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2023 has been quite the year for challenging, souls-like action RPGs. Lies of P, Blasphemous 2, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, and Remnant 2 are some of the excellent games from the genre to release this year. Next in line is Lords of the Fallen, a debut title from CI Games studio Hexworks.
In case you're wondering, Lords of the Fallen is not a sequel to 2014's soulslike of the same name. It's only loosely connected to the events of the first name and it's more like a fresh start for the franchise.
The good news is - the only thing that 2023's title shares with 2014's is the name. The new Lords of the Fallen is a superior game in almost every single way, bringing an incredible world to explore and an addictive gameplay experience that will be hard to put down.
Lords of the Fallen came out of nowhere to become one of the best video games of 2023, a souls-like that fans of the genre will enjoy for many, many hours.
STORY
Lords of the Fallen kicks off quite heavily with the story with great cutscenes and plenty of dialogue but as soon as you start the adventure after reaching the hub area, the storytelling switches back to the traditional vague narrative that is found in many other games of the same genre.
This means that you'll get the most of the lore and story bits through item descriptions, cryptic NPC dialogue and sometimes also umbral projections that are scattered all over the world, giving you an insight into some tragic events that befall the citizens of Mournstead.
In Lords of the Fallen, you play as a member of the order of the radiant God, Orius, who must stop the resurrection of an ancient demon god called Adyr.
The world of Mournstead was under Adyr's tyranny for a long time until he was overthrown by humanity's heroic order called the Judges. To prevent his return, five beacons were erected across the world by Hallowed Sentinels, who were the first line of defence in case Adyr plans his return.
However, as time passed, the Sentinels disappeared and the beacons became corrupted, opening the door for Adyr's demonic terrors to invade Mournstaead and set the stage for their lord's return.
The story kicks off when disciples of the Orius discover an Umbral Lamp which gives them ungodly powers to cross between the two realms. The order makes a hard decision to use this sacrilegious item in their fight against Adyr as they have no choice with the fate of the world at stake. Your job is to cleanse the five beacons from corruption and stop Adyr from fully invading humanity's home.
The plot is surprisingly well constructed and the world around you is designed to reflect the religious themes and the fight between good and evil. You'll stumble upon villages burned to the ground, people tortured by crazy religious orders, stunningly designed churches and pilgrims travelling large distances to visit these places of worship.
GAMEPLAY
GENERAL DESIGN
Lords of the Fallen is pretty much a true souls-like action RPG in every sense of the word but with a twist called Umbral. Expect bonfire-like checkpoints, a hub area with NPCs where you can upgrade your gear, an interconnected world design full of secrets and shortcuts that you will constantly unlock as you progress, challenging bosses and many optional areas.
However, unlike Dark Souls or Elden Ring, dying in Lords of the Fallen doesn't mean respawning at the Ancient Vestige (Bonfire). Instead, you'll be trapped in Umbral, which is a unique world of the dead that features its own secrets, enemies and treasures. Once you die in Umbral, you'll respawn at the latest Vestige.
Umbral is more dangerous but also more rewarding than Axiom. So for example, Umbral has a "souls" drop modifier that starts at 1.10x but can rise to 2.0x, giving you double the amount of XP you'd get from Axiom. But this also means more dangerous creatures will hunt you down so forget about spending hours farming XP in this dark reality.
Umbral is designed as a place that you need to leave as soon as possible. You'll use it to reach places that are otherwise unreachable in Axiom, find special rewards and then find a special totem or Vestige that will bring you back to Axiom.
Another major change in Lords of the Fallen's design when compared to other souls-likes is the ability to raise your own Vestiges. Pretty much every boss will drop items called Vestige Seed, which you can use to grow a temporary Vestige at specific places, marked with white flowers.
You can only plant two Vestiges at a time and these come as rare loot drops which should make them very valuable in theory but then you'll find out that you can buy the item in the hub area and this somewhat breaks the balance of the otherwise interesting feature.
Another thing regarding Vestiges that bugged me is the placement of these in the world. Sometimes, you'll travel entire areas and not find a single Ancient Vestige but the number of flower beds to plant Seed Vestige will be literary around every corner.
It doesn't make a lot of sense and it takes away from that sense of relief you get when you see a bonfire after a long and hard journey through a level, that Dark Souls did so well.
COMBAT
When it comes to combat, Lords of the Fallen absolutely shines. It's probably one of the best souls-like games I've ever played in terms of combat optimisation and responsiveness. Dodge is more pronounced than roll as it's faster and more effective. The game certainly emphasises that and the parry mechanic, allowing you to break the posture of many enemies and follow up with a devastating attack. There's the Umbral lamp too, a special item that allows you to grab the soul from the enemy's body and deal wither damage.
You can also take wither damage when the enemy hits your shield for example. Taking wither damage results in your HP becoming grey and once the entire HP bar is grey, the next direct hit you take means instant death. If you manage to grey out the entire HP bar of the enemy, you'll break their posture, allowing you to perform a devastating attack. Additionally, you can convert withered health back to real health by striking enemies which adds a layer of depth to the already very complex combat system.
