-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Lords of the Fallen |OT| Not that one. The other one.
- Thread starter stickkidsam
- Start date
- |OT|
TheDarkPhantom
Member
I wanted to get a fair way in before posting early impressions. Just beat the first real boss and fully explored the level leading up to it. Initial thoughts are...mixed.
Anyone expecting Dark Souls 4 temper your expectations lol. NOBODY does it like FROM, closest we've gotten is Nioh 2 and Lies of P (highly recommend it). We've got a fair bit of jank here, performance is fairly good overall but issues like frame drops and stuttering do occur. I guess I'm a bit lenient here having beaten Jedi Survivor pre latest patch and that had some of the worst technical issues I've seen in *years*. Compared to that I have no issue dealing with this but it needs to be pointed out and ultimately devs could have delayed the game for more polish.
Visuals can be beautiful but can also look "muddy". Lighting is on point, anyone experiencing a "washed out" look, go into Display settings and up the contrast, I've got mine at 65, brightness at 50. Animations are good but again, Lies of P is way beyond this, nevermind FROM. Sounds great though voices are hit or miss. Hub area music is God-tier.
Umbral Lamp is the game's biggest mechanic and differentiator within the Souls genre. Thus far I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about it. On one hand it's intriguing knowing there are secrets hidden behind the thin membrane separating worlds, waiting to be discovered. Likewise clever design in traversing through the environment or finding alternate paths. On the other hand, it can sometimes be tedious feeling compelled to constantly raise your lamp and interrupt the flow of things. Time will tell how the mechanic ultimately sits with me.
Combat *physically* feels great on PS5 due to solid haptic support, launching fireballs with my Pyro is a joy. However, it doesn't have the same satisfying sense of weight, heft and impact that the FROM Gods produce. Like Lies of P this has a posture mechanic but it's hidden (no bar) so you just have to perform actions like parry/charged attack/kick until an enemy enters that stagger state allowing for a fatal attack.
That's it for now, will be playing most of the day, will add more thoughts later
Anyone expecting Dark Souls 4 temper your expectations lol. NOBODY does it like FROM, closest we've gotten is Nioh 2 and Lies of P (highly recommend it). We've got a fair bit of jank here, performance is fairly good overall but issues like frame drops and stuttering do occur. I guess I'm a bit lenient here having beaten Jedi Survivor pre latest patch and that had some of the worst technical issues I've seen in *years*. Compared to that I have no issue dealing with this but it needs to be pointed out and ultimately devs could have delayed the game for more polish.
Visuals can be beautiful but can also look "muddy". Lighting is on point, anyone experiencing a "washed out" look, go into Display settings and up the contrast, I've got mine at 65, brightness at 50. Animations are good but again, Lies of P is way beyond this, nevermind FROM. Sounds great though voices are hit or miss. Hub area music is God-tier.
Umbral Lamp is the game's biggest mechanic and differentiator within the Souls genre. Thus far I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about it. On one hand it's intriguing knowing there are secrets hidden behind the thin membrane separating worlds, waiting to be discovered. Likewise clever design in traversing through the environment or finding alternate paths. On the other hand, it can sometimes be tedious feeling compelled to constantly raise your lamp and interrupt the flow of things. Time will tell how the mechanic ultimately sits with me.
Combat *physically* feels great on PS5 due to solid haptic support, launching fireballs with my Pyro is a joy. However, it doesn't have the same satisfying sense of weight, heft and impact that the FROM Gods produce. Like Lies of P this has a posture mechanic but it's hidden (no bar) so you just have to perform actions like parry/charged attack/kick until an enemy enters that stagger state allowing for a fatal attack.
That's it for now, will be playing most of the day, will add more thoughts later
Last edited:
Zheph
Member
I really hope people are not going into this with that in mind
Thanks for the early feedback mate
GymWolf
Member
Yeah, i'm gonna laugh at everyone who bring those "souls experts youtubers" to prove a point about this game.
