Castlevania: Lords of Shadow

Castlevania is a long and storied franchise.  Or so I’m told.  I’ll admit, I’ve never really played any of myriad of Castlevania games.  All I knew going in to Lords of Shadow is that Dracula is a bad dude and will generally need to be whipped back into undeath.  As it turns out, my lack of knowledge was probably a good thing.  Developer Mercury Stream has taken the Castlevania name and tradition, but basically rebooted the franchise.  This game isn’t considered canon to the rest of the series, which basically gave them a pretty blank slate as to the type and story of the game.  What they ended up with is a pretty sweet action game in the vein of God of War or Devil May Cry.  If you are a fan of such games and a fan of gothic style horror, Lords of Shadow is a must play.