Maybe this game was "good" for the time it was made for but now it is a terrible experience. Everything is uninspired and annoying with little to no creativity.

Map design is awful. Most of the time you will have no idea where to go because the camera is locked in a single direction but unlike most other games that do locked camera, angles 90% of the time don't show you anything. There were so many instances where I would find a secret by accident thinking that was the way to go because somehow they managed to hide the real path better than secrets.

Combat is so simple you can probably beat it with one hand. Combat is extremely similar to god of war. You have 2 swings, one wide and one singlurar, just spam singular target and you will win. Main annoyance here comes from the fact that enemies have too much health. Sometimes it felt like I was trying to break a brick wall with my face. Last 3 levels I turned difficulty to easy because I just wanted it to end.

Art design is... why... Everything looks same. Enemy design is so bad I started predicting the next enemy and was correct every time. You see a skeleton? Now think about a bigger skeleton. Not even joking that's the enemies every time. First fight small then it gets big and all looks the same. Even enemy names are generic and uninspired.

Story is so bad I started having a brain aneurysm. Gabriel says I will never do x and give him literally 2 cutscenes and he will be like "I never liked x anyways". Gabriel himself might be one of the worst characters I've ever seen in my life. He is just extremely dumb and annoying whenever he speaks. But hey at least it gave me a few laughs thanks to how bad it was.

Don't play it even if you feel nostalgic. I promise you, it is not as good as you remember.

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.

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.