Many moons ago, there was a game called Lords of the Fallen. It was developed by Deck13 Interactive and published by CI Games. It was one of the first if not the first soulslike, and it was slavish in how close it adhered to Dark Souls. In both a good and a bad way. There were a few things they added, such as a clock to how long you had to retrieve your souls. I don’t remember if it meant that you just didn’t get them if the time ran out or if they gave you less and less infinitely, but it was not a welcome addition to the formula.
The one thing that they took from Dark Souls was that the combat was weighty. Which it is. But Deck13 took that to mean it should be s-l-o-w. So slow. So agonizingly slow. The game has been nicknamed Clunky Souls, and it’s definitely that. I played the first two hours twice as two different characters, and it just did not click with
By the way, I must say that the takeaway from the games that the bosses need to be insanely difficult is so not my favorite thing. I don’t play these games because of the bosses. I play because of the exploration and the level design, the stories, and just the delight of existing in a Miyazaki world.
The bosses are cool in design, but, honestly, at this point, I do not want to spend days on one boss. I just don’t. And that brings us to this Lords of the Fallen, which was not made by Deck13. They were going to make the sequel, but it never happened. I don’t remember why. they ended up making The Surge (and the sequel), which is affectionately known as Junkyard Souls. In a nutshell, you’re attacking robot/human hybrids. You can specify the limb you want to attack and then get that limb’s armor. Maybe you can get weapons, tooo? I don’t remember, but it’s so cool. And while it was janky as hell, it was fun. Lots of fun. Until the final boss, but let’s not talk about that.
This Lords of the Fallen is not a remake nor a sequel. It’s just set in the same universe but many years in the future as I understand it. After CI Games passed on Deck13, another studio was involved in the sequel. That fell through as well, and then years later, HexWorks was given this game.
Now it’s out. Unlike Lies of P which received nearly universal praise, Lords of the Fallen‘s reviews are all over the map. On Metacritic, they range from 40 to 100. The numbers were similar on OpenCritic. I thought the numbers were severely inflated for Lies of P (which is Lies of Pi in my brain). I started at a 7 out of 10 with that game and then it steadily decreased as I played. By the end, it had dropped a whole number. If you can perfect block, the number will probably be higher. If you can’t, then I would strongly suggest not playing that game.
As for this one, I would hesitantly put it as a 7 out of 10 after playing several hours and beating the first boss–who, by the way, is ridiculously difficult for a first boss. Obviously, if you can parry,
*SPOILERS*
Pieta, the first boss (Pieta, She of Blessed Renewal to give her her full name) is a piece of cake. I have heard reviewers talk about how the bosses are too easy in this game. But, on the other hand, Ash from Playstation Access said she had to ask the devs to give her +10 weapons to fight Pieta when she played the game pre-release.
Also, Ed Nightingale from Eurogamer called her Budget Malenia. Which, ouch, but on reflection, he’s right. She is Budget Malenia. And she’s also my bae. After being a boss, she immediately becomes an NPC who is your firekeeper so to speak in the hub world (which is right after her boss fight).
Her health bar is ridiculous. I had no shield as a pyro, which did not please me. I had a wooden cross in my left hand, but it’s blocking ability was something like 25%. My pyro staff had a similar blocking capabliity. When I wield it one handed, I block by crossing (no pun inteded) them together. So is the blocking essentially double? Or just the bigger of the two? I don’t know. I do not like not having a shield.
I have to say. I really wanted to like this game. I loved the trailer when it was revealed, It was metal as fuck, and it was exactly up my alley from a fantasy point of view.
But, I had an uneasy feeling as I booted it up. First of all, it chugged in the opneing cutscene and in the loading screens. Not good. Second, there is so much to this game that is crammed in the tutorial. I’d watched a few videos on the game before playing it, It’s as if they were throwing everything including the kitchen sink. It’s as if they had a brainstorming session and everyone kept saying, “But what about if we had two world!” “What about if we had a lamp we could use to peek into that other world?” “And what about if there is a puzzle in the other world that affects THIS world??” “What if if you died in this world, you woke up in that world??” All of this is actually in the game, by the way.
If you’re in the umbral world ( which is the second world) and die, then you’re dead for good. This is one system. And it’s an intriguing one, but they weren’t satisfied with just that. Oh, and there is this thing in which you have to go from one world to the other to solve puzzles or get around obstacles. Which is interesting.
There’s another system for ranged attacks, including magic. I am a pyro as I noted (and, of course). And there are four slots for ranged attacks.Either spells or arrows and such. Then, you hold down LT and whichever other button. I think? I only have one pyro so far, so it’s Just LT and RB. With the lamp, it’s LT and then one of four other buttons. I’m assuming it’ll be the same with spells at some point.
Honestly, I like it, but I prefer the D-padding madly to get the spell I want. It’s probably because I know it so well by now.
This is all in addition to regular combat. It’s a lot. I have a hard time keeping it in my brain. I will blame my brain damage, but I don’t like having so much shit to keep track of when I’m trying to play the damn game.
Side note: I have issues with ‘the Souls person’ doing the reviews of this kind of game. Same with content creators who can perfect parry everything. With this game, more than one have said that they have one-shot most of the bosses. Well, good for you? It’s funny that most note that Pieta is among the exceptions. And she’s the first boss!
Look. I know that it’s hard out there for a soulslike, but if there’s one leasson I really want them to learn it’s that artificial difficulty isn’t what makes the games good! Even From has bought their own hype to a certain extent by this time.
I have more to say, but I’m done for now. I will continue later.