to the roots of the soulslike phenomenon

Change of development team, but not name: Lords of the Fallen is back, reviving a series that, in fact, was the first to attempt the souls-like path when it was exclusively From Software that made it. In his first work, Hexworks undertakes a not very simple undertaking, also considering the fact that now even quite shameless clones such as Lies of P have raised the technical and playful bar.

A common trait that we notice before even going into the details of our review is that, like the Neowiz title, balancing is a job that very few other than the aforementioned Japanese developer manages. The first couple of bosses in Lords of the Fallen are quite tough and elaborate in terms of multi-phase design, after which there are a bunch of easy ones and extremely simple in terms of workmanship.

We will have the opportunity to talk about traditional gameplay later, but already from this sign we can perceive how Hexworks has remained anchored to a type of creation of artificial difficulty that characterized the very first exponents of the genre. A type from which the fathers of the genre themselves then distanced themselves to dedicate themselves to more sincere experiences.

A traditional soulslike —

On the gameplay side, despite the many initial explanations that seem to suggest another type of depth, Lords of the Fallen is a very traditional game, more Souls-like than the real Souls. The environments are labyrinthine and try to kill you in all possible ways: you go from one ledge to another from which you fall awkwardly or get pushed down, enemies hidden and well lurked around the corner, elemental dangers, and so on.

The fights are tactical and very reasoned, almost turn-based as in the tradition of the genre, and the fantasy theme – pushed on the religious element – makes it seem like a mix between Dante’s Inferno and Code Vein. The parry conveys a good feeling, with a management of the timing of both attacks and defense that is always transparent, while the character’s movements are a bit fluctuating and, thanks to the look, especially at first glance it seems like finding oneself in one of those cheap tech Unreal Engine demo.

Here too, as in Lies of P, there is a Bloodborne-style dynamic with which you recover a portion of your health by attacking immediately after receiving a blow, but compared to the production made in Korea, ours is much less offensive.

Seminal —

Where Lies of P is proposed at least in the initial fifteen hours as approachable, Lords of the Fallen tries more to give itself a hardcore, old-school souls-like tone, even if the substance is not particularly different – and especially the bosses fight of the first are vastly more complex.
Unlike the first Lords of the Fallen, which paradoxically drew its originality from being so similar to Dark Souls in a historical moment where there were no similar titles, here there is an attempt to try something original.

They range from the microscopic of the automatic combos (indeed, we would have liked to see more) to the macroscopic of the seeds to place manual checkpoints and the much sponsored lantern, with which to travel between dimensions.

The seeds give exploration a strategic component of no small importance: they cost little, so nothing prevents you from placing them at will, but while navigating a level it can be a gamble waiting for another flowerbed in which you can place them or giving in to the temptation to immediate rest.

Lantern Derby —

The lantern, on the other hand, is necessarily more linear: it unlocks originally blocked paths and small puzzles but, as evocative as it is to reveal them when the light passes (and the developer even plays with them from time to time), its usefulness is anchored to a few well established points. We can use it freely, mostly in search of the right path, but it is very clear when doing so is required by the game to move forward in the story. The most important aspects are basically two: aesthetics, given that switching to Umbral gives the title a more distinct aesthetic, and the way in which its mere existence gives us an extra life to recover at game over – as long as we don’t be already “in the other” dimension when we go down.

In this sense, it could superficially be considered a facilitation: however, Umbral not only has a mechanism that recalls the madness of Bloodborne (the longer we stay there, the more the fear parameter rises which makes everything more complicated and makes us end up in the crosshairs of a particularly pedantic mob), but it is also denser with enemies than the starting world. Which, together with the fact that only entry is free but to exit we must access specific spots, reveals how Hexworks has made a certain effort to avoid imbalances due to the alternation of dimensions.

Only a few weeks ago it was surprising how refined Lies of P was, almost unique in the souls-like panorama. And, technically, Lords of the Fallen doesn’t seem to be playing in the same league: there are considerable frame rate consistency issues even on high-end or very high-end PCs, clipping between enemies and environments, and – while these aren’t obstacles insurmountable to the enjoyment of the experience – also for these reasons we preferred to cap it at 30fps for a more aesthetically pleasing and above all more fluid experience.

Lords of the Fallen, the verdict —

Ultimately, despite a frankly discouraging start and a visual package more like an Unreal Engine demo than a finished game, Lords of the Fallen is an enjoyable old-fashioned souls-like: since the days of the progenitor of the same name the genre has moved forward but, if you want a familiar approach or nostalgia for that type of experience, at the right price it could be right for you.