Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Ultimate Edition

At first it's difficult to like it but down in the middle you find all the good stuff from similar games (PoP, GoW, etc.) with a decent new story...

It looks like a good old fantasy movie. A lot of things are very bad, but the movie is still good.

Absolute garbage game, terrible controls and keeps freezing. This game is cheap but I still feel like I got pick pocketed. Robbed me of my money for a game that barley functions.

Buena jugabilidad e interesante historia

First Castlevania I've played and it has been delightful.
Considering it's an old game the graphics still hold up.
I totally recommend!

Criminally underrated, if you're a fan of character action fighters like old school God of War you can't go wrong here. I understand that some Castlevania fans feel it doesn't fit in with the series, but I beg to differ, it's certainly a different take in its own continuity, but the team clearly had a passion for the source material.

It's an epic adventure spanning an entire continent, you get to explore lush forests, lakeside ancient ruins, frozen tundras, Gothic castles, and more supernatural hellish environments, and everything in between. Its staggering that there's so much content in the game, and just how well it all looks and sounds - MercurySteam were really on top of their game on this one.

Music is also really nice, certainly distinct from the rest of the series, but I think it fits beautifully - not always as instantly catchy as the mainline series, but there's some real stand outs (Titan music...) The game's UI is also really easy to navigate and very readable, lots of very nice colour coding and flair - something more modern games could stand to learn from.

In terms of game play there's lots to work with, plenty of combos to buy, versatile sub weapons to use - and lots of varied enemy types for you to tackle. I will say the base game is pretty easy, even on higher difficulties, maybe since I've played the Souls-borne games in between my original PS3 playthrough and my latest. It's often possible to dominate with only a few combos and magic types, and if you're really dedicated to getting all upgrades as they come, you'll have no trouble.

The only real drawbacks beyond this are when the game makes you interface with it in a way that feels unnatural. There are challenge trials associated with each level which are fine for the most part, but some force you to speed run some awkward platforming challenges that just don't feel right - Prince of Persia this ain't. And while aerial combat is possible, it's really ill advised as you have lose all evasive mobility in the air. It's not a problem really until you reach the insane final chapter of the game that was originally released as DLC. It's a shame since I love the design and story build up, but man did they drop the ball and it sours the otherwise excellent climax of the base game. I recommend playing on the easiest difficulty for that fight and save yourself the heartache if you decide to continue past the initial 12 chapters.

In short (LOL) - BUY THIS GAME. Give it a chance and view it as fun sub series within the wider Castlevania mythos, you'll certainly get your money's worth!

One of my all time favorites

I played this originally on the XBox 360 I believe?

This one is going to be a hard pass for me, the Castlevania games have just never been able to do an actually good 3D version of the game and this one does not fail to disappoint.

Fights are tedious, every enemy is a damage pinata that always ends with some kind of quick time action to finish them, this is true for both regular enemies and bosses, and it gets old fast.

They have these combos you need to pull off to make this cinematic experience, but the issue is, almost every enemy has the ability to knock you down or interrupt your combo where you will never really actually be able to use them, most of the time you will most likely be spamming the direct attack using the "dark magic" buff to increase the damage.

Terrible camera angles, the best example of this is in the later chapters, there are the pedestals you have to turn and your character will just continually let go because your movement of the controls doesnt match the character position, this results in the puzzle resetting, very infuriating. They could have done a rotatable camera but nah, they decided to go with that 90's fixed position cameras, and it worked back then, it doesn't now.

Boring gameplay, aside from pinatas you will have to solve some puzzles, which usually involves moving this from here to there then fighting some pinatas to get the stone to open the door to the next room of pinatas.

Did I mention quick time actions? Who doesn't want that finishing move on every single enemy to be concealed behind the prompt to mash some button. Who doesn't want those cut scenes interrupted by SMASH THIS BUTTON! You know why quick time actions died almost 20 years ago, because they sucked and took away from points of the game that just would have been better without them.

So we have terrible camera angles
lack luster combat against pinatas
simplistic puzzles that are more annoying than fun.
Quick time actions, because everyone loves those.

I'm just going to get to the point, will you please just release Symphony of The Night on Steam so that we can actually play a Castlevania game that people ACTUALLY enjoyed?

DLC:

The DLC is short, it is a continuous barrage of instant death mechanics meant to give you the illusion of challenge, it's not it's tedious trial and error of repeatedly doing the short segments over and over again because of bad camera angles and poorly thought out mechanics.

Amazing graphics for its time, great music and voice acting.

Story is overall fine but could've been better.

Regardless, completely worth playing for those who enjoy old God of War like games.

Masterful game - touching story, great visuals and gameplay, and one of the best narrative experiences (ft. Sir Patrick Stewart)!

