Lords of the Fallen
I was very excited to play this one. Being a fan of the Souls games and having heard this was directly influenced by them, I had Lords of the Fallen on my list of high-priorities at the show. There were only six demo stations, but almost no line. In fact, I would return later in the day to find an open station with no wait whatsoever, allowing me to play through the demo all over again.
What I immediately noticed was that the graphics seemed pretty highly detailed. Just up the stairs in front of me at the start of the demo, there was an enemy that was some kind of humanoid with a gaping mouth and giant bubbling sores all over its upper body. It let out a scream that was so loud and ghastly that I actually stepped back from the screen a bit and let out an audible gasp. It was a pretty good first impression!
All the controls were straight out of Souls. Same buttons for attacks, same buttons for using items, etc. I was right at home. I didn't have any choice over my weapons though, and I'm not sure if that's something that will be available in the full version or not. There wasn't really anyone to talk to about the game, other than a very pretty lady who was nice and helped set up the demo for people, but otherwise didn't seem like the best source for information regarding the full release.
As I engaged that first enemy, I found all my attacks had a longer windup than I prefer to have in the Souls games. I usually go with shorter weapons that have fast strikes, so having my character equipped with a long staff that he would twirl around for every attack was something I needed to adjust to. Much to my dismay, the enemy didn't always react to my strikes either. I could land a clean hit and the enemy was able to start its own attack, rather than be stunned momentarily. Perhaps this is a design choice for this particular enemy type though, so I can't say that this will be the case with all enemies. I only encountered two other kinds of enemies in the dungeon for this demo, one of which was heavily armored and the kind of enemy that it would make sense to have shrug off your blows. The other was a big spider which I only attacked while it was locked into an animation for laying its eggs. I'm interested in knowing if the enemy not reacting to strikes is either intentional or common or both.
Aside from that, the rest of the demo left a great impression. I was able to lure an enemy to a weak spot on the floor at one point, causing them to plummet into a pit of spikes ala Mortal Kombat. That was pretty satisfying! Also, the boss was big and imposing. He looked like a roman gladiator from hell. His swipes could knock my character on his back and his charges would outright flatten me, taking most of my life. Luckily his attacks weren't super hard to avoid, so the fight lasted for a good while before I eventually lost. I enjoyed the fight quite a bit, but was puzzled on how to defeat it. Melee strikes did not do enough damage and the window for them was so brief it almost didn't exist. This forced me to rely on casting fireballs from a distance repeatedly, exhausting my mana potions and then stalling for time while waiting for my mana to refill on its own. I got the impression there was a trick I just didn't figure out that would have dealt more damage, but I only got to fight him twice and the rush of the moment got the better of me, leaving me to make rash decisions out of momentary desperation.
I'm very excited to play this after trying the demo. I thought it seemed like more than just a budget version of another successful series. The customization options and hit-stuns are something I definitely want more information on, but I think anyone who enjoys the Souls games should put this on their radar because it could be a nice treat while we wait for Bloodborne and the inevitable Dark Souls 3.
