Context: By the time I got to this game, I had played the previous two Lords of Shadow games. At the time of writing this review, I have not finished Alucard's DLC yet; once I do, I plan to review that on its own respective page. This review only applies to the base game.

I heard that - between it and its predecessor - Lords of Shadow 2 was more polarizing than the first at launch. People apparently really hate the stealth segments.

And after finishing it, I have to ask... how does anyone like the first game more than this?

Lords of Shadow 2 fixes literally every problem I had with the first game - but unlike Mirror of Fate, it doesn't significantly change what already worked. In fact, I'd say it improved the combat; Dracula swaps out the Light and Shadow magic for two extra weapons with wholly different movesets from the whip - which is now a dark whip made of Drac's own blood, and that's just awesome - and you can now make them stronger by making use of the different moves, giving more reason to experiment with your whole moveset instead of just spamming what works. The look and feel of everything has also been altered to better fit the darker character you now play as, right down to allowing you to siphon the blood of the enemies you grab. It's not the Dracula that you probably wanted to play as, but it's a cool take on Dracula nonetheless.

As for the elephant in the room, the stealth segments? I'd rather take a million of those over the Chupacabras or parkour bosses from the first LoS.

My only minor nitpick with this game is that they inexplicably swapped the interact and subweapon buttons, with no way to change it back (Steam Input can do it, but not only does that mean you press RT to go back in menus, it also seems to break the ability to possess enemies in stealth sections), but I got used to it anyway. Lords of Shadow 2 is my favorite of the Lords of Shadow series, and the only one that I can actually, seriously recommend beyond "it's better than the last one" or "I liked it more often than not".

Context: By the time I got to this game, I had played the previous two Lords of Shadow games. At the time of writing this review, I have not finished Alucard's DLC yet; once I do, I plan to review that on its own respective page. This review only applies to the base game. I heard that - between it and its predecessor - Lords of Shadow 2 was more polarizing than the first at launch. People apparently really hate the stealth segments. And after finishing it, I have to ask... how does anyone like the first game more than this? Lords of Shadow 2 fixes literally every problem I had with the first game - but unlike Mirror of Fate, it doesn't significantly change what already worked. In fact, I'd say it improved the combat; Dracula swaps out the Light and Shadow magic for two extra weapons with wholly different movesets from the whip - which is now a dark whip made of Drac's own blood, and that's just awesome - and you can now make them stronger by making use of the different moves, giving more reason to experiment with your whole moveset instead of just spamming what works. The look and feel of everything has also been altered to better fit the darker character you now play as, right down to allowing you to siphon the blood of the enemies you grab. It's not the Dracula that you probably wanted to play as, but it's a cool take on Dracula nonetheless. As for the elephant in the room, the stealth segments? I'd rather take a million of those over the Chupacabras or parkour bosses from the first LoS. My only minor nitpick with this game is that they inexplicably swapped the interact and subweapon buttons, with no way to change it back (Steam Input can do it, but not only does that mean you press RT to go back in menus, it also seems to break the ability to possess enemies in stealth sections), but I got used to it anyway. Lords of Shadow 2 is my favorite of the Lords of Shadow series, and the only one that I can actually, seriously recommend beyond "it's better than the last one" or "I liked it more often than not".