Review in Progress: Lords of the Fallen

Update: Lords of the Fallen Review

Lords of the Fallen is brutal. I mean like, really brutal. I fully intended to have beaten the game and written a full review in time for release. But according to a recent tweet by the developers, there are 30 bosses in total. Which means I have…uhh…a few more to go. And for the record, I’m no Soulslike newbie. I’ve Platinumed most games in the series, and at least beaten those I haven’t. But like I said, Lords of the Fallen is hard.

Of all the bosses I’ve fought so far, I’ve had varied feelings all across the board. Some have been incredibly fun, with well-thought-out mechanics. Some of them felt a bit “Tank and Spank”, so to say, not requiring too much extra effort. And then others have been so incredibly frustrating. And don’t try and tell me to “Git Gud”, I swear that’s not the issue here. A few encounters just have over-the-top or even unfair mechanics.

I already knew I would have a tough time with one of the earlier bosses, The Congregator of Flesh. The colossal abomination inflicts poison damage, which is my Achilles heel. The encounter takes place in an already limited area, which is not ideal given the sheer size of this creature. But the beast also has a flurry of attacks from nearly every angle. A claw swipe, a backhanded swipe, a ground slam, a body slam, a head slap. And if you manage to gain some ground, don’t be surprised if the creature charges or leaps on top of you. All while each attack inflicts poison. It was a challenging encounter, which at times felt like I just had to brute force through the chaos.

But despite the frustration, after downing the Congregator of Flesh I felt accomplished and excited to push forward. Fans of the genre will recognize this feeling.

Lords of the Fallen (PC, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox X|S)
Developer: Hexworks
Publisher: CI Games
Released: October 13, 2023
MSRP: $59.99

Reboot Initialized

The original Lords of the Fallen (2014) was the first Soulslike game I actually completed in its entirety. For me, I had an easier time getting into it than Dark Souls at the time because of its more direct storytelling. It wasn’t until I played Bloodborne the following year that I came to appreciate FromSoftware’s style of storytelling, and went back to—and fell in love with—the Souls series. So when I heard news of Lords of the Fallen returning in the form of a reboot, I was super excited.

So far it feels like a proper reboot, with mostly upgrades in place. Visually, the world of Axiom is absolutely beautiful. The decision to make this a current-generation-only title was a good one, by far. The lighting effects create some insanely realistic landscapes. Early on you’ll reach a very detailed castle, which is quite a sight on its own. But the way the sunlight bounces through cracks in the crumbling walls is just pure art. Lords of the Fallen is one of the more visually appealing titles I’ve played.

All the staple Soulslike features are here. Dodging, blocking, Vestiges (bonfires) to rest at and spend your Vigor (souls) to upgrade stats. Hexworks doesn’t try to hide their inspiration for Lords of the Fallen, but rather embraces it. However, the game seems faster as a whole. From movement to combat, things just feel a bit zoomier, if that makes sense. As a result, dodging feels like the intended defensive strategy here as opposed to blocking. Parrying exists, but I often found it more worthwhile to just dodge out of the way and get some hits in.

There is one thing missing from the original that really bums me out, though. In Lords of the Fallen (2014) there were special weapons that could be obtained by defeating bosses while also completing certain challenges during the fight. For example, the first boss would drop a Greatsword for defeating him. But if you could defeat him without taking any damage, he’d drop a special version of the Greatsword that had slightly higher stats and a special ground tremor attack.

From Axiom…

One of the new systems in Lords of the Fallen intertwines death with the world. When you are alive and well, you are in Axiom, the realm of the living. But on another plane of existence is the realm of the dead, called Umbral. You have a magical lantern that grants you access to Umbral. With this power, you can enter the realm of the dead to reach inaccessible areas, and then return to Axiom once you find a Vestige. The Vestiges are locations where previous Lamp Holders have died. Once found, they can be activated which turns them into a checkpoint spot where you can rest and allocate your Vigor.

The two realms also come into play when dying, as well. In more traditional games in the genre, death causes you to drop your Vigor/souls/unspent experience. Then you have to make it back to where you died in order to retrieve what you dropped.

In Lords of the Fallen, dying sends you to the Umbral realm, with your Vigor dropping where you died in the realm of the living. You’ll have to navigate the Umbral realm and find a Vestige to return to Axiom in order to reclaim your Vigor. If you die again while in the Umbral realm, you’ll permanently lose your dropped Vigor and respawn at the most recent Vestige.

It’s a different system for sure, but I’m not completely convinced it enhances the formula in any way. I’ve probably been more perturbed by it than anything, but maybe that will change by the time I have reached the end.

…to Umbral

I’ve encountered a handful of bugs so far, but nothing game-breaking. Also, I feel it’s important to point out that Hexworks has been releasing pretty frequent patches throughout the pre-release period. I’ve had my hands on Lords of the Fallen for less than a week and have already seen several updates come through that have noticeably improved my performance on PS5 as well as fixed some bugs I personally encountered.

On a related note, the audio has been a bit hit-or-miss so far. Typically audio cues are vital to certain boss mechanics in these sorts of games. But in most cases, there’s just a lot of sounds going on all at once. Sometimes I’ll even expect there to be an audio cue so I know a certain mechanic is coming, and then it just…doesn’t…and I get smacked and die. And I’m not quite sure how to explain it, but some of the audio just feels off. Executing a parry, for example, feels very underwhelming. It literally sounds like someone hitting a Tupperware bowl with a wooden spoon. An unenthusiastic *Thwop*, if you will. It feels out of place, to say the least.

My time with Lords of the Fallen so far has been mostly positive. But I can’t help but feel some of the newer systems don’t add much good to the game. Mixed with the sometimes unfair mechanics and difficulty of specific boss encounters, it’s definitely hampered my experience a bit. However, overall Lords of the Fallen is a polished Soulslike game, which is never a bad thing. I still have a fair bit to play through, so there’s a lot of opportunity for the scales to tip one way or the other!

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}