If you have played any action titles in the last couple of years then the game play for Castlevania Lords of Shadow (LOS) will seem very familiar. For those who haven’t branched out from the nostalgic side scrolling greats of the past, Mario, Sonic or past incarnations of Castlevania you will be sorely disappointed.

Castlevania is a 3-D action adventure game that has shed the skin of its ancestors for a fresh take on the franchise, that plays more like God of War rather than your typical Castlevania game. You play as Gabriel Belmont, a member of the Brotherhood of Light on a quest though a mythical world set to the backdrop of Southern Europe during the Middle Ages. The worlds you traverse are littered with ruined cities, dilapidated villages, a city sized gothic castle, and even hellish dimensions with poisonous bogs or landscapes dotted with the corpses of fallen Titans. Gabriel’s struggle revolves around his quest to resurrect his recently deceased love Maria, defeat the Lords of Shadow and bring order back to the mortal world.

Castlevania LOS is gorgeous. Even though it came out a few years ago, (Oct 5, 2010) it stands tall with some of the best eye catching powerhouse games that have come out in the last three years. The design of the worlds, which feel vast and mysterious but at the same time rendered so beautifully that they feel believable, draw you in and captivate you from beginning to end. Every location feels real, alive with the smallest breeze through the leaves to birds calling in the distance. Things like rain or even standing water move realistically, leaves blow across the ground and the dust kicked up by you and your enemies, billows with every footfall. The sound effects are spot on. From the sound of metal scrapping on marble floors or raging monsters crashing through heavy oak doors and reinforced village walls, every sound helps to give the world feeling and realism. The musical score is subtle and in most cases is lost in the furiousness of the battle.

One will tend to lose a sense of it until a lull in the action. Then you realize the music has been changing along with your actions, rising and falling with your weapon, a whip known as the Vampire Killer. All of these pieces come together with the voices of Robert Carlyle and Patrick Stewart and the world comes alive as something fantastic and mythical but familiar and realistic. Not that you would want to but the worlds are rendered so realistically that you could visit them, and interact with the people, werewolf or otherwise

If you are a fan of the God of War franchise, you will be right at home in the realm of action games, seated firmly in the guttural hacking, slashing and over the top heart pumping action. There are a variety of attack combinations, light (to heal) and dark magic, (to boost up your attacks) as well as spells and upgrades that can keep the game play fresh and varied.

Like many action games, however, there are only a few moves that you really have to learn to progress through the game, and once you find out what works best, there is a tendency to glaze over and mash away on the controller, leaving the potential variety by the wayside.

That being said, the game play is responsive. Every strike and attack feels like it connects, between the visual response that is dead on when a command is inputted to the crunching and ripping from the superb sound effects and the vibration response of the controller you feel like you are a part of the game. Your actions carry with them a sense of purpose and dispatching your enemies feels satisfying. The game is scattered with some interesting puzzles and climbing sequences that felt reminiscent of games like Assassins Creed or Uncharted. Traversing the environment gives you plenty of time to practice climbing, swinging and jumping skills, but never so much that it brings the overall action packed pacing of the games to a halt. Some of the puzzles seem routine, like lining up symbols to mimic a set shown to you on your way to the puzzle itself. Others take a bit more time and even more head scratching; qn entire level is devoted to the exploration of a music box that while fun, and sporting a classic song, this time in the form of a music box tune, is frustrating. Death is inevitable, and by the time you are done, you will again appreciate carving through hordes of zombies, werewolves and vampires.

It’s hard to try to recommend this game to fans of the Castlevania series, from the perspective of being a lover of the classic franchise. I would recommend it more to the fans of action games, like God of War, Drake’s Uncharted or Assassin’s Creed. Konami calls Casltvania LOS a reboot, but it feels more like they were using a well known title and some familiar names to sell a completely new game. In the end the game itself is beautiful, the controls are responsive and the story, while not the greatest tale of all time is intriguing and promises to be broadened in the upcoming title Castlevania LOS 2.

Action gamers will feel right at home and for those who love the classics, once some technical difficulties are overlooked, they will find an epic quest filled with satisfying game play and more than a handful of memorable moments for sure.