The first Lords of Shadow was a line in the sand for many old school Castlevania fans. Mercury Steam's departure from the familiar 2D gameplay and the non-canon nature of its story generated an outcry of naysayers, who still reminisced about the heyday of Symphony of the Night .

High production value; Engrossing combat; In depth upgrade system adds replay; Satisfying conclusion to series

Frustratingly tedious segments; Hidden load screens; Minor bugs and glitches

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 is a gothic-inspired hack 'n' slashing platformer strongly derivative of the last decade's most successful titles in those genres. In spite of that, the game manages to wedge itself into a cluttered market and ask for your consideration.

Stunning presentation and a clever combat system; A much longer game than any other in the genre

Unnecessary filler content; Occasional difficulties with the camera; An overly complex skill system.

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.

Great game, unfortunately, the disc only includes the original game; literally. You'll be required to download and install 5GB of content to enjoy the all additional features advertised in the packaging, as soon as you pop the code on PSN.

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.

Just one word awesome

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

What I liked about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was how it gave the perfect backstory to the Castlevania franchise as a whole. I alos liked how Dracula was able to recover all of his memories prior to facing Satan again.

Challenging; Fun To Play; Good Audio; Graphics

No Online Play

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