Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

ErichWK · Jun 2013

I LOVE E3!! So many new threads dedicated to new games! This trailer.. BLEW MY ASS OUT OF MY BACK. The music, the epicness.. I feel Lords of Shadow was this gem that came out of nowhere from guys I never heard of. It was a wonderful entry to a ton of mediocre Castlevania games.

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Ujh-8iqiY"]Castlevania: Lords of Shadow | E3 Trailer - YouTube[/ame]

skylebones · Jun 2013

Oh YES!!!!! Can't wait for this game. The first one is one of the best looking games on the current consoles.

praetus · Jun 2013

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!! Oh shit, this is awesome.

The Mad Artist · Jun 2013

Still curious how Alucard is going to play into things..

ErichWK · Jun 2013

I don't think Alucard is in this game? Is he? I never played any of the DLC for Lords of Shadow.

HitmonInfinity · Jun 2013

Worth posting the CG trailer from last year again:

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcUz5Vo6iw"]www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUcUz5Vo6iw[/ame]

Pre-rendered yes... but seriously one of my favorite trailers ever.

skylebones · Jun 2013

I believe that's Alucard at 3:43 in the video.

The Mad Artist · Jun 2013

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/2425/alucardb.jpg

Sure looks like him. He's in the 3ds prequel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlevania:_Lords_of_Shadow_%E2%80%93_Mirror_of_Fate

..of course it could be Hector from Curse of Darkness, but that'd be horrible..

ErichWK · Jun 2013

OH SHIT! I didn't play the 3DS game (still need to get one) But that totally does look like Alucard.

"DARK METAMORPHOSIS!"

The Mad Artist · Jun 2013

ErichWK wrote: »

"DARK METAMORPHOSIS!"

Hehe, oh the voice acting in that game..

Lord McMutton · Jun 2013

I prefer the incredibly deep, hammy voice to Yuri Lowenthal's, at any rate.

ErichWK · Jun 2013

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMTizJemHO8"]Castlevania: SotN (Playstation) What is a man? - YouTube[/ame]

moose · Jun 2013

holy balls that looks cool! Never finished the first one, sadly. Love those designs.

don't understand the trailer text 'END TO THE EPIC SAGA...' when this is the 2nd one. Isn't a Saga > 3

ErichWK · Jun 2013

There was a game for the 3DS that is supposed to bridge the first to second.

vargatom · Jun 2013

HitmonInfinity wrote: »

Pre-rendered yes... but seriously one of my favorite trailers ever.

You've just made months of overtime worth it

Grums · Jun 2013

Lords of Shadow really was an amazing game, the art and environments were stunning! Looking forward to the PC version as well thats coming out.

Just watched the E3 Trailer for the sequel, looks great! Theres also some footage in the Konami Pre E3 video, were they talk about the engine and changes.

HitmonInfinity · Jun 2013

vargatom wrote: »

You've just made months of overtime worth it

HA! That's awesome man. I guess you worked on that one? What did you do?

xvampire · Jun 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRvnyT1R8J8&feature=youtu.be&t=15m23s more in depth detail

the player can turn 360 degree , great! first LOS biggest problem : gone

Arno · Jun 2013

Super nice Day 1 buy on PC ! I might even pick up Lords of Shadows 1 port that is comming to Pc as well.

Snefer · Jun 2013

moose wrote: »

holy balls that looks cool! Never finished the first one, sadly. Love those designs.

don't understand the trailer text 'END TO THE EPIC SAGA...' when this is the 2nd one. Isn't a Saga > 3

Actually its the third game, they made a sequel that was only released on the 3DS or something, and then they made a sequel to that, but named it like a sequel to the first game.. eh. So..technically its a saga! : D

Lord McMutton · Jun 2013

Said 3DS game also happened to have some of the coolest Belmont designs ever:
http://images.wikia.com/castlevania/images/a/a6/TrevorBelmont-MoF-Final..jpg
http://images.wikia.com/castlevania/images/6/6b/SimonBelmont-MoF-Final.jpg

moose · Jun 2013

Snefer wrote: »

Actually its the third game, they made a sequel that was only released on the 3DS or something, and then they made a sequel to that, but named it like a sequel to the first game.. eh. So..technically its a saga! : D

:poly142:

Sugus · Jun 2013

Looking forward to this game! The first one was insane! (Now i need to get hold of the 3DS game

)

DireWolf · Jun 2013

The main character looks pretty cool... did he appear in any previous title?

