Review #353: Tony Hawk's Project 8

 Ain't no quarter pipe high enough... if you catch enough air.

 Welcome to Tony Hawk's first foray into the HD generation, at least as far as Playstation is concerned. Project 8 followed the trend of slightly tweaking what worked and piling new features and mechanics upon the old. It worked for Neversoft all throughout the Ps2 era, but would it work in the then-present day?

 For this installment they went with an entirely new concept for the series: A fully interconnected world. Selecting stages was a thing of the past, now it was up to you to go from zone to zone. I will grant it that it was an idea worth exploring, but, but I feel like it didn't work for the franchise. Part of what made Tony Hawk's games so darn good were the ridiculous, off-the-wall thematic stage designs. Sure, here the different zones have their own themes, like 'Suburbia', 'Fun Park' and 'Hilltop', but in their effort to make it feel cohesive the stages lost the ability to have entirely different concepts, like a Zoo stage, a carnival stage, an airport stage and so on. Now you get different kind of towns and skate parks, alongside a factory and a fun park for variety's sake. On the flipside, the world of Project 8 is very colorful and vibrant, so it makes the monotony more tolerable.

 Another point of contention, for me anyways, were the missions themselves. While it's easy to see that they have the same sense of humor they've always had, it's hard not to feel as if they went a bit lazy this time around. I will praise the structure for letting the player choose the difficulty in the form of complexity. Sometimes a mission consists of doing 10 tricks in 2 minutes, but you can attempt to go for 20 tricks instead to earn the Pro trophy, or go for 30 for the Sick one! It's brilliant and it works perfectly. That said, there's way too many 'spraypaint challenges', which consist of grinding, wall riding or manual-ing through certain sections. These are peppered all throughout every zone and they fill like needless filler missions. There's few standout, unique missions, so you'll be doing a lot of the same on slightly different environments. That said, the 9 or so Pro challenges are always fun, and each area has a 'Classic' mission with a few objectives(Collect SKATE, collect COMBO in a Combo, earn certain scores and complete some silly missions) that harken back to the older games which were always interesting and add variety, because even though objectives repeat(Like gathering those 8 letters), the hiding spots and combos required are always different, unlike the main objectives. Trust me on this.

 Figuring out how to do a few of these can also be a bit annoying. The Spraypaint challenges being the biggest culprits, since there tends to be a lack of hints pointing you to where you should be grinding/manual-ing next. And there also happens too many 'ragdoll' missions, which are rather finicky to pull off and are never fun. Never.

 Now that's out of the way, let's get into the nitty-gritty: Gameplay. If you've been playing the games, even if on and off skipping a few games, there's something that you'll notice immediately: The physics have changed. Skating around feels slightly heavier than before. It's not a deal breaker, and while it's jarring at first, take into consideration that the seven past games have used the same physics, but you'll get used to them in no time. As previously mentioned, this game only piles even more mechanics on top of the older ones. Flips, Grabs, Manuals, Special tricks, grind, wall-plant, getting on-and-off the board, stalling... every single mechanic from previous games are back, so veterans and returning players will feel right at home. I'd also like to mention that the game features a relatively deep tutorial that's very short, but straight to the point, and teaches you every basic skill that you'll need to play the game. Well, most of them...

 Project 8 introduces a new mechanic: 'Nail the Trick'. This mechanics is not covered by the tutorial but will be explained throughout a few missions. While they could've done a better job explaining it, once you get the hang of it, which might take some time, it's incredibly easy to do. Basically, you jump, while the SPECIAL gauge is filled, tap both L3 and R3, and you get to spin and twirl your board around. Trying to spin it in another direction while the board is not properly aligned will cause you to fall and lose your combo, though! To be perfectly honest, I never used this mechanic unless a mission required it, but it's an interesting idea and adds some variety for potential combos.

