Gameitall 
The Castlevania series story has always been simple, you are a descendant of a clans of Vampire Hunters and with a enchanted Whip called the Vampire Killer, you must go and defeat Dracula, the Lord of Darkness. With Dracula hiding in an huge ever changing Castle with a legion of mythological monsters taking residence there. Back in the day, this is all we needed. In modern gaming we always ask, why, is there a reason for me to be doing this, what is driving the Belmont’s too take up this extremely difficult task? How does Dracula keep coming back? Why is Dracula so evil?
That last question seems to be the driving point of Mercurystream’s second attempt at the Castlevania series with Lords of Shadows 2, the final iteration of the series. Lords of Shadows serves as a prequel to the series, explaining the origins of Dracula and his feud with the Brotherhood of Light and the Belmont clan. Lords of Shadows 2 brings the story to a close placing you in control of the Lord of Darkness himself.
Following the events of Mirror of Fate, Dracula remains undefeated and ruling over the world while his mortal enemies hiding from his power. After a fateful battle with the Brotherhood of Light, led by Alucard, Dracula is finally defeated and is locked away for thousands of years. Dracula awakes in a present/futuristic version of his castle where the humans have made an entire city out of the castle walls. He is resurrected to help an old enemy, Zobek, kill Satan in order to stop him from attempting to rule the world, in exchange Zobek would end Dracula’s life with his old weapon, the Vampire Killer.
In order to stop Satan from resurrecting, Zobek assigns Dracula to kill Satan’s three children, these powerful Acolytes are causing a monster virus and demons to run amok through Castlevania City. In order to stop them Dracula will have to remember all of his old powers to defeat the Acolytes and stop Satan from being resurrected.
Lords of Shadows 2 takes place in two times, the mentioned Castlevania-City and the Past, which is revealed in a dream-like sequences. While in the future, Dracula will be fighting the residents of the castle that used to be under his command, with the blood circulating the castle corrupting the monsters under his rule. In the Castlevania-City, enemies are more based on the Acolytes virus, minions of Satan and some high-tech mech soldiers who are attempting to stop the outbreak, but are generally in the way.
To fight these creatures of the night, Dracula has an arsenal of powers at his disposal. Starting with the Shadow Whip, a quick and weak long range attack that uses combat moves similar to that of the Vampire Killer/Battle Cross in Lords of Shadows 1, this is possibly the most useful item as it keeps opponents at bay while building your combo gauge to earn Void and Chaos powers. The second item is the Void Sword, a short range weapon with an average speed, the void sword can be use to freeze your opponents and steal health, this is most useful in boss battles where enemies to suck blood from are few. Finally we have the Chaos Claws, these short range weapon that are slow, but packs enough of a punch to break shields after a couple of hits and adds an explosive damage via magic.
Attacks from the Void Sword and the Chaos Claws will drain the Void and Chaos powers, which can be recharged by collecting the mana orbs that show up when you max out your combo meter or by defeating enemies. By using the multiple combos available through out the game, you can earn mastery points that will go to strengthening the weapons. EXP is given for defeating your opponents and solving puzzles, which can then be used to buy more moves and upgrades for Dracula.
As with previous entries in the series, back-tracking is essential to the game, there are a ton of hidden items to find including health, chaos and void upgrades, hidden artwork, and challenge map awards. They’re hidden everywhere and in some occasions need special abilities learned later in the story to catch them, making backtracking and exploration a needed feature.
Like it’s previous entry, Lords of Shadows 2 features some epic music and great voice acting, especially from returning voice actors Robert Carlyle as Gabriel/Dracula and Sir Patrick Stewart as Zolbek. The game also features some great graphics, smooth animations and and some of the best monster and levels designs I’ve seen in a long time.
Castlevania Lords of Shadows 2 is a great way to end Mercurysteam’s run at the series, with the game’s main story taking up to 16 to 20 hours to complete and with a lot of hidden items to collect to get the 100% completion. Castlevania Lords of Shadows 2 is a game that you will definitely want to sink your teeth into.
