Topic: Lords of Shadow 2 Demo (preview by spanish site)

[Pfil]

The website 3DJuegos, always talking kind of from the inside, has published a preview from the E3 demo where they explain pretty much everything in detail.
It's not impartial, as always with this web, but there's some good information and a couple screens and vids.

A Dracula more humanized than ever comes back, to close the Lords of Shadow series. A title that takes the mechanics presented in the original game and adds new blood. A perfect game for closing this generation, where the spanish developers at MercurySteam ask themselves the question of why the man is just "a miserable pile of secrets".
¿What is a man? That great question once asked by Dracula on the mythic Symphony of the Night, so popular amongst this franchise followers, is reproduced during the first moments of the demo that showed Lords of Shadow 2 at the E3. It is possible that MercurySteam added it just a plain homage, but the truth is that, beyond that legendary phrase, SotN didn't ask very much more; however, Lords of Shadow 2 does. It's plausible that with the sequel of MS's CV we see the more humanized Dracula in the entire saga, with permission of the fans.

Milenary bite, fresh blood

But this is not more than suppositions, given the demo focused on offering us the purest gameplay, presenting us with a Dracula sitting on his throne, quiet in front of the human harassing his castle. There's little humanity left in his first words, where he treats his enemies as just food, but this first banquet allow us to have an idea of how the attacks system and combos have evolved in LoS 2.
Combos are still there, every one of them almost identical to the original game, focusing a lot in the rythmic pulsation of buttons, more than in the pure brute smashing. Where MS spent more time is in evolving the magic, and they definitively improved themselves. The system of life absortion and powerful punches has reached a better balance, replacing the powered whip with two new weapons: the spiritual sword (to gain health) and the gloves (to infringe more damage).

These changes were totally neccesary and perfectly logic, given that noew the reach is more limited. You can do a great deal of damage to your enemies with the gloves, but the reach is a lot slower than with the whip.
Likewise, the sword features more reach, but it's still just the basic Belmont weapon. This will allow us to keep changing weapons all the time without centering on a single one: there will be times where we'll want to do damage and we have magic for that, yes, but the enemy may be way too numerous, making us choose a tactic with the whip that is safer. On the contrary, there will be another ocassions where it's possible that we want to use the whip, but certain enemies will keep wearing shields, forcing us to use the gloves to break it before we can continue the attack.

If we add to this the oportunity to grab our victims instead of finishing them off with the whip, we'll be able to get more health drinking their blood, something that justifies more the grab we used to have in LoS 1.
And the dodge? Delicious, since it allow us to transport just a night lurker, or, to speak properly, as an evolution of the fog that Laura used on Reverie, but faster and with more efficacy and style.

Going out of the castle after our first steps, we will face a new character with a golden armor and wings. He doesn't present himself, but he drops another homage for the fans: "Die monster! You don't belong in this world!", first pronounced by Richter in SotN. We'll fight him, but he will also go around the scenery, destroying everything and targeting us with his golden arrows, while we fight more and more soldiers.

We will also have zones to explore and walls to climb. This last concept wasn't very exploited in the first title, but here we have a lot more of variety. The fights mix with the jumps, and these two with scenes of climbing, which at the time are mixed with traps on the wall from a titan attacking Dracula's castle; and, at the same time, we have the winged warrior firing arrows endlessly, which we'll have to dodge but also use to our advantage.
Thanks to the great variety and quantity of situations that happen simultaneously, LoS manages to give you a restless experience, and to keep you tensioned when you have to be, worrying about a lot of factors, and relaxed when you are exploring and gazing at the landscape, that appear to be, more than stages, paintings (like that of Dracula's throne room), due to fantastic and risking cameras and brilliant lighting.

The camera, as we know, is changed, but the more relevant factor is within gameplay itself, because the first time we played it felt so natural that we didn't recognize the change.
Besides, there are still a lot of fixed cameras, so we won't lose at all that style, prefered by some players.

