Lords of the Fallen | Review in 3 Minutes
Вставка
- Опубліковано 12 жов 2023
- Join our Patreon for a week of Early Access to all of our Premium video series including Zero Punctuation, Cold Take, Extra Punctuation, Adventure is Nigh and more! Just $2/month with a 7 day free trial. ►► / the_escapist
KC Nwosu reviews Lords of the Fallen, developed by Hexworks.
Lords of the Fallen on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/15...
Join our growing Discord community: / discord
Subscribe to Escapist Magazine! ►► bit.ly/Sub2Escapist
---
---
The Escapist Merch Store ►►teespring.com/stores/the-esca...
Join us on Twitch ►► / the_escapist_official
Like us on Facebook ►► / escapistmag
Follow us on Twitter ►► / escapistmag - Ігри
![Lords of The Fallen | the Best Soulslike Ever [Review]](/img/n.gif)
1:50 That notification got me.
Editing audio for this video on point
I was about to point that out! Yeah, Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick! KC got a Discord ping at this time stamp!
Had to replay it just to make sure it wasn't just my Discord messing with me.
1:51 - who else was taking a look at their Discord?
I actually did
That shifting planes of existence mechanic looks amazing. I can only hope its not as difficult as the review portrays it
I’ve seen several other reviewers say it is more fair than this
portrays*
If you haven't, I'd watch the Newly Released stream from yesterday (October 12th) where Frost played the game and offered his insight into gameplay. Nick also makes comments in chat from about the 40-minute mark onward.
Both of them seemed to have less trouble in the game, similar to Lies of P. Frost also did a 15 tips video on the Prima Games channel that outlines important things to note in early game.
It’s not that hard
it ain't lol
I love soulslikes to the point of doing lvl 1 challenges at one point but dropped it for the "I can only damage human npcs with riposte" which lasted for a lot of my DS3 playthrough after I first finished it. Just the idea of infinite respawn and increasing the amount of mobs got my expectations really low for this game, which is a big thank you for you guys. Will start my Wrath of the Righteous playthrough without any FOMO now
The infinitely respawning enemies and mob count increasing with time only happen on umbral. The idea is that you should be trying to avoid umbral at all costs.
Not sure if that was quite clear from the video
@@iurigrang it was partially, altho the interpretation of "you should avoid being there" does provide a better sense of meaningful reason, so I thank you for that. Still, I think I will keep that one with Lies of P and buy them only after my GPU upgrade, not before as I envisioned
you also get better drop and more exp longer you stay there so its kinda double edge sword @@iurigrang
@@urielnascimento3567, I heard lies of P is really, really well optimized.
You should be able to run it even on 1050 ti level card
Going into and out of umbral is not optional. Vast amounts of the game require you to be in umbral to progress and you can only leave at specific check points scattered around. It's a core part of the game that you are required to interact with. Should you try to leave umbral as quickly as you can? Yes, but you will be spending a bunch of time in it and forced into a lot.
discord ping at 1:51 spooked me. Great review tho, thanks!
There is a really fine line these kind of games need to walk between providing an engaging challenge to struggle with and then feel good about overcoming and just making something frustrating enough to make you quit. Backtracking through areas with high mob density infinitely respawning enemies sounds like endless frustration without the corresponding release from eventually overcoming it.
Played like 2 hours today and I think I can a sense of what he's talking about. But honestly, I think refreshing to play a soulslikes with difficult levels instead of insane difficulty spikes on bosses.
Guess I'll see down the line
As someone who's beaten most Soulsborne games (and Lies of P as well) besides Demon's Souls, seeing Lords of the Fallen's footage actually concerns me because it may actually be a bit overtuned.
Thing is with Souls, it's true that it's difficult, but you're still playing on ONE difficulty after all, so the game has to take account for the fact that you can actually get through levels without too much trouble. It's far too easy for games to be hard for genuinely no reason.
That's the feeling I'm getting from what I've seen and what I've read in a variety of reviews. I was excited about the alternate plane mechanic, but now it sounds annoying since enemies in the real world can still see and damage the player. I'm also not a fan of them making enemies in that umbral area infinitely respawn. It also comes across as a dirty trick to make the player get aggravated by enemies and rush through the area only to have them die to traps. I mean, I've rushed through areas in FromSoftware games, but I was rarely killed by traps or anything else that would feel like bs.
