ZehDon
Member
I recently finished Lords of the Fallen (2023) on PC Game Pass, and was pretty surprised at how much I ended up enjoying it given it wasn't particularly well received at launch. Doing some reading, it seems the developers worked steadily since release to address basically every major criticism of the game. They didn't just balances a few things and call it a day, either. They re-designed swaths of the game entirely. Movement and combat was re-worked and improved, Boss fights were completely changed, and a lot of the annoying bullshit was straight up removed. These updates culminated in the 2.0 release, which is what I ultimately played and thoroughly enjoyed. I can't comment on what the game used to be, because I never played it back them, so I'll just give my thoughts on the game as it stands today.
The biggest surprise was that I enjoyed the world of the game and its story a lot, and relished exploring it across the near-40 hours it took to finish my first playthrough. With Fromsoft's titles, I need hours long lore videos to explain what I just played because, frankly, I can't follow shit save for the major beats. There's an Age of Fire and someone needs to do something about it for some reason, maybe? So much of my enjoyment with LOTF comes from actually being able to follow enough of the narrative that it makes some kind of sense. When I got to the penultimate boss fight, I actually understood the character, what they'd been through, and what was happening - no lore video required. Whoddathunkit. The game uses the usual tool tips and environmental details, but it also uses optional ghost stories you can listen to that flesh out more of the details. As basic as it is, this helped things click together, and it kept me far more engaged than a game like Black Myth: Wukong ever did. The usual Fromsoft "Zanzibart forgive me" vagueness is here, but it's nice to have at least some clarity.
The other aspect of the game I adored was its presentation. On my high-end PC, settings maxed out, ultra-wide OLED with HDR, playing through the game was a privilege. The visual design of the world is often times astounding, with the sheer level of detail and fidelity sitting amongst the best I've seen. Performance was decent, over 60FPS across the entire game, but it suffers from the usual UE5 heavy-ness. I often times stopped my character and just took in the world and how it looked - the design of the vistas, the colours, the depth. Amazing stuff.
The meat and potatoes of the game is obviously its combat, and LOTF is pretty darn solid. I played the usual Sword and Board with the heaviest armour, and the game threw enough challenges at me that I had to get creative (read: desperate) a few times. The combat is definitely the more precise Dark Souls brand of souls-like combat, and a lot less spammy than the Wukong brand. It was a pleasure to play from start to finish. I've finished a lot of souls-likes, and for me the boss fights here ranged from terrific to serviceable, and probably leant a little on the easier side of the spectrum, save for one or two. Doing some reading on 1.0, it seems they did a pass over a lot of the boss fights to remove the bullshit, and it shows - these are smooth, straight up fights. After some of the egregious bullshit in Shadow of the Erdtree, I for one certainly appreciated it.
Lastly, I really liked the Umbral Lamp mechanic. It's a permanent item that, when held up, reveals a secondary world of the dead; monsters, dead gods, and bones layered on top of the world of the living. It's visually spectacular, though, you do grow tired of the ethereal colour palette by the end. When you die, you get a second life in this Umbral plane to keep fighting, however, if you die in Umbral, you're proper dead. You can "shift" into Umbral deliberately for excursions and exploration, and the game requires you to shift back and forth to navigate fully. This is used for some light puzzle solving and traversal, as well as lots of hidden pathways and items. I hope they go further with this mechanic in the sequel and lean into the puzzle solving further; it added a lot to the game, and really helped LOTF stand on its own.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and would give it an easy 8/10. It might climb higher after a spellcaster playthrough and exploring the two other endings. I recommend it for anyone looking for a solid souls-like to sink their teeth in to, or, for anyone looking for a less intimidating entry point into souls-likes.
Although I prefer playing these games alone, probably worth pointing out that the game also implemented a "Friends Pass" alongside its seamless co-op in the 2.0 update, so you can play through the whole game with a friend with one copy if that's your bag.
The biggest surprise was that I enjoyed the world of the game and its story a lot, and relished exploring it across the near-40 hours it took to finish my first playthrough. With Fromsoft's titles, I need hours long lore videos to explain what I just played because, frankly, I can't follow shit save for the major beats. There's an Age of Fire and someone needs to do something about it for some reason, maybe? So much of my enjoyment with LOTF comes from actually being able to follow enough of the narrative that it makes some kind of sense. When I got to the penultimate boss fight, I actually understood the character, what they'd been through, and what was happening - no lore video required. Whoddathunkit. The game uses the usual tool tips and environmental details, but it also uses optional ghost stories you can listen to that flesh out more of the details. As basic as it is, this helped things click together, and it kept me far more engaged than a game like Black Myth: Wukong ever did. The usual Fromsoft "Zanzibart forgive me" vagueness is here, but it's nice to have at least some clarity.
The other aspect of the game I adored was its presentation. On my high-end PC, settings maxed out, ultra-wide OLED with HDR, playing through the game was a privilege. The visual design of the world is often times astounding, with the sheer level of detail and fidelity sitting amongst the best I've seen. Performance was decent, over 60FPS across the entire game, but it suffers from the usual UE5 heavy-ness. I often times stopped my character and just took in the world and how it looked - the design of the vistas, the colours, the depth. Amazing stuff.
The meat and potatoes of the game is obviously its combat, and LOTF is pretty darn solid. I played the usual Sword and Board with the heaviest armour, and the game threw enough challenges at me that I had to get creative (read: desperate) a few times. The combat is definitely the more precise Dark Souls brand of souls-like combat, and a lot less spammy than the Wukong brand. It was a pleasure to play from start to finish. I've finished a lot of souls-likes, and for me the boss fights here ranged from terrific to serviceable, and probably leant a little on the easier side of the spectrum, save for one or two. Doing some reading on 1.0, it seems they did a pass over a lot of the boss fights to remove the bullshit, and it shows - these are smooth, straight up fights. After some of the egregious bullshit in Shadow of the Erdtree, I for one certainly appreciated it.
Lastly, I really liked the Umbral Lamp mechanic. It's a permanent item that, when held up, reveals a secondary world of the dead; monsters, dead gods, and bones layered on top of the world of the living. It's visually spectacular, though, you do grow tired of the ethereal colour palette by the end. When you die, you get a second life in this Umbral plane to keep fighting, however, if you die in Umbral, you're proper dead. You can "shift" into Umbral deliberately for excursions and exploration, and the game requires you to shift back and forth to navigate fully. This is used for some light puzzle solving and traversal, as well as lots of hidden pathways and items. I hope they go further with this mechanic in the sequel and lean into the puzzle solving further; it added a lot to the game, and really helped LOTF stand on its own.
Overall, I really enjoyed it and would give it an easy 8/10. It might climb higher after a spellcaster playthrough and exploring the two other endings. I recommend it for anyone looking for a solid souls-like to sink their teeth in to, or, for anyone looking for a less intimidating entry point into souls-likes.
Although I prefer playing these games alone, probably worth pointing out that the game also implemented a "Friends Pass" alongside its seamless co-op in the 2.0 update, so you can play through the whole game with a friend with one copy if that's your bag.
