As I mature in my gaming journey, I have increasingly enjoyed the soul-like genre. I have a new level of patience when it comes to diving into more challenging games and you are really going to need that patience when playing Lords of the Fallen. I was a fan of the original Lords of the Fallen game when it was released in 2014 even though I didn’t make it too far into the game. I have a newfound love for the souls-like genre and an increased level of skill so I thought it was the perfect time to jump back into the title and it’s new reboot.
The first thing I have to note is that the game is gorgeous. Lords of the Fallen is built in Unreal Engine 5, and in the hands of the experienced team at CI Games, you are in for a treat. I tested the game on PC and everything felt and ran smoothly. There were a couple of hitches here and there but you have to remember that this was a prerelease build running at the highest settings and not fully optimized. Style-wise, the art is similar to other games in the genre but there is a bit of a Darksiders feel to the visuals that I really like. The lighting and particle effects look great and I expect nothing less with the game being built in Unreal 5. It may be the best-looking soulslike in my opinion. In my time playing the game, I encountered a few different enemies and bosses and their designs and animations were interesting and unique. I can’t wait to explore more when the game releases soon.
When a new soulslike hits the market, I am pretty confident that I know what I am getting when it comes to gameplay and puzzles but Lords of the Fallen has added something new to the mix. One of my favorite new mechanics in Lords of the Fallen is the Umbral Realm. When you start the game, you get the Umbral Lantern that lets you see into another world. You will encounter various roadblocks during your playthrough and you will need to use the lantern to solve puzzles and get past different blocks in the environment. You can also travel fully into the Umbral Realm and access parts of the map not available to you before.
Lords of the Fallen looks to be a great game going into the Halloween season. There are a good amount of features that differentiate this game from others in the soulslike genre. This reboot took a lot of learnings from the 2014 title and improved in a space where a lot of the games look the same. I am excited to get my hands on the full game so I can dig more into the systems and gameplay.
Lords of the Fallen releases October 13th, 2023 for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PlayStation 5.