The true spirit of Castlevania isn't in getting Dracula right or wrong. There are Castlevanias that get Dracula right and there are Castlevanias that get Dracula wrong, and that's not what's important. The true spirit of Castlevania is demonstrated by getting FRANKENSTEIN wrong ENOUGH, and by that measure Lords of Shadow absolutely deserves to be counted a Castlevania.

you cant start a new game so no i dont reccomend it its a great game awesome but there is no option to start a new game at all

this is a product of its time regarding qtes & static cameras and hack and slash, but kojima involvement, 10/10 artwork and atmosphere, very good music, if you havent played so far this timeless masterpiece you have to yesterday, this is my second playthrough 14 years later after the release and it stands good in the test of time. Also if you have issues with changing the resolution you have to replace a config file on the folder and it works great after that.

Alberto approves

A bargain-bin God of War clone mixed with, inexplicably, a very silly Shadow of the Colossus clone of all things. It's a random, derivative, and featureless 5/10 PS3 game that was not even developed by Konami but was marketed as a Castlevania reboot to sell some copies. It's a "reboot" because it's entirely unrelated to Castlevania: a guy goes to an elf forest to ask the god Pan for magic to fight demons and battles climbable "titans" on the way.

Awesome game

yes

This game is more like God of War than Castlevania. It isn't even a Metroidvania game. But its fine. I bought it on sale and I'd recommend other do the same.

a re-imagining of the classic Castlevania series as a 3rd person adventure. this game features environmental puzzles that arent terribly hard, harrowing terrain traversal and-- where the game truly shines-- the swift and agile combat! harness light and shadow magic as well as a number of ancient relics and experience this treasure of a game! what an absolute masterpiece!

I really really wanted to like this. Castlevania with God of War vibes? Sounds great, but the lack of camera control, dodgy jump mechanics, and bullet sponge enemies just made this a slog.

Played it briefly on ps3 when it came out, to this date (2025) its still a gem of a game, has nice gameplay and a very compelling story. The voice acting is superb and the different challenges you unlock make the game very enjoyable while increasing the difficulty in a subtle manner. Despite being basically a reboot and having so much of the lore as a direct reference to other games it manages to bring freshness and novelty to a very loved series. If you haven't played it then youre missing a lot, 100% recommended!!!

Played it many years ago on release and the the game is still great. There are some bad moments, but they are far and few. Graphics are still beautiful in most cases. The main game still holds to this day, however the 2 chapter DLC is not so consistent. Puzzles are good, but there is a lack of good battles, only annoying ghouls against Laura and horrible skeleton enemies. And the Forgotten One is an absolute BS and trash. Nevertheless, still a great game experience with a great story.

One of the worst game I've ever played. Nothing in it works. I won't elaborate.

The best thing I can say is this game is mediocre. From enemies, linear level design, combat, and the story leaves much to be desired. Bosses feel like cheap knockoffs of Shadow of Colossus giants. I'd like to have been able to say I beat this but I'm just not having fun.

Having a lot of fun with Gabriel on his journey

This is a fun game, you should buy!

As a longtime Castlevania fan, especially of the Igavania games, it pains me to leave a negative review on anything with the Castlevania name. I'm doing a full series marathon since the Dominus Collection came out, revisiting classics and trying out the ones I never played before like the PS2 games, which I ended up really enjoying. I went into Lords of Shadow with an open mind, determined to form my own opinion… but for the life of me, I just can't finish this game.

Objectively, it's a well made game, but it just doesn't feel like Castlevania at all. Everything was changed for the sake of being more cinematic and mainstream. The combat is decent, especially once you unlock more moves, but the overall gameplay loop feels like a chore. There are way too many tedious and uninteresting puzzles that serve more as padding than engaging challenges. Even the art direction leans into generic dark fantasy rather than the signature gothic horror aesthetic that made the series stand out.

Maybe I'll give it another shot in the future, but right now, it's just not clicking with me. If you're looking for a Castlevania experience, this ain't it.

Combat fun when skills are unlocked, too long. dont go for the achievements

Bought it on a sale and goddamn i think it is one of the best Castlevania games i ever played.

game's design and art are truly impressive, showing clear love and attention to detail

I really wanted to like this game as I'm a huge Castlevania fan. These are the things I disliked about the game:
1. Camera - Cannot see enemies sneaking up behind you and often get hit.
2. No Stagger - Your hits feel like they make no impact. It makes no sense to use combos because some larger enemies are immune to staggering and will attack you in the middle of your combo.
3. Pointless mechanic - You have to play perfectly to gain focus, gain enough focus and enemies will start to drop energy spheres. These energy spheres is what heals you. But if you're playing perfectly then you don't need healing, and if you are struggling and need healing well too bad because the energy spheres only drop if you play perfectly.
4. So much climbing - This game is riddled with more climbing than a Tomb Raider game, it feels slow and boring and that it was purposely put there to pad out the game length to stop you from finishing the levels too quickly.
5. Bad Story - The cut scenes and level text are pointless. Castlevania games never really had great stories but at least it wasn't the focus of the game. This game however wants you to be interested in it's awful story. Watch the Netflix cartoon instead if you want better Castlevania storytelling.
6. No vampires - After a few hours of playing, I saw no vampires or heard of no vampires. It just doesn't feel like a Castlevania game. It feels more like a really bad version of The Witcher 1 if I'm being honest.