@@SolaScientiayup, that’s where the difficulty spikes are in this game.
The git gud crowd will have the same complaints when they actually play the damn game, cause it’s not a skill issue, it’s a balancing issue.
@@theescapistI'll see 😈
@@theescapist I was initially sort of interested in the game, but the more I've seen and read about it the more concerned I've gotten. At some point I picked up the original Lords of the Fallen on Steam and apparently played abut an hour of the game. I have zero memory of buying it or playing it, lol. I was hoping this new one would be better and get my interest, but it doesn't look that way at this point.
I feel like a lot of Soulslikes miss the point of a Souls game and what makes them special. It isn't only the difficulty. There are a lot of other aspects that are added in to make the game feel just right.
For what it's worth, despite some flaws I can’t put it down. I'm used to sprinting through tough areas as one of my strategies, so I want it balanced more, and it can be frustrating, but I love the level design and all the secrets of the world. KC and I are opposite takes on this one, minus agreeing on the difficulty being unbalanced. @PaulaKiesling
neat concise review!
could you remove discord background sounds? :D 1:51
Thanks, KC. This one looked interesting and I'll try it out when I get a chance to. Hopefully they might fix some of the balance issues in a future update.
Thanks for the full analysis, it did start to sound really promising, but I feel that I would end up in the same place as you did playing it, which is unfortunate.
I too just saved $60 bucks and wait for a patch or maybe a steep sale since frustration is key point in this vid.
I remember the original from 2014. It was one of the first games I played where my original PC, with it's GTX960, Intel Core i5-6500 and 16GB of DD4 could not run at 1080/60 without messing with the settings.
For some reason I thought I had bought a supercomputer, I knew very little about PCs and the vendor I had bought the parts from and had them build it took huge advantage of this lack of knowledge.
The worst part of that build was the power supply, which was fully sired and limited to a 6 pin input on GPUs. I couldn't put any GPU with more than a 6 pin connection into that PC. It was advertised as an 850 w PSU, but I'll bet it couldn't power more than about 300 or 400 watts. The vendor talked me into a grade less of a GPU and CPU than I asked for, and when I finally began to understand the basics of PC gaming, the component parts and so forth, I was horrified to learn why the vendor did that, all so that he could sell me a complete system with one of his crappy PSUs.
Don't buy something that expensive without a full picture of it's abilities, folks.
Anyway, I wasn't a huge fan of that PC and I wasn't a huge fan of Lords of the Fallen which I associate with that crappy PC, and I think I'll wait a while before trying this reboot.
Interesting. It seems the devs are working hard on this game, I would expect patches improving the overtuned difficult if it is indeed an issue. Usually infinite spawning enemies is a big NO NO.
Overall seems really solid, also, it has no Denuvo and runs on Unreal (mods somewhat possible?)
Thumbs up from me! :)
Lost me when I heard enemies scale with you. I'd be willing to give it a chance if not for that. Growing stronger over time and being able to mop the floor with enemies that once gave you trouble is one of the biggest draws of these games for me
Jep, me too. Dealbreaker and not a lot people mention it!
That's why Diablo 4 turned into garbage after level 40, maybe before then
Not for me. I prefer everyone being a challenge. And my strength is more in how I execute. Not just me having brute pwn everyone mode power. Not fun for me
It's not true. Enemies don't scale with you. You can go back to previous places at anytime and see how strong you've gotten. Each zone has a level though, I wish he worded that better.
They scale with you? Thats stupid
Huh. I'm a bit torn. Honestly, the more I heard about the challenge, the more excited I got, but infinitely spawning enemies doesn't feel like the true spirit of a souls-like. I had the same beef with Remnant 1, since the game just kept spawning low HP mobs and throwing them at you whenever I encountered an enemy. It threw enemy layout and level design out the window and turned it into a horde-mode action game, which just wasn't what I was looking for. I haven't played Remnant 2 yet, because of that.
Welp, there's plenty of time to decide. I'm still finishing up Lies of P and a bunch of other games.
I've heard about performance problems as well. Waiting for the newest game to get fixed always seems to be the safest bet
@@JulesNekro I know the Xbox version has major problems, but I think the PS and PC versions also have some problems; just not as severe as the Xbox version.
Remnant 2 changed the constant bombardment of ads because of so many complaints. Just figured I’d let you know. 😊
@@MattOwensU Appreciate it. That would be a big step up for me.
Im not gonna sugar coat it, this reviewer is terrible at reviewing, especially at context and understanding mechanics. There is infinite spawning enemies... in the second world "Umbral" you get after dying once or willing going into. Enemies infinitely spawning are the easiest and telegraphed enemies... and they are not hard at all to take down. And easy to ignore in most cases. And dont spawn at fast rates at all. Umbral is meant as a second chance mechanic or used sparringly to traverse small sections and uncovering secrets, or used to gain more currency from enemies.
These benefits sound great, right? But what the reviewer fails to understand is... that its meant to be a risk vs reward system. And you arent forced to stay in Umbral 90% of the time. There's so many tricks to escape it for careful players... and this reviewer blatantly explained that they are someone that blitz through things rams forward foolishly when annoyed at being in umbral. He literally shows his deaths are a cause of ignoring enemies he couldnt ingore and bum rushing into danger, instead of retreating back amd tactically. A person that explores and uses the game mechanics will have all the tools they need to survive and even eventually master the place and reap its benefits.
Is the other world mechanic more difficult than standard world? Yes, its meant to be. And its not meant to be the only mode to play, and has its fratures to overcome it. Theres a reason all weapons have movesets and attacks that focus on singular enemies or wide attacks to deal with multiple lower tier mobs. You have a latern thats your best friend in Umbral with unique mechanics to this game specifically for a reason. You have lots of check points and items and mechanics that are plain to see by game design... if you arent trying to rush a game to beat it quickly to get a review out... which this person clearly did 😐
Bottom line. The guy is terrible at the game and tried smashing his head to his own rythm rather than the game's rhythm, and purposesly neglected explaining mechanics... either becuase he didnt understand em or becuase he knew he played wrong, all to save face.
I heard the discord notification at 01:51
I thought something was up with the enemies, even though they are the same enemies, and I've levelled up all my stats a bunch, it still takes the same amount of hits to kill the same enemy.
This for 40$ would be huge, gonna wait and complete lies of p in the meantime
I’m loving Lies of P, bro. I’ve heard things that are all over the place with this game, though…
@@jordancave3089 for me lotf is more a game I'd casually play every once in a while. Dumping a lot of hours at once on it would probably feel very frustrating (at least for me). But imagine dominating an area because of your specific build or you getting used to the combat, probably a lot of fun
Thumbs up for your honesty.
So it drags out the multiple realms from soul reaver but crushes nuts and is kinda bleh? Ty for the heads up
Always appreciated a short story 🙏 you get what I mean short and sweet 😂
Yeah I’ve gotten the Deluxe Version game so far and I’m having a blast so hopefully these issues could be fixed with future updates and patches.
1:50 cool discord notification
Man - Armored Core 6, Lies of P, and now this! Joypad repair companies must be making a killing with all the ones smashed from these 3 recent brutal games haha
Oh, boy, this comment section is a mess.
Well, thank you for the review, KC. I hope you can manage to ignore the trolls at the bottom of the section.
I was looking forward to this, really thought they'd improve over the first one. But between this review, KC's more detailed thought's during the launch day stream while Frost went from "There is a way to play this to balance it to your advantage" and "Where the hell am I going and why is every thing following me?", and Steam reviews saying it runs like butt even on high-end computers, I'll take a pass on it. Shame.
Dcord notification at 1:51
I'm having fun with this game sure it needs a patch but is definitely solid game behind it
Great review and subbed, appreciate the breakdown!
Hmm, I have heard elsewhere that the combat is actually not that hard. It may come down to playstyle.
This is weird considering EVERY other review is saying that one of the main negatives of this game is that it is much easier and especially boss fights are way too easy and they don't have a good enough moveset!
name one that says its easier. i've watched like, 4 now and they all say the bosses aren't that hard, but that the rest of the game is.
Maybe it's the coop that makes it so much easier ?
@@bitrotter hey, change of pace for a soulslike, where the bosses don't kill you, the normal enemies do. I call that innovative!
Hard to say. Some people just arent good at these games or have no experience with them.