I'm seeing some gameplay and enemy ia and their path-finding (i think that's the word) are kinda hilarious sometimes.
The game should have been in the oven for at least another 6 months.
Last edited:
DavidGzz
Gold Member
Heh, I don't play Souls for the good A.I. You can range cheese almost any enemy in Souls. Performance was terrible in Dark Souls on Xbox 360 and I still LOVED it. I'll judge for myself later today. The impressions from people who actually played it are nice otherwise, bleh.
Last edited:
GymWolf
Member
I'm not talking about just being stupid, i'm talking about them literally attacking a wall or freezing or walking into a wall because their path-finding is bugged.
Maybe i was extremely unlucky with the footage i was watching (rurikhan) but i watched like 10 min and it happened like 5 times...
Another 2 things that bothers me (if true, we know how fucking bad journalists are even with simple things so i take everything like a grain of salt) is that instead of having a lot of different enemies or hard enemies, they just put a lot of them to ramp up the difficulty, and the boss are mostly a joke because they have to reuse them as normal enemies later in the game.
Low enemy variety, large number of enemies on screen to make up for how shit they are and easy boss fights are kind of cardinal sins for a soulslike.
Like fromsoft have situations where they gang up on you, but in fallen it seems like the norm.
Waiting for feedbacks from gaffers but these seems like problems you can't notice immediately, so i expect positive reception at the beginning.
Last edited:
DavidGzz
Gold Member
Sounds like assumptions since you haven't heard those as facts(enemy variety). Low enemy variety point for example is directly challenged by IGN's review that claimed the opposite. Souls does the same thing with bosses becoming enemies. Taurus and Capra demon are just two examples. And just throwing "shit enemies" in willy nilly is another assumption.
GymWolf
Member
They are not my assumptions, it's literally what some reviews says, maybe you missed when i said that i take all of this with a grain of salt because i don't trust reviews and that i'm waiting for gaf impressions.
But i saw the dumb ia and bad path-finding with my own eyes, so i know it is at least partially true.
Yes souls very rarely use some small bosses as enemies, from what i'm hearing, fallen turn this into 11, it is ok if it is rare, but every boss becoming a normal enemy is trash game design because no boss is gonna feel like a unique encounter.
DavidGzz
Gold Member
So Elajjaz restarted a couple of times and managed to kill the first boss(Light Reaper). I don't even know what he got for it. I doubt it's worth the effort but it's cool to see it happen.
Edit: Looks like you get 25 Umbral Scouring, 1 Vestige seed, Light Reaper flesh, and The Light Reaper's Umbral Parasite. No idea what all of that is.
Edit: Looks like you get 25 Umbral Scouring, 1 Vestige seed, Light Reaper flesh, and The Light Reaper's Umbral Parasite. No idea what all of that is.
Last edited:
GymWolf
Member
Yeah that dude has always been a monster with souls games, he does no hit runs and shit.
TheDarkPhantom
Member
A few more hours in, everything is starting to click more and I'm really digging the game. Switched out my starting staff to an axe and it feels way better, combat enjoyment increased 10 fold. Further I get the more I appreciate the Umbral Lamp, I think I'm a fan lol.
There have been some really cool moments with the lamp and I've gotten used to using the "soul pull" in combat. Favourite thing is pulling the soul and sending it off a cliff, the body of the enemy following in it's wake. Once when raising the lamp to examine something an enemy on the other side happened to be nearby and it attacked me and pulled me into Umbral!
I went with Hard Mode choosing the Pyro but I'm liking the class, wish I knew where the pyro NPC was to get more spells, still only have the starting Fireball. FYI for those considering what class to go with, the other two schools of magic have NPC's in the hub area after the 1st boss so you will have access to new spells quickly.
There have been some truly beautiful environments. The game doesn't always sing visually but when it does it *really* does. A few screenshots from early game:
Anyway, back to it! Oh and some of the mobs can be obnoxious, especially in the Umbral realm, get ready to git gud
There have been some really cool moments with the lamp and I've gotten used to using the "soul pull" in combat. Favourite thing is pulling the soul and sending it off a cliff, the body of the enemy following in it's wake. Once when raising the lamp to examine something an enemy on the other side happened to be nearby and it attacked me and pulled me into Umbral!
I went with Hard Mode choosing the Pyro but I'm liking the class, wish I knew where the pyro NPC was to get more spells, still only have the starting Fireball. FYI for those considering what class to go with, the other two schools of magic have NPC's in the hub area after the 1st boss so you will have access to new spells quickly.
There have been some truly beautiful environments. The game doesn't always sing visually but when it does it *really* does. A few screenshots from early game:
Anyway, back to it! Oh and some of the mobs can be obnoxious, especially in the Umbral realm, get ready to git gud
GymWolf
Member
Isn't deprived the hard mode class? the one with a bucket full of piss and shit as starting weapon?A few more hours in, everything is starting to click more and I'm really digging the game. Switched out my starting staff to an axe and it feels way better, combat enjoyment increased 10 fold. Further I get the more I appreciate the Umbral Lamp, I think I'm a fan lol.
There have been some really cool moments with the lamp and I've gotten used to using the "soul pull" in combat. Favourite thing is pulling the soul and sending it off a cliff, the body of the enemy following in it's wake. Once when raising the lamp to examine something an enemy on the other side happened to be nearby and it attacked me and pulled me into Umbral!
I went with Hard Mode choosing the Pyro but I'm liking the class, wish I knew where the pyro NPC was to get more spells, still only have the starting Fireball. FYI for those considering what class to go with, the other two schools of magic have NPC's in the hub area after the 1st boss so you will have access to new spells quickly.
There have been some truly beautiful environments. The game doesn't always sing visually but when it does it *really* does. A few screenshots from early game:
Anyway, back to it! Oh and some of the mobs can be obnoxious, especially in the Umbral realm, get ready to git gud
TheDarkPhantom
Member
4 of the classes are labeled as Advanced, this includes Pyro and Depraved. I was saying from the perspective of still not having access to new spells.
gaming_again
Member
Okay, I’m interested again.A few more hours in, everything is starting to click more and I'm really digging the game. Switched out my starting staff to an axe and it feels way better, combat enjoyment increased 10 fold. Further I get the more I appreciate the Umbral Lamp, I think I'm a fan lol.
There have been some really cool moments with the lamp and I've gotten used to using the "soul pull" in combat. Favourite thing is pulling the soul and sending it off a cliff, the body of the enemy following in it's wake. Once when raising the lamp to examine something an enemy on the other side happened to be nearby and it attacked me and pulled me into Umbral!
I went with Hard Mode choosing the Pyro but I'm liking the class, wish I knew where the pyro NPC was to get more spells, still only have the starting Fireball. FYI for those considering what class to go with, the other two schools of magic have NPC's in the hub area after the 1st boss so you will have access to new spells quickly.
There have been some truly beautiful environments. The game doesn't always sing visually but when it does it *really* does. A few screenshots from early game:
Anyway, back to it! Oh and some of the mobs can be obnoxious, especially in the Umbral realm, get ready to git gud
SaniOYOYOY
Member
how are people playing already? Its only open in 40 min for me
ClanOfNone
Member
I was kinda surprised at some of the reviews after watching around a half hour of streamers playing it.
I thought it looked really solid from what I saw, but I guess the truth will be in the gameplay itself.
I've got the day off so I plan on starting it pretty soon.
Zheph
Member
Krappadizzle
Member
I really like what I've seen. I'm impressed. I'm sure launch is gonna be a bit rough and there will be some fair criticisms but I think by the time I can even get around to trying this out a good bit of the issues may be ironed out. Looking forward to more impressions and screenshots.
