It's easy to looks at Lies of P and think "this is just Pinocchio Bloodborne." In many ways, it is Bloodborne and it effortlessly replicates the best qualities of Bloodborne better than any Soulslike game I've ever played. Coming from the little known developers Round8 Studio and Neowiz Games, Lies of P leans heavily on some very familiar mechanics in the subgenre but manages to break the shackles of being 'too derivative', riding a very fine line between inspiration and being a clone. Against all odds, this nightmarish retelling of a fairy tale turned out to be a breath of fresh air.

Lies of P is basically a reimagining of the classic fable of Pinocchio through the lens of Bloodborne's signature gothic Victorian style. You play as Pinocchio, a robotic puppet who can't lie, made by the genius inventor Geppetto. Set in the city of Krat, society sees the rise of robotic puppets in menial labour and servant roles. One day, the robots revolt against their inventors and the human population, cutting Krat off from the outside world and plunging the city into an automaton nightmare. Pinocchio sets off on a journey to find Geppetto in Krat's dangerous streets and discover more about the purpose of his creation.



Fundamentally, Lies of P is very much a Soulslike game with all the trademark bells and whistles. The gameplay is a dance of patient combat and stamina management in an interconnected world with a bleak atmosphere where many NPCs often talk in riddles (or laugh at you). The world design is simply stunning and on-par with, or even better, than other Soulslike games on the market. You're instantly crushed by the game's tense mood from the moment you step foot in Krat; a sprawling city with tight corridors, dark alleys and the prospect of death lurