Castlevania: Lords of Shadow playthrough

[Rurouni_Fencer]

So somebody over at 1up.com posted video of a 5-minute playthrough of the new Castlevania at E3..

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/30018

What do you all think?

As a huge Castlevania fan, I'm both excited and a bit skeptical. Seeing the action on the screen definitely reminds one of both God of War, (the player even remarks that it definitely feels like GoW,) and Dante's Inferno. Combos are strung together as buttons mash and items are used to purchase new skills and power ups in a sub-screen. The boss fight at the end of the level even reminds me of GoW and Dante's Inferno. There has been critical skepticism over being labeled a "God of War clone" since the day they announced that there would be a new 3-D Castlevania. This video will definitely fuel the fire for naysayers of this upcoming 3D reboot..

But I'm also excited, because I AM a Castlevania fan, a God of War fan, and I really liked Dante's Inferno. But mostly because I love Castlevania, and this looks to be the most polished, beautiful, and action intense 3D Castlevania to date. And while I understand the play mechanics might not be anything completely original, it's still a tried and true formula. People like to play this method of action game, and that's why they will play this game. I think Konami is hitting all the right buttons with this one, so long as they play it close to the Castlevania legend. They mentioned Super Castlevania IV as inspiration, so I'm interested to see how this plays out. But so far, GoW clone or not, I cannot wait to play this and add it to my 'Vania library!

[Krooner]

I'm curious, 'vania is my favourite game series but the PS2 and N64 games left a bad taste. It's a shame Konami didn't go with Iga's Alucard pitch but there you go.

[weasels]

While being safely skeptical...im actually quite excited for it. the first thing about it that i noticed is that it seems to style itself more after the older castlevania games as opposed to the more recent games that hold an anime inspired style. i personally like this, since i honestly am not so huge on the anime style. The atmosphere seems to be right as well. my problem with it is that im worried they are going to make this a pure hack and slash (like the GoW games and daunte's inferno) and im not so sure that fits the castlevania experience. as far as i know, kojima productions is giving a helping hand to the game, so im hoping for something original that will keep the game fresh...but stay close to the roots of the series. maybe that's too much to ask for though.

[Gamerforlife]

Not impressed at all, it's not just a God of War clone. Everything in that footage looks EXACTLY like God of War, even that wherewolf thing resembles something I fought in Chains of Olympus in its movements and attacks. X-Men:Wolverine Origins copied God of War, but not quite so blatantly. And we already had a 3-d Castlevania game on the PS2 that tried to be Devil May Cry, which is what God of War originally ripped off. So there's really no new territory being explored at all with Lords of Shadow, which isn't to say the game won't be fun, but God, Castlevania is having a major identity crisis. It needs something to stand out from the pack

[Satoshi_Matrix]

I don't see anything wrong with this being a God of War clone. For years, the 2D games have been Super Metroid clones. When the very best Castlevania games came about by copying a successful established 2D game, why should it suddenly be a problem for Castlevania to copy a winning 3D formula?

Curse of Darkess was so-so. If this can top that, I'm all for it.