When developer Mercury Steam began crafting its Lords of Shadow series, hardcore Castlevania fans were largely brought along kicking and screaming. After all, the studio was intent on doing its own thing, on weaving its own unique tale in the larger Castlevania universe.

Fun combat; Beautiful graphics; score; Lots to see and do

Poor story; characters; setting; Terrible stealth sections

For the fans of the series, many familiar faces return. For those of us less versed in the canon, we have to make do with some written text in the encyclopedic menus for context.

Concept: Take Gabriel Belmont – now in full-on Dracula mode – on a modern-day mission to defeat Satan, and ultimately end his own immortality Graphics: The main cast and some bosses look great, but lesser enemies and environments are often uninspired or poorly realized Sound: Robert Carlyle and...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is a strange beast. It gives us the narrative conclusion we wanted, but in a sequel we arguably didn't need. It's fun enough, but never feels essential, and the fact that it's let down by its combat – which plays such a huge and vital role – means you may reach the...

Far from perfect and a disappointing step backwards from the first game, Lords Of Shadow 2 still manages to offer an engaging and rewarding action experience … so long as you can look beyond its disappointing story.

+ Great battles and combat; + Free-roam lifts restrictive feel of the original; + Beautiful settings

- Story lacks punch of the original; - Stealth missions ruin pacing

Great game it has definitely improved upon LOS1 beside the fact that it does have some slow stealth parts, it has rewarding skill trees and very high quality boss battles,also lets not forget the gorgeous graphics

Games Xtreme awakens after hundreds of years as Dracula and explores the lands in and around his castle in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Read on to see if the game has teeth, or fails to bite.

The original Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was a bit like Downton Abbey for me – a guilty pleasure. I'd set Steam to invisible mode while playing it, so my pals couldn't see I was spending so much time with a game that was critically panned.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was surprisingly a hit amongst fans. I use the word ‘surprisingly' because it's often quite rare for developers to digress from the original formula without alienating the people who grew up loving what the original games had to offer.

The Castlevania series is one with a loyal fan base and has been since the inception of the franchise back on the NES. The Belmont/Dracula battles have spanned over nearly four decades, and with Lords of Shadow 2, we get too see one of the bloodiest fights yet, with Mercury Steam bringing their...