THE BORE

General => Video Game Bored => Topic started by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 02:07:13 AM

Title: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 02:07:13 AM: I'm only towards the end of Chapter 2 but WHY DO I HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTING THESE HP TANK MONSTERS AND THEN RIDE THEM!?!?

Like, the game looks beautiful, the music is fantastic; I'd be willing to overlook the 20fps and enjoy the adventure if EVERY 30 seconds the level design wasn't:

ENTER CIRCLE AREA

BIG MONSTER APPEARS

HIT IT A LOT

DO QTE

RIDE IT TO PROGRESS TO NEXT PLATFORM

The combat is kind of bad but surviveable and the platforming/story are slightly enjoyable though not good. I feel bad every stage for Patrick Stewart, imagining him reading those awful awful lines that are the prologue for each stage.

But fuck this level design QTE RIDING garbage. It's just the same thing over and over and over and over again. RIDE THE SPIDER, RIDE THE TROLL, RIDE THE WARG, RIDE THE GAME DISC INTO THE TRASHBIN.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Trent Dole on June 08, 2012, 02:10:53 AM: Why are you playing a 3D Castlevania? You should've learned that doing so is a bad idea back on the N64.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: cool breeze on June 08, 2012, 02:19:04 AM: Game is like 20 hours. Cut your losses and move onto something else.

There are some nice looking vistas and art later on but it ain't worth it. Game's pacing is disgusting. Combat gets more tolerable as your powers increase, but again, it ain't worth it. If you care enough, youtube later areas and see if it's worth it. Sequel might be better but even the 3DS game seems to have spongey enemies and a poor frame rate, so maybe they haven't learned.

Have you gotten to one of the completely original boss fight yet?
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 02:20:30 AM: I fought the stone golem at the end of Chapter 1. It was SoTC but sucky.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 02:22:20 AM: I don't really mind the pacing so far. It's just the QTE RIDE CREATURE thing sucks and keeps coming up all the freaking time. I hate fighting HP sponge enemies over and over. It gets so boring. I guess that is pacing problems, but I think if the big enemies weren't so lame the pacing would be ok so far.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: iconoclast on June 08, 2012, 03:56:35 AM: Chapter 2 is the worst part of the game, aside from the awful SotC wannabe bosses.

You can also kill most of the enemies pretty fast when you're parrying and using your essence, but I don't remember if you have to unlock the good moves and abilities and stuff.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Momo on June 08, 2012, 08:28:06 AM: I bailed on that game in the middle, couldn't fucking stand it
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: demi on June 08, 2012, 09:04:30 AM: CHANCES are they listened to the countless complaints over the padding and sponge monsters... so I'm interested in the sequel
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Smooth Groove on June 08, 2012, 09:30:15 AM: I liked the first Castlevania on the PS2 but I didn't bother with the sequel which was almost exactly the same.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: T-Short on June 08, 2012, 09:33:00 AM: Quote from: demi on June 08, 2012, 09:04:30 AM
CHANCES are they listened to the countless complaints over the padding and sponge monsters... so I'm interested in the sequel

The reports from the show floor about the 3DS game seem to suggest that spongemonsters are back, now in portable form :zzz
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: demi on June 08, 2012, 09:35:15 AM: Sure I noticed in the trailer, but nobody cares about 3DS.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Positive Touch on June 08, 2012, 09:53:06 AM: Quote from: Smooth Groove on June 08, 2012, 09:30:15 AM
I liked the first Castlevania on the PS2 but I didn't bother with the sequel which was almost exactly the same.

i like the first ps2 cv as a decent dial-a-combo game (especially the second quest) but the second game just sucked. no combos, no challenge, no good enemies to fight.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Momo on June 08, 2012, 09:54:36 AM: Quote from: Smooth Groove on June 08, 2012, 09:30:15 AM
I liked the first Castlevania on the PS2 but I didn't bother with the sequel which was almost exactly the same.
Lament of Innocence? Good OST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ox2uW5Y6rj0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQhLG4dOk7o
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Hitler Stole My Potato on June 08, 2012, 12:12:38 PM: Lords of Shadow's pacing is complete balls. The first few chapters are the definition of tedious. I couldn't stand the game until I got to the castle and by that time I already want to shove a sock in Patrick Stewart's mouth. I never want to hear him in a game ever again. I'm tired of it. Tired!