Magic plays a special part in the game, too. Lords of the Fallen features three types of magic - Inferno (fire magic), Radiance (Holy magic) and Umbral (dark magic). Every set of spells is unique and has its place in various builds that you can create in Lords of the Fallen in true RPG fashion. You cast magic by using a respective catalyst and while it may seem like the game has too many things going on at the beginning in terms of magic and the use of Umbral Lamp, once you get a hold of the controls and quick access, it's becomes clear just how intuitive the UI is and how easy is to access everything you need.
Some magic will be stronger against a certain set of enemies than the other, as that's how things work in these games but you'll never get that feeling that your spells are useless, especially Radiant magic, which also comes with a set of strong support spells like healing and protection.
There's only one thing that I've found annoying in combat and that's how the game usually tries to overwhelm you with sheer numbers of enemies on screen to bump up the difficulty. This is an issue in areas where you have stronger mobs that are a proper challenge even 1v1.
The issue is that most of these enemies that come in numbers are pathetically weak and slow and never present a challenge. They are simply there to be annoying and this sometimes breaks the flow of the combat with bigger and stronger enemies, taking away from the enjoyment of fighting these formidable foes. Instead of focusing on your parry or dodge, you'll have to run or roll around the area like a headless chicken to avoid these pesky vermin, which is frustrating.
BOSSES
In Lords of the Fallen, you'll find both incredibly satisfying and underwhelming boss fights. Luckily, there's much more of the former than the latter so most of the time, you'll enjoy the boss design, even though they may start to feel repetitive after a while.
You'll fight both smaller bosses that become regular enemies in a true souls-like fashion and also large monstrosities that will make your skin crawl just by looking at them. Animations in certain boss fights were a proper feast for the eyes and the same is true for the look of bosses and especially their arenas, which look drop-dead gorgeous.
Speaking of difficulty, it's fair to say that the boss fights in Lords of the Fallen aren't as gruellingly tough as those in Elden Ring or Sekiro, for example. While they are certainly quite challenging, and some of the late-game bosses can make your gaming experience a bit of a struggle the difficulty will never reach the Isshin, The Sword Saint levels of hair-pulling intensity.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Simply put, Lords of the Fallen is a true next-gen visual showcase and the best-looking souls-like ever. The level of detail present in every region, area and room is quite astonishing.
The game utilises Unreal Engine 5 and two of the engine's biggest features - Nanite and Lumen - for incredible geometry complexity and global illumination, respectively. This truly results in some incredible visual moments, be it stunning sprawling vistas or beautifully lit indoors with gorgeous environmental art.
The art style is awe-inspiring and heavily reminiscent of Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring. Sometimes, you'll think you're playing a next-gen Dark Souls game as the levels will regularly remind you of From Software's best work.
Both Axiom, the world of the living and Umbral, the world of the death are designed with so much love and care that you'll often stop and simply take in the views. For the incredibly dark design of Umbral, the artists took the core layout of the Axiom levels and added a layer of art that resembles a dark realm of death so vividly, making you want to get the hell out of the place as soon as possible.
The soundtrack fits the game's nature perfectly. You'll get those epic philharmonic sounds during boss fights which help create a tense atmosphere every time you enter the arena. Having a boss slowly walk toward you, thumping his sword onto the shield while a synchronized drum beat is hitting in the background will give you goosebumps, every single time.
Eerie music in Umbral was particularly unsettling and this was obviously done on purpose to make you feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Music will change and become more tense the longer you're in Umbral and as more dangerous terrors start to hunt you in this world of the dead.
On the other hand, I wasn't overly impressed by the sound effects such as sword hitting, swinging and similar as these had a very flat sound in general. I felt that this was one of the few areas where Hexworks could improve the game, perhaps making the sound of weapons and combat more crunchy.
Voice acting is fine. It varies from average to great and while it's certainly not Oscar-worthy most of the time the tone and the language blend great into this dark fantasy world.
VERDICT
Lords of the Fallen stands as a genuine ode to the souls-like genre, a shining masterpiece that deserves recognition as one of the finest action RPGs in recent years. Whether it's the breathtaking art style and best-in-class graphics, the precise and responsive combat, the depth of its RPG elements, or the intricate level design, Lords of the Fallen unquestionably offers an outstanding gaming experience.
Lords of the Fallen caters to both die-hard fans of Dark Souls games but also newcomers to the genre and we wholeheartedly recommend that you buy this one. Hexworks deserve all the support they can get and should be incredibly proud of their debut title. We cannot wait to see what comes next from this talented group of people.
The Good
Challenging but fair and accessible- Incredible art style and visual fidelity
- Strong interconnected level design
- The dual word system is a breath of fresh air for the genre
- Massive selection of various weapons and armour
- Combat feels tight and responsive but...
The Bad
...constant spawning of weaker enemies can break the flow of fights- Bugs resulting in getting stuck or falling through the map
