For the Ranter that’s looking to sink his or her fangs into the newest entry in the Castlevania series can get a sample of it right now: the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow demo is officially up on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Available to PlayStation Plus subscribers since September, the demo hitting Xbox Live is nothing short of great news for longtime fans of the series. Weighing in at about 1.5 Gigabytes, the demo will give gamers an idea of what to expect from the title when it launches tomorrow. Announced at E3 2009, Konami’s Lords of Shadow is intended as a reboot, if you will, of the long running Castlevania series.
For all of you that are used to Castlevania’s signature style and gameplay (often referred to as “metroidvania”), Lords of Shadow is a departure as it’s less like it’s 2D predecessors and has more in common with epic action titles like God of War. MercurySteam, who’s previous titles include American McGee presents: Scrapland and Clive Barker’s Jericho, is developing the new Castlevania. Fans of the Metal Gear Solid series will also be interested to know that Kojima Productions is producing the title and Hideo Kojima himself is overseeing the project as executive producer.
Lords of Shadow puts gamers in the role of Gabriel Belmont searching for an artifact that supposedly has the power to bring his wife back from the dead. Expect to fight your way through various environments in addition to the tried and true castle setting. If you download the demo and like what MercurySteam has done with Castlevania, you’ll have the option of picking up a collector’s edition of the title when it launches tomorrow - complete with soundtrack cd, art book, and different cover art.
Do you plan on checking out the demo, or have you already played it? It’s a popular opinion that Symphony of the Night is the best in the series; does Lords of Shadow have a chance of changing that? What do you think of the direction MercurySteam is taking the franchise? You know what to do, Ranters: hit us up with your opinions in the comments section.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow releases October 5th, 2010 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Source: Destructoid
