Is Lords of Shadow a good, albeit familiar game? Absolutely. But is it truly a Castlevania game? That's ultimately up for the diehard fans to decide. For our money, it's close enough to earn our respect…and to tempt our fangs with the promise of even greater blood-letting in the future.

Engaging visual presentation and design; Intense; fast-paced offensive combat; A rich; substantive campaign roughly 15 hours long; Replayability with hidden areas and additional challenges

Clumsy defensive maneuvers slow combat; Story and design elements borrow too heavily from other games; Doesn't truly feel like a Castlevania title; Excessively expensive power-ups

Yet here it is, unashamedly sitting next to the likes of Uncharted, Assassin's Creed 2 and Shadow Of The Colossus as one of the finest adventure games we've played. What makes it all the more impressive is that Castlevania doesn't have the mega-budget backing of, say, an Uncharted.

If you've been getting your Belmont on since Castlevania's original outing on NES almost a quarter of a century ago now, Lords of Shadow - Konami's reimagining of the classic series - won't be quite the calamitous case of sacrilege some quarters might have you believe.

Since becoming a fan-favorite in 1986, Konami's Castlevania series has had quite the journey through the ages. It's had the Good (Super Castlevania IV), the bad (Castlevania: Judgement) and THE Masterpiece (Symphony of the Night. Need I say more?).

+ Amazing Production values that very few games can rival; + With over 20+ hours of gameplay; plenty of  gaming value for your dollar

- Gameplay; while good; lacks originality and borrows to heavily from the competition

Castlevania hasn't been a name that's had gamers jumping for joy since Super Nintendo. After the release of Super Castlevania 4, each Castlevania game went further and and further away from the original formulae that had been so popular for two console generations.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a good game, held back by repetitive button-mashing combat, framerate issues and an overly linear level design. There's a great balance between combat, puzzle and obstacle courses, which is great, and the magic aspect adds a superb layer of depth to battles.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (LoS) is the next installment in the long running Castlevania franchise. After what seems like too long, the series returns completely re-tooled by the development team, MercurySteam.

gamers alike, with Symphony of the Night regularly cited as being the best the series has to offer. Upon its release on PSOne in 1997, Konami stood steadfast against all the trends of the time; unashamedly flying the flag for 2D, while the rest were being seduced by 3D.

I've never played a castlevania game before, but reading some polarised of the reviews about this game, and watching some gameplay videos, I encouraged myself to buy the game. On Play.com I managed to pick it up for about - £18, which could be lower by now.

Gorgeous Graphics; Stunning Soundtrack; 14 +  Hours Long

Could expand on other characters; at times has Difficult Puzzles

You do vampire killer pro you do

really great game

has flaws though