Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 announced for Xbox 360, PS3
By
Guy Cocker, Editor
Mercury Steam developing sequel to the 2010 action game; Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms announced.
Konami has announced that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is in production at Spanish developer Mercury Steam. The game was unveiled via a new trailer during Konami's pre-E3 2012 briefing, where the publisher also confirmed the game's release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
The trailer shows the former game's protagonist, Gabriel Belmont, going head-to-head against a large army. After dispatching many of the soldiers, Belmont takes the form of a giant bird to fight a large golemesque creature. A mysterious blond figure appears, hinting at possible new characters in the game. Tomoyuki Tsuboi, president of Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., promised to share more on the game later this year.
Konami also teased Castlevania: Lords of Shadow-Mirror of Fate for the 3DS during its briefing. The trailer contained scant information or gameplay, but Konami promises more will be revealed on the title on June 5, the first day of E3 2012, and also the date of Nintendo's E3 press conference.
The original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was released in October 2010 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Shortly after, Konami announced it had shipped 1 million units of the title. A sequel has been rumoured since the original game's release, when a composer revealed on Spanish radio that Mercury Steam was already working on a follow-up.
By
Guy Cocker, Editor
Guy Cocker is the Editor of GameSpot UK, a handheld gaming fan, and someone who actually managed to use video games to lose weight. He recently took up the position of games expert on BBC 5 live and is a BAFTA games judge.
137 comments
How is this a sequel. At the end of the first one it showed a CGI of Gabriel and the character voiced by Patrick Stewart in modern times but the trailer for the second one shows them in the era of knights. What gives?
Saying that I loved the game and can't wait for this one. I just hope that they give us more control over the camera.
2 Like Arguing about LoS over GoW is stupid. That's like arguing about Mario over Sonic. Same but yet different. Their good in their own ways, so just play the games and enjoy them! I personally like both series and want to see how far they can go with it. Who cares if one plays like the other? Why the unnecessary hate? I don't like taking away from games but I always welcome adding to them. The more moves/combos/ATE/puzzles tthe better, that being said-I 100% LoS as well as platinumed GoW so I do agree that their both awesome. But I wouldn't say one is better than the other. If you liked SotC then why would you hate LoS? (I beat SotC and unlocked everything as well)
Can't say I'm thrilled about this. First game was bad. The gameplay felt like a shameless GoW knock off right down to the move set. The first game could have been improved by being 60%-80% shorter. That would have been an improvement even ignoring quality bump that would come from making less but better content as opposed to hours of drivel. Secondly it didn't feel like Castlevania. Mythology was wrong, setting was wrong, gameplay was wrong for this to feel like Castlevania. As a Castlevania fan Lord of Shadows is a massive disruption and while Konami flogs the dead horse of a completely wrong headed reboot of what should be among it's most important franchises the series can't move on.
1 Like @WeWerePirates God of War bit Ninja Gaiden bro. And how can the mythology be wrong, Konami never described how Dracula became Dracula, and that's what MercurySteam is doing.
@majesticmc God of War owes rather more of its heritage to Devil May Cry, as does Ninja Gaiden. GoW was well into development by the time NG was released where as DMC is probably the progenitor of the "extreme action" genre. Still DMC, NG and GoW all feel quite distinct. Look at games in the genre and *most* borrow and feel rather more like GoW than DMC or NG. Probably because it's an easier formula to imitate.
Also there is a Castlevania which covers Dracula's origin, Lament of Innocence but that's not why the mythology is wrong. Its that the mythology is rather more based on a Celtic style which is grossly out of place in a Castlevania game.
just so you guys konw, Ninja Gaiden was WAY WAY WAY before God Of War. First NG was on Sega Genesis.
