Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow

With this game now finished, I can say that without a doubt, this is an easy game of the year contender.

In an age where single player games are being whittled down to a four hour run about, that this was an easy 20 hours of pure epic. Sure it slows down a bit for the final level or two, but I never felt as I was having to grind my way forward. It was tough, and indeed some of the bosses could have gone down quicker, but it always played a fair hand.

The combat is regularly enhanced with fresh combos and enemy types, and the puzzles were a good blend of the traditional and the modern. Likewise, the environments never stuck around for long. There was a real sense of progression throughout the game and they've clearly taken a look at how Santa Monica Studio made God of War look as breathtaking as it did.

The titan boss fights were excellent too, and whilst they're never on the same scale as the aforementioned GoW3, they're certainly bigger and more entertaining than… more »

With this game now finished, I can say that without a doubt, this is an easy game of the year contender.

In an age where single player games are being whittled down to a four hour run about, that this was an easy 20 hours of pure epic. Sure it slows down a bit for the final level or two, but I never felt as I was having to grind my way forward. It was tough, and indeed some of the bosses could have gone down quicker, but it always played a fair hand.

The combat is regularly enhanced with fresh combos and enemy types, and the puzzles were a good blend of the traditional and the modern. Likewise, the environments never stuck around for long. There was a real sense of progression throughout the game and they've clearly taken a look at how Santa Monica Studio made God of War look as breathtaking as it did.

The titan boss fights were excellent too, and whilst they're never on the same scale as the aforementioned GoW3, they're certainly bigger and more entertaining than most modern bosses.

All in all, whilst the opening and final levels missed a beat or two, and the difficulty ramps up a little too quickly (before you get the combos needed to make a good fight of it) this is easily one of the most finely crafted adventure games of it's generation, never leaving the player without a new task ahead of them, or a new environment to do it in. Wrap all that up in a suitably fantastical story and give it production values to rival the biggest names in the business, and you've got a game that anyone with a taste for adventure should stump up for.