Lords of the Fallen succeeds in everything it tries. This may be a blood-filled trip but Mournstead, through its magical dual world, always calls us back for a last mortal dance.
This recent iteration of Lords of the Fallen has finally achieved what the original couldn't do back in 2014: it has carved itself a unique place in the Soulslike genre where it can belong, allowing it stand confidently beside its inspirations. By refining the traditional Dark Souls style to a finely honed edge and combining it with some compelling lore, a fascinating world and the absolute marvel that is the Umbral realm system, Lords of the Fallen adds another notch to 2023's superb line-up of games. If you're okay with a somewhat obtuse narrative structure and the fact that it is certainly one of the easier Souslikes, Lords of the Fallen is a must-play title for anybody interested in a great Souslike set in a beautifully grim fantasy land.
Lords of The Fallen delivers on the macabre, challenge, and exploration hallmarks of the Souls-like genre. It thrives in the eerie shadows of its obvious inspirations and shines a light on its best features by reimplementing most of them with the benefit of the sexy set dressing brought to life in Unreal 5. While the combat often frustrates when foes begin to crowd, Hexworks seems aware of this with its placement of enemies and world layout. Venturing between the living and the dead with the lamp transcends novelty. Surviving with a partner in tow is also exhilarating. If you can make it past the dense player onboarding that assumes you’ve beaten Dark Souls, then you’re likely to experience the best imagining of a Souls sequel this side of FromSoft.
It's a shame that the technical side, despite having left the most serious problems behind, still shows some rather obvious aesthetic defects, and that the multiplayer mode is almost useless, decisively clipping the wings of a product that remains valid, but could have shone much more.
Lords of the Fallen makes a great first impression, but fails to steer away from the sour taste left by a couple of annoying decisions and technical issues.
Lords of the Fallen may be better than its predecessor in many regards, but it isn’t quite worthy of standing among the genre giants yet. However, this isn’t from a lack of trying. Excellent and varied biomes are on offer that are truly striking and immersive to be beheld to. There are quality improvements to make the experience smoother. Still, balancing for builds, boss fights… the whole gambit is a little all over the place so far. Consider this with some of the bugs currently experienced in-game and it’s not quite smooth sailing yet. Hopefully, before long Lords can be patched into a state where it stands solidly amongst the genre giants.
I desperately want to like Lords of the Fallen, but it's the first game all year that's actively annoyed me. I love the Soulslike genre more than any other, but this game took all of the lessons it could have learned since the original Lords of the Fallen and either forgot them entirely, or just misunderstood them so greviously that you'd assume it skipped a class.
Summary A vast world awaits in all-new, dark fantasy action-RPG, Lords of the Fallen. As one of the fabled Dark Crusaders, embark on an epic quest to overthrow Adyr, the demon God.