Last edited:
PlayofSparta
Member
its out for pc
PlayofSparta
Member
yeahhhhh not for me. refunded.
back to lies of p
back to lies of p
ClanOfNone
Member
I'm playing performance mode on a series X and I think it runs fine. I am 47 with shite vision though, so ymmv.
People are spot on about the floaty movement/combat. It lacks the weight and precision of Souls, maybe a design decision for faster combat. Your weapon gets hung up a lot in tight spaces where the camera suffers a ton as well.
The umbral mechanic is neat, reminiscent of Soul Reaver, but I'm not a fan that enemies respawn endlessly there.
Spongy enemies seem to be the trend in these games for some reason, one that I am not fond of. Especially if your gonna mob me with them.
Sounds like I'm being fairly negative, but I am enjoying myself so far. If you want a purty lookin Soulslike and don't mind a bit of euro-jank in your combat, I'd say it's worth a buy.
People are spot on about the floaty movement/combat. It lacks the weight and precision of Souls, maybe a design decision for faster combat. Your weapon gets hung up a lot in tight spaces where the camera suffers a ton as well.
The umbral mechanic is neat, reminiscent of Soul Reaver, but I'm not a fan that enemies respawn endlessly there.
Spongy enemies seem to be the trend in these games for some reason, one that I am not fond of. Especially if your gonna mob me with them.
Sounds like I'm being fairly negative, but I am enjoying myself so far. If you want a purty lookin Soulslike and don't mind a bit of euro-jank in your combat, I'd say it's worth a buy.
Valt7786
Member
Playing performance mode on PS5 and its running perfectly fine, you get a very slight hangup at the start of a cutscene sometimes, but so far its been practically flawless 60fps the whole way. Got to just past the first real boss and ive had a great time with it.
The super negative reviews were either by people who just plain dont like these games, ed nightingale or people who were out to shit on it from the start.
Its a very pretty, very capable soulslike and deserves to at least be tried by anyone who was interested. Its not perfect, of course, but it does what it sets out to do very well, just like Lies of P did.
The super negative reviews were either by people who just plain dont like these games, ed nightingale or people who were out to shit on it from the start.
Its a very pretty, very capable soulslike and deserves to at least be tried by anyone who was interested. Its not perfect, of course, but it does what it sets out to do very well, just like Lies of P did.
Draugoth
Gold Member
There's a lot of journalists who are nitpicking too much because of FromSoftware.
If it wasnt for the peformance issues it would be scoring 85 on Opencritic. They should have delayed it for a month of two.
DavidGzz
Gold Member
So Asmon and Elajjaz must just be lucky. I have watched hours of each of their playthroughs and they are not having performance issues or even talking about them. Sadly I can't play until like 10pm. Overtime at work, the gym, plus some school event for my daughter that I am helping with are keeping me busy. I'll see how it runs for me tonight.
Last edited:
Draugoth
Gold Member
An unoptimzied game will run fine if you have the best gaming PC available. And these two surely have the best machines possible.
DavidGzz
Gold Member
Well, mine isn't but it's close enough so I hope that at 1440p it will run just fine. A 4070ti should brute force it.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Lies of P shouldn’t be in the same category as this game. It’s leagues ahead and a hair shy of FS goodness.
Lies of P should be praised just on the fact that every version of it runs incredible, looks incredible, and only had one major bug at launch. In the year 2023 where every game comes out 6 months to years too early for full price, Lies of P was absolutely a finished high quality product.
Draugoth
Gold Member
The performance is either hit or miss. I noticed some stutterings but it runs at 60 fps at most of the tine.
I think it's UE5 fault.
Yeah, i cant refund it sadly. I do think the game would be on par with Lies of P in terms of quality if it wasn't for the dogshit peformance.
Lokaum D+
Member
Yeah, those dudes have like 15k PCs, they can brute force the game performance, just look at steam page, a LOT of ppl are complaining about performance issues.
