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Behind this flawed “Souls-lite” lies a decent game | Full Review - Lords of the Fallen

2K View2023-10-16

Lords of the Fallen

8.5

ActionRPGSouls-likeCo-opDark Fantasy

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✨Overview
Lords of the Fallen servers as both a soft reboot and a loose sequel to its 2014 predecessor, and bravely steps once again for a second shot at offering a compelling Souls-like, giving players another taste of a harsh and dangerous world with intense combat, innovative dual-reality mechanics, and a co-op experience.

🟩Pros
+Beautiful world design
+Unique dual-reality mechanic
+Forviging and fun combat mechanics

🟥Cons
-Horrible performance and visual issues
-The fun combat is undermined by annoying controls
-Poor co-op experience

⭐️Score: 6/10

🎨Graphics

Lords of the Fallen excels in its presentation of the world. The world is beautifully designed, offering captivating environments and intricate details. Players can easily get lost in the mesmerizing architecture and dark ambiance. The art style is reminiscent of the Dark Souls series, with its Dark Fantasy Medieval theme mixed in with grotesque eldritch horrors, akin to those found in Bloodborne. However, the visuals aren't perfect. The characters are definitely the weakest part of the visuals. Human characters look plastic, and the close-ups during cutscenes expose the low quality details used in their textures and models.

📖Story

The game presents a dark and treacherous world divided into the physical Axiom realm and the shadowy Umbral plane that also serves as the games underlying and signature mechanic, much similar to the recent horror game The Medium. Players step into a world teeming with eldritch horrors and embark on a journey filled with deep lore and emotional depth. The narrative sets the stage for an epic adventure, driven by players' choices and profound consequences. It connects to the first game very loosely, and it set many years after the game’s conclusion, with the once defeated evil Adyr now regaining back its strength once again. As one of the few chosen warriors blessed with immortality (AKA the Souls-like respawn mechanic of the game), you've been assigned a sacred mission by a religious order to ignite five beacons scattered throughout the land to stop the resurgence of Adyr.

🎮Gameplay

The core of any Souls-like game is its gameplay, and Lords of the Fallen offers a diverse array of character classes, playstyles, and weapon combinations to experiment with. Players can choose to be brawny bruisers with swords and shields, nimble characters dual wielding weapons, or a variety of ranged magic users. Lock targets to enemies, dodge, parry, and block your way into the game’s exploratory but kinda linear campaign.

The concept of dual realities, with the physical Axiom world layered over the eerie Umbral world, has the potential to draw players into a richly woven narrative of otherworldly abominations and eldritch horrors. In this game, players navigate the physical realm while also having access to the shadowy Umbral world through a magical lantern, both via the lamp’s light or by fully and directly transporting yourself to the alternate reality. This mechanic adds an intriguing layer to exploration and combat. For instance, a broken bridge or a closed gate in the physical world may become crossable in Umbral, opening up new avenues for exploration. A river might just be sunken pathway, dry and traversable in the Umbral world.

The ability to use the lantern's light to interact with the Umbral plane without fully entering it provides an exciting twist, making exploration more about deciphering each area's secrets, and the game becomes less of an action but more of an exploration or puzzle-solving when presented with these segments.

⚔️Combat

Lords of the Fallen’s combat is a bit of a mixed bag. It attempts to blend the familiar elements from FromSoftware's Dark Souls series with its unique mechanics. The combat can be satisfying, hits feel weighty, the weapons are varied and have multiple stances to mix and match, and I found the parry, block, and dodge mechanics a bit more forgiving. Especially the block/parry wither mechanic that essentially acts as a buffer to your HP, and one more chance to regain that lost HP back when inflicting damage. With that mechanic, I was able to go toe to toe with enemies and bosses more often, and it encourages actually taking risks with your attacks instead of extremely playing it safe by dodging and chipping in small amounts of damage. Upon death, you are also given one more chance to revive in the Umbral realm and continue the fight. In this respect, its basically a Souls-lite instead of a Souls-like.

The combat system has its share of issues. Attacks, while powerful and weight, can feel somewhat clunky and imprecise. Hits often don't land as intended, making combat less fluid than I am used to. The dodge mechanic also feels off. The lack of fluidity in the combat experience is definitely noticeable. Which is a shame because the underlying mechanics behind it are promising.

🗡️Bosses are fun, regular enemies are not

Unlike recent Souls-like titles, the bosses in Lords of the Fallen are easier. Still challenging, but instead of efeling seemingly impossible, you can easily see yourself beating these bosses the first few times you encounter them. Their movesets are predictable and not particularly challenging. However, there are problems with camera angles and controls, which can make these encounters more frustrating than they should be. The game's regular enemies on the other hand offer a more challenge experience, albet more frustrating too. Enemies play hide and seek and ambush too much, and consistently puts you in dire and tense situations.

🕹A failed co-op implementation

While advertised as co-op-friendly, the game falls short of expectations. Guests in another player's world can't interact with NPCs, pick up items, or trade with traders. Thety receive way less souls and doesn’t even have the extra revive. It’s basically a singleplayer experience with drop-in player assist, which is the worst kind of co-op implementation for me.

📊Technical Performance

At first the game was stuttering heavily, even the movie cutscenes and main menu were laughably stuttering. However, after a driver update and a reboot, things initially looked promising on my i7-8700k, RTX 3080 system. However, as soon as I left the starting area, I encountered glaring performance issues once again. Erratic frametimes, poor and unstable frame rates, and visual bugs like heavy texture pop-ins were prevalent.

⚖️Conclusion

Lords of the Fallen had the potential to shine even amidst the immense success of Elden Ring and more recently, Lies of P. Its refreshing dual-reality mechanic and forgiving but still challenging combat system had the potential to set it apart. However, technical issues, combat annoyances, and the poor co-op experience hold it back. Who knows? Maybe this will be patched in the future, but for now, I would advise waiting for a sale, that is if you are running out of better Souls-like games to play.

Mentioned games

Lords of the Fallen

8.5

ActionRPGSouls-likeCo-opDark Fantasy

Get