I loved the first Lords of Shadow game and this, this is gunna be badass!  The ending was great to the first game.

Now Gabriel turned into Dracula fully embracing his dark powers!!!!  SICK!!!!!

White haired guy at the end? Alucard?

http://www.gamersyde.com/stream_castlev … 48_en.html

Also the music is....well.....awesome.

I guess since the first LoS has been out for a year and a half now and I was probably never going to finish it anyway I shouldn't consider it a spoiler that the protagonist becomes the series villain.

This seems like a difficult development to build a sequel around.  With some good writing it could turn out really cool but that's not something I'd say the first game had, from my brief experience with it.

All the crazy powers and transformation feel like overkill to me and teasing Alucard from the very outset seems a bit desperate for attention.  Par for the course for the video game market though I suppose.

Hey, if you're gonna reboot, you gotta expect a sequel. Or 10.

Can you we please just get something that somewhat attempts to top Castlevania 3? Getting Iga away from the series is a step in the right direction (fingers crossed), but I don't think Lords of Shadow quite cuts the mustard...

I enjoyed the combat engine in Lords of Shadow, but outside of that, it didn't do much for me. I'm actually more interested in the upcoming 3DS Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -Mirror of Fate- game than the console sequel since the portable one is 2.5D. I wonder how many of these Castlespania games we'll have to endure before we get another real Castlevania (last seen in 2009) or Metroivania (last seen in 2008).

Worded another way, you can't just up and change the very nature of what people originally enjoy about a series and expect them to take it seriously. That goes for both gameplay and music. Castlevania's changes have been controversial since SOTN, to the point where you can say they are hardly the same game series anymore at that point (you can't just eliminate pitfall deaths and tack on a crappy EXP system/RPG elements and call it the same type of game). The fact that a non-Japanese developer ended up taking the reins of rebooting this series (and seemed content with abandoning it as soon as possible, so they are not known as "the Castlevania guys", even though they are unlikely to amount to much else in the industry) also factors in. If they want to be taken seriously, they should learn what made Castlevania appeal to people in the first place and go from there or just start fresh, without the name brand. Not unlike the likes of what happened to both Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star over the years. Then again, there's less $$$ without the name brand.

Then again...That said, it's still better off now than in Iga's hands...See Castlevania Judgement (which, BTW, I thought the soundtrack for this one was downright godawful, despite the use of the classic melodies).

Long live Castlevania 3!

To be honest I agree with this completely. With all those melodies you'd think this be a slam dunk... but the only track I've held on to is "Bloody Tears" for some reason.

I brought this up in the soundtrack thread but... can anyone explain to me what exactly happened with this game? Prior to release there was so much hype and it practically disappeared overnight once it was released.

I know the game got so-and-so reviews but if I want to hear anyone's opinion about this one I have to spear-head the conversation myself which is NOT a good sign. Everyone and their mother has been telling me to wait for a few price drops on this one... but again the game sounded far from bad enough to really do that....

Can anyway fill me in or at least give me an idea of what they think about it?

I looked at the wikipedia page while back and there was a spat within the development team.

"Following the game's release, reports surfaced from anonymous sources purporting to be developers at MercurySteam concerning the game's development. One source alleged that the development process had been "a degree of 'hell'", and laid the blame upon the game's director, Enric Álvarez. Álvarez, it was alleged, led the development "based on his personal criteria", while "completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists."[11] A second source corroborated this information, bemoaning the lack of trust, leadership and communication between the teams working on the game. This source suggested that José Luis Vaello, a former art director at MercurySteam left the studio for Tequila Works due to the conditions described. Álvarez denied the claims on Twitter stating "Is sad [to] see people giving credit to the lies and insults from an enraged ex-worker." [12][13][14]"

The page also mentions the director is one of THOSE assholes that can't take criticism:

"The Edge review was highly critical, it highlighted the failings of the stealth sections, the "unimaginative visual design" of the modern era, and the poor pacing. Even the combat mechanics, described by Edge as the game's sole saving grace was judged to fall short of its inspirations such as the God of War series.[18] In an interview with Eurogamer Spain, Enric Álvarez, the game's director complained that the Edge review was "terribly unfair", and that "one must be blind or stupid to give a 4/10 mark to a game with this quality". Álvarez believed that the game's poorer critical response compared to the original Lords of Shadow was due to the heightened expectations of a sequel. Still, on the whole, Álvarez said of the reception, "I tend to think positive after reading some things. I’m glad that some people are writing about games instead of making them."

Um, yeah. RIP Castlevania. 1986 -1995 (?)

I knew about the spat within the development team from reading the LoS2 wiki page... and yes, I agree Álvarez IS a piece of work... but that really doesn't explain how the game went from Hero to Zero overnight although, yes, I agree it (and the spat) probably has something to do with it's quality.