Thursday September 26th 2013: the first day of the four-day-long Eurogamer Expo 2013. It was my first expo writing for Big Red Barrel and I wanted to get everything right, so naturally, everything went wrong. I headed to the Earls Courts Exhibition Centre straight after finishing a night shift, excited to be covering Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, the first of many games I’d be playing over the next four days. Sleep deprivation had other plans for me: I accidently ended up playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate instead.
• Developer: MercurySteam
• Publisher: Konami
• Previewed on: PS3
• Also Available On: Xbox 360
• Release Date: 31/10/2013
Acting as a stop gap between Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and its highly anticipated sequel Lords of Shadow 2; Mirror of Fate is a 2.5D side scrolling action platformer that has more in common with Super Castlevania than the ‘Metroidvania’ template many fans were expecting. Characters move left and right, traverse platforms, and whip monsters. It works well, and running at an unrestricted 30fps there’s no denying it looks great for what it is. It just seemed to be lacking a certain something else.
The demo took the form of an extended tutorial, with Gabriel and Simon Belmont playable for short durations. Gabriel, the protagonist from Lords of Shadow, has the main bulk of the tutorial placed on him, with a little more freedom available during Simon’s section.
There were two attacks available, forward and area, each mapped to separate face buttons, as well as the standard block and finishing attack that can be used when enemies are stunned. On paper it sounds great, but the overabundance of moves on offer made the combat too easy, especially when restricted to a two-dimensional plane. Hopefully these balancing issues will be addressed in the finished product offering a challenge more worthy of the Castlevania name, but as far as the demo was concerned I quickly became bored with the combat.
Ozzy Osbourne’s looking well.
Movement felt heavy and cumbersome, certainly not as responsive as I had hoped for in a series renowned for split second timing and unforgiving platforming. The jumping mechanic felt off too, with a noticeable delay between button pushes and character animation. Gabriel and Simon also become floaty-light in mid-air. It just feels ‘wrong’.
Graphically, Mirror of Fate HD seems confused. The cutscenes are rendered in awesome-looking cel shading, whereas the actual gameplay is presented in generic-looking ‘realism’. It’s a huge shame as not only do the cel shaded graphics look better, they would have given the game a unique visual edge over other titles. As it is though, it fails to stand out.
There are a few changes from the 3DS version: the map that was once housed in the 3DS’s bottom screen is now in top right corner of the screen and the menus that appeared on the touch screen are now available in their own menu window, easily making up for the lack of touch screen.
“My lovely horse, running through the field”
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate’s Halloween 2013 release date is quickly approaching, and there may be a few changes in the finished product. As it stands though, Mirror of Fate HD doesn’t appear to be an especially bad game; it just looks to be shaping up to be painfully average.
Tags: Castlevania, lords of shadow, mirror of fate hd, PS3, Xbox 360
365 Posts in Total
I did exactly the same thing, though I queued to play Lords of Shadow 2 and one of the attendants tapped me on the shoulder and said “that one’s free mate”, and that is how I played an incredible pile of ‘meh’.
I’m sure it’ll find it’s fans but compared to older versions of Castlevania titles, I just found it slow and a bit disappointing.