Board Thread:Lords of Shadow 2/@comment-1256165-20121224093158/@comment-9370046-20130510140731

'''I think this is something you are going to want to see. It is from an article about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 in the UK Official Playstation Magazine. It includes an interview with Eric Alvarez (Nice bloke by the way) with quite a few details about the game itself.'''

"Developer Mercurysteam benefitted from the element of surprise with the first Lords of Shadow. Even with Kojima (loosely) involved, there was a suspicion that a Castlevania game designed by a team in Madrid, and not Koji Igarashi, would come out poorly in comparison. Instead, we got an epic. It’s a shame that last word has been overused to meaninglessness, because the 20 hours of Lords of Shadow deserve the accolade – the game was constantly shifting, as Gabriel Belmont’s powers built throughout, before ending with him, humanity all but gone, enshrined in Dracula’s throne.

This second outing begins the same way, only the Brotherhood of Light are knocking at his door with a golden battering ram. Belmont’s holy fraternity have turned against him since he became an undying symbol of evil, which puts Drac in a pickle. And not the tasty lime type. On one side, he’s got the forces of good, who are currently attacking his castle with a massive, walking church. On other side, he’s got the dark machinations of Satan himself to overcome. He’s caught between a river of molten rock and a pit full of hard places.

Epic the first game may have been, but it wasn’t without flaws, and the platforming was criticised. But the new game takes a less spoon-fed approach. Anchor points will only be highlighted if you ask them to be, and not at all on harder levels. More importantly, Castlevania is a series built around discovery and exploration. It’s built around seeing a ledge you can’t reach, and having to make a mental note to come back later. That simply didn’t work in a game divved up into 12 chapters and 46 verses. Sure you’d get a ‘come back when your powers have improved’ message, but the division fractured the world. For the sequel, the environment will be completely seamless-the mission summaries replaced with teleporters, just like in Igarishi’s games.

Another problem was the Titan battles. To put it kindly, these were inspired by Shadow of the Colossus. And while some were excellent, challenging spectacles, others were easily failed slogs in need of mid-battle checkpoints. The Titan we mentioned above, that furious church with his big, sleepy face, is a different kettle of massive fish. The battle with it is longer, but more varied, with Brotherhood warriors attacking you on it’s forearms while it gawps balefully at you all in the background. It remains to be seen if there are checkpoints, but if not then someone needs eviscerating on a massive great spire.

The final change is fundamental to the new sense of an open world. It feels like and old-fashioned boast for a 3D game on PS3, but in Lords of Shadow 2, the camera is completely controllable, in the first game, fixed viewpoints would leave paths concealed until you landed in the right area. This new camera has been the most troublesome focus of the new game, because Mercurysteam was determined to give the best of both worlds. So if you leave the camera alone, it will behave just as it always did. Studio head Enric Alvarez is proud of this-third-person games will always have some camera problems. He’s modest on many aspects of the game, but as far as the camera’s concerned, it’s “the best (I’ve) ever experienced”.

Behind all these improvements, the basic systems of the first are intact. The Combat Cross has been replaced by the Blood Whip, but it’s essentially the same. It still has an extreme range with attacks that fill the screen. And you’ll still string combos together from strong directed attacks, and lighter area attacks. This is also a game of resources management. Magic has been replaced with Dracula’s life-force: Blood. It doesn’t regenerate – you have to earn it with kills and skilled fighting. Evasion, perfect blocks and counters all add to your focus gauge, and when it’s full, every hit explodes new blood into the battlefield. Get Hit, and you lose all focus.

The raw blood can be channelled into two pots: Void and Chaos. Activate the former, and your weapon will switch to the Void Sword, enabling you to regain some health with each hit. Activate Chaos and you’ll sprout a pair of claws that can smash through enemy shields. Void, Chaos and Blood Whip-this is all a translation of elements of the first game. Dracula has some tricks all of his own, through-glamouring mortals to control them, and evaporating into a mist that lets him slip by unseen, or pass through grilles into secret areas.

There’s an unexpected sense of humour, too. While no one’s winking at the camera, when Gabriel Belmont wrestles a crucifix out of a Golden Paladin’s grip, informing the Brotherhood that he, Dracula, has been chosen by God, what follows is an ecclesiastical nuclear blast so large that the camera cuts to a shot of the planet. It’s ridiculous-and the studio knows it. There was some internal debate about whether to keep the scene in. Did it undermine the story? Was it just a bit stupid? In the end, it was agreed it that it should stay, because… well, it was awesome. And who are we to argue with Dracula, God or indeed Gabriel Belmont."

JvK B)