For any mortal, life is nothing more than a journey with a beginning, birth, and an end, death, common to all. No one is free to travel these two roads except Dracula , that being of darkness championed by each of the cultural media of his time.
First the literature of the hand of Bram Stoker, then the cinema by Browning (1931) and by Coppola (1992) and now, demonstrating the contemporary popularity of the medium, video games. Konami awoke the vampire with the
Castlevania series , transformed him into the perfect recurring antagonist for his eternal resurrection and placed before him the Belmont clan., a lineage of warriors unique in the world with the ability to exterminate the creature. Koji Igarashi, bastion of
the series in Japan in its last stage, achieved a lot with this license that quickly positioned itself as one of the known names that came from the Japanese borders to conquer without complications the West. But every great genius – and his team – has moments of darkness, gaps in which he does not know how to navigate.
The two dimensions were and are the ideal working environment for the Japanese study that saw the birth of Castlevania and that many mythical chapters such as Symphony of the Night have concatenated throughout history. But in regard to the three dimensions,
Igarashi and Konami had a palpable problem only by consulting the quality of the attempts. Times change and the public too. While the classic
Castlevania fan ceased to be profitable by falling in number, other series such as God of War and Devil May Cry reformulated the genre of action with attractive mechanics for the contemporary audience. The saga of Dracula needed a break, a radical change in his image, a full-fledged restart, and Konami ,
aware of it, threw himself into the pool at the hand of Mercury Steam, a Spanish study in which nobody trusted. In fact, not even the high bureaucracy of the company dared to cede the Castlevania brand to Enric Álvarez’s team , but it won the flag with the name with a solid action adventure on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC .
Gabriel has experienced a radical evolution since the first game.
Lords of Shadow was the name of one of the first reboots of the generation (it predates DmC and Tomb Raider), and focused on the tragic feat of Gabriel Belmont, member of The Brotherhood of Light who was facing a personal crusade with the aim of resurrecting his wife Marie, who died in mysterious circumstances. The unexpected and brave conclusion of that first game was one of the strong points that gave Mercury Steam and the character the respect of the players.
The protagonist became Dracula in an epilogue that was explained by the downloadable later. The Madrid studio had reversed roles, had made the player control unknowingly who would be the antagonist of the series, and wanted to continue working on the character.
Mirror of Fate deepened the plot by touring the Belmont clan in its fight against Dracula and putting the character of Alucard on the table, and now Lords of Shadow 2 pretends to be, according to Konami, the end of the saga, a point and work of Mercury Steam. That I get it is another matter.
Our story begins with a Dracula in full swing who receives the onslaught of The Brotherhood of Light while resting on his throne admiring a cup of blood. These initial moments that are practically displayed in almost all of their entirety in the demo available on Steam, Playstation Store and Xbox LIVE we put the honey on the lips with an ultra-powerful character, which has virtually no rival and which is capable of destroying a titan metalized with his own blood.
The epicity granted by Óscar Araujo’s soundtrack in these initial minutes changes radically when the introduction ends and we are transferred to the present time, where the first Lords of Shadow ended. An emaciated, dry and stunted Dracula comes out of his
grave after a thousand years of sleep. He does not remember where he is or how he got to that destination, but an old “friend” pays him a visit to wake up his memories. Zobek is alive and promises him death, the main desire of the protagonist, in exchange for preventing Satan, the antagonist of the first part, return to the world of the living.
