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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Review: Trolls, Vampires and Werewolves, Oh My!
In the past this series hasn’t had much luck when it comes to its forays into the realm of 3D gaming. This inability to produce a decent game not of the side-scrolling variety led some among the gaming community to label it a curse, but lucky for us Lords of Shadow has taken that curse, torn it apart and placed its head upon a stick that faced the bedroom where it would then proceed to make love to its mom. Multiple times.
Before you start musing over my opinions I feel I should come clean. This is a difficult thing for me to admit, but I am indeed, a Castlevirgin. Over all my years as a self-provlaimed “hardcore” gamer, I’ve never actually sat down with a Castlevania game. So if you can find it in your big, amiable heart to forgive me for this blasphemy then please, read on to hear what I have to say about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. The Baby Factor: If Devil May Cry and God of War got together to make beautiful, brooding babies; Lords of Shadow would be their werewolf dismembering offspring.
Lords of Shadow is an interesting beast; it’s a beautifully realized game with a stunning attention to detail that’s still managed to keep a foot firmly placed in old-school gaming. Solving puzzles, static cameras, tons of replayability and a highly engaging story are just some of the things you’ll encounter after booting up the game. Those aren’t even the things I found myself enjoying the most, instead long after my sessions with Castlevania I found myself remembering the insanely epic boss fights against massive creatures that were taken straight out of Shadow of the Colossus’ book. Colossus remains as one of my favorite games of all time so this little homage to a game I love was well-received.
The game starts off simple enough; you’re a man on a mission to save the world against a growing malicious threat. Along the way you fight waves of progressively stronger enemies, fight the aforementioned bosses, solve a clever puzzle here and there and collect as many of the numerous scattered items you can. This adventure game formula shouldn’t be anything surprising to the experienced gamer, and that’s where the extraordinary polish, variety and incredible depth comes in to set this game apart from the ones that inspired it.
Sure there’s a plethora of arenas that throw waves of enemies at you but unlike Devil May Cry they aren’t so videogamey (forgive the made-up word), and Lords of Shadow actually manages to take God of War’s excellent combat mechanics, kick it in the ass and teach it a lesson. Kratos should take note because there’s a brand new badass in the arena he’s dominated since 2005.
Obviously, there’s upgrading your weapons and abilities, but that’s expected in a game like this by now. On top of this Lords of Shadow adds two more layers with its Dark and Light magic powers. The former focuses on strength and sheer brutality while the latter heals you with each successful strike. Then on top of that you have execution moves that are unlocked after an enemy takes enough damage and you can also take control of the larger enemies and ride them raging bull-style until they eradicate all their smaller siblings that failed to evacuate their path.
Did I mention this game is long? In our recession-plagued economy where wallets sob at the sight of a new game’s price tag, Castlevania offers a hefty bang for your hard-earned buck. There are twelve chapters, each containing several smaller sections that vary in length, so you’re looking at well over 16 hours of playtime here, with the added option of going back through to collect the tons of hidden trinkets you missed your first time through. They even made it easy for you by labeling each area with a percentage that marks how many of the items you collected in each level.
Sadly, not everything is flawless here, and there was one major issue that kept rearing its ugly head: the camera. As I mentioned before the game rarely lets you take control of the camera that’s usually perched atop ledges or other areas to grant you the best view of the environment as possible, and even when you do gain some semblance of control its generally not enough to make much of a difference. Most of the time this only bothered me when the camera would suddenly move forcing me to quickly adjust the direction I’m going, which is something I haven’t had to do since my time with the early Resident Evil games.
This really became an issue during some boss fights, where you’re fighting for your life and you can’t see what’s going on because the camera isn’t looking where you need it to. One boss in particular was made more frustrating than it should’ve been because I couldn’t see the rocks it was throwing at me because the camera decided it needed to give me the best view of the ground that it could.
Occasionally soul-crushing camera aside, Lords of Shadow has very little that’s actually wrong with it. It’s not perfect but it has managed to take what other games have done well, make those elements its own and throw in an incredible level of depth and detail on top of that.
The Final Word: There’s a lot to love for newcomers and longtime fans of the series, so if you’re looking for an excellent adventure game with top-tier visuals and a fascinating story; Lords of Shadow won’t disappoint.
This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 version of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, which was provided by the publisher.
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
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‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
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