Lord McMutton · Jun 2013

Nah, he's new as of the first Lords of Shadow.

Geezus · Jun 2013

Stepping away from the fixed camera sold me. I'm so very glad they went this route. I couldn't get past the fixed camera in the first, and I seriously over-hyped myself that time around. I'm willing to give my favorite series another chance, Konami!

Lord McMutton · Jun 2013

Ooh, Oscar Araujo posted a piece of music:
http://soundcloud.com/oscararaujo/oscar-araujo-castlevania-lords

From the title, I'm assuming it's for that giant, walking siege machine in the trailers.

ErichWK · Jun 2013

I was SUPER

with the soundtrack from the first Lords of Shadow.. as a huge video game music nerd (I have every Castlevania OST on my ipod...) I was looking forward to the score, but it was all forgettable symphonic boring-ness...but the score I am hearing for Lords of Shadow 2...oh man...It's so far really good. I love mixing of the 80s synth with an epic symphony.

Ark · Feb 2014

So anyone playing this?

Despite the game getting less than stellar reviews, I've found it great so far.

The stealth sections aren't as bad as they've been made out to be and playing as a Rat is pretty unique. :P

The game is amazing to look at, stunning vistas and great texture work. The Gothic architecture really does stand out and tie in the old and new worlds.

The soundtrack is just amazing too.

skylebones · Feb 2014

Loved the art in the first game! But with Dark Souls 2 coming out so soon I'm waiting. But this will eventually be a must have for me.

glottis8 · Feb 2014

I got this on PC. Replaying LoS1 atm.. almost done, and i'll start playing this. I loved the demo.. so i am excited to try this.

NegevPro · Feb 2014

I have to finish the first one. I put about two hours into it and it was amazing, but I never feel like loading up the game and finishing it.

Ark · Feb 2014

Been really liking the game so far and can't see we're the games getting a lot of negative criticism for. Maybe I'm not far enough in, but a bad game is a bad game from the start.

The music alone is enough to get this game!

m4dcow · Feb 2014

Haven't played it, but reminds me to order the art book

Ark · Feb 2014

m4dcow wrote: »

Haven't played it, but reminds me to order the art book

Mine arrived today along with the Thief one. I have a weakness for books with the "The Art of" in. Haven't unwrapped it yet for fear of spoliers, but if the books any indication of the games art, then I think we're in for a treat.

Hyderette · Feb 2014

I wish Castlevania would go back to the 2D roots not this GOW clone.

skylebones · Feb 2014

You're in luck, you can go play a 2D Castlevania right now! It's already out there. If your going to make something new, why not try something new.

underfox · Feb 2014

skylebones wrote: »

You're in luck, you can go play a 2D Castlevania right now! It's already out there. If your going to make something new, why not try something new.

This.

I finished LoS2 yesterday and all I can say is this game does not deserve the Low review it is getting. I would easily give it a 8.5/10.

stuff like

Lords Of Shadow 2 is clunky, ugly and deeply misguided (...) feels like a PS2 game sometimes(...) - edge"

or

This shambling monstrosity is composed of chunks from other, better games. Rather than blend them together into something new like its predecessor attempted, this one just feels like a patch-work mess. - Gameinformer"

This is extremely insulting for the great team who made this game. How can you say that this game is ugly etc..

I mean, is this ugly and close to PS2 quality? really?

Some people are lacking objectivity.

The worst of all this, is that edge actualy gave a 5/10 for rambo when lords of shadow 2 only got a 4/10.

I fail to understand those reviewers really.

glottis8 · Feb 2014

Dunno what to make of this... but it wouldn't be the first time we hear of something like this. Too bad.

Still have not started to play.. but there are lots of comments on the city being poor quality but the castle being awesome. Will be playing this next week prbly. Still wrapping up the first one.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=776423

Well, I would like to shed some light over the development of this game... Working with Mercury Steam -and I would like to tell this anonymously- is about an everyday frustration. Here's to every guy that has experienced hell during the development of this game, but especially to those who have led this to the mess that Lords of Shadows 2 is:

- Kojima had little to nothing to do with the development of the first game, he came by, set a seal, visited the studio, signed some things and that was it. He had even less to do with Mirror of Fate and LoS2.

The vast majority of this team is aware that the game we've done is a real piece of shit that has nothing to do with the first one's quality and production values... Nobody is surprised by the low reviews we've got.

