Review of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

Well this was something I had been meaning to do ever since I picked up a controller. Playing as Dracula has been a dream of mine forever. Controlling him, you traverse the large Gothic city built upon your old castle's ruins and ally yourself with an old enemy to stop an even greater foe's imminent return. Systematically, you hunt down those responsible for bringing him back and kill them, all the while being plagued by visions of your long lost son who takes you back in time to your castle in hopes of regaining your latent powers and your lost memories. This all sounds great on paper, doesn't it. Well it's great in practice as well, except for one thing... the game feels and looks like Guillermo del Toro directed it. I know most of you will be pleased to hear this... But to me, the creature designs were just fine before they became all... Outlandishly weird, with the exception of Raisa Volkova's final form. Besides that, the scenery is quite the sight to behold, the "memories" of the castle especially. I often found myself standing completely immobile for minutes at a time marveling at the sights around me, and that is truly an accomplishment. The combat is mostly similar to the previous LoS installment, with the exception of the Void sword and the Chaos Claws that replace your blue and red whip while maintaining each color's magical properties. As Dracula, you progressively gain abilities like turning into mist to move past metal bars and become temporarily invulnerable to damage, swarm of bats to distract your enemies and possess them, the ability to morph into a pack of rats to climb through ducts and get past enemies and of course your blood daggers and relics. The puzzles are back, and there are one or two particular ones that might send you up the wall as it did me. The semi-open world draws a lot from Dark Souls in the way that most areas are interconnected and lead you back to the starting point. Fast travel is available though, if you can find the nearest map room. The trials are done away with and are replaced by arena challenges, unlocked by collecting specific artifacts. So to summarize... LoS2 is a great, gorgeous game with perhaps the most detailed and beautiful environments I have seen in a long time. I just wish they hadn't gone so over the top with the creature designs and had more powers for Dracula, I mean, c'mon he's Dracula? Worth at least a try though, even if it's just for the endless eye candy all around you.