This might have been good in 2013. It's not good in 2025.

The Castlevania series has always been a bit hit-and-miss for me. (I enjoy the PS1/GBA era of games, but not necessarily much before or since.) This one is essentially like an early God of War (the original trilogy, not the reinvented duology), but with the bosses of Shadow of the Colossus...except that the boss fights here manage to be excruciating, rather than clever or interesting or puzzling. (I loved Colossus, by the way - just to give you a bit of context for that statement.)

Lords of Shadow has a cool vibe/aesthetic if you can forgive the PS3-era graphics. (They don't bother me, but they certainly aren't nearly up to snuff by today's standards...nor the past 10ish years' standards.) Good soundtrack too, but the rest of the sound design (voice acting and such) is questionable at best.

The level design and camera are unpleasant, but manageable. Combat is passable (except for the bosses), but nothing particularly exciting. And the progression system (i.e. getting new abilities that allow you to open previously inaccessible routes) is annoying. (I generally love this in a game - such as you find in other Metroidvanias - but it's implemented quite poorly here.)

All in all, I can't in good conscience recommend this if you're coming to it for the first time today. It simply hasn't aged well. Everything about it is a product of its time. But if you're a big fan of the era or the series, you could do worse.

That said, if you want a similar game from the era that still holds up well today, I'd definitely recommend DMC over this. It's a smoother experience, and with much less questionable design choices.

For what it's worth, Lords of Shadow plays well on a Steam Deck.

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.

Very simple yet fun combat system. Only one main weapon with four secondaries and two types of magic. The magic system itself interacts very well with both the Combat Cross and the secondary weapons.

The narrative is also simple, but compelling. It's no Oscar winning writting but you'll get invested in Gabriel and his quest to save his wife. The characters design and overall art style is extremelly well done too. And the hand drawn images on Gabriel's bestiary and combo-list are very cool.

That being said, this game has some very... interesting flaws. I say "interesing" because they're very basic things which most games of the same genre get right. It's not something you'd normally notice unless something is wrong.

One is camera angles. It's very hard to tell sometimes whether you're jumping to a grabbable ledge or to your demise. Add in the game's lack of deph of field and you have no idea if a certain object is right in front of you or far into the backgroung.

The second is this game's poor idea of exploration. Similar titles like the classic GoW games have you exploring every corner of the level for collectables which can increase your health, magic meter, etc. Lord of Shadow is no different, except it's not so much of "Aha! I see an out-of-the-way path there. Let me check it out." It's more like "Let me walk against the entire edge of this area to see if the invisible wall gives up at any point and let's me into a out-of-view hidden area." There is little logic to the hidden itens, you just have to bash Gabriels face against every nook and cranny hoping you'll accidentally stumble uppon a hidden area. It feels more like a chore, not fun or rewarding as in other games. And when you finally DO find the body of a fallen brotherhood knight, only for it to have a scroll instead of a gem... Oh man.

Finally, the color pallete sometimes makes it difficult to see what smaller enemies are doing, like the lesser werewolves or small trolls. So they can get some cheap hits on you.

I'd say 7/10. A fun experience if a bit frustrating every now and then. Haven't played the second game yet (very late, I know), but hopefully it doesn't suffer from the same problems as the first title.

I really wanted to like this game, but it is just bad. Horrible (locked) camera angles, uninteresting combat, and really phoned in story telling all add up to a truly 'meh' experience. In addition, the levels are frustratingly short and disjointed. Honestly, it feels like the game is a collection of game samples or scrapped attempts. I heard the other games in the series are stand alone and very different, so I will check those out. For this one, I do not recommend.

7/10

I’m sorry but this is a terrible game. I love castlevania and I’ve played the classics. I even really enjoyed LOS2, but the sheer amount of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in this game is insurmountable. The quick time events are what sealed the deal on getting a refund.

T\his spinoff series its a hit or miss, I love classic Castlevania,but this mini series was quite entertaining, combat is good, story its really entertaining, visually its eye candy there is not a single environment that doesn't look amazing AND you get all DLC in one package, sountrack has this epic vibe that lets you immerse in this epic quest to defeat the world's evils

Good ol devil may cry/GOW violence