Topic: "The Dragon Returns" - Castlevania Lords of Shadow Sequel (HERE BE SPOILER INFO)

[thernz]

are there any clips of the open world or stealth segments anywhere

[Ahasverus]

are there any clips of the open world or stealth segments anywhere

Not yet (and welcome back!).

So the game is apparently officialy bad, the stealth sucks, tje level design sucks and pads to no end. If this kills the series I will be very pissed off. Hopefully nor Cox nor Alvarez will ever touch this series again. Stupid cocky men.

[Foffy]

Not yet (and welcome back!).

So the game is apparently officialy bad, the stealth sucks, tje level design sucks and pads to no end. If this kills the series I will be very pissed off. Hopefully nor Cox nor Alvarez will ever touch this series again. Stupid cocky men.

My friend, you seem to really jump all over the place. One second you are in love with it, and another you are growing fangs. I say wait it out. I'm sure the title will be divisive to reviewers like how the first game was divisive to fans.

I wonder if this will impact the supposed prequel.

[Chernabogue]

Chaos Claws trailer

[New & Official] The Chaos Claws Unleashed [Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2]

[thernz]

officialy bad, the stealth sucks, tje level design sucks

so lords 2 is a recreation of minera prison island in 3d

[e105beta]

My friend, you seem to really jump all over the place. One second you are in love with it, and another you are growing fangs. I say wait it out. I'm sure the title will be divisive to reviewers like how the first game was divisive to fans.

I wonder if this will impact the supposed prequel.

The reviewers/previewers seem as bipolar as Ahasverus, honestly.

I'll be interested to read the 4/10 review. That's a pretty awful score, and I'd like to see the justification.

[Ahasverus]

I don't trust gameinformer, but I thrust edge. Look.

Excerpt from the review:

"the first lords of shadow is remembered as a commendable achievement from a relatively small team working to a comparatively tight budget. it's sequel, by contrast, cannot disguise the resources with which it was made. lords of shadow 2 is clunky, ugly and deeply misguided. it's a game that sees the lord of the damned as a vehicle for rat-powered linear stealth, and that takes a future gothic-london setting and then sets the action in tower blocks and sewers. mercury steam says this will be the final game in the lords of shadow saga, and on the evidence of the cluttered, bloated and forgettable mess, it's just as well."

......
But for all its litany of crimes, pacing is the biggest. There might be a half-decent ten-hour game in here somewhere, but instead what we have is stretched beyond breaking point and padded with dreary filler.

Halfway through the game, with a mutant infection threatening humanity's existence and a shady group making preparations to summon Satan to conquer the planet, Dracula spends a couple of hours finding Mirror of Fate fragments because the ghost of his dead son says he needs it to play with his toys. This sojourn to the netherworld hosts the nadir of a game with copious low points: another instafail stealth section in which you must evade Agreus, the goat-headed brother of Pan, as you traverse a garden littered with dead leaves that will alert your pursuer if you step on them. If he catches you, his whirlwind attack sends you back to the start. It's tortuous stuff, but the biggest insult is that you fight him immediately afterwards and it's a cakewalk.

.....
Stealth:
Good stealth games afford the player a flexible approach and a viable, if fraught, means of getting out of trouble if things go wrong. LOS2 omits the former - there is only ever 1 solution, and forcibly disables melee powers
Platforming:
Banal and unfailable linear platforming...
Plot/Script:
Voice talent wasted on a hokey script....
Visuals:
Even more shocking than the unimaginative visual design is how rough it all looks: Running at 720p but seemingly rendered some way south of this, this is a jagged mess with textures that, at times wouldn't look out of place in a PS2 game
Unlockable concept artwork...squirelled about the place....we found one piece in a bin bag, which felt appropriate in a sad sort of way
Combat
The sole saving grace is the combat system.
The boss fights are the high points of both character and combat design...
General
There may be a half-decent 10 hour game in here somewhere, but instead what we have is streched beyong breaking point and padded with dreary filler.

[e105beta]

I don't trust gameinformer, but I thrust edge. Look.

Honestly? It sounds like there are few legitimate complaints in there, but the rest sounds like someone pissed in their polenta.

Stealth:
Even if it is fucking atrocious, we know it's not even close to a majority of the game, yet all the reviewers seem to be focusing on it like it's the defining feature of the game.
Platforming:
Nothing new here. Everyone made the same complaints about the first one. 8/10.
Plot/Script:
^^^
Visuals:
Yeah, ok, I played the demo. Nice try.
Combat:
Oh wow, the primary focus of the game is actually good. Would you look at that?

Seriously, I'm going to play the game for myself, and make my own decision. I'm a forgiving gamer. I can deal with bad pacing and get through a couple of annoying stealth segments if the meat and potatoes of the game are good.

[thernz]

finding things in garbage bins is a thing i love in video games, from deus ex to bioshock
i'm glad lords 2 keeps up the standard in that regard

[Foffy]

I think the stealth stuff deserves to be hammered, for even on paper, it just sounds fucking BAD. Stealth in Castlevania? Starring a powerful vampire lord? It screams "well, we sort of want to just check boxes for AAA games". This is never, ever a good reason to include it.

This is how we got QTEs all over the fucking place with this subseries, too. But enough criticism helped MercurySteam realize that they're garbage and can (and should) be turned off. Too bad they won't be making another Castlevania with rat transformations, huh?

[Ahasverus]

Of course I'm buying the game, that's because I'm a sucker, Konami must br laughing at me.

[crisis]

its just a shame that even if the stealth segments are few & far between, theyre annoying enough that almost every review ive read hasnt described them in any positive light. i can just picture a part towards the end where after i pass a few obstacles, theres another stealth section around the corner, and ill be all like "ugh not this again"

the bland factory levels are also worrying too. they say the city itself is visually & aesthetically impressive, but once you go behind all that and enter a warehouse box factory, it falls flat & uninspired. sounds like a major buzzkill :/

that said, despite all this & thernz seizure-inducing signature, i still cant wait to play it

[beingthehero]

I wonder if Rugal feels vindicated.

[e105beta]

I think the stealth stuff deserves to be hammered, for even on paper, it just sounds fucking BAD. Stealth in Castlevania? Starring a powerful vampire lord? It screams "well, we sort of want to just check boxes for AAA games". This is never, ever a good reason to include it.

This is how we got QTEs all over the fucking place with this subseries, too. But enough criticism helped MercurySteam realize that they're garbage and can (and should) be turned off. Too bad they won't be making another Castlevania with rat transformations, huh?

Dude, hammer the stealth all you want. I don't really give two shits because it probably won't hamper my experience all that much, and if you think it'll kill some sort of upcoming trend, all the more power to you.

I just think it's disingenuous to downrate an entire game based on a segment that is supposedly 10% of the game, if even that. 7/10? Sure. 4/10? Nah...

I'm just not seeing how these reviews are lining up with the LoS1 reviews. Aside from the stealth, it seems to be bringing up all the same issues, while noting that the combat and boss battles, the focus of the game, has improved greatly, and aside from Edge, everyone has been praising the graphics. Yet LoS1 got largely positive reviews, and people are slamming LoS2 for the same stuff, yet it's getting far, far worse reviews because "lolbadstealth". To warrant a 50% drop in quality, that stealth better be buttfucking awful.

Like, I should want to take it up the rear rather than play through it.

I wonder if Rugal feels vindicated.

I thought he was pretty vindicated by MoF.

[knightmere]

If its any consolation, hopefully Konami will recognize the error of their ways and stop outsourcing Castlevania to shitty devs like MS.