It may seem few the changes on this demo that is this way because it needs to, but it changes radically its narrative aproach, because that's the way it should be. The changes we mentioned, such as magic or cameras, work for the better. It can be a little polemic the fact that pressing a button the grab points will highlight, but it's a decision taken because in the first game many people got lost without knowing where to grab. Besides, you have to only press a button, so you won't to think about that.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was a very solid demo in this E3 full of new generation everywhere. There are still many questions and doubts unanswered, such as what MS plans to do with the problem of stages at plain daylight (we will ask this to Enric on our next interview, though maybe certain white-haired character holds the answer to this), but as of today, they leave us with desire to find out more about this game, and of course, to play more.

Original article (in spanish): http://www.3djuegos.com/juegos/avances/9759/3883/0/castlevania-lords-of-shadow-ii/

[darkwzrd4]

It looks good as it is now, but a lot could change between now and when it is released. I think I'll reserve judgment until after I've watched some unbiased gameplay videos on youtube after the game comes out.

[jestercolony]

Personally, from what I've seen of the demo (via video links; youtube...etc) I honestly like what I see thus far. If combat is just as identical as the first, then veteran LoS players should really have no issues diving right on in. I am honestly looking forward to more of Dracula's abilities than anything.

I notice that you'll get a wolf familiar, and the ability to turn in to mist. But I am curious if we are able to actually transform in to a wolf and bat.

[Inccubus]

Really? After all the shit talking about the old canon getting stale they basically changed nothing about the combat in this game? I really hope a lot DOES change between now and the release. However, that wasn't the case with MoF and I doubt it'll be the case here either.

[darkwzrd4]

Look what I found today on youtube

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2- Big Boss Fight - E3 2013 Demo Playthrough

The combat is has a faster pace and you have three weapons, but other than that, the gameplay looks almost identical to that of the first game. There are still QTEs and titan fights in the game (which no one likes). Didn't Cox say something about there not being QTEs in LoS2? Well, that just proves that he's a liar.  I can live with the QTEs if there aren't that many of them, but I hate titan fights. They are unpleasant and no one likes them. So, why are they still put in games? This just proves that companies don't care about feedback. I would think that after the reaction to the titan fights in LoS1, they would put any in a sequel. Well, they did.

[Pfil]

As a matter of fact, they showed a fight with a gigantic titan involved in the demo.
I don't know if no one likes them, but I'm sure I don't like QTE's and titans fights, and I know a lot of people dislike it.
But MS will always do what they like to do.

[Dark Nemesis]

MS doesn't like to be told what can or what can't do in their game, so even if you don't like it, in the end they will still praise it like the 8th miracle of the world.

[Shiroi Koumori]

MS will always see themselves as the one and only "savior" of Castlevania.
Such arrogance.

[Flame]

This titan fight is actually much more interesting than in LoS though. In fact, it's nothing like in LoS.

[Rugal]

Ummm.. Giant robot attacking the castle? What is this?

[beingthehero]

Man, I hoped that they wouldn't be so derivative again with the sequel, but here we are yet again.

Ummm.. Giant robot attacking the castle? What is this?

In any other Castlevania, I think it wouldn't be out of place. I still remember the robots in OoE. But the thing is, all the previous CV games utterly adored being tongue-in-cheek. But the new games want to be taken seriously as possible 95% of the time. Here, you see a giant robot attacking Castlevania and you're supposed to grimly nod your head and think "This is very serious and dark."

Arguably this makes the result even more comical. I found LoS to be filled to the brim with unintentional comedy, which I guess makes it as fun as the intentional humor and zillions of puns in the old series.

[Kingshango]

I kept hearing that the reason they choose to demo this part of the game is because they wanted to showcase the combat instead of the exploration and that the exploration will be demonstrated at a later date. On one hand, I get why  they probably choose the castle siege instead of the very start of the game where Dracula wakes up. They didn't want to give away too much about what's going on in the story (which is strange because the sequel(s) itself is a walking spoiler and is virtually impossible to avoid spoilers at this point) and they didn't want to start the demo of with a near powerless Dracula.

On the flipside, to properly showcase a demo(especially to a sequel) they must demonstrated ALL of it's improvements over it's previous title. What Konami decided to do is showcase something we all knew about from the start: the combat. While It looks improved, it only looks slightly unchanged from the first game outside of the other two weapons and most people weren't fond of the combat in LOS1 due to it's similarities to modern action games. The only other thing that was shown off was that it has a free camera now and while that's all good, it's to be expected in the year 2013 to be able to move the camera with the right stick.