2 Like Ok I can't argue with someone who is obviously as avid a gamer as I. GoW was in production while NG releasing. Can't say anything about Lament because I never played it, in fact I never played a Castlevania on PS or Gameboy for that matter. I would say that Dantes Inferno sharked more style from GoW more than Los though, and it was still a better play.it sucks you didn't enjoy LoS though, it was a spectacular game,in my opinion. We are all entitled to those. Not sure I agree with the Celtic comment, seemed more medivilsh, I assume your talking about the art style though and not the characters themselves. I'm a huge Robert Carlyle fan to so maybe my 2 cents are a little bias. Thanks for the comment. Oh so not to think I have no experience on the subject, I have play Castlevania 1,2, and 3 on NES, Super Castlevania, Castlevania 64, didn't like the second one on 64, I played it for 15 minutes, Symphony of the Night I've played many times, Inverted Castle, Richter, and of course, LoS.@WeWerePirates
2 Like First off, for everyone that still has Kratos' mini endowment stuffed in their mouth, shut it. GoW is neither original or great, its a Ninja Gaiden rip-off, and not a very good one. The voice over for the God killer is absolutely horrendous, enemies repetitive, and even at 60fps (which doesn't matter because the human eye can only see 27 fps) it feels like your in control of a senior citizen because his attacks are so slow. That being said LoS was absolutely amazing, besides the occasional camera angle hic-up and invisible walls (which I won't complain about to much since I died more playing LoS then I did Demon's Souls) it was a perfect game. A vast variety of areas and enemies, plus combat that had to be executed precisely (not for you GoW button mashing fanboys) it couldn't have been much better aesthetically. Now for everyone complaining about it not being SotN2,(I have it on PSN and XBLA so don't hate me for saying this) get over it. This is something new, a new direction, let sleeping dogs lie. That being said I believe that was Alucard at the conclusion of the clip, I'm pretty sure Gabriel transformed into a bat and not a bird, and if you don't think its picking up where LoS left off, you didn't play the DLC. Can't wait for this title, 2013 can't come soon enough.
@majesticmc ''even at 60fps (which doesn't matter because the human eye can only see 27 fps''This is not true, it's a misconception. Yes, the eye can only see 27 fps but that definitely doesn't mean that there is no difference between 27 fps and 60. Lets say you're playing a game at 60 fps, every frame that your eye will see will be a combination of 2.22 (60/27) frames. This makes the action look a lot more smoother.To better understand the combination of frames, look at this picture: http://www.rickbucich.com/wp-content/original/2012_02/Adidas-Youth-Soccer-Blur.jpg. You see, the camera captured a combination of the kid being at more than one place at the same time.Anyways, I hope you understand now. If not, try running a game at 27 fps and then at 60 fps on your computer and tell me if you see a difference (hint: you will).
@Joe295159 Thanks for the quick anotomy lesson Joe, very insightful, but I do realize things i.e. video games-movies appear smoother ran at a higher frame rate. My brother runs Diablo 3 at 120 fps and I can see the difference at slower frame rates. The misconception is games run at higher framerate are better than those run at lower ones. I was comparing GoW and Castlevania. The same can be said about Call of Duty MW3 (60 fps) and Battlefield 3 ( around 30 fps) on console. CoD is not a better game by any stretch of the imagination. It's like saying a beer with more alcohol is better than one with less. Castlevania LoS ran at about 44fps by the way. But thanks for reading my post and commenting! I hope you play LoS 2, I'm sure it will be a satisfying play no matter what the framerate.
@majesticmc Never played GoW and thanks to you I no want to, cheers for saving me money dude! Agreed, CVLOS was awesome! Never got round to the DLC, maybe I should if it ties in a lot with the second one? Thanks for the heads up!
@joe_chebs No problem dude, I have all 3 GoW, so I'm not just saying it sucks without an experience of it, and yes, you should try to play the DLC because it explains what becomes of Gabriel, I won't spoil it for you, but you should check it out if you liked the core game no doubt.
Such a damn shame this game was a boring pile of crap. I have played a lot of CV games and this was the only one I sold because it sucked that badly. The game had a dozen puzzles in it which no CV game has ever had before. You fight a lot of enemies that simply don't fit or belong in the CV world. Lucifer somehow becomes the final boss but there is nothing in the game that hints that he has anything to do with the plot. Gabriel was by far the worst Belmont ever in terms of design and personality. Yet they can spend years making the damn Handheld versions better. Why wont they just do a sequel to Lament of Innocence? It was a hell of a lot better than Lords of Shadow.