- If there's someone to blame here, that's Enric Álvarez. He is the person who has led a broken development based on his personal criteria, completely overlooking programmers, designers and artists. Despite his nice look to the press, often considered as some sort of creative "visionary" in the looks of David Cage and Molyneux, this guy has serious problems. He is a mean and naughty guy, and since the "success Lords of Shadows 1" his ego has grown to the point of not even daring to say 'hello' when you meet him in the hallway.

His distrust to his own workers is enormous. Most of the development team often found out features of the game through press news, rather than from the studio's head - unbelievable. And there is no corporate culture here at all... this is just a handful of people working blindly and at the disposal of an alleged visionary.

- The studio's internal structure is archaic, still based on the old partners of the Scrapland days. I'll give you an example so you can see the full picture: the studio's signature engine (one with many flaws) was solely coded by two guys, one of them being a founder of the company and Enric's confident. Access for the new programmers to the source code to update or refurbish the engine is denied, so things are still done in a 10-year-old fashion.

- Many of the studio founders are people with zero abilities for running a studio. Often here newbie developers know more than their own bosses. This structure only leads to a slow, messy and absurd development process, with the end result of Lords of Shadows 2 being a perfect example of what happens due to that.

- Absolutely every design idea has to be monitored, taken away and mutilated by Enric Álvarez. Several game designers have grown tired of this and have abandoned the studio.

- The art direction for this project has been erratic and beheaded. After Enric dismissed every idea and core decission from our main art director for the previous projects, he decided to just leave. It was a battle of egos unleashed by Enric (something that he has carried over with since his times in Rebel Act). Our now former art director is still working in Madrid, now with the Tequila guys making RIME.

- Many others have just turned to other studios offers, sick of the situation here. Almost every month we see fellow devs packing up and getting out of here looking for a new job abroad -that's sad-. It's amazing how the biggest AAA game developer in Spain is not even willing to make its workers a counteroffer. This company does not think highly of its talented workers and their good work. There has never been any kind of salary bonus or anything that remotely resembles it. Not even a single "Good job team!" acknowledgement.

- The production management for this project has been terrible, way often the heads of each department dismissed every production deadline and imposed their own criteria. As a result, the development was delayed for six months, and that investment only came out of MercurySteam's pockets.

Many can't help comparing this situation to something similar that already happened in a company in which many of us worked: Pyro Studios (the team behind the Commandos saga). The QA department is treated like cattle, with shameful wages and almost everyday bullying.

- Expectations for our future are quite bad... with a publisher like Konami really upset after the mediocre game we've made.

- After completing Lords of Shadows 2 MercurySteam has fired 35 workers, and it's embarrasing that no website or journalist is talking about that. More firings are expected to come in the following days.

- And finally, because not everything is bad in here, I wanted to say that the real team behind this company is an incredible bunch of people. If all those guys who are not allowed to be promoted due to our Jurassic studio leads had the chance to set the course of the company, our future would be so bright. There's just so much passion and talent here, more than I've ever seen anywhere else, but it's completely held back. I really hope that those who read this understand what we've lived here. Someone has to say this so it is not lost in time after the game's launch.

Thank you for reading me.

wasker · Feb 2014

underfox wrote: »

The worst of all this, is that edge actualy gave a 5/10 for rambo when lords of shadow 2 only got a 4/10.

I fail to understand those reviewers really.

Yeah, it's a travesty. The game isn't bad. If you liked the first one, chances are you're going to like the second one. Personally, I love the art and combat so far.

praetus · Feb 2014

It's good to hear that people are enjoying it. I really loved the first one but reading some of the reviews was a real let down. I'll probably hold off until a steam sale though as my plate is a bit full. Still, great to know it isn't as dire as some people made it out to be.

underfox · Feb 2014

Honestly, the only let down for me was the ending and the last boss. But i certainly won't say more to not spoil anybody.

The rest is top quality to me. far, wayy far from a 4/10 game.

Wells · Feb 2014

Was really looking forward to this. Signed into my xbone to grab it, only to discover that it is a ps3/360 only title

Cibo · Mar 2014

http://i.imgur.com/cZQ6xhN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OAdO6cC.jpg

Scale issues?

SuperFranky · Mar 2014

Just finished the game. It was a nice distraction, but nothing else. I'd give it 6/10 for graphics and boss battles.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

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