The world is split into two, what we see and what’s hidden just beyond the peripheral. Lords of the Fallen takes the world of the living and the dead and creates a seamless bond between them. Through dynamic storytelling, lackluster bosses (only three being great), and finicky performance this title is on the brink of being an amazing soul’s game but lacks certain pieces of the puzzle, creating this disconnect at certain moments of the game. At one point I was fully immersed and loving the experience, and at another, I felt like the terrible performance, stuttering, and crashing prevented this game from being at its fullest potential.
The Honeymoon Phase: The beauty of this game relies on its story, it’s a polished better version of its successor of the same name. Lords of the Fallen (2023), takes on the approach that many Souls/Souls-Likes have done before it, vague storytelling mainly in item descriptions and Umbral memories, speaking with NPC’s, and brief cut scenes littered throughout the game. From Software created a genre where other companies are now competing to thrive and make a name for themselves. The game is composed of layers that are beautifully horrific and cast a dread-filled shadow, bringing the players in closer and closer. Unfortunately, the honeymoon phase with this game only lasts a handful of times throughout and doesn’t stay consistent as a whole which is my biggest critique of this title (besides the terrible performance issues). While there are beautifully dynamic areas, three bosses that struck a chord in me, and a story that I will consistently think about, if the game has constant performance issues then it makes the experience as a whole suffer no matter how good the motifs and concepts are.
Lackluster yet fun:
The bosses in this game range from really cool to forgettable, especially with a lot of the mini-bosses before the main story bosses. Even some of the main story bosses are lacking in perceived storytelling right off the bat. Yes, there were some story bits I missed so it left me clueless on some of the bosses and how they even connected to the larger picture of the story. The Hollow Crow, Judge Cleric, and Peita are the only bosses in the game who hold any weight for me. And yes, I know, I missed bosses so hopefully that list gets amended soon. The bosses in some cases, much like Elden Ring are fun or just plain annoying. For the most part, the bosses in Lords of the Fallen were overly simple to the point where two main story bosses were challenging. At the start of the game, the bosses are a lot easier then as you get towards the end the bosses get somewhat more intense yet still simple to beat. The builds in this game are OVERLY aggressive when you build it correctly so demolishing your opponent is easy enough to do depending on how overpowered you want to go. Some of the bosses will appear as average enemies (especially the mini-bosses), now depending on your perspective this could be a good or bad thing.
I wanted to fall in love:
I wanted to fall head over heels in love with this game but the main thing preventing me was the game's performance. The graphics were stuttering a lot of the time, especially during high-impact/active moments like boss battles. Sometimes the game would just freeze and would cause a lot of issues in regards to how I had to go about playing the game. If I moved my character faster most of the time I would be ok, but I would risk the performance be not so great the faster I moved which makes no sense. When the game worked, it worked well and performed like a dream, but about 60% of the time was fighting through various performance issues that made the game a slog to go through, and admittedly in certain areas un-enjoyable. With how many patches have gone out for the game I’m surprised that there are still as many issues as there are.
.The world is shifting:
The Umbral and Axiom worlds are by far the most compelling part of the game (and what make up a good chunk of the story). There are amazing memories and ways to get more of the story when you are in the other world shall we say. Umbral means of or like a shadow, so the Umbral world is the shadow version of the regular world, the world of the dead. Throughout the game you will need to utilize both worlds to progress, going back and forth and witnessing both human and demonic carnage. Both worlds have something to offer but have different ways of harming you as well. While in umbral you will incur more whither damage, and that’s when the white bar of your health shows instead of dying, you’re withering. Whereas in Axiom, you would just get damaged regularly. Rest regularly at vestiges, study the boss's moves and with a powerful weapon and free summons you will fly through this game. And yes, you read that correctly, you don’t need to be connected to the internet or have a special flower to summon an NPC to help you with a boss. You can just happily summon away. There are some NPCs that you will need to go on their quest lines to summon them.
Take the game for what it is: Lords of the Fallen is a fun experience that has some great bosses, an immersive story, and beautiful maps to explore. Lords of the Fallen (2014) from what I’ve played of it set up Lords of the Fallen (2023) so nicely with the Rhogar and Adyrs storyline. The 2014 Lords of the Fallen took me by surprise at how simple and to the point it was for the time that I played it. Lords of the Fallen (2023) happens 1,000 years after the events of the first game and the ending is shockingly mid. Since I got the radiance ending I got to faceoff with Adyr, and by faceoff I mean I fought his minions while he cowered in fear, talking my ear off. Adyr, this is why you were exiled, you talked too much. While I loved the game, I thought a lot could be fixed simply by making the performance better. The story was there, the characters were well done, it’s all there. With all that said, take the game for what it is because there are truly some enjoyable moments and moments that will pull at your heartstrings. My score: 3.9/5