The only good thing this game has going for it is that the main character Gabriel is a cutie patootie and I wanna have lots of segs with him.

This was my first Castlevania game back when it released on consoles back in the late 2000s and I loved playing it then. I am glad we got a PC release and playing it brought back nostalgic memories nearly 15 years later.
The gameplay is similar to the original God of War games and I am enjoying the combat design. The art design is something special and I love the atmosphere and story.
Maybe sometime in the future we get a remaster or even a sequel but this is a cult classic though many people might not agree.

Amazing game. Holds up well, even in 2025!

I am not saying the game is bad; I am simply sharing my experience.
First: Technical Issues

My computer is fine—I can run any modern game. However, this game caused my computer to crash repeatedly until I switched to Windowed mode. It was weird. I think the issue might have been my screen resolution (2560x1440).
Second: The Game Experience

The game's design and art are truly impressive, showing clear love and attention to detail. For example, every combo has a beautifully animated sketch-like effect. There’s no real need to put that much effort into something as simple as a game menu, yet there it is.

However, gameplay-wise, it wasn’t for me. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot, and perhaps I’ll give it another try someday, but my first impression was not great, and I didn't feel like continuing.

The tutorial level is a battle against a wolf. The fight itself is well-designed, and if you play on hard mode, it is challenging. However, the controls are not very refined. There’s no lock-on mode, so landing hits on targets—especially in a 3D environment—can be frustrating. Throwing daggers, for instance, is a pain: you either miss half the time, or the game prioritizes faraway targets instead of the enemy you actually need to hit.

Combos can also be overwhelming. Within the first hour of gameplay, you unlock 10+ different combos and button combinations that aren’t exactly intuitive. For example, there’s a crucial move that launches grounded enemies into the air, allowing you to follow up with an aerial combo. But to execute it, you need to press X + A (X + Triangle on PlayStation), which makes my hand feel like this 🫸🫷—not exactly comfortable or intuitive.

Back to the game. After the wolf fight, the next level has you riding a horse. Again, the controls feel awkward. You can lean left or right to avoid damage, but with wolves attacking from both sides, it's unclear how to maneuver effectively. Then comes a quick-time event, followed by more wolves to fight.

In the next level, you arrive at a swamp. First, you learn that you can throw back grenades when they’re launched at you, but the moment is presented in an out-of-place slapstick sequence that completely breaks the serious tone established so far—it felt weird.

Then, you continue into the swamp, and this is where the game lost me. It’s Castlevania, so you expect an exciting adventure—either the freedom to explore the level if you're from the Symphony of the Night era, or a gothic, creepy, action-packed beat ‘em up if you're from the older generations. But you get none of that.

The swamp level is a long series of narrow corridors with no exploration, no enemies, and no camera control. It feels rigid and clunky. You just move forward, submerged waist-deep in swamp water that slows you down and constantly triggers quick-time events. You can't jump or avoid these water sections. Occasionally, you encounter a few goblins, but that’s about it.

At that point, I couldn't keep playing—it just wasn't for me. Who thought this was a good first level for a Castlevania reboot?
Conclusion

If you really, really have nothing else to play and are curious about this game, wait until it goes on sale. Even then, I’d still recommend using that money to support an indie developer instead.

This was just my experience. I’m sure there are people out there who will genuinely enjoy this game, and maybe it gets better after the swamp. But for me, it completely lost my interest, so I decided to move on to something else.

Nah. Buggy, broken, forced cutscenes and tutorials, terrible control input and atrocious mechanics that keep failing. I don't understand the allure other then the story and even that was not enough to make me want to continue.

Game barely runs. requiring alt tab over and over again with well timed button press to get to next level. Speaking of well timed button presses the QTE moments are terrible when the screen is shaking all over and the ring for the QTE is constantly moving. The game insults your intelligence by explaining every individual thing to you multiple times while the environment ahead is shown in 30 second cutscenes constantly taking the already slow pace and breaking it even further down. The whole first real open mission is fight a few goblins then spend 5 minutes trekking through mud that takes a whole 45 seconds to go 10 feet. I wanted to like it and between technical issues, having my intelligence insulted in every form and gameplay moving at a snails pace its just impossible to want to keep going until the game might get fun

I played this game in my childhood and at that time i only had pocket money and played this game pirated. Now I have a lot of money and I play legit games only, no more piracy. So decided to buy this fabulous game in order to support the developers and replay some childhood games which are truly gems. Castlevania is a long running series and lords of shadow is truly awesome game.