 As per usual, the game features a character creator. Unlike what's usual for the franchise, however, this time around it sucks. It's incredibly restrictive and limited. You have to pick between 6 or so 'archetypes' and then you only get a very few faces for each. Your character will look ugly and there's no way around it, and it's the character you'll be forced to play throughout the career mode! While in Tony Hawk 4 you had to earn your stat upgrades, now you enhance them by using them. Want to jump higher? Jump a lot. Better grind balancing? Grind a lot. It's a good idea, but I don't think it suits the franchise well, leveling up every stat felt like a never ending chore, so in the end I just forgot about it and played without going out of my way to raise my stats, I wasn't aiming to clear everything on the hardest difficulty setting anyways.

 While the Skate Park creator is gone, the offline 2Player mode is back and the usual suspects are back: Trick attack, HORSE, Free Skate, etc, so there's nothing to complain on that front. The music however... Music in Tony Hawk's games has always been amazing, but the OST in this game has a few stinkers... luckily you can customize which songs you want to play and which ones you don't. Hilariously, my biggest complaint is probably with the game's intro. The first time you play the game you'll be forced to endure a presentation that seems to last forever. I JUST WANTED TO START THE DAMNED GAME GODDAMMIT! On subsequent runs, however, you'll only be forced to sit through the Activision and Neversoft presentations, the latter which is egregiously long, but at least you'll be able to start skating sooner. Thank god.

 The fact is that I enjoyed my time with the game immensely... but the fact also remains that almost any other Tony Hawk game is more fun than this one. The levels are much more appealing and fun, missions are more varied, the character creator is better and, personally, I enjoyed the old physics better. Project 8 is not bad, far from it, but I'd rather play my PS2 Tony Hawk games.
 6.0 out of 10

Now Playing: Tony Hawk's Project 8

 Because I'm smart and felt the need to start yet another game.

 Tony Hawk was one of the most prolific franchises back in the day. While I was a casual player at best, I loved the heck out of Tony Hawk 4 and Underground 2... I did dabble into Tony Hawk 3, PS2 version, and didn't like it too much though. Sidenote: This is one of the busiest months of the year, when tests, projects and exams start piling up... and I decided to start another game. As if I didn't have enough stuff on my plate already. As if I didn't have about 10 games to finish already. I'm so smart sometimes!

 Regardless, Project 8, what're my feelings on it? Well... Mixed. Firstly, and more importantly, the Open World aspect... I kinda like it, and kinda don't. I think having a huge environment full of interconnected skate parks is interesting. But I also miss the themed, closed-off environments from the previous games. The other biggest change lies in the games physics, it seems like they were going for a more realistic, heavy feel to the game. Jumps are lower and last shorter, skating around seems a bit slower as well, and comboing tricks lacks some of the... snappiness from the previous games. Whenever you linked tricks together you'd get both visual and audio cues, so you knew that stuff was happening, this time around you only get the visual cues, having more subdued sounds when tricks get strung together.

 There's also the character creator which, quite frankly, stinks. You get limited 'styles' of characters, and then you only get a very few options to customize your character's looks. Its very underwhelming. I've already opened up two areas(The skate park and the main city-thing) and the goals so far have been rather drab and dull, and the spray paint challenges can be a bit of a pain to figure out where the game wants you to go next.

 When it comes down to it, I do like Project 8, it's been rather fun so far, but the new physics are not my cup of tea and the missions seem to be lacking a certain spark that previous games had had. So, as much as I like it, I would rather be playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. Regardless, I must've played an hour at most, so there's still time for me to learn to like the new physics and for the missions to get more creative.

Sequels that got it Wrong: Bleach - Dark Souls

 Let's take a trip back to 2007...

 ...way back when Bleach was still good and going strong, I was in love with fighting games and had recently gotten my brand new Nintendo DS. Bleach - The Blade of Fate was right up my alley, as a massive fan of both the genre and the anime, plus, Treasure's pedigree was almost immaculate up to that point.

 To say that the game delivered would be selling it short. The simple control scheme lent itself to the console perfectly, and if you had trouble inputting the special attacks there was always the touch-screen shortcuts to rely on. The game's mechanics were simple and addictive, so much so that I dabbled in the Online competitive scene as well as tried my hand at making long, intricate combos(Soi-Fon was my girl!), add to that a fantastic roster that had every character that you'd want, as well as the fact that most of the cast was properly balanced. Sure, joke characters like Kon and Bonnie were downright useless, but why would you want to play as them? And while Byakuya could be a bit of a pain thanks to his powerful attacks and quick recoveries, it was nothing a good player couldn't overcome.

