Game Info

Lords of the Fallen

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　　A few years ago, the release of a game inspired by FromSoftware's Dark Souls series was a rare occurrence, as the genre was in no way as popular as it is nowadays. Among the first games inspired by the FromSoftware series was Lords of the Fallen, a game that managed to get a cult following despite its middling quality. This cult following and the higher popularity of the genre are likely the reasons why publisher CI Games gave the series another chance with a reboot/sequel that attempts to fix the issues of the original while providing players with an experience that could be as close as possible to that of the Dark Souls series in terms of atmosphere and gameplay. While the new entry in the series is objectively a better game than its predecessor, it is nowhere close to being the Dark Souls 4 that never was and likely never will be, mostly due to bad combat design and a general lack of polish.

　　Lords of the Fallen is set over one thousand years after the events of the original game in the land of Mournstead, once dominated by the tyrannical demon god Adyr. This powerful demon was eventually defeated by mankind's greatest heroes, the Judges, and to prevent his return, the order of the Hallowed Sentinels was formed. Setting up holy beacons, the Sentinels protected humanity for a long time until the demon god started preparing for his return, corrupting the beacons and turning the Sentinels, allowing his hordes to invade Mournstead again. The only ones standing against Adyr are the disciples of the radiant god Orius, who have united in The Church of Orius. Forced to use the sacrilegious Umbral Lamp that grants them access to the world of the dead, the Crusaders of the Church must embark on a journey to put down the Sentinels, restore the beacons, and prevent Adyr from returning to the land.

　　While the story of Lords of the Fallen sounds like standard fare for a game heavily inspired by Dark Souls, it is actually a little more intricate than it looks on paper. Though players could complete the game without investing too much effort in talking with NPCs in the Skyrest main hub and piecing every little story element together, they would be missing out a lot, as many of the characters have some interesting stories to tell. There are also some interesting twists towards the end of the campaign that shed new light on the tale, which is, ultimately, an enjoyable dark fantasy tale.

　　Even though this is one of the game's strengths, few people would play a Soulslike for the story alone. Unfortunately, the game by Hexworks fails to deliver where it matters the most, presenting a gameplay experience that is very frustrating at the best of times and downright infuriating at the worst.

　　To be fair, Lords of the Fallen does a very good job of introducing players to the game's mechanics. Right after creating their character with a solid character creator and picking their class, which in no way limits how players can customize it during the course of the game in true soulslike fashion, players are thrown into a tutorial area that teaches them the basics of the formula competently. Right from the start, it is clear the developer wanted to replicate the feel of the first few entries in the FromSoftware series, as the game doesn't feature a huge number of movesets, weapons do not have special skills like in Dark Souls 3, and Elden Ring and so on. On the other hand, Hexworks implemented some more modern mechanics, such as a user-friendly parry, a poise gauge on enemies which, once depleted, leaves enemies defenseless for a short time and open to a critical attack, some unique multi-hitting attacks, and sidestepping when locked onto an enemy.

　　On paper, all these features should have made for a solid soulslike experience, but once out of the tutorial area and into Mournstead proper, the combat mechanics fall apart. For starters, the first areas are hardly representative of the level of challenges the true game features. Enemies are few and far between, and the only real issue that is evident from the start is the lack of weight and impact, mostly due to the floatiness of movement and the horrible sound effects. Over time, however, the floatiness becomes the Crusader's worst enemy. Every moveset seems to incorporate excessive moving, with the issue being worse for heavier weapons. Every attack moves the Crusader forward excessively, messing up positioning horribly and forcing players to engage enemies from a range that does not feel natural at all for a soulslike. Every swing of swords or hammers, or thrusts with spears is also terribly slow, mostly due to noticeable input delay, making everything feel sluggish. The dodge roll travels way too far, often causing the player character to fall from bridges and ledges, of which the game features a ton. Regarding movement, it feels like the developer feared they would not get it right and overtuned it, which, incidentally, caused even more issues.

　　These, however, aren't the worst offenders when it comes to the Lords of the Fallen combat experience. Enemy placement and formations are truly some of the worst I have seen in recent times, and what has made my time with the game often unenjoyable. Outside of enemies tracking players for way too long, ala Dark Souls 2, their positioning and formations seem to have been thought up to be as punishingly unfair as possible. Archers and long-range attackers, for example, are often placed in hard-to-reach spots, which would be fine if it weren't for the fact that, while having to avoid attacks from afar, you are also swarmed over by groups of 3 to 5 enemies or even more while in the world of the dead. This, too, might have been fine if the game provided the tools to deal with groups properly, but sadly, it doesn't.

　　Magic slightly alleviates this issue, but forcing players to adopt a certain playstyle to avoid frustration really is not the way to go. Even if movement wasn't overtuned and controls were more responsive, however, this would have been a problem, as the soulslike combat was created for duels and smaller groups of enemies, not to deal with the hordes that Lords of the Fallen constantly throws at the player. The HP values are also way too high for most enemies, and the lock-on system doesn't allow players to target enemies that are somewhat hidden from view. While it is easy to understand this was done to prevent players from restoring Wither damage too easily, temporary damage received while blocking attacks which can be restored by simply attacking enemies, it doesn't work as the developers intended.