Castlevania so que com porradaria insana

Great game for Castlevania fans of course. I just wish it allowed for more than one save slot, or even just to select new game.

It's a wonderful game focusing on story and architecture.
If you are playing this you should use a controller.
Game is rather fun if you are not playing on Normal (Warrior) or lower difficulty, otherwise it might as well just be one of those Telltale games. Puzzles are rather straightforward and not much to figure out.

Now the negatives:
1) It's just the same pattern in each section of the game: Beat one monster, beat 3 of those monsters, beat a boss. That's it that's the whole game. It's like you go to the zoo and expect something extraordinary to happen, but it's just a bunch of different animals for every cage. One can jump higher and the other is faster.
2) There isn't much of a strategy here either: You hit, dodge/block, hit again, dodge/block again. With bosses you also have to wait with QuickTimeEvent cutscenes.
3) The camera: One of the most annoying mechanic of this game. It makes sense since it's from the 2D and 2.5D previous original titles, but it's so aggressively unexpected that completely throws your movements out the window for a second of readjustment to the new direction to move to. And in some instances you are unable to even see the items/objects you need to interact with, you just have to randomly apply the action blindly at the exact right time and the exact right direction.
4) Then there is the maximum difficulty (Paladin): You feel like a robot that must do exactly the right specific action, in the exact right time, in the position and location, and hope that Gabriel's aim is connecting. Because sometimes it feels like the enemy's damage is scripted to occur even if you dodged right.

But to me, all of those negative points are irrelevant. Because to me the story is something that I can connect and relate to (I did not, she did). Not many if any games has that.
Alright off to Mirror's of Fate then Lords of Shadow 2.

Good game
Fun hack and slash with interesting puzzles
Mid story
6/10

With shockingly short levels, boring combat, and meh graphics, this isn't worth more than $5

Story is great ,game play is pretty much puzzles are lame ,cam is bit buggy and combat is pretty boring

This game is awesome! Picked it up on sale a while back and decided to pick it up while I got burned out on BGEE and oh man if you are looking for an action game that runs great on older hardware this is a winner. Runs 40- 60 FPS on my old 1050 TI laptop pushing 4k to my LG OLED TV!

Other than the stupid Chupacabras, this game is extremely fun. The combos are so fluid and fun to pull off and its got great level design! my only gripe besides the Chupacabras though is probably the length of the game, I kind of wish it was short and sweet like the first Devil May Cry and being endlessly replayable, but it kinda just KEEPS GOING after a while. Still great to play though and a super fun take on the tone and style of castlevania in a God of War/Devil May Cry kinda way.

Die Monster!
You Don't Belong In This World!

A pretty good and interesting take on Castlevania. Gameplay was engaging and the visuals and soundtrack are phenomenal. Story had its issues, but was good overall. It's evident the developers of this game were big fans of the franchise and poured a lot of love into it.

It may not be for everyone, but I'd recommend giving it a shot if you're interested.

I now know why vampires hate mirrors....If i have to go through another one i would be pissed too...

gameplay 8/10
story 8/10
camera angles 4/10

Overall the games good if you can look past the camera cause it works against you at times when fighting. I was able to.

If you want a different take on a castlevania games worth playing. Has that DMC and GOW style.

8/10 FORGOTTEN ONE , soggy places , mossy dump , desecrated lands , bewildered Gabriel seeking his beloved , stumbled upon peculiar manuscripts , he should to ascertain fiendish plans + OST in main menu something splendid incredible , froze me for few min , good exp however not for all , despite some camera issue + platforming cringe game worth ur time if u fan of (DMC / DARKSIDERS)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a really good Hack and Slash game, with a plethora of bosses and regular enemies alike (oh and there are also those pesky puzzles). But what really impressed me is the plot. To be honest, the whole thing was kinda boring until like halfway through Chapter II, at which point I slowly started to realize it's way more complicated than just "go kill those very evil monsters, good guy", maybe it's because I've never played a Castlevania game before.
The combat system isn't challenging, honestly, I played on the third hardest difficulty out of four (which I recommend you choose as well if you're not a pro in the genre, like myself, believe me, that will be enough) and I only had to use regular one-button combos, dodges, AoE attacks a few times and closer to the end of the game I stared using one AoE combo that was more than just pressing one button repeatedly, and that was enough. Oh, and there are QTEs, with is super cool if you ask me. The bosses are engaging, each standoff is a combination of well-timed dodges, attacking without getting too greedy and a bit of wit. Only the very last one in Chapter XIV is a pain in the ass, took me like 2 hours to beat him lol.