 Sure, the game wasn't perfect. Some special attacks, particularly the Medium variations, were unusable on 1 on 1 fights due to the long start-up times, and the addition of cards was a part of contention for a few players, and I regret admitting that I was part of the snobbish 'no cards allowed' crowd, or the fact that players using the 'Simple Input' mode had an advantage when it came to blocking, but in the grand scheme of things, the game was fantastic.

 Turns out, it took about a year for The Blade of Fates to reach USA. and in the meantime Japan was already enjoying the sequel, Dark Souls. There were videos online, and man, oh man was I hyped! Hollow Ichigo now sported his very own unique moveset! Kon was turned into a Ryu/Ken clone-parody! Hitsugaya's Bankai now looked like it did on the manga and anime! Not to mention the new characters, Izuru! Kira! Matsumoto! Ikkaku! You could even play as the Hollows! I needed this game in my life.

 And then it came out.... Well, y'see, The Blade of Fate was a fantastic game because it could be played competitively and most characters, barring Joke characters, stood a chance against any other character. But... it seems OUR version of The Blade of Fate was rebalanced for the North American market, as the original Japanese release was a bit of a mess... When it came to Dark Souls' turn, we got the exact same build Japan got, albeit with new bugs, and it wasn't pretty. Byakuya got nerfed, which was a good thing, but he was still a bit too good. Ichimaru Gin wasn't particularly strong back then(Mid tierish) but he nerfed into a pale shadow of his former self, still usable but unjustly nerfed. Other characters got off better, Ichigo definitely got slightly buffed, Renji as well, which sounds fair enough... until you get to Orihime and Ishida. To be fair, Ishida could be annoying on the previous game, but he wasn't too strong, in this game they nerfed his ability to spam arrows, which was fair enough, but they also nerfed his damage making him trash. Orihime now takes 0.25 more damage than other characters and deals a pathetic amount of damage, making her useless. And humans can no longer flash-step on air, which makes them sitting ducks, although at least they can flash-step into combos

 And to add insult to injury, the previous game had two joke characters: Kon and Bonnie. They were useless and wouldn't stand a chance against any other character. 1 Joke character is already pushing it when it comes to serious fighting games, so 2 Joke characters was one two many. Sure, they gave Kon an entirely new moveset, but he deals little damage and takes a whole lot more, but that's not the worst of it.... The worst of it is that they added an entire new slew of Joke characters. There's a 'Shinigami Nurse' character, who deals pathetic damage and takes extra damage, a 'Kid', who deals pathetic damage and takes extra damage, a tiny hollow, which deals pathetic damage and takes extra damage... notice a trend? There's also a new 'toy'/Compact Soul that takes Kon's moveset from the previous game, Hanataro, who actually HEALS the enemy and a Generic Shinigami, which at least I can understand why you'd want a generic Shinigami as a character, but doesn't excuse the fact that he sucks. That makes it six new joke characters for a total of eight. EIGHT useless characters that are only there to pad out the roster, eight useless characters that could be taking up slots for other more valuable characters.

 As for the new characters, some of them... felt kinda lazily made. Izuru, Kira, Menos Grande, Grand Fisher and the Screamer Hollow all reuse animations between their Normal, Special and Super moves, which looks incredibly cheap. Probably shouldn't have used their budget on trashy, useless joke characters instead of paking polished animations, huh? It's particularly disappointing with Izuru who's got one of the silliest run cycles I've ever seen on a videogame. Ever. At least some of the new Characters are fun to play, as cheap as Kira's animations feel, he is fun to use. Kon might be a useless joke character, but he is amusing to look at, Hollow Ichigo is probably my favorite of the new movesets, as he uses Zangetsu by throwing it around, Don Kan'Oji is a bit situational with his mechanics and specials, but all his animations look great, Matsumo and Kukaku are fantastic new additions and Ikkaku is easily my favorite new character, they even got his Bankai into the game!

