REVIEW: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Reverie DLC

The title logo looks like a last minute add in. Foreshadowing?

After some initial hesitance, my romp through Castlevania: Lords of Shadow ended up being a relieving bit of fun. Sure the game had its flaws, but it was an enjoyable addition to the hallowed Castlevania series. When Konami announced two downloadable content packs for Lords of Shadow, I was happy to have reason to brandish the combat cross through some new content. The first of the DLC, Reverie, was released a week earlier than I expected, with no warning other than 'it's here!' That was all I needed to buy it, but was it a justified purchase?

Once loading up, Reverie seamlessly adds what looks to be two additional chapters to the main timeline, appended right at the conclusion of our hero's exploits in Lords of Shadow. The differences are immediately apparent; some for the best, some for the worst, some related to story, some related to production. The narrated pieces during load times are now handled by Robert Carlyle, the knee-buckling voice of Gabriel himself, which, not to spoil anything, makes sense if you played Lords of Shadow to completion. The beautiful, in-game cut scenes of the main storyline have been replaced by a motion comic of sorts, which really bummed me out. Graphically, Lords of Shadow was incredibly well handled, with even the slightest details standing out to please the eye. Granted, the motion comic deal is all good, I have been spoiled by Lords of Shadow's in-game cut scenes, so losing them was a great disappointment.

Admittedly, it's been a few months since I've picked up Lords of Shadow. And that's the point of DLC in a sense, innit? To extend the playtime of a game you enjoyed, to give you reason not to sell it for $5 to Gamestop a couple of months after it releases. There was a bit of a learning curve the first time I played, what with the amount of combos and such. After a 120 day or so hiatus, controlling Gabriel the way I once did was not the easiest task to reacquaint myself with. Fortunately, Reverie handles this in two ways; by limiting the amount of enemies you whip around, and by allowing you to play as Laura, an underdeveloped character from the main story.

Right, so there's not much fighting to be done in Reverie. Gabriel battles a couple of ghouls and skeletons, that's about it. If you were looking for a climactic boss battle, you will leave disappointed. Actually, you'll probably leave Reverie disappointed any which way. There is a lot of platforming to be found, painfully tricky platforming at that. I died more than a few times trying to navigate the wall of buzz-saws, and fought back a bout of Super Meat Boy post-traumatic stress disorder. There's also two or three pretty tough puzzles, which were both fun and pleasing to overcome.

In the brief instances when you aren't busy falling off walls or trying to figure out a puzzle, you can do a bit of fighting, sometimes even as a pre-pubescent vampire! The use of Laura in combat is fairly limited, as is her skill set. She's held to a multiple-hit lightning chain, a charged Palpatine-style infinite electro-stream, and an area of effect charged explosion. That's it! She also has that nifty Alucard mist trick, which allows her to both evade and pass through grates. The 10 minutes I spent using her in battle consisted of spamming mist, with brief flashes of lightning in between, followed by her blood sucking ghoul finisher. I appreciate the inclusion of a new playable character, but I would appreciate it even more if said character was fully realized and implemented properly instead of being a thrown bone.

So Reverie plays out, with a bit of an emotional ending, no epic boss battle to be found, and a big fat "to be continued". I seriously just got to be continued? Burned! I suppose this leads directly into the next bit of DLC, Resurrection, which supposedly builds on the main storyline's kind of awesome ending. I'm no fan of paying 10 bucks for two hours of play and an incomplete story, and I'm sure you're not either. Unless you absolutely cannot wait to get more Castlevania: Lords of Shadow in your life, wait for Resurrection to drop, and try to land both of them in some sort of discounted package deal. Package deal? On an online distribution medium outside of Steam? Yeah right.

Buy it if: You absolutely need new content for Lords of Shadow
Don't buy it if: Lack of closure bothers you
The Score: 4 outta 10 blasters!