　　Boss fights are less problematic. While the floatiness still gets in the way, the one-on-one fights are way more satisfying than fighting against mobs, as it is possible to use the game's mechanics to the fullest without getting assaulted from all sides. Unfortunately, even these battles come with some frustrating issues. Many bosses have one-hit-kill attacks that can be difficult to avoid, as well as some unblockable grabs that are not signaled in any way, not counting some charging time, which doesn't help, as many blockable attacks also have some charging time as well. All of these issues diminish some of the frankly clever twists made to the formula, such as making long-range weapon attacks useful as they are now akin to magic, using a rechargeable resource instead of, say, individual arrows or javelins. The Umbral Lamp can also be used in combat to draw out an enemy's soul and damage it to deal Wither and poise damage, giving players one more tool that is sadly hard to use effectively due to the length of the Soul Flay animation. Enemy variety is also excellent, but it matters little when every combat encounter quickly becomes frustrating.

　　The balancing approach of Lords of the Fallen is baffling. At first, I thought the game was balanced around co-op, which would make sense, given how easy it is to summon allies by interacting with the Vestige checkpoints. So, I tried summoning some allies, and the situation changed little. We were still swarmed by enemies, with the complication of having to revive my allies often, and not due to their lack of skill. Add in the fact that while in co-op, you could get invaded by another player, and you have yet another recipe for frustration. I understand wanting to make a game challenging, but going for the unfair route really doesn't work, in my opinion. Lords of the Fallen made me feel like I was playing Dark Souls 2 again, one of the soulslike I despise the most.

　　It is a real shame Lords of the Fallen tries to test the player's patience this way because there are many other things the game does right. Exploration and world design, for example, are very solid, thanks to the dual-world mechanics that allow players to travel from Axiom, the world of the living, and Umbral, the world of the dead, by either using the Umbral Lamp or by getting killed in the world of the living, a mechanic that also serves as a lifeline. Traveling to Umbral is often a requirement to discover shortcuts and secrets and sometimes even to make progress, so switching between worlds feels satisfying and rewarding when enemies do not swarm you.

　　The dual world mechanics also bring a solid risk-reward system, as the more the Crusader stays in Umbral, the higher the Vigor multiplier will increase. Stay too long, and the Crusader will be forced to fight against an extremely powerful demon, on top of the denizens of the world of the dead that will constantly appear, a welcome callback to Kentaro Miura's Berserk, which has inspired the Souls series in a lot of ways. Even the checkpoint system is handled cleverly, as the game features the aforementioned bonfire-like Ancient Vestiges and Vestige Seedlings, temporary checkpoints that can be created in certain locations using Vestige Seeds.

　　The quality of the Lords of the Fallen exploration mechanics is at odds with the lack of polish in almost every other aspect of the game. The menus, for example, while functional, don't look too great, mostly due to the horrible font used by the game, which screams unfinished. The in-game interface, on the other hand, is definitely not as functional, with the HP, Stamina, and Mana gauges positioned in the upper left side of the screen being too small to keep track of in the heat of the moment. It's a really weird decision to make them this small, considering other user interface elements are disproportionately big, such as damage numbers popping over enemies' HP gauges. This lack of polish is also evident during exploration, as there are times when the Crusader can get stuck in narrow places with no way of getting out (except by dying), disjointed hitboxes that result in attacks connecting even if the enemy weapons don't. It shows even in multiplayer, as the netcode for PvP feels rather bad, with characters teleporting all over the screen, although this might have been caused by opponents playing over Wi-Fi connections.

　　Lords of the Fallen is among the first few games powered by Unreal Engine 5 to be released, and employing the new version of the development engine by Epic definitely paid off in terms of visual quality. Everything, from environmental and character model detail to lighting, shadows, visual effects, and texture quality looks incredible, making the game the first proper next-gen soulslike, at least in terms of graphics, if one can ignore some very stiff animations. It is also relatively free of visual glitches, not counting some slow vegetation loading in some areas. When it comes to stability, I did not experience any crashing on my system, but other reviewers did, so stability seems to be reliant on system configuration rather than real issues with the game.

　　Much like stability, performance is not exactly the best. On the system used for the test (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM), the game runs at an average of 57 FPS, 23 FPS 1% Low at native 4K resolution, and a combination of high and ultra settings in a moderately demanding area, which doesn't really feel smooth. With DLSS Quality, the average increased to 104 FPS, 51 FPS 1% low,  with Frame Generation bumping the average up to 120 FPS, with the same 51 FPS 1% low as without it. While generally smooth, there are times the game feels a little choppy, and while performance drops did not impact the experience a lot, they were noticeable and honestly a little baffling, considering the high-end system that was used to test the game. As such, players with mid-range CPUs and GPUs would do well to verify how the game runs on their systems before purchasing.

　　Lords of the Fallen showed a lot of promise before release, and I was disappointed to see how the game failed to deliver an enjoyable experience. Some die-hard Souls series fans may find some enjoyment in the 35 or so hours-long journey to save Mournstead, but everyone else likely won't be able to see past the game's many shortcomings. Combat is the heart and the (dark) soul of any soulslike, and an interesting story and solid world design can only do so little to alleviate issues stemming from clunky combat design.

　　PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

Products mentioned in this post

Elden Ring

Lords of the Fallen

　　6.8

　　Wccftech Rating

　　Lords of the Fallen

　　Lords of the Fallen

　　Lords of the Fallen boasts impressive visuals and an interesting story for a soulslike, but unfortunately, that's where the praise ends. Despite functional gameplay and a well-designed world, the experience is marred by frustrating combat mechanics, subpar enemy placement, and an overall lack of polish, making it one of the most frustrating soulslikes ever released.

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Cons

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