 As far as mechanics go, my complaint is merely a subjective one: In the previous game you could use Flash-step to go through Reinforced Special Moves, which I felt added a lot of strategy and mind games to the game. Use a Flash-Step gauge to dodge an incoming attack? Save them up for Reinforced Special Moves? Or maybe use them up on your combos. This time around I feel as if using up your gauges on Reinforced Special moves is more of a no brainer, since they can't be dodged, which is something I personally didn't like as much. They also removed Masked Komamura, which isn't a big loss since he was a clone of Komamura, but if you're gonna have 8 joke characters, why not keep a clone? At least he stood a chance against the rest of the cast!

 But that is as far as my subjectivity goes, because, on a technical level, the game is objectively bad. How about all the glitches? One of the stages is actually missing graphical layers. How the **** did that pass by the testers? It's doubly baffling since this is one of the returning stages, and they screwed it up! Then there's the lot of graphical glitches related to color palettes. There's a few that are inaccessible due to some kind of glitch, it's specially egregious with the Menos Grande which only has 4 accessible color palettes. Or take good ol' Mayuri, with whom a few color palettes makes it so that his arm and face glitch into other colors when using certain animations. But there's a particularly nasty bug, which is very frequent on Survival Mode but which can happen on any non-competitive mode(Unless someone picks 'Random' when selecting a character) in which the game will try to pair you up against '?', rumor has it that it used to be a character that was scrapped, and then the game will freeze.

 Bleach - The Blade of Fate was such a well polished, finely tuned fighting game that it makes it sad to see what a mess Bleach - Dark Souls became. Extra work went into the previous game to make sure that it was a superior product than the Japanese original, but no such care went into bringing over its sequel, which could've helped ignore some of its most glaring flaws, like cheaply made characters. But the saddest bit about this game... is that at the end of the day, I'll always pick this game over TBoF due to the fact that it has more characters, since I just play casually against the CPU to waste some time.

 Bleach - Dark Souls is a sequel that got it wrong.

Month Overview: October 2016

Tally:
Siren - Blood Curse 7.0
Castlevania - Lords of Shadow 2                         8.0
Resident Evil - Revelations 7.0


 Halloween's come and gone and as per usual ever since I began my university life... it wasn't what I wanted out of the best holiday ever. Ever. Regardless, I got to play most of what I wanted. Siren was decent but slightly underwhelming, Revelations wasn't as fantastic as I was led to believe... but Lords of Shadows 2 was way better than it deserved to be.
 Then there's also Corpse Party - Blood Drive, I just hit chapter 4 and I already hate the damn thing.



 Game of October:

 I'm a bit conflicted, still, with Lords of Shadow 2. There's plenty of things that other games of the same genre do better, like combat. Devil May Cry is much more stylish and creative and God of War is much more refined. And the exploration can get tedious. But when I think about the game as a whole, I had a blast. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what made the game so engrossing for me, but the fact is that it was and that I wouldn't mind returning to the world of Lords of Shadows another time.

Runner-up:

 To be honest, while I rated both Siren and Revelations pretty favorably, I gotta say... I don't think either game was very memorable for me. The reason I picked Revelations over Siren is... Raid Mode. The silly, cheap bonus mode which reuses environments from the main story mode, but damn, is it addictive!

Now Playing: Corpse Party - Blood Drive

 Not my smartest idea.

 Playing the third entry in a very story-focused franchised without having played the previous game wasn't my smartest idea. But whatever, I play games for the gameplay, not the story!

 ...And yet I found myself confused after the first few lines of narration! Turns out the game is rather heavy on narrative, which I wasn't expecting. A lot of crazy stuff happened, but I'm guessing the initial preface is just to remind returning players of what happened and not to introduce new players to the world of Corpse Party. Fair enough.
 Regardless, the story is a bit.... I've mixed feelings about it. First of all, the main character is supposed to be rather shy and timid, yet described a character's appearance as having a 'shit-eating grin' which was very off-putting and laughably ridiculous. I was also surprised to find a few scenes of very distinctive Japanese humor which was off-putting as well. I thought I was playing a horror game, not watching a high-school comedy anime show.