Like I never really expect to feel like im becoming overpowered until maybe the beginning of ng+ so if you expect that kind of thing it makes me think youre new to the genre
Game is artificially difficult by adding endless trash mobs
Anybody else having issues with the multi player mode?
They couldn't make an interesting challenge so they just doubled enemy density. You've got difficulty REALLY fucked up when exploration is 10 times harder than the actual boss of the area.
Exploration was significantly harder than the bosses in ds1 too but nobody was complaining then
Discord boop scared me
Well, I wasn't going to play it anyway. but now I'm extra-not going to play it. Thanks KC!
LoL..these games aren't games.. They're time sucks
This is gonna be the next holy grail for the 'Just Git Gud' gamers, is it?
Shame all the steam reviews are saying it runs like ass. Guess I gotta give it a couple weeks to update to a playable state before i get it.
Mom can we buy Eldenring?, we have Eldenring at home.
Eldenring at home:
What's up with the Halo Reach music?
2 hour total. 0 performance issues with settings scaled to my system yet. I like it. It needs refinements to minor areas that are crucial.
Thanks for playing KC. I just got to my first Hollow Knight ending too so I have something of an undersranding on that point. This seems overtuned to the point I wouldn't even consider it as an option 😅 Hope you and yours are as well as can be man 🙏 Cheers and thanks again! 🍻
Oh man, I hope one of the patches reduces the difficulty because this games sounds cool but if it’s too hard for KC it will probably flatten me into paste
I suppose if you find most souls-likes too easy, this is the game for you. I am not that person, though, haha.
they build a gorgeous world and basically force you to rush through...what a misconception...
I just beat cyberpunk 2099, downloaded Phantom Lion, play that after I beat Mirage. And then by that time purchase LOTF by that time the frame rate update will be fixed ready for SpiderMan 2
I wish I watched this before buying it 😂 I did get a refund for performance issues. I didn’t have a chance to see all the glaring issues you mentioned
I'll steer clear, thanks.
Seems like the devs just make a difficult game for the sake of being a difficult game.
The beauty of From Software with their difficulty is that they make the game challenging, not frustatingly unfair.
I respect the way in which the difficulty of this game got called out.
It’s a wrong call out though
Don't play it if you can't handle it. I cleared Lord of fallen 1, Bloodborne, dark souls 3, code vein, remnant from the ashes 1.
I'm hard too man! I'll try and smash it it just takes time😂
@@eddiezS5 KC cleared Sekiro and Lies of P, which are the two that a lot of Souls fans have issues with.
y'all just hate any critiques about balancing being shittily difficult, lol.
Anyone mention Soul Reaver yet re: the dimension shifting?
Is it similar to elden ring as far as difficulty?
Sounds like another one of those games that proves that, contrary to what the snotty elite hardcores will tell you, it IS possible for a game to be "too hard", especially when the difficulty doesn't seem to be fair or balanced (seriously, sometimes the "git gud" brigade seem to deny the _existence_ of "balance" as a concept and insist that as long as a game isn't literally _impossible_ to beat without cheating then it's fine). Infinitely respawning enemies in a Soulslike RPG, a genre based around taking your time and being cautious while trying to discover all the secrets? Get real! Think I'll be giving this one a miss after all.
Idk the game feels abysmally easy but might be a me thing as I love games like this
It's a really great game. I am having a blast. Lv 100 now.
Masochistic? You're talking to the right man, I'm in. Are there any other soulsborne players with me?
CORRECTION: Is currently $69.99 for standard edition. Great review and video capture
So we need a -15% sale for it to have a normal price ;-)
Just got the deluxe on Steam for $69.99 lol
No its 59.99 for the standard ed
ah, ya..i beat Celeste a few times too... Solid review, thanks
Dark Souls Reaver, essentially. Sad that they were overly focused on the pure difficulty of a souls-like instead of the “steep-but-gratifying” learning curve.
Have u beaten any other souls game other than sekiro?
Man, I wanted to watch a ZP of this game
You still might get one.
you're the only source so far that I've seen stating that the game is difficult. Every other review so far complains that the game is too easy.
Just knowing it’s a vast improvement over the ps4 game.
And knowing it’s criticism is that it’s challenging
Has made me buy this game
That was not a PS4 game - it was a multiplatform ;-)
Performance issues are abound among all platforms it seems (console, pc, steam), besides perhaps ps5.
