To be honest, Lords of Shadow 2 is not as bad as some people make it sound. After finishing the game, I think it's a decent experience, but considering this is supposed to be the end of the Lords of Shadow universe, I was expecting a lot more.
Right from the beginning, the game feels very different from the first one. It's much darker, focuses a lot more on Dracula, and fully embraces the vampire side of Castlevania. The atmosphere is great, the cutscenes look amazing, and you can tell they put a lot of effort into the presentation. In fact, some of the CGI scenes are probably the best-looking moments in the entire trilogy.
The gameplay is also better than Lords of Shadow 1. Combat feels smoother, the vampire powers are fun to use, and overall I enjoyed playing this one more than the first game. The problem is that after a while it still becomes repetitive. You unlock new abilities and powers, but you're still doing a lot of the same things throughout the game.
The story is where I have mixed feelings. The beginning is really interesting and got me invested pretty quickly, but after a while it feels like the game loses direction. Sometimes it feels like the writers had some great ideas but didn't really know how to connect everything together. By the end, the story is decent, but for the final chapter of this universe, I expected something much bigger.
One thing that disappointed me was how little the Belmont family mattered in the end. I'm not saying Simon should have appeared because that wouldn't really make sense, but Mirror of Fate made the Belmont legacy feel important and I expected Lords of Shadow 2 to build on that more.
Victor is probably the best example. He shows up, seems important, helps Gabriel, sacrifices himself, and that's basically it. I was expecting a lot more from his character and from the Belmont side of the story.
The final fight against Satan was another disappointment. After the first Lords of Shadow, I expected something much more memorable. Gabriel's fight against Satan in the original game felt epic. Here it just didn't have the same impact. It wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't the finale I was hoping for.
The map can also be confusing at times. There were several moments where I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go, and collecting everything felt more annoying than fun.
Performance was mostly fine for me. Nothing that ruined the experience, but there were a few moments where the game didn't feel as polished as it should have. That's kind of how I feel about the entire game, honestly. There are a lot of good ideas here, but it often feels like the developers didn't have enough time to fully polish everything.
Comparing the trilogy as a whole, I think Lords of Shadow 2 has the best gameplay, but not the best story. I still think the first Lords of Shadow had a stronger story and more memorable boss fights, while Mirror of Fate ended up being the game that felt the most fun and closest to what I personally enjoy in Castlevania.
After finishing the main game, I also played the Revelations DLC. To be honest, it didn't really change my opinion about Lords of Shadow 2. I was hoping it would expand the ending or give a better conclusion to Gabriel and Alucard, but instead it takes place before Dracula awakens.
The story wasn't very interesting, but playing as Alucard was a lot of fun. His abilities feel different from Dracula's, especially his movement options and transformations. Flying around as a bat, exploring the map and seeing things from a different perspective was probably the best part of the DLC. Alucard ended up being one of my favorite characters in the entire trilogy.
In the end, I'm glad I played the whole Lords of Shadow saga. I really liked this different interpretation of Dracula, Alucard and the Belmont family. Not every idea worked, and I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential, but it was still a fun journey from beginning to end.
Maybe one day I'll come back and replay the trilogy. Not because it's one of my favorite Castlevania stories ever, but because despite all its flaws, I had a genuinely good time with it.
★★★☆☆ 3/5