 The game looks very cutesy with its super deformed, chibi character models, but it gets pretty dark pretty fast, with the main character cutting herself with a pair of scissors. It made me wince a bit, surprisingly, and the first death also creeped me out despite the cute aesthetics, so bonus points for that.

 Basically, it looks like a decent game, albeit with a few quirks, but there's a thing that absolutely destroys the entire game: Loading screens. There're loading screens for everything, for going into the menu, for selecting something on the menu, etc. And they last a good 5 seconds or so, and it adds up. I've only played the very first chapter and I'm already fed up with them!

Review #352: Resident Evil - Revelations

 A REturn to form?

 Often touted as one, if not the one 3DS game to own, at least before the HD port, Resident Evil Revelations had a lot to live up to. Not only that, it received a warm welcome by a large number of the fractured fandom that the series has. After finally getting to playing it myself... I'm a bit disappointed.

 It seems like Chris and Jill just can't catch a break! Veltro, a long-thought-dead organization is back and with it a different strain of the T-Virus, the T-Abyss. Chris apparently goes missing, so Jill boards Veltro's Ship, the Queen Zenobia, alongside her partner Parker, on her way to stop Veltro. While not too confusing, it's easy to get lost if you don't pay attention to the story, and it does offer some interesting, if unoriginal, plot twists. Oh, and the ending is incredibly lame, I couldn't stop rolling my eyes at it. Also, this game features the worst secondary cast to ever grace a Resident Evil game. Parker has dozens of cringeworthy lines and has a very generic personality alongside an accent I just can't stand. Jessica is your generic flirty/fanservicey character that every Japanese game must have lest the Japanese crowd have to resort to the Internet to get their kicks. Raymond looks goofy and Racheal is one of the worst character designs I've ever seen in a game that tries to take itself seriously. And don't even let me get started on Keith and Quint. Throughout the game's 12 chapters the focus will jump around this characters, so while Jill is the focus, you'll get to play as Parker, Chris and Keith as well.

 The game plays like a mix of Resident Evil 4 and 6, with the over-the-shoulder camera angle but the ability to strafe and move while aiming. While it is recommended to play with the Analog nub pro accessory, the game works just fine without it, as a matter of fact, I was awed at how well the managed to make it work: Holding R lets you aim with the analog stick, while holding L and R at the same time lets you move while you aim in the direction you left it at before holding L, it's easy to learn and get the hang of it. Interestingly, aiming can be done in both first and third person, and while I loved how it worked in The Evil Within, for Revelations I felt more comfortable with the third person camera. There's also a new 'Dodge' function that is very poorly explained, in which you hold B and either move towards or against the incoming attack? It's never made very clear, which explains why there are videos trying to explain how to do it, but I found myself dodging attacks at random while simply moving, which made no sense, but holding B and doing circles with the analog stick also works. Sometimes. Basically, the dodge function is a mess and bosses, and certain late-game enemies, seem designed with this mechanic in mind, so it's kind of a mess sometimes.

 The game also introduces the Scanner which I feel is the game's largest pitfall. By scanning the area around you, you may collect handprints(For bonuses), ammo or healing items. Ammo and healing items are somewhat scarce, aided by the fact that you've an ammo cap, which I find absolutely stupid, so you'll be leaving a ton of ammo behind just because you wanted to save up rifle rounds for a boss, so you decided to use the gun instead. So now you are hurting for pistol ammo. Long story short, there's no reason not to use the scanner, but this also brings the game to a crawl, as you try to scan enemies, for healing items, or scanning each area every few steps, lest you miss a handprint or an ammo drop. You can opt not to use it, but why wouldn't you? This may seem like a dumb complaint, but I couldn't help myself, so I'm willing to bet that others felt the need to scan as well.

 That said, when you play as Jill you get to take any three weapons, as well as customize them with perks, like a larger magazine, more attack power, higher critical chance or daze percent, which was rather interesting. Particularly since these perks must be found, and you must choose on which weapons to equip them. Switching weapons is done either with the touchscreen or the digital pad, and neither are particularly good when in the heat of battle, but it's usually better to cycle through weapons with the digital pad. Sub weapons, consisting of the knife and grenades, can only be done with the touch screen, and it's a bit clunky, so it's better if you prepare before engaging into fights. There's a couple of touchscreen mini-games which are dumb, but not too annoying. There's also a 'mission' system that rewards you for certain feats('Dodging 30 times', 'scanning every enemy', 'finishing the game') which is a fine way of encouraging players to replay the game, buuuuuuuuut you've only got so many active missions at the same time, and if you want more... you need to use Street Pass. That's not very nice.

 As far as the main game goes, it works relatively well. While it is divided into Chapters, when you play as Jill, the game works a bit like the older Resident Evil games, in which you had a big area, the Queen Zenobia in this case, to explore. The early Ship chapters are particularly good, since you've less fire power and more enemies to contend with. There were some genuinely creepy moments then, but after... chapter 4 or so most of the tension is gone and it turns into yet another modern Resident Evil game, but with less action. Probably due to the 3DS's capabilities, they opted for less enemies but more resilient, so fire fights aren't up to par with what you would find in REvil 4,5 or 6. And let me level with you, I prefer the more action oriented modern Resident Evil games, but this feels like a pastiche that's trying to appeal to both crowds yet doing things half-bakedly. Mind you, it works well, and there's nothing particularly wrong about it, but just the same, nothing stands out about it. Sure, you've a rather large area to explore, but there's no puzzles, unlike classic Resident Evil games. And sure, there are a ton of enemies, but they don't drop as much ammo as they do in modern games and they take quite a few bullets to put down. It's a rather odd mixture mechanics that don't work quite as well as when they are on their own element.

 Then there's Raid Mode, in which you can play as various characters and go through different zones from the main game as you defeat enemies. It sounds kinda mediocre, doesn't it? Well, it's way more fun than it deserves to be. You can level up your characters and earn different leveled-weapons as well as customize them. It's really fun, and it has its own sub-set of missions to unlock more characters and costumes. It also feels more like modern Resident Evil games since you get action, action and even more action. And it can be played both online or offline with a buddy!

 Resident Evil Revelations isn't bad by any means, but it feels... it feels a bit misguided. It's not a 'return to Resident Evil roots' and it fails to capture what makes Modern Resident Evil games so good, although at least there's no quick time events.... but, on the other hand, the dodge system is a mess. It's a decent game, but it's probably not the game oldschool fans wanted.
 7.0 out of 10

Review #351: Castlevania - Lords of Shadow 2

 What is a game? Nothing but a miserable pile of code.

 Lords of Shadow was a bit divisive if anything, but if something about it left a mark, it was the ending, with Gabriel mysteriously turned into Dracula. Why the question as to how was resolved through DLC, Lords of Shadow 2 continues Gabriel's, now Dracula, saga into a somewhat cyberpunk era.

 Followed by quick recap of what happened in the previous games, your thrust on the role of a weakened Dracula on a world unknown to him. It's not too soon when Zobek, the Lord of the Fallen in the previous game, gets a hold of Dracula, nurses him back to health and proposes him a deal he cannot turn down: Defeat Satan and earn his sought-after eternal rest. The story is relatively entertaining and well told, and while not every answer is given straight to the player, with a little logic you can figure out most of the 'whys' yourself. I liked the characterization of the main characters, Dracula, Alucard, Trevor, Victor and Zobek, although I kinda wish some characters, like Victor, could've had more screentime, since they were interesting characters and the designs are fantastic for the most part. If anything, I'm a bit disappointed in Dracula's characterization, from the start of the game you are led to believe that Gabriel is an anti-villain, but eventually it devolves into a more anti-hero-ish personality. It doesn't really hurt the story, but I felt the anti-villain angle was a bit more interesting. As for the overall presentation, I absolutely adored the art direction they took: Heroes look badass and villains look menacing, while most the environments are beautiful, although a few of the city bits could've used more flair.

