Fewer QTEs
QTEs are great for spicing up a cut scene here and there, but they are being overused at the moment and are no longer a particularly exciting way of creating “cinematic” cut scenes. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure they felt just as archaic and out of place in the original Lords of Shadow, so MercurySteam have no real excuse for including them in the sequel as well. Even if they don’t get rid of them completely, at least we can hope they’ll be toned down a bit.
More Refined “Giant” Bosses
Along with the various other influences that Lords of Shadow was liberally peppered with, one particular area showed that the developers had clearly been playing a lot of Shadow of the Colossus during LOS’ development. The giant boss battles offered a pretty good sense of scale, but the actual gameplay involved in taking these guys down never felt particularly inspired or clean. MercurySteam will have to make some tweaks to refine this, as the novelty won’t be enough if these boss types are repeated again.
A More Inspired Setting
Gee, I wonder if MercurySteam were watching Pan’s Labyrinth when they designed this?
Whilst the werewolves, demons and southern European shenanigans of Lords of Shadow were well executed and enjoyable, they failed to really grab the imagination. Aside from a few notable exceptions, the levels generally included nothing we haven’t seen before in other fantasy lore, and they were certainly a far cry from the classic mythos of the main Castlevania series. Let’s hope MercurySteam can create a more original setting for the second LOS outing.
Less Repetition
Yeah I get it, he fights with a whip. Get on with it already
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was a huge game. It was very long indeed for a linear single player outing; maybe even too long. Whilst the lifespan gave you bang for your buck, it ended up giving off the feeling that a lot of content was being recycled in order to facilitate this longevity. I’d rather have a shorter game if every moment was a winner MercurySteam, so make sure you cut out the filler for LOS2.
