Just about six weeks ago, I played and reviewed MercurySteam’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. I enjoyed it, even if it was a step back from its predecessor. Soon after its release, a new DLC pack was made available on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. In “Revelations,” you play as Dracula’s son, Alucard. The opening cutscene shows you removing a mystical sword from the heart of Dracula, which will awaken him from his slumber. With Dracula rising, Zobek will soon be able to detect his presence. Alucard’s mother asks him to traverse the castle in order to find the Void and Chaos powers, and make them accessible to his father so that he can, you know, fight the good fight. And that’s exactly what Alucard intends to do.
Playing as Alucard is familiar, yet different enough from Gabriel (aka Dracula) that it’s easy to appreciate their differences. I think Alucard looks a lot cooler too, by the way. Anyway, within moments of starting off at the Overwatch Tower, you are introduced to the Bat Cloud. This is Alucard’s ability to briefly transform into a cloud of bats, which is used in traversing the environment, specifically to “jump” between distance, often vertically-positioned points. It looks and sounds good, it’s fast, and works very well. The same can be said for the the Crissaegrim, Alucard’s badass sword. With the ability to switch between the Glaciem and Igneas blades, Alucard is able to drain life and break enemy defenses (respectively). There are also hidden upgrade pickups for these, increasing the duration that you can use these modes, as well as plenty of unlockable combos and moves.
With Timeless Vision, Alucard is able to restore broken features of the castle — maybe a bridge, or a caved in wall for example — by turning back the clock. This function has a timer that is shown on screen, and generally you only have a very short window of time, usually just enough to traverse the area or solve a little environmental puzzle, before the Vision effect wears off. Any time-shifting ability in a game is usually a good thing, and that’s the case here, too. Alucard’s third key ability is the Spectral Wolf. Besides looking cool as hell, Alucard is able to make long horizontal leaps and pass through “thin” objects, like spikes or grates. However, Alucard’s own physical body is vulnerable while you’re in this mode, but in most cases you are not actively engaged in combat while simultaneously in Wolf form.
These gameplay mechanics fit in nicely with the structure of this DLC, which is very familiar to anyone who has played the Lords of Shadow games. The balance of exploration and traversal sequences with combat is nicely done, with puzzles sprinkled in as well. There are no levels based outside of the castle, by the way, which is a plus compared to those found in Lords of Shadow 2.
And with that, let’s get to the summary…