Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow - Yes I'm Still Complaining About The Camera

Ah! I’m still on top of a giant spider! What the hell?! That’s apparently the last place where I hit a checkpoint. On top of a giant spider. Why the hell couldn’t the game save after I jumped across the ledge? Then I wouldn’t be on a giant spider anymore.

I think I need to become better at combat. I always find myself low on health. If my next fight ends up being against a ‘Greater’ monster I’m probably going to die. At least then I’ll respawn with half of my health back.  For instance, as I continued on through this underground area I ran across a Troll, but I had no health left so he took one swing and killed me. I could see a health font on the next platform but I couldn’t get to it yet. But I had half of my health for the next encounter thanks to the respawn so I survived that round, but I only had a sliver of my health left. *sigh*

I get that this is a fixed-camera game (something I’m learning to despise) but can we at least get some decent camera angles? I want to see where I’m going, not where I’ve been and I certainly don’t want to look at the wall next to me. Just give me control of the camera and I’ll be happy at least then it will stop shaking. Worst culprit is at the end of this area. Gabriel has to climb a series of ledges and use his hookshot to get out of this cavern. The very last ledge has the camera pull way back and then points up at Gabriel. I could not see where to go. So I tried some random jumps hoping I was right and always leading to Gabriel’s death. Low and behold there was a little hookshot point just up to my right. The camera angle kept me from seeing it, but to make matters worse the little blue sparkle that says “I’m a hookshot point” blended in with the skybox. I only found it on one of Gabriel’s random jumps to his death, the camera slightly shifted and I caught the little twinkle.

I did learn Shadow Magic, I like this stuff already. The orbs that enemies drop are neutral orbs. By pressing in on the left or right thumbstick Gabriel gains Light or Shadow Magic respectively. Light magic seems to be for healing, but Shadow Magic is for combat. Just activating it increases Gabriel’s combat strength by a lot. But now there’s a fine balancing act to be played. I have to make sure I have Light and Shadow Magic on a regular basis. But enemies don’t drop orbs if Gabriel is in his Light/Shadow form. So I have to use normal attacks to get orbs, Light Magic to heal and Shadow Magic to kill things quickly. This will take some getting used to.

I wandered into the next area where some Troll was going to eat Gabriel as he hung from a cliff edge. Thankfully a random blonde chick with a purple crystal showed up. She overkilled the troll by summoning some giant demon with tits. The summoning animation made sure to give you a good shot of the demon’s breasts, I don’t know why. Once the Troll was eviscerated, the girl gave Gabriel a smile and then flipped away, indicating that he should follow. Except Gabriel isn’t as agile as the girl, I mean, the poor guy doesn’t even have a double jump!

So Gabriel has to find a different route. And apparently this area is a labyrinth, a literal labyrinth. I know this because a dead knight told me “This is a labyrinth”. I’ll tackle this area later.