Gabriel Belmont is a classic conflicted hero, torn between light and dark. Sent out to discover why god has forsaken the world, the pious paladin of the Brotherhood Of Light is set for a purity test of – quite literally – biblical proportions. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow pushes beyond its 2D forebears' hammy, creature-feature approach to gothic imagery. Instead it adopts a Christian bent, one that's hard to miss as Gabriel journeys like Jesus into the wilderness. There our hero is beset not so much by temptation as armies of monsters.
But fortunately – to mix our metaphors a little – the cross he has to bear is a very effective weapon. Perhaps it was inevitable, as a Japanese series that always treated European mythology as a buffet of superficial delights fell into the hands of a developer more culturally invested in the setting – namely, Madrid's MercurySteam.
