Lords of the Fallen will be released soon, along with a new Souls game that many fans of the genre can dive into. MeinMMO author Christos Tsogos was able to play the game before its release and says it was outstanding.
Who is writing here? My name is Christos, I have been passionately playing Souls games since the release of Dark Souls and have spent thousands of hours in various FromSoftware and other Souls games. Therefore, I was allowed to take a look at Lords of the Fallen before the release and examine the game from many perspectives with an experienced eye.
I will now take you into the world of Mournstead, explain what makes Lords of the Fallen so good, and also show you one thing that unfortunately does not work so well. I will try to keep the entire review as spoiler-free as possible, but if you are very allergic to spoilers, you should not read any further from now on. So let’s get started!
Lords of the Fallen is based on inspiration and its own style
First of all: Forget the title from 2014. The new installment has nothing to do with its older self, except for the story that takes place 1000 years after the events of the first part. You are playing a completely new game here with a detailed character creator, a collection of 13 classes (4 of which are secret), countless weapons and armors, as well as bosses.
The game also includes a useful tutorial that teaches the essential things for combat and exploration. You start as a nobody who randomly gets thrown the lamp of the Umbral world. You are blessed by a priest and can then start your journey – the most important and coolest feature is indeed the crossing of dimensions.
At first, I thought it would annoy me to have to use the stupid thing to progress, but I was mistaken. The lamp gives your exploration an immersive depth that I have never experienced in any Souls game.
Every new place I found was thoroughly explored and searched for secrets. There are also crazy beings that you just have to see.
As a long-time player of the Souls genre, what fascinated me the most was how the developers managed to make the game feel so familiar yet new. The game feels like a mix of Dark Souls, Blasphemous, and Bloodborne, with a touch of cosmic horror.
You can clearly see the strong inspiration from older Souls titles, but the developers define these elements in a way that makes them feel fresh. The combat and bonfire system are familiar, but Hexworks adds new features. Depending on the weapons you have equipped, new combos arise in combat. Bonfires can even be set in certain places to have your own checkpoints. That is cool and feels refreshing.
There is a story, but you will have to find it
Keyword: story. There is one, and it is told in cinematics as well as by NPCs, but you have to find most of it yourself, as in almost all Souls games.
In Dark Souls or Elden Ring, countless items served as messengers of the story, and it is the same in Lords of the Fallen.
However, there is a catch, and that is your skills. The higher your “Radiance” and “Inferno” values are, the more you will learn from the items you can find on your journeys. Before that, you only get a short description of the items that says, “Improve your Radiance/ Inferno to gain more insight.”
I didn’t understand this at first, but gradually I became aware of it. Story-wise, it makes sense that my character needs higher values in the individual attributes to understand and “read” heretical or holy items. Personally, I found this to be an immersive plus point that motivated me to strengthen my character to learn more.
Additionally, tragic stories of past lamp bearers are told at the “bonfires,” the save points of Lords of the Fallen.
If that is not enough for you, the many Umbral Stigmata shed more light on the darkness. These are shadow-like remnants of past individuals that you can interact with using your lamp. They play a short scene and recount past events.
And although Lords of the Fallen is a strong game, I also have to point out a significant downside that often annoyed me in the game – and I mean really.
Performance is poor and some graphical issues are present
I played Lords of the Fallen on my PS5. I thought that would be enough and my console could maintain 60 FPS, but that was not the case. In almost every boss fight, my FPS plummeted to what felt like 20 frames (per second). That is not only annoying for the eyes but has cost me one or another death.
I have nothing against poor performance, but especially in such games, performance is crucial. Low FPS can decide victory or defeat. It is even more annoying when you are stuck on a boss for 3 hours just because of this. Additionally, there are some graphical errors in the world, but they are not so severe that they are bothersome.
I hope that these are just bugs that will be fixed with the upcoming patch. Until then, I will still play Lords of the Fallen to the end and treat myself to the platinum trophy.
Conclusion: Lords of the Fallen is a strong game that every Souls fan should check out. It takes what’s familiar in the genre and shapes it into something innovative that has not been seen before. Additionally, the cross-play from console to PC (unfortunately not console to console) offers a great opportunity to explore the game with friends and even duel with them. For this reason, I see Lords of the Fallen as a direct competitor to Dark Souls that hopefully can establish itself in the future.
What do you think of Lords of the Fallen? Will you play the game or do you prefer to stay loyal to Dark Souls or Elden Ring? Let us know in the comments!
