts off with the brotherhood breaking down his door at the start and he ends up having to fight them off with his vampire like powers which he uses a blood like whip lash, chaotic powers, and a void sword. So after that he fights a giant titan after figthing a gold like angel knight or something and destroys the titan by puking up blood on the crystal. So after he takes down the titan the golden knight angel guy tries to make a prayer after fighting Dracula (aka Gabriel if you forgotten) on a cross as he does Dracula grabs it and makes the same prayer. When Dracula does a huge explosion happens and all the brotherhood knights nearby are killed. Then out of nowhere Alucard shows up (aka Trevor Belmont who was killed by his father and then resurrected in Mirror of Fate) he apparently ties with the story ending there without what happens making oh a plot. So you wake up in an abandoned church in what I am assuming is Europe I don't know its hard to tell. So you do a boring short walk out of the church after a flash back from the first game which doesn't tie in with the story and is completely pointless. It also is never mentioned again in the game and serves no purpose. So after he leaves the church weak as crap apparently he sees an image of his son and follows him down an alley way. This would have been great if he got in a fight with thugs and used them to heal up his strength, but no he gets the **** beat out of him by a monster that appears and nearly kills him. When about to die he gets saved by some guy in armor with a familiar sword which gives an obvious hint to who the guy in the armor is. So he wakes up somewhere murders and drains the blood of three humans a father, mother, and a son. Then he meets Zobek who says he needs his help (You know the guy who was the third Lord of Shadows and betrayed Gabriel before in the first game now they are working together) to stop these guys called the acolytes which are planning to take over the world and Satan would make Dracula and Zobek his personal pets as he says. So Zobek claims to have found the Vampire Killer which said to end his life permanently (Which is not explained too well and also FYI Dracula usually comes back after 100 years, but in this game he came back in a century proving these idiots didn't research too well when developing the game). You know what I will make it short and simple to skip the boring details or somewhat like that quick and simple.

    1. Dracula goes and is followed by trails of blood which is his darker side of him who fights later, and he has to gather items and weapons to gain his powers back.

    2. Meets his servants who are possessed by the evil side of him.

    3. Have to save a city cause there is this acolyte who wants to turn people into monsters, and having these kinda of future englishmen soldiers fight them shooting them with machine guns.

    4. Sneaks in to a base to get a cure with the most crappiest sheath system and use it on the acolyte which doesn't cure, but instead makes him more stronger fighting her to the death.

    5. Meets and fights Victor Belmont and then watches him die which was the most moment killing scene ever in the series of the games.

    6. Fights Carmilla, Toy Maker, Frankenstein, and Pan (The guy he killed when Pan became the Silver Warrior angel think which was a difficult boss fight).

    7. Discovers that the armored guy is his son Alucard and knows the truth of what happened to him for real (Which is not surprising).

    8. Fights Zobek the guy who betrayed him and also lied about ending Dracula's life to put him to rest.

    9. Final and worst fight of the game you fight Satan again, but this time he looks like the lead singer of Dethklok, and has leggings which looked like the ones from the manga and anime Devilman. But wait he doesn't fight Satan, but his son who gets possessed by Satan and he uses Vampire Killer on Satan to finish him with even though the whip in the series says it can not be used by vampires or creatures of the night some how works and kills Satan again.

    10. Well his son is knocked out which Dracula uses his own blood to revive him and they both stare off into the sunset which is not very memorable.

    Bottom line game mechanics gets old, the story is broken and really sucks, shows they put no work hardly into it like Castlevania Judgement, and hopefully they never make more sequels to this game that would be like this. Save your money folks!    … Expand
  3. persian0077
    Mar 1, 2014
    2
    I have to admit that I didn't like Lords of Shadow 1 either, but I thought this game could be better than that based on the trailers I saw. I've never been so wrong. This game is horrible! They removed the ONLY THING I loved in the first one: The epic landscapes, and environment... WHY? This gothic-future style just isn't working! The stealth is also a great disappointment. You are DraculaI have to admit that I didn't like Lords of Shadow 1 either, but I thought this game could be better than that based on the trailers I saw. I've never been so wrong. This game is horrible! They removed the ONLY THING I loved in the first one: The epic landscapes, and environment... WHY? This gothic-future style just isn't working! The stealth is also a great disappointment. You are Dracula the powerful vampire lord, and you cannot deal with a single soldier?? You brought down titans as a human, and you just can't kill an armored soldier.... I don't have anything else to say about this sh.tty game. Don't buy it, you will regret it.… Expand
  4. Raiden94
    Jun 19, 2014
    0
    If I had a metacritic account by the time Lords Of Shadow 1 came out, I would have probably scored it a perfect 10/10. That game was perfect in every sense. It was so perfect, infact, that it shamed the God Of War series by doing everything better.
    The developers must have had the easiest job in the world for the sequel, then. Just take the first game, add a new story, improve the    If I had a metacritic account by the time Lords Of Shadow 1 came out, I would have probably scored it a perfect 10/10. That game was perfect in every sense. It was so perfect, infact, that it shamed the God Of War series by doing everything better.
    The developers must have had the easiest job in the world for the sequel, then. Just take the first game, add a new story, improve the graphics and voila: we would have another game of the year contender on our hands.
    But hell no. They decided to scratch EVERY single thing that made the first game great, and instead they churned out this piece of garbage called "Lords Of Shadow 2".
    You see, LoS 2 is no longer a beat 'em up heavy game. No, it's a f*cking stealth game. You heard that right. STEALTH. GAME. Forget about the amazing landscapes, set pieces, puzzles and environments of the first game. 90% of the time in LoS2 is spent in corridors of a SCIENCE LABORATORY. As for the other 10%, well, you spend them playing through weird flashbacks, fetching Mirror of Fate pieces and looking for keys to open doors. Lots and lots of doors.
    There are no puzzles. The only thing I consider puzzling is trying to find out where the game wants me to go. Why can't I jump over this small rock when my jump is clearly higher than enough? Why can't I grab onto this edge when I grabbed onto a similar one a couple hours ago? You'll find yourself constantly asking these questions. The level design is really, really bad. It makes you sincerely question were the developers were for the past 10 years. Thank God for wikis and walkthroughs, or else I would still be stuck in that volcanic level.
    Now, onto the most important part: Boss fights. Did you love fighting titans and bringing down buidling sized monsters in the first game? Well too f*cking bad. There's little to none of that in LoS2. Most of your so called "boss fights" pit you against opponents of your own size. If you're lucky, you'll get to fight someone a little taller than you, and an example of that would be Satan's daughter.
    When you're not fighting, you're doing a lot of stealth. This element makes absolutely no sense. It shouldn't be in the game. There is no reason for it to be in the game. It's just there so the developers could write "we developed a stealth game" in their portfolios.
    Why is Gabriel hiding from this guard? Why does he instantly die upon being discovered, in one single hit, when he brought down a boss 10 times stronger? It's just baffling how little to no thought was put into it. This is a man that defeated TITANS, and here he is, hiding from a single low tier guard. Amazing.
    For all the atrocious faults of the stealth system, I would gladly let it slide if the gameplay was a little bit decent. But, again, HELL NO. The least they could have done was a little research. We have all these amazing stealth games coming out year after year, from the Assassin's Creed series to the Splinter Cell games. Hell, LoS2's publisher has Metal Gear Solid under its name. Use it, you lazy bastards.
    Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow 2 is one of the worst games ever created, and it still doesn't make sense how they screwed it over so bad. Do yourself a favor and stay clear of this game. Such lazy, careless developers do not deserve your money or your attention.    … Expand
  5. DarkEpiphany88
    Jan 6, 2020
    2
    What even is this game? I'm a long time fan of Castlevania from the very beginning, and this is a travesty from every perspective. I suppose the graphics are fine, but more than half of this game is finding the ledge to jump on or stealth. I can see that they tried to revive the Lament of Innocence gameplay, which is God of War-esque, but somehow it feels even more limited than that systemWhat even is this game? I'm a long time fan of Castlevania from the very beginning, and this is a travesty from every perspective. I suppose the graphics are fine, but more than half of this game is finding the ledge to jump on or stealth. I can see that they tried to revive the Lament of Innocence gameplay, which is God of War-esque, but somehow it feels even more limited than that system from Playstation 2. I can see why we won't get anymore Castlevania games now.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

26
#26 Best Xbox 360 Game of 2014
8
#8 Most Discussed Xbox 360 Game of 2014
17
#17 Most Shared Xbox 360 Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. MondoXbox
    Mar 10, 2014
    70
    A controversial title, not fully doing justice to the excellent work MercurySteam put in the first game. It sports a very good combat system but stumbles on boring stealth and platforming sessions, with too many cutscene interruptions. However fans of the series will love playing as Dracula and going deeper in the Belmont family story.
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  2. The Digital Fix
    Feb 28, 2014
    60
    If this Dracula seeks eternal rest then as much as we’d love to see him stay alive for one more adventure, perhaps it’s about time a stake was put through his heart.
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  3. Eurogamer Germany
    Feb 27, 2014
    70
    The problem is, the last game did everything much better. I don't think I have ever played a sequel that made me wonder more if the people behind it were fully sure why they did it. In a way, it's no small feat and a testimony to Mercury Steam's considerable talent that they still managed to make this an enjoyable experience.
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