Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Preview

As my jealous hands were jotting notes down during Konami’s recent preview event for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – the reboot of the series – producer Dave Cox was slicing up enemies, burning them with holy water and doing a whole lot of other things that made my thumbs scream, metaphorically. Though that would have been pretty interesting, it was frustrating that I wasn’t allowed to try it all out for myself. It’s even more annoying that Lords of Shadow will be playable at E3 and that’s only a month away. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I kept comparing it to other games while I interviewed him; maybe, subconsciously, I was trying to annoy him back.

The demo began with a quick example of the combat. The main character, Gabriel, wields a combat cross, a deadly looking holy relic which acts like a whip but is even more dangerous. It can extend to great lengths and, using various combos, can slice up enemies with ease. Smaller minions die pretty quickly using its long range attacks, which can cover a lot of the screen meaning that there is little space for them to avoid their inevitable death. Apparently there will be 40 different combo attacks, but without having the controller in my hands it’s difficult to tell how inputting them will play out.

In this section, even amid the fighting there was a puzzle to solve. A larger enemy called the Butcher was safely behind a door – he holds a key which is essential for Gabriel’s progress. So by ringing a bell to summon more of the smaller minions Gabriel was able to use the hatches left open by the minions to get up to a switch to activate the door hiding the Butcher. Getting up there of course required the use of the whip-like abilities of the combat cross. It’s a multi-functional device letting you not only cull the hordes of hell but also swing around, latch on to points and climb up it, sort of like a more gothic Indiana Jones.

When fighting the butcher, who looked liked a fat blob of teeth and weeping sores and was armed with a massive meat cleaver, the combat changed from a whip-everything-on-screen to a more considered one on one fight. Gabriel can block and if he blocks at the right time he can launch a damaging counter attack. And he can dodge about the place to get into better positions and escape the unblockable attacks.

Without actually playing it it’s a bit tricky to tell how well it’ll work, but it seems to fit somewhere between God of War’s button-mashing friendly gameplay and Bayonetta’s or Devil May Cry’s multi-faceted combos and chains. But there’s more.

You also have light and dark magic meters, which fill up when you collect orbs from fallen enemies. And when you apply light magic to your attacks you can get health back from killing enemies, but if you apply the dark magic your attacks do a lot more damage. You also have what’s called the focus bar; this fills when you dish out the combos and don’t get hit, and when it’s full you start collecting orbs before enemies die. This way you are rewarded for playing well and you’re able to add more magic to your attacks.

As well as the combat cross Gabriel has access to a number of secondary weapons such as the aforementioned holy water which acts similarly to grenades, taking out enemies with splash damage, as well as some throwing knives for even longer range attacks.

Castlevania is a mixture of styles. Aside from all the glorious combat there are platforming sections and puzzles to solve. The platforming manages to ramp up the tension when you’re balancing on a beam high above the floor (and balancing doesn’t use the Sixaxis, so that’s a bonus) but it does have some handy restart points, so you’re never too far away from where you lost your footing and plummeted to your death. And there are secrets to find to upgrade your health and magic if you want to do a bit of exploring.

Along with the platforming you’ve also got puzzles – rather inventive ones (aside from the mirror puzzles) that require you use your platforming skills as well as your brain to figure them out. But these will seem small in comparison to when you take on the titans.

The titans are huge, and obviously reminiscent of the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus in that they require you to climb all over them and stab them in their magic runes which serve as weak points – though we doubt there will be any of the melancholy you felt in SOTC when they finally come tumbling down.

And that’s because of the emotive plot. Gabriel is part of a holy group of knights and his wife has been murdered by one of the supernatural creatures that roam the land. Even worse is that her soul becomes trapped in limbo and Gabriel now seeks out the God mask to bring her back to life. So it’s a love story, but it’s the voice acting from such luminaries as Sir Patrick Stewart, Robert Carlyle, Natascha McElhone and Jason Isaacs that will add a lot of gravitas to the plot, making Gabriel’s plight and that of the rest of the good guys mean that much more.

While it seemed like Lords of Shadow was going to be a pretty good game when it was first shown, having spent time with it and seen some of its intricacies it’s looking like its going to be even better than first anticipated, and could be a contender for one of the games of the year.

Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow is due for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 this Autumn.