The backtracking is also kind of weird too imo. Why in god's name would I want to go back to an earlier level and pick up something completely meaningless like an extra 5 daggers but have to complete the level again to actually get the item?
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Verdigris Murder on June 08, 2012, 03:48:22 PM: The slow FPS really fucked the game as a whole, but DAMN, I still remember that intense fight with the Werewrofl Lord. That was actually totally fun.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: SantaC on June 08, 2012, 03:51:53 PM: Quote from: Oscar the Grouch on June 08, 2012, 11:43:54 AM
Quote from: demi on June 08, 2012, 09:04:30 AM
CHANCES are they listened to the countless complaints over the padding and sponge monsters... so I'm interested in the sequel

I'm pretty sure they didn't listen to a single bit of negative feedback, with the possible exception of the framerate issues. Everything else just got a "ehn they're probably butthurt IGA fans, haters gonna hate" and got tossed into Cox's recycling bin.

the game is shit, it has everything gaf hates (bad level design, countless QTEs, boring music etc), yet it got praised over there, I DONT GET IT!
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Beezy on June 08, 2012, 04:22:06 PM: why would you play this
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Verdigris Murder on June 08, 2012, 04:28:41 PM: Because bits of it are really good. Like when you're moving a wheel, and a skeleton is playing grandmothers footsteps.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 04:53:59 PM: Quote from: Beezy on June 08, 2012, 04:22:06 PM
why would you play this

Because I was told if I don't I will get spoiled as everyone starts talking about LoS2 and the 3DS LoS.

Because I was told that apparently the story has some interesting bits that you don't want spoiled.

Because I like God of War and Uncharted and Castlevania and I thought a mix of those 3 couldn't be so bad.

Because I liked Lament of the Innocent and I heard that as bad as LoS is, that it's still the best 3D Castlevania to date, so I figured it would at least be better than LoI. (It's not so far).

Because I like graphics and this game has pretty ones.

Because Kojima.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Beezy on June 08, 2012, 05:23:17 PM: smh
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 05:34:11 PM: Is the game really that bad?

I mean it's pretty bad right now, but it's a long game and could get better?
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: iconoclast on June 08, 2012, 05:50:12 PM: It probably has my favorite combat out of any western character action game. That's kinda like winning the Special Olympics, but still.

For the sequel, I'd like them to improve the quantity>quality level design, get rid of the SotC bosses, get at least a solid 30 fps, make platforming not shit, and be more mindful about hit detection.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 05:54:06 PM: The combat is a lot worse than God of War or Dante's Inferno. It's just not as tight (partly due to the lag from the framerate) and the enemies are boring to fight because you just keep pounding on them while countering their two moves and dodging their unblockable attack and repeat for 2 mins since they take so long to kill.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Enl on June 08, 2012, 06:00:13 PM: I thought the build up to the castle was handled very well and that to me felt like classic Castlevania. I think it's almost worth it for moments like that. Unfortunately to reach those moments you have to repeatedly go through the same boring enemy sponges over and over again. I still feel if the game had a more Castlevania influence in how it handled its enemy design and made them more varied it would've been a hell of a lot better.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on June 08, 2012, 06:24:18 PM: are you stoopid, stoopid
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Verdigris Murder on June 08, 2012, 06:41:08 PM: The general combat was second placed by the second-rate art direction, it's all great with the sweeping shots. But they could have just made it quicker with the leaner cut-scenes. And focus more on the combat.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: demi on June 08, 2012, 06:46:36 PM: The best parts are really the final boss, the ending, and probably the DLC (which you need to play to kind of sort of understand the ending)
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 07:14:46 PM: Sounds like I should bail out on this and youtube the ending.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: demi on June 08, 2012, 07:20:46 PM: Wiki has a short summary, plus DLC.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: iconoclast on June 08, 2012, 07:37:14 PM: The combat is very solid and has a decent amount of variety: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLU7OLrWZEY

Most non-boss enemies can be killed quickly if you're using (and completing) the right combos, and they can be killed even faster if you're using the essence you generate during combat. Some enemies in GoW are waaaay more spongey than anything in LoS, especially on higher difficulties.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 08:20:50 PM: Btw, going by crazy Patrick Stewart's dialogues at the start of each stage I'm guessing that he's actually the final boss and the whole story is that his character is tricking the main guy into gathering various artifacts to turn him Patrick Stewart into Dracula or something. Since I'm going to go spoil the plot, I might as well throw that out there before I read the wiki.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 08, 2012, 08:23:07 PM: Quote from: iconoclast on June 08, 2012, 07:37:14 PM
The combat is very solid and has a decent amount of variety: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLU7OLrWZEY

Ok, that combat looks pretty cool.

Where is that combat in the game I am playing in chapter 2 though? My moves are all pretty lameville.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: iconoclast on June 08, 2012, 08:35:26 PM: Yeah, I think you need to unlock a bunch of stuff. Chapter 2 is really terrible though, and what's worse is that it's the longest chapter in the game (I think), so I'd say to push through it. Chapter 5 or 6 was my favorite.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Whichever chapter has the vampire castle
[close]
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 10, 2012, 03:40:31 AM: So I played some more of this tonight. Finished Chapter 2 & 3. The 2nd SoTC fight took forever and the QTE stuff was stupid. I hate how in this game if you miss a QTE it's like OK, NOW DO THE LAST 3 MINS ALL OVER AGAIN. There's so many freaking QTEs that it's really annoying and stretches out the fights.

The best part of the combat is 1 on 1 battles. The fight vs. the Black Knight at the end of Ch.2 was the best fight in the game so far because the boss had good readable patterns that were fun to dodge while you keep attacking and he didn't have ridiculous amount of life. Lycan Lord on the other hand was not as good because some of his patterns were kind of annoying and he had too much health.

One thing I really fucking hate about the combat in this game compared to DMC/NG/GoW/Rygar is that this is probably the only game of that type where you constantly have enemies doing GROUND POUND attacks where you have to jump to avoid them. This is super annoying because you have to keep track of everyone's animations at the same time to make sure you jump in that split second to avoid ground attacks and the fact that if you're rolling to dodge something and they do a ground attack you're fucked because you can't cancel a dodge roll into an instant jump which is fucking bad design. And if you're in the middle of attacking someone and then you instantly need to jump to avoid a ground attack you end up doing a lift up attack and then you're stuck FLOATING in the air while some other enemy (or the same enemy that just hit the ground) beats the shit out of you before you can quickly re-ground yourself. This whole system of having to constantly keep jumping to avoid attacks just fucks the flow up imo. These games should really just be about blocking and rolling to dodge enemies. Adding in forced jumps constantly just breaks the flow up.

And that all my attacks do shit damage. Basically [] (HOLD) [], [], [], [] heavy direct is my strongest attack and it's slow and has crap reach and even in shadow magic mode it doesn't do a whole lot of damage. I need to buy some sort of SUPER STRONG ATTACKS to help me burn through medium/large enemy groups quickly.

In summary, another 2 hours played, and I still hate the game and would barely give it a 6/10 right now.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 14, 2012, 02:47:51 AM: At Chapter 6 now, in the outer castle before actually going in the castle.

When the game WORKS, it's a pretty solid action game with some good enemy types that are fun to fight against, a decent amount of moves, and a constant balance between focus gauge filling, light magic, and shadow magic. At it's good times it's a good 8.5/10 action game.

When the game IS BROKEN, the camera angles suck for battle and you get hit from off screen, the camera angles suck for platforming and you can't tell where the fuck you are supposed to be jumping, the double tap sprint jump is broken half the time so you fall into pits instead of jumping, the game is confusing as to what it wants you to do an consists of constant trial & error because of shitty level design, and the combat sucks because the LAG makes parrying/dodging/NOT GETTING HIT a huge pain, when it's broken you pick up a piece of a turn key and you can't see which side it's supposed to go into so you just have to keep pressing R2 on each side and half the time he drops the key because you're not at the spot it's supposed to go into. When it is broken the game is a frustrating piece of shit 3/10.

The problem with the game is that it's constantly jumping back and forth between working and broken. I guess it's just a fault of this being a new studio and their first major game of this type so it's janky as fuck. But unlike the euro jank which is charming, this jank just gets you game over screens and pisses you off, so it's not so acceptable.

I also realized that I just hate the combat design in this game compared to other games in its genre. By giving enemies 3 types of attacks: NORMAL ATTACK, UNBLOCKABLE/UNPARRYABLE ATTACK, GROUND SMASH, the game constantly is confusing you as to what it wants you to do in combat. Do you sit around and wait to parry OH WAIT IT'S ONE OF THE OTHER TWO ATTACK TYPES, PARRY FAILED, YOU ARE DEAD. Do you go for an attack and then find yourself STUCK IN ANIMATION FRAMES AND UNABLE TO PARRY/DODGE/JUMP when the enemy decides they want to stop being hit and counterattacks (since your attacks don't stun enemies at all), Do you go for a jump only to get knocked down instantly because you are in the air for a half of a second. The message is unclear.

In DMC you can attack like you want and then instantly parry or dodge when the enemy counters. This creates a good combat rhythm when you know what to do. Keep the attacking pressure on and react to enemy attacks with parries or counters. That's it. Nice and simple and clean fun. Bayonetta is pretty much the same. Ninja Gaiden is similar too with a lot more rolling.

The main difference between that and LoS is that I don't know if it's the battle system purposely designed this way or just the lag from a low framerate, but you can't instantly cancel dodge/parry/jump out of attacks. So suddenly if you do any attack you're often going to get fucked when the enemy attacks back and you can't react because you're locked into animations. Even in God of War/Dante's Inferno you can instantly dodge/parry out of any animation.