@Cyberdene Gabriel was not really a belmont he was taken in by the Belmont family. You should read stuff in the game. You obviously don't know anything about Dracula, if you know the story of Dracula you'd know that that is how Dracula is eh hem Brahms Stroker Dracula, hence Gabriels personality is perfect. Lords of Shadow serves as a prequel to the beginning of Dracula and Castlevania. and btw 3DS game will have Trevor and simon Belmont. Lords of Shadow is much better in every aspect because there is a connection between Dracula, and the Belmont family. How do the enemies not fit the castlevania world did you even play the game. Werewolves, Skeleton warriors, zombies, the huge wolves were in past castlevania games. There not going to cover the epilogue at the end, im pretty sure you won't see Satan again till fill the lines what happened in between lords of shadow till then. Which is what there going to do with lords of shadow 2 and the 3DS game. I'm pretty sure there's going to be a lot of story in between aka many games between CV Lords of Shadow till the Epilogue at the end of the game.
@Cyberdene Take your PS3 charging cable, fashion a loop out of it, slip it over your head and around your neck, and tighten until dead. Lament of Innocence better than LoS? That's like saying Pong is better than NHL '12. And you can skip the puzzles you daft fool. Why not just say SotN sucks because its NOTHING like the original. Simpletons are sooooo humorous.
Well the first Lords of Shadow game, hopefully the sequel has a newer Belmont that has a better design and persona. And the game has its musical score back. Also they should eliminate the GOD of War feel. The gameplay was great, but so many people said that when they played the first LOS they felt like they were playing a GOW clone.
The frame rate, and the camera angles of this game are really a disappointment. If they correct this bugs, the game went be moore classic, as the versions of the old N64 castlevania games.
If only the mysterious character in the end was Alucard...
That'd add "AWESOME" to an otherwise "OK" game.
3 Like 1st game was an incredible and underrated game. Sure it had its flaws, but it was an ambitious title. I hope to see more polish in the sequel, but based on the trailer they seem to be right on track with the story at least.
1 Like I liked the first game but I hope they focus less on puzzles and more on combat this time around. I like puzzles but they kind of shoved them down your throat in the first one.
I didn't enjoy Lords Of Shadow at all because in my opinion this Castlevania is a low quality combination of awesome Playstation exclusives like Shadow Of The Colossus, Uncharted and obviously GOD OF WAR and the story is one of the most stupid stories I've ever seen, call me PS fanboy but actually I'm a quality fanboy.
If this game becomes a Hit, I think they will sell all the copies of the first C:LoS......Talking about the first game Objectively.. The idea wasn't bad, Mercury studio told us it was a Remake of the sries, the problem is that most of us including me (we) were expecting something more related to the 2d SOTN game we played in the psx....and we tend to reject new ideas. It is true that the game play wasn't as good as we expected. It was repetitive and sometimes the camera made our lives miserable, but if this new game fixes those minor details. Lord of shadows will become a classic.
1 Like Just like I expected. E3 epoch is time of great good news. And this is the second that I see after NFS: Most Wanted 2, a new Castlevania game for PS3. Now we need one for PSVita, since that PSP got only one Castlevania game. Oh yeah Konami, I think that the most of the fans want it in 2D for PSVita, I hope.
I was a big Castlevania fan in the 1980's the first few were awesome then SOTN came out and the games evolved but now you get to these current consoles and nobody want's to do 2D games anymore......
They could really make an awesome 2D Castlevania that plays like SOTN and do it Anime style but instead we get an outside dev to do the game who just tramples over all the lore........Not good.
I honestly hate most of these 3D versions, none are really any good except the 2 on PS2......those were playable not great games but good enough that I kinda liked them but this Lords Of Shadow.......Meh
1 Like Loved this game but the 2D Castlevanias are, by far, the best. How about a gigantic one of those for the consoles?
Yes I've been waiting for this for 2 years now since completing the first game, and now finally the second one is going to come out :)
1 Like I still have to get the first game. It's been on sale for like $19.99 everywhere. Maybe I'll pick it up now.
1 Like I still haven't played the 2 dlc packs for the 1st game, I wish Microsoft would put them on sale 800 points each seems a bit high for me.
1 Like One Castlevania game i would like to see is the one that was supposed to come out for the Dreamcast but got canceled. (i think it was supposed to have Simon Belmont's mom in that one. i forgot lol)
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
- Publisher(s): Konami
- Developer(s): Mercury Steam
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- Classification Board: MA
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