 Unlike Lords of Shadow 1, which took a linear chapter-based approach to progression, this time around you're free to explore the world as you find more power-ups and skills, something very Metroidvania. There's two different sections, if you will, the Castle and the City, and both are divided into four areas each. Peppered throughout are dozens upon dozens of collectibles that lie out of reach until you get new powers, like turning into mist or double jumping, which will not only allow you to get enhancements to your HP or Chaos/Void gauges, but will also let you go through new shortcuts between areas. That said, I felt like areas were a bit too large and convoluted, while I will admit to doing two major retreading through everything I had access to(Once when I got the Mist power up and another one once I got the double jump) without getting bored or annoyed, once I had fully leveled up all my weapons, having to go through these large areas, and having to deal with enemies that wouldn't let me through, it did become a bit of a drag, luckily, that was just as I was on my way to fight the final boss. Still, I feel like the game could have used with at least two 'teleporters' between areas instead of only one, if only to make round trips easier on the players.

 With exploration out of the way comes the combat, and it's more or less exactly like it was in LoS 1. Square does strong, focus attacks on single targets, while triangle does weaker, but wider attacks that cover more ground. The overall moveset has been reduced somewhat, but now you get two new weapons alongside your whip, with their own unique moves each, the Void Sword, which works like Light magic, allowing you to sap health from your enemies, and the Chaos Claws, which work like Chaos Magic, delivering powerful blows and allowing you to destroy shields. Using these two weapons is restricted to their two gauges, which can be restored by defeating enemies or landing enough hits without receiving damage. As for defense, you've got dodging, block and parrying, all which work relatively well once you get used to the fact that you are not invulnerable when dodging, although once you get the mist power up you can use it as such! If I had to complain about anything it'd be about the fact that there's no lock-on, and that some enemies love coming while offscreen! Lastly, you can turn of QTEs from the main menu, and I cannot stress enough just how amazing this feature is. I don't have to push or mash buttons just because, so I can focus on the damn cutscenes, which are really good by the by, instead of waiting for dumb button prompts.

 Sadly there's not a whole lot enemy variety, and while the combat is fun, it lacks the finesse or potential for creativity other games like DMC or God of War allow. Plus, a lot of enemies have teleports, and there's no lock-on of any kind, so they will usually teleport and shoot or lunge at you from your blind angles, which can get annoying. Don't even let me get started on the fact that they love to get out of 'stunlock', you might've just started attacking them, got two whip attacks-in and then they decide to get out of stunlock and counterattack, so you react accordingly, blocking or dodging, and start your combo again... only for them to decide 'nah, already took two hits in, so it's time to attack again'... It feels as if there's no point to trying to make combos since enemies will just break free of your combos when they feel like it. There's a couple of stealth sections in the game tha have received a lot of flak, and while I don't blame the critics, I didn't really care for them. I didn't like them, but they weren't completely awful and they are usually short enough so that you don't lose much time on them. Being boring is their biggest fault, to be honest.

 Amusingly, the game is a bit of a glitchfest. I encounter at least 4 glitches on my playthrough. One time, the camera glitched out on an in-game cutscene, so I had to reload my last checkpoint. And another time I had to reload the same checkpoint twice since the game decided to spawn invisible walls on two different parts of the same level!! Finally, I got an 'unhandled exception' on the last boss' cutscene. And from I could gather, some people came across a few worse glitches.

 I liked Lords of Shadow 2, I liked it a lot. While I still consider 'Lament of Innocence' the ideal translation of Castlevania into 3D, I believe that Lords of Shadow was great take on the franchise that stand out on it's own two feet. It really feels as if they listened to a lot of players gripes with this sequel, adding a more cohesive world-exploration mechanic instead of having to jump through chapters, adding different weapons, getting rid of QTEs and tightening the parkour mechanics. That said, the game is definitely more than the sum of its parts. Combat can be annoying and the exploration can become tedious, yet, I was entertained by the whole of it all all the way through. If you liked the previous Lords of Shadow games, this game won't disappoint, but if you are part of the 'it's different so it sucks' crowd or come looking for the next Devil May Cry, just stay clear of it.
 8.0 out of 10