Then you have the whole parry is the same button as roll thing, so sometimes when you go for a parry instantly after you're moving you'll roll out of the way instead of parrying. The sluggish framerate causes stuff like this because EVERYTHING feels laggy.

There's a good combat system in there, but it's dragged down by FRAMERATE FRAMERATE FRAMERATE and some shitty amateurish design decisions. As it is, I still stand by that it's one of the worst combat engines in a beat em up. It's just too broken and often frustating and not often enough actually fun.

If the fix the combat in LoS2, and don't have any level design areas like Chapter 2 or all those stupid mud/gas sections (WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS FUN) that just drag on forever, then LoS2 could be good. I almost enjoy LoS, but it's just a bad bad jank game.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 19, 2012, 02:07:48 AM: Chapter 8 now. This game is so terrible yet I keep playing solely because while the story may end up being awful, it's just interesting enough for a videogame story that I want to see where it goes so I keep chugging on.

Mercurysteam nails the graphics, music, cutscenes, mildly engaging story, decent lead character. Basically they are competent guys in everything except THE ACTUAL GAMEPLAY, which is fairly...awful. I don't know who coined the idea that just because it's in God of War IT MUST BE GOOD AND PLAYERS MUST LIKE IT. But seriously, show me one person that likes minutes upon minutes of WALKING ON PLANKS and then you know, most of the time WALKING BACK ACROSS THEM when you find out they just led to an upgrade. So much plank walking and it's so terrible. Platforming sucks, all just wall shuffling and occasional whip grab.

and did I tell you about that PUNCHING SWITCHES IN FRANKENSTEINS LAB??. First of all, having a game puzzle tell you "PUNCH IT" when all your punches that you normally get don't do anything...yeah. So you have to actually BUY A MOVE that you might not have bought or wanted just so you can hit a button to trigger a puzzle to advance the game. And then the aim on it is absolutely ridiculous and it takes like 2-4 tries before you actually punch the thing correctly. So after a stage of bad camera angles and weird auto-lock in the wrong direction jump down punches, you get to the end and they go "hey, this mechanic isn't busted enough, so why don't we have a MECHA BOSS FIGHT where you have a 3 second window, with the camera auto-locked against you, to try to land one of these button punches multiple times!!" Seriously FUCK THESE SPANIARDS. They have no idea how to make level design and gameplay mechanics.

And the enemies are just no fun to fight. I've never played a 3d action game with worse enemies. They hardly react at all to your attacks, they instantly counterattack at random times, and they're filled with shitty qtes and all your attacks are laggy. Definitely the worst 3d action I've ever played. Even the lowest bottom stuff like Dynasty Warriors is 100x more satisfying in combat.

So yeah, this game has nothing for it besides the presentation. I'll probably finish this up because I want to see the story through, but I'll youtube the DLC because fuck giving these guys any more money and there is no way in hell I will play the sequel. I'll just watch the cutscenes on youtube. Even if they learn from their mistakes, I just don't see the talent there in the first place to make a competent action game no matter how many times they try.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 19, 2012, 02:19:07 AM: Also, I just want to add that I am EXTREMELY AWARE that I came in, said "is this game any good?" and everyone whose opinion I trust said "no, it's fucking awful; watch the cutscenes and avoid like the plague" and yet I played it anyhow.

Lesson learned.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Rahxephon91 on June 19, 2012, 02:44:42 AM: But you see the game is good because of it's out of nowhere twist ending.

Nice graphics though.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: bork on June 19, 2012, 02:30:28 PM: Quote from: Bebpo on June 19, 2012, 02:19:07 AM
Also, I just want to add that I am EXTREMELY AWARE that I came in, said "is this game any good?" and everyone whose opinion I trust said "no, it's fucking awful; watch the cutscenes and avoid like the plague" and yet I played it anyhow.

Lesson learned.

Why do you continue to torture yourself playing all the way through or far into crappy games, too? :'( You need an intervention.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: demi on June 19, 2012, 03:10:05 PM: Just load up a walkthrough on XBL YouTube and order a pizza and enjoy the show.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Bebpo on June 19, 2012, 04:02:22 PM: I can't watch playthroughs of games unless they're speedruns. Watching people explore and do tutorials and fight is zzz

I could just watch the cutscenes but then I'd miss the vistas and I do like the graphics and art.
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Howard Alan Treesong on June 19, 2012, 04:05:56 PM: come onnnn
Title: Re: I already hate Castlevania Lords of Shadow...
Post by: Momo on June 19, 2012, 04:30:10 PM: beb I commend your willingness to endure punishment. As I said I bailed when the shitness sunk in.