The Castlevania franchise had been evolving nicely, with Lords of Shadow a good-looking and gratifying hack-'em-up. But this sequel is both more complex and less satisfying, adding new ideas that are not well executed. The fun story follows Dracula in the modern world as he tries take down Satan. To be fair, the gameplay includes effective combat, but also has overlong boss battles, tedious, limited stealth, and repetitive, unforgiving platform sequences. The open world doesn't add much, and combined with the lengthy cut scenes, conspires to make it a more elaborate, but less exciting game than it should be. It's a shame, because the swordplay, with different enchanted blades, works well (one blade saps life, another destroys shields). There's nice creature and location design, and it's all amusingly bloody and macabre. Ultimately, though, this blood-sucking adventure bites off more than it can chew. konami-castlevania.com