Lords of the Fallen promises to take the essence of Dark Souls and make it into something more. I’m not sure if it has accomplished that but based on the demo it is definitely its own beast.
There are too many similarities to Dark Souls for me to list so I’ll just mention some of the differences. In Lords of the Fallen, there are many different skills in the game that you can learn and level up and several different armor slots as well, many more than in the Souls games. Also there is a much greater sense of weight in Lords of the Fallen. Attacks are slower, more deliberate. Rolling is different too but some of this could have been that my character had equipped so much that he was slowed down by it.
Regardless, the combat was very much like Dark Souls except that backstabs were a lot easier. This was balanced out by the game being pretty difficult and stamina management being extremely important. Another difference was that checkpoints restored health and stamina but the enemies stayed defeated; they only respawn when the player dies. Speaking of enemies, they were a lot more aggressive than in Dark Souls and would be walking around the area before you got there. They would also chase you down much more effectively.
The Lords of the Fallen demo showed off 5 of the 10 different weapon classes and they all seemed to have their particular uses. My favorite where the claws because they were pretty fast. Some of the enemies didn’t like to leave themselves open so a quick strike seemed most appropriate..
A lot of the demo took place in close quarters and the camera wasn’t exactly behaving but it was alright. It ended with a boss fight that was very impressive. The fight required dodging and smart blocking and attacking to win. It was not easy or a quick fight but he eventually went down. What was really great about him was that he had a lot of different attacks and they would change during the fight and when he got below 25% HP. He also wouldn’t let up. A lot of bosses in Dark Souls let you run away and regroup but he was fast and the area was small so there wasn’t much opportunity for that.
I was interested in Lords of the Fallen because of its similarities to Dark Souls but now I’m interested in seeing just how different it can be. Check it out in the fall when it launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