Im on Xbox Series S, and unfortunately its has some serious performance issues. Not unplayable, but certainly a detterent. One of the only games ive thought about refunding honestly. It needs to be patched tremendously.
No buy if level scaling.
Honestly, hearing about it being difficult is a huge plus to me, though the reasons for it being difficult of course I might still not like.
Oppressive difficulty is what I enjoy about these kinds of games, and far too many of them end up losing their enjoyment for me when they become too easy.
I think that having endlessly respawning enemies is annoying in concept, but if it's only the enemies in the Umbral Plane or whatever then it makes more thematic sense - since that's the more "dangerous" world and since you can avoid enemies by simply switching back anyway (though obviously sometimes you need to switch to progress).
I really like the concepts of this game in any case. I'm mostly worried that the combat won't be fun enough, but exploring interesting environments is the other half of what I enjoy in this kind of game and the "dual-worlds" concept alongside the excellent art direction of this game make me think it will be worth picking up at some point.
Maybe after a while though. I still have to get and play Lies of P I think first, not to mention tons of games on my backlog.
Thanks for the review. I would have liked to see the review cover a bit of a wider scope, and it's unfortunate that you were unable to finish it, but sometimes that just is how it is.
I think you're a masochist haha
@@scribeofsolace Well, what I enjoy is feeling like a badass once I overcome the challenge. When I feel like I have "earned" my victory. I guess you could say it's kinda masochistic though, lol.
Practicing a difficult boss in a game like this is just like when I practice a piece of music on my piano, or anything else like that. It might be frustrating when I fail and it might take a lot of practice, but once I can finally play the song it feels very rewarding.
Obviously, not everyone wants that same kind of experience in a video game, but I enjoy that kind of thing.
Great game
Probably much better with multiplayer. This is a game that couldnt balance a good/fair singleplayer and multiplayer. Something rarely done right.
Def gonna get it on clearance with mods or w friends
Shader compilation stutters galore. I am so sick and tired of shader compilation stutters on PC.
Reminds me of Dark Souls + Legacy of Kain.
This is the only review I've seen saying the game is too hard in any capacity.
While I agree it probably is hard, I think most other reviewers are souls-like fanatics. When you've played and beat them all, I can see why they would say this game is easy.
I think this game will be a fairly decent challenge
KC is our certified souls champ. It’s not the bosses that are overly difficult, there’s just too many enemies in-between.
@@theescapistwhat games has he played? he only mentioned sekiro as a game which proficiency might translate, has he played the other souls games?
@@theescapistclearly not if he's saying this game is difficult 🤣🤣 been breezing thru it no issues. Just beat judge cleric the radiant sentinel and was yawning while fighting him. And he's towards the end of this game.
The starting class and build matter greatly in this game!! He probably started with a class that is not good with the mobs. They said the preacher is probably the “easy mode” for the game.
@@iurigrangI've played and beaten all the Souls games. I thoroughly enjoy them and replay them every year (just wrapped my replay of DS1). This game is unbalanced. It's still a decent game, but it's definitely got problems.
This feel like a wait for sale.
What the heck is a recursive action RPG? Is that what we're calling soulslikes now? Can't we just call them soulslikes? Excellent review, though. Nice Discord bloop at 1:51, too. Really giving me that good immersion.
"Doom clone" was not a good name and was changed to "first person shooter" ;-)
@@igorthelight That's because it'd have been more appropriate to call Doom a Wolfenstein clone and also because light-shooters like Virtua Cop, console-FPS like Golden Eye, and Half-life weren't just aping every principle design element of Doom down to how you gained experience, leveled up, saved your progress, and joined multiplayer. Soulslike is perfectly acceptable for games that are just copying Dark Souls, like Lords of the Fallen is. "Recursive action rpg" is non-intuitive, nerdy journo-speak.
@@carljones9640 Fair points tho!
Is Elden Ring harder?
Thanks for this. So glad I’m not gonna waste my money on a game I’m just not gonna be able to finish or have fun with.
@@user-uc5tj6ux8wmaybe the person commenting is bad at games too. Nothing wrong with that.
