Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (PC, PS3, 360)

Is the combat any faster or is it still plodding and easy?

I didn't really find it faster, but it's been a long while since I played the first game. If it is, it's not significant enough that it stands out to me. I think the combat is a little more challenging but I still didn't find it hard. There's more thinking involved and different things to juggle at once in combat. There's much more going on onscreen than I remember there being in the original. You'll be having to attack one enemy using the guard breaker while dodging aerial attacks from a flying enemy while also keeping at eye out for unblockable attacks from other ground foes (which you'll have to dash-dodge away from) all while making sure your health is maintained, which, if it gets low, you'll need to temporarily switch to your life steal weapon to replenish. You can also grab an enemy and suck blood from their neck to get some health back, but that option isn't available until you've dealt them a certain amount of damage. I thought it was enjoyable but not hard. I'll probably pick a higher difficulty level when I play the full game, though.

Is life steal pretty much the same as life magic in the first game or an actual separate weapon/ability with unique properties?

All I know about it so far from the demo is you press L1 to switch to that weapon and your life replenishes as you land successful attacks. There may be more to it but that's all it demonstrated.

That's exactly the same as the first game.

Okay. I couldn't quite remember for sure. It's been a few years and I play a lot of games, plus I'm getting old.

Here's a YouTube video someone put up of the demo playthrough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smjDoBX4a7Y

I half expected the PC version to get delayed, but thar she blows with the February 25 date.

Anyone else play the demo? I dunno. It was okay. Hot off the heels of Revengeance like 10x through on the PC, this feels like it plays a million times slower. I never played the first one, but I never realized just how much like God of War this was trying to be. It does look pretty on the PC, but I don't think it's a full-price affair.

I liked the demo, probably not buying this at full price but I definitely liked the combat and graphics.

$20-30 purchase.

Ruh oh, apparently this got a 6/10 from Game Informer and and a 4/10 from Edge. I havent read the read the reviews my self but apparently the Game Informer reviewer really liked the first game too.

I thought the demo was ok, if the game was more of that I would maybe still get the game as long as the music was awesome.