The release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is almost upon us – as such, it comes as no big surprise that a playable demo would find its way onto Steam. Those who had missed the original Lords of Shadow and never got around to playing – or finishing it –, the first minutes of the demo will no doubt as somewhat of a shock. Gabriel Belmon, protagonist of the first installment, now spends his nights as his new self, the vampire Dracula, incessantly battling humans and vampire hunters that would lay siege to his massive, gothic-style castle.
The short 15-20 minute adventure, I’m afraid to say, gave me the impression that MercurySteam is more or less aiming to release largely the same game they had once created in 2010, now dressed in somewhat shinier garments and not a lot of improvements in terms of gameplay. Granted, it would be foolish to judge an entire game based on a brief demo, so I will refrain from really drawing any conclusions just yet – this short slice of the LoS2 story, however, did not convince me that what I disliked about the first episode would be gone or corrected in the sequel. Regular battles are still somewhat monotonous, platforming is a still a linear affair with you following the path the game wants you to follow, and aside from the truly gorgeous graphics, I have – once again – failed to spot anything that would elevate this franchise above the crowd. This could, of course, change once the full game is released on February 28, but I won’t be holding my breath. It’s quite a shame, really.