@@user-uc5tj6ux8w imagine using “sheep” unironically. The gameplay mechanics themselves put me off it. I just hadn’t seen them in action yet. I’m sure it’s fun for folks with the time and without fucked up nerves, but you being a sewer-dwelling edgelord who has never and will never know love and should just take himself out of the equation didn’t leave much room for a good-faith interpretation. I don’t have mommy’s money to spend on every game, and I like to enjoy my games. I understand that joy, being something you’ve never felt, may not be why you play games, and that’s fine.
1:20 the game journalist is sweaty, he doesn't want to show weakness to the souls mob...
Lmao, the ign review said the game was too easy.
And this review said it was too hard. Guess you can't please everyone.
Apparently that review played almost entirely coop, so that might explain the disparity.
I’m personally loving the game, but there’s some balancing issues with enemy density that definitely need to be addressed as sometimes the only way forward is to just sprint through areas and that’s not exactly fun or the intended experience I’m sure - Nick
@@theescapistI noticed that too in the IGN review, and was surprised it wasn't mentioned. It left me unsure of whether it was a co-op-oriented game you can play solo but have a tough time with (like Remnant) or a single player-oriented one that you can invite players to help if you get stuck (Dark Souls, etc.).
@@theescapisttry a different class and build! It’s a game changer according to the reviews in handling mobs.
@@NatetheGr891the mobs aren’t difficult. It’s the overuse of mini-bosses and ranged enemies alongside the mobs that make it more viable to just speed through things. Doubt you’ve gotten very far if you don’t see it as an issue. It needs to be balanced out.
Been dying 3 times now because the jump didnt work properly, also sprinting doesnt work always either, i dont like this kind of playing and i think its unfair.
Am I totally out of the loop that I don't know what a recursive action RPG is? 😬
It's just the Escapist term for a Souls-like
This game is great, can't put it down.
A deer- lol
not for me, I have enough stress in my life
Aww man. Now i gotta get a PS5.😅
This game is really good. Give it a shot
Everyone saying this game is too easy, this dude saying it's too hard.
Which is it!!???
The combat and movement feel so floaty, no haptic feedback on the ps5 controller, graphics are ok but the frames and stuttering makes it hard to enjoy. I wouldn’t recommend this for $70 I saw a lot of reviews praising the game but I see that they are mostly biased. This review sums up the game perfectly frustrating to play
I was wondering why suddenly there was talk about Lords of the Fallen again, and it turns out they made a reboot of a mediocre game from 2014 that few remember and fewer still like? Like, y tho?
souls clone
"Recursive Action RPG".
Huh.
Idk I kinda want to refund the game and I’ve only played the first boss.
You quit the game?
Haha what, literally every other review says this game is significantly easier than Lies of P but the combat system is the weak point due to feeling floaty.
Glad you found a different opinion
@@Feeble_cursed_one Just goes to show reviews only take you so far, and you really need to play the game to make the final call.
@@nexarath it's pretty hard, because it's easy to get overwhelmed with the respawning enemies in the other world, two a bad lock system, and I find it incredibly difficult to hit enemies without it, you need the lock on but it sucks as well, for me there really is no competition here, lies of P controls so much better than this.
@@nexarath I don't have the spare change for that gamble so different voices with different experiences are helpful : - )
This game is glitchy and janky on ps5. I have fallen through the map four times. At one point my character started sliding around Pilgrim's Perch like was on ice, then flew into the void and fell under the map for a good minute or so before finally dying. I regret buying this awful game.
Its four minutes
Sounds infuriating.. hard pass
i quit the first Lords of the Fallen because the boss fights so blatantly cheated it piszed me off so much i broke my keyboard.
i see they havent learned. pass
Meh...I think I'll pass on this one. I play games to have fun and not to be stressed out.
We are in 2023, please, stop making NPCs that just stand there like cardboard signs, goddammiitt.
So it's like Dark Souls 2? Poorly designed and difficult just for difficulties sake?
If I could turn back time I wouldn't have bought this poor follow-up for me their's too many problems with this game 1rst one's better for me
Game is complete trash. I spend $80 when I got home from work. Played maybe 20 minutes and it's so broken. The lantern stuff is cool but a little confusing especially when you have to use it during combat. It froze a few times and the enemies constantly were getting wigged out and stuck in walls. Also the camera Is absolutely horrendous
Infinitely respawning enemies in a soulslike? Gross!