My final impressions of this game. Get your tag copypastas ready people, you're gonna need them.
Mediocre in every sense of the word. This is the first and last mercurysteam game I buy. If Konami goes ahead with this new franchise(because it sure as fuck ain't Castlevania), I hope they get a new developer for the next one. There's some BASIC stuff that's plain wrong with the game. Like the camera angles. So many times has the camera fucked me over completely. In GOW I never give it two thoughts, the camera is invisible to me. Even just the way the camera moves around the enviroments as you traverse is unattractive, and a lot of times the angles chosen don't benefit you, the player. FAIL. And don't get me started on why the hell is it always shaking, if they tried to evoke a documentary-type filmmaking feeling they failed miserably.
Not a fan of the platforming mechanics. Precisely, the jumping. BAD. Just awful, back to the drawing board with you. So many times have I fallen to my death through no fault of my own, just because my character hits an invisble wall somewhere in the area, or because I didn't jump in the exact manner the developer decided. Which gets me to...invisible walls. Holy crap I've never seen a game address this worse. Lazy is all I have to say.
The combat system is an exercise in tedium. You have a decent arsenal of moves, but most of the "specials" leave you extremely vulnerable and open to retaliation, making them almost useless. 95% of the combat will result in you whipping 3 to 4 times and then rolling to the side. Over and over. Even if you try to take advantage of all your moves, it's not very fun, or exciting. Overall the combat doesn't flow well at all. It has this super unpolished feel to it. Not to mention that hideous framerate doesn't help at all.
The develoepers have completely mismanaged the pacing in the game. Several parts of the game overstay their welcome, if not the game entirely. Some of the bosses, or a lot of them, have an unnecessary amount of health, it almost feels like an artifical way of increasing the length of the game. It doesn't make the boss harder, just longer, increasingly repetitive and ultimately boring. The titan bosses are the worst. They feel like they go on forever. The last one I didn't have much of a problem with, but it was long as fuck, I just wanted it to be over. Speaking of which, these are horrible "homages", "ripoffs", or whatever you want to call them. Linear and scripted to a retarded point, I didn't enjoy having to repeat the entire freaking process several times in a row just because the game didn't feel like recognizing my button press. Dull, dull, DULL.
A few bosses I liked, and a couple of segments were pretty neat, but overall this was a completely average experience. There are some highs(like the final battle which I'll admit was pretty freaking awesome), but there are some horrible, frustrating lows.
I do not recommend this game, even less so to Castlevania fans. This game is Castlevania in name only. It doesn't look like a CV game, it doesn't sound like a CV, and I have no fucking clue what were they thinking with the story. I don't care for what they did at all. They totally shat all over the series. I understand this is a reboot, and hell I was one of the defenders when reviewers were attacking the game on that basis, but this is a maddening departure, and the epilogue betrays the game's plot and main character anyway. Bad storytelling, and I'm sorry but Jean Luc Picard was plain LULZ in his delivery. The narration was complete cheesefest and the writing may be even worse.
Is there anything I liked? Well the enviroment was ocassionally pretty, although marred again by a truly abysmal framerate and an eye-stabbing aliasing. Jagged edges all up in this bitch. Every time the camera zoomed out the texture detail was reduced to a shimmering mess. Even disregarding the technical deficiencies most of the time the game just looked bland frankly.
The music is nice, I suppose, but so samey-sounding throughout the entire game. Most of the time generic orchestral tunes, especially the action cues, with a few exceptions. Nothing wrong with some variety, Araujo. Also, I was deceived by Dave Cox. :|
You know, I think I may have liked Lament of Innocence better, when it came out. I don't care much for the direction MS took Castlevania, but the worst of it all is the execution. For this type of game I'm gonna stick with what Sony Santa Monica gives me, thanks.
