I am a Lords of Shadow 1 hater. Mirror of Fate is a better, more fun game, partly because it condenses ideas they tried in Lords 1 with tighter combat, an actual story, and less padding.

This still isn't going to win any awards for storytelling or level design (I think most of the castle is forgettable, which I do not think is good) but at least monsters do not take 2 minutes to kill a piece, and the Uncharted-type padding is drastically toned down.

There are still a ton of things that annoy me in terms of combat or level design, but it's nothing that makes me want to tear the game apart, and none of it feels as tedious as playing 1 was.

Honestly, you could play this as a standalone and ignore the prequel and sequels even exist. It's fine, the most "fine" game I can think of, but it didn't bore me to death nor upset me so it's already an upgrade on both games that surround it in this trilogy. I did feel like I was playing a video game, so that's gotta say something right?

I am a Lords of Shadow 1 hater. Mirror of Fate is a better, more fun game, partly because it condenses ideas they tried in Lords 1 with tighter combat, an actual story, and less padding. This still isn't going to win any awards for storytelling or level design (I think most of the castle is forgettable, which I do not think is good) but at least monsters do not take 2 minutes to kill a piece, and the Uncharted-type padding is drastically toned down. There are still a ton of things that annoy me in terms of combat or level design, but it's nothing that makes me want to tear the game apart, and none of it feels as tedious as playing 1 was. Honestly, you could play this as a standalone and ignore the prequel and sequels even exist. It's fine, the most "fine" game I can think of, but it didn't bore me to death nor upset me so it's already an upgrade on both games that surround it in this trilogy. I did feel like I was playing a video game, so that's gotta say something right?