What they should have done was let the demo take place at a free environment with a time limit, have the demo take place in a random flashback cause I know they don't want to show the modern era gameplay yet and give use at least some of Dracula's powers aside from the weapon's we know about. Demonstrated his mind control power, his mist form and how it can be done in and out of combat, how missions/quest will be done, how the teleporters work, what's up with Dracula's wolf, show us how big the world actually is. All of that could have been shown instead of what they had at E3 instead to make it stand out even more, hell I bet most people who played the demo didn't know he has the ability to use mind control on enemies but they wanna make damn sure you know how to match the circles up.

Maybe the next time they show the game they showcase everything else besides the combat, but going by the flow of info we got from LOS1 and MoF, we're not gonna hear anymore about the game until Gamescom and Halloween, then it's release in February 2014 cause we all know it's not making it this year.

[darkwzrd4]

This titan fight is actually much more interesting than in LoS though. In fact, it's nothing like in LoS.

I'll give you that this fight is more interesting and more involved, but it's not really my thing. It actually reminds me more of the Clockwork Tower in LoS1 than a titan fight (I didn't like the Clockwork Tower either). At least, the combat looks awesome, but I can do without the QTEs when you go to bite someone. Why can't you just automatically bite the weakened enemy when you grab it instead of having a QTE?

I think I'll hold off on the game until after I've watched a few gameplay videos after the release.

I kept hearing that the reason they choose to demo this part of the game is because they wanted to showcase the combat instead of the exploration and that the exploration will be demonstrated at a later date. On one hand, I get why  they probably choose the castle siege instead of the very start of the game where Dracula wakes up. They didn't want to give away too much about what's going on in the story (which is strange because the sequel(s) itself is a walking spoiler and is virtually impossible to avoid spoilers at this point) and they didn't want to start the demo of with a near powerless Dracula.

On the flipside, to properly showcase a demo(especially to a sequel) they must demonstrated ALL of it's improvements over it's previous title. What Konami decided to do is showcase something we all knew about from the start: the combat. While It looks improved, it only looks slightly unchanged from the first game outside of the other two weapons and most people weren't fond of the combat in LOS1 due to it's similarities to modern action games. The only other thing that was shown off was that it has a free camera now and while that's all good, it's to be expected in the year 2013 to be able to move the camera with the right stick.

What they should have done was let the demo take place at a free environment with a time limit, have the demo take place in a random flashback cause I know they don't want to show the modern era gameplay yet and give use at least some of Dracula's powers aside from the weapon's we know about. Demonstrated his mind control power, his mist form and how it can be done in and out of combat, how missions/quest will be done, how the teleporters work, what's up with Dracula's wolf, show us how big the world actually is. All of that could have been shown instead of what they had at E3 instead to make it stand out even more, hell I bet most people who played the demo didn't know he has the ability to use mind control on enemies but they wanna make damn sure you know how to match the circles up.

Maybe the next time they show the game they showcase everything else besides the combat, but going by the flow of info we got from LOS1 and MoF, we're not gonna hear anymore about the game until Gamescom and Halloween, then it's release in February 2014 cause we all know it's not making it this year.

I hear you. They just show us what we know to keep our expectations high.

[Flame]

Also, isn't the Castle siege the tutorial level of the game? I suppose it would feel weird for them to demo the part where dracula has very little power, because you won't likely be able to explore EVERYWHERE from the start. I guess they want the exploration to be a surprise or something.

[darkwzrd4]

Also, isn't the Castle siege the tutorial level of the game? I suppose it would feel weird for them to demo the part where dracula has very little power, because you won't likely be able to explore EVERYWHERE from the start. I guess they want the exploration to be a surprise or something.

That makes sense. It's likely that it is just the tutorial level and is set in the past when he was still powerful so that we get a small taste of his abilities before we start the actual game at which point he will be weak. I get the feeling that most of, if not all of, the actual game will be set in "modern" times.