DavidGzz
Gold Member
Dusktildawn48
Member
CDKEYS delivered my codes.
TheShocker
Member
Frame rate seems fine on XSX. The textures just seem low res or something. As the resolution in performance mode seems decent. I dig the art direction too. Still salty the Xbox didn’t get a day one patch.
kittoo
Cretinously credulous
Yeah the game already more than doubled Lies of P max concurrent user count (19k). So I guess it could turn out to be a success after all.
winjer
Gold Member
Maybe.
But Lies of P is on Gamepass. So a lot of people just played it there. Me included.
kittoo
Cretinously credulous
Actually, now that you mention, I also played it on gamepass lol. While for sure one player gamepass is far less valuable than one actual buyer on steam, still you are right than Lies of P must be a bigger success than what it's max 19k player count might suggest.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
It also has a bug that is ridiculous to launch the game with. Invaders if you play online can kill your world npcs and they won’t respawn , thus ruining side quests etc. Compared to the Lies of P bug where a small few couldn’t get past chapter 2, which they fixed lightning fast, and its night and day.
I don’t personally think from my time with the game so far it would be on par with LoP even if the bugs and performance were up to snuff. The umbral lamp is whack. As previous posts of mine put here’s a few issues with JUST the lamp mechanic:
*Game turns into assassins creed, Arkham, etc where you are constantly “scanning” and being taken out of immersion. Chore mechanic.
*Dying during a boss locks you into a long mini scene of you reviving while the boss stands on top of you , and then unlocks you from boss, and is a major tempo killer to a genre where flow is crucial to keep you on your toes.
*This one mechanic has like 4 or more button variant and prompts. It overloads the controls for the game. You have to hit down if you are in ranged weapon , then L2 to bring it up, then you have a R1,R2, triangle, and I Think square button combination to JUST do shit with this lamp. Oh and you can use direction flicks of stick to throw enemies with it or to you, and you can rip souls out with it. Chill the fuck out man no one needs this much shit dumped into one mechanic and this much control congestion.
This is just my criticism of one of its key mechanics. It’s bad fundamentally to this genre of games.
If the game gets a lot better in other aspects then great, but currently this game misses all the key aspects of a souls game other than visuals and the leveling system.
swing_harder
Member
I think there actually is a posture meter. It's just tiny and you can barely see it...lol. It's a circlular gauge around the enemy lock on symbol. Once that circle is “empty” you can do a finishing attack.
Last edited:
GHG
Member
Performance is awful apparently.
I'll see how it runs on my PC later but I'm not holding my breath, it looks bad.
ClanOfNone
Member
The first boss is killin me, literally and figuratively. The AI summons is pretty useless, and I can't seem to get anybody on the multiplayer side, dunno if MP is working or not.
Somebody above mentioned textures. I've noticed some of this as well, either real low rez or just plain missing. Maybe that is just the tradeoff for "performance" mode.
Somebody above mentioned textures. I've noticed some of this as well, either real low rez or just plain missing. Maybe that is just the tradeoff for "performance" mode.
Lokaum D+
Member
i already did, 130 hours in it, downloading LotF right now to give it a try.
about your comment, are you disregarding a lot of performance issues that people are having just cause two streamers aren't having any ?
PectacularOz
Member
FYI - the "revert to 30fps" on coop bug seems to be xbox only.
Playing PS5 coop right now, and 60fps. Just a lil laggy.
Playing PS5 coop right now, and 60fps. Just a lil laggy.
DavidGzz
Gold Member
No, I actually didn't know it was so bad. I just visited Steam. Still, 400 people on Steam when it's sold so many thousands may be a small percentage so here is hoping I'm good.
Arsic
Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I’m getting stutters even on ps5 performance mode lol.
Lokaum D+
Member
as u said, after it released Lies of P peaked at 19K players, for a game that was "free" on gamepass thats huge, i would say its even a bigger success for this factor alone.
Last edited: