Castlevania - Lords of Shadow (Xbox 360)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is an action adventure game, combining combat with puzzles and adventuring and it does everything so well. It's a reboot to the original series. The combat is excellent, fun and bloody. The more puzzles you solve and the more enemies you kill then the more XP you earn and with this XP you can purchase new combat moves and other upgrades for Gabriel. The puzzles aren't exactly hard but they do prevent this game from being just a hack and slash which is good. If you do get stuck with the puzzles, you can access your travel book (contains information about characters, monsters, weapon upgrades and from here you can purchase new moves and abilities) and click on "solve puzzle" to get the answer to a puzzle at the cost of losing an XP reward for completing it. Then there's the adventuring where you must climb, repel with the combat cross (Gabriel's weapon) and jump through exotic and beautiful environments accompanied by an epic score of music. It's truly wonderful. The game may not be like the originals but it's a great and almost perfect game in its own right.The boss battles are pretty good as well and always accompanied by epic music which just makes the battles even more amazing. There are 12 chapters and it'll probably take you 20 hours to finish them all and maybe 40 hours to finish everything (i.e, replay on different difficulty levels, complete level trails, find all weapon upgrades). What with Lords of Shadow being quite cheap now, you'll get more than your money's worth.The story is quite average at the beginning and begins slow with Gabriel seeking to resurrect his beloved wife, (this story has been done so many times to death now. It's too generic.) however it gets more interesting in further chapters as you see that Gabriel has a dark destiny ahead of him and then during later near-end chapters it gets deep until it reaches epic. Everything compliments one another. The areas that Gabriel transverses, the music, the atmosphere. As Gabriel progresses to defeat the final evil in the game, he travels completely alone in desolated and almost forgotten places. Dark, tragic and forlorn music plays in these areas and all of this goes hand in hand to show Gabriel's decent into darkness. Combine that with the narrator (Patrick Stewart who plays Zobek) speaking before every quest and the story truly does end up being amazing. The ending isn't bad (far from it!) in my opinion but I did find it rather odd.It is a Castlevania game despite what others say. Combat requires thought, timing and skill on harder difficulties and enemies all have their weaknesses. It simply lacks the non-linear exploration of some other Castlevania titles but many of the older CV titles had linear progression through levels like Lords of Shadow does (although LoS is actually more open in its levels but you practically advance through the game stage by stage like the old games). However the game is a reboot and the series needed this. Obviously, as a reboot, it's going to be different to the original games in that it introduces new gameplay mechanics.With that said, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow has many memorable moments - fighting the ice titan, scaling the castle walls (yes, the castle is in the game for 5 chapters and the expansions bring it back for another two), fighting advancing forces of vampires and travelling through beautiful environments.If you're looking for a good game that will last you some time, then this is it and it was most certainly the best action-adventure game of 2010 and could even still hold this title for 2011.

Hadn't played Castlevania before, but had seen clips of it when it was a new release. Bought this due to the high quality reviews, im not a gamer that tends to play online and this ticks all the boxes for me, epic scenery, brilliant story line(if you like mythical creatures and fairytales). The only problem I would have with this game is although there are big name voice actors such as Patrick Stewart, the acting seems rather hollow. But if you look past that it is a hard core first player game with 2 discs worth of play! I don't even think im half way through the first disc ive been playing for around 3 hours.All in all a must buy for first action players out there. I also recommend DMC for those players looking for another great first player game, and in my opinion DMC just shades it over Castlevania, though both completely different.

The sense you get while playing this Castlevania is that it is made by people who have something to prove. Mercury Steam were still smarting from less successful titles and needed this to work. A 3D Castlevania had yet to be a hit and many saw the portable Metroidvania titles as the series' lifeblood.The gameplay is quite conservative, some might say plagiaristic. Much of the core mechanics are very similar to God of War. And when the game isn't borrowing from God of War it is taking elements from Shadow of the Colossus. I can sympathise with the creators playing it safe but I just think that a series as mighty as Castlevania should resist standing on the shoulders of giants. The gameplay is fine and the enemies do vary. I enjoyed it for the entirety of its running time, which is considerable.Where Lords of Shadow does take risks is with the Castlevania story and lore. Dracula, though present, is not the last boss and the story takes a winding road instead of the serving up the monster mash of previous titles. The music, though occasionally familiar, doesn't reuse the absolute classic tunes in the ways you might expect. These are brave choices and ultimately do work, for me this is still Castlevania in a similar way to which that Daniel Craig is James Bond.This Castlevania looks and sounds amazing. There are really, really good moments here often born out of fantastic art design, superb music and cut scenes that meld seamlessly with the action. This is not the greatest imagined world ever created as there are too many invisible walls. It is an Epic adventure, a lovingly wonderfully crafted piece of work that I enjoyed immensely. But I simply cannot give it a perfect score because it does borrow and steal instead of making Castlevania the game other develops should follow.

Excellent product

Great atmosphere, great soundtrack too in my opinion. Quite dark, we do need more of that. Just very linear of course...

I cant play it, it's too hard, I cant kill the first boss.. waste of money. Perhaps it's just me, but i wish they wouldn't make these games so hard. Also you'r very restricted in movement, seems to be set paths which are very restrictive.

Great delivery quality but the game is absolute garbage.

The game is brilliant. You play as Gabrielle and follow him as he goes through the trials and hardships in order to resurrect his beloved. the only thing is that its a difficult game to play but that's a good thing as it gets you thinking and makes you pause for thought. I've completed this game and have ordered the second Castlevania. Hopefully there will be just as many twists and turns in the second one as there was in this one. When you get to the last chapter beware... its got an ending you'll never expect.

El vendedor envió el juego dentro del tiempo pactado. Llegó en perfecto estado, con caja y manual original. 100% satisfecho.

Lo compré para un amigo, pero yo ya lo había jugado y tengo que decir que me parece un gran juego, obra de un estudio español, además. Probablemente el último gran Castlevania ahora que Konami no está por la labor de seguir haciendo nuevas entregas.El precio al que lo conseguí me parece muy correcto, teniendo en cuenta que muchos juegos de Xbox 360 se han revalorizado al ser retrocompatibles en Xbox One. En cuanto al envío y demás, sin problemas como suele pasar con Amazon.

la jaquette est en anglais, mais les menus, textes et sous-titres du jeu sont bien en français. (pas les voix)Un style gothique, très beau, musique épique, gameplay nerveux, héros charismatique (aragorn?), et la prise en main est vraiment simple (croisement entre devil may cry et god of war). du bonheur !ce jeu annonce de longues heures de plaisir, car il tient sur 2 CDs!pour ce prix, et une livraison rapide, je suis plus que satisfait !!

Fantástico , me ha sorprendido y enganchado, lo único malo es que tengo que dejar el disco puesto para poder jugar.

Castlevania a toujours était en 2d et ce titre une petite pépite qui ouvre la saga au néophyte, les décors sont sublime, l'histoire merveilleuse, le gameplay souple et nerveux une merveille graphiquement très bon bref un incontournable