Reviews// Lords of the Fallen

In my second day of playing Lords of The Fallen and I had my first rage quit. I blame this on not being able to find my spirit at the point where I last died (containing two attribute points worth of XP before running afoul of a grenade wielding demon)... It's Dark Souls all over again and despite the rage quit I couldn't be happier.

During the course of this game's development we've heard the frequent comparisons, accusations of outright copying the infamous 'Souls' formula. For some this was a good thing - more Souls-like games is a good thing, they would say, whilst rubbing their hands together. Others would cringe in the corners, worrying that the beloved difficult formula would be ruined.

Lords of The Fallen rewards methodical, slow progress. Not to the point where your game will come to a standstill of indecision - something I suffer from with the Souls games, and this is the first of a few pluses LoTF has over its inspiration.

Another factor is simple accessibility. The controls are smooth and make total sense. Once you've got them memorised venturing into the bleak world becomes a simple matter of sizing up your foe, letting them show you their weak spots and then exploiting them.

I kept dying against one of the bosses and they felt like cheap deaths until I looked around the environment - he had been doing an arena wide one-shot attack once you chipped away one of his health bars. I was ready to call it quits for an hour when I noticed that there were little areas that could function as shelter, so I got my 'One-more-go' cap on and headed in, the boss hunkered down to cast his instant kill move. I ran for what I hoped was shelter... and survived, even his summoned minions were no match for me now I knew how to survive! This example is the core essence of the gameplay loop found in Lords of The Fallen - examine the enemy, try to murder the enemy, probably die a few times, succeed in killing the enemy, loot and repeat.

If you die your experience gets left behind and you have to collect it or risk losing all of the points you collected since last visiting a check point. This leads us to levelling up - You do this at checkpoints (giant floating red crystals), this is also where you replenish health and health potions. At these checkpoints you can bank your accumulated experience in one of two ways, either as attribute points or magic points. These points you spend on increasing base stats like strength, vitality, endurance and agility (plus a few more).

I'm a self-confessed loot addict and this game satisfies that itch marvellously. There are hidden chests everywhere and plenty of armour slots to kit out. The armour lead character Harkyn wears is big and bulky, even when it is classed as 'Light' it is still larger than you find in most RPGs. This is in part due to the size of the guy you are playing as - he is tall, broad and thick limbed, designed from the ground up as a warrior destined to wield impractically large weapons. Currently I am using a sword that is taller than I am in one hand and a shield the size of a barn door. I am close to my weight limit and this means my attacks are incredibly slow, but devastatingly powerful.

Visually the game is absolutely gorgeous. I am playing this on a PC that is only just capable of maxing out the graphics settings. The performance has been optimised further (on Nvidia GPUs) with a recent pre-launch update and fresh graphics drivers. If you have a PC that is fairly new and with a GTX 770+ you should be able to get rock solid performance and stunning graphics. I recommend playing using a gamepad instead of mouse and keyboard, mainly because the controls feel optimised for consoles.

Finally we come to narrative, I've saved this for last because it will most likely be the one divisive element. Story exists, it is well told, but it isn't particularly deep. You are given the bare bones and this gives you justification to head out and explore the lands surrounding Keystone.

Harkyn is a generic balding tough guy whose one original touch is a face covered in runes depicting the various crimes he is guilty of. Different people have different reactions to Harkyn, some fear him, some attempt to use him and at least one wishes him no ill-will and could actually be thought of as a friend.

I can see a few people crying foul, asking why the lore isn't deeper, why is the main character so generic? Whether or not it is intentional, these things work in the game's favour - you are never bogged down with too much information, you have one goal at a time and usually a fairly straight path to get to it. Harkyn is a bit dull, but the armour you eventually cover him in is gorgeously designed and incredibly varied and he is covered from head to toe.

The real stories this game tells are your individual struggles with bosses, running into a standard demon who tears you apart because you didn't have your defences up when you blundered around a corner.

I said towards the beginning that this is Dark Souls all over again, that isn't particularly fair because whilst the formula has been lifted from that series, Lords of The Fallen polishes those tried and tested mechanics to a high shine. If you are a Souls fan then you will probably love this game, if you are new to the idea of difficult, action RPGs then this is a perfect place to start.

Pros:
+ Smooth, intuitive combat mechanics
+ Genuine sense of accomplishment on besting some of the bosses
+ Absolutely stunning graphically
+ so much LOOT!

Cons:
- Occasional cheap deaths because of thin ledges and poor jumping controls.
- Okay music, nothing that really sticks out.

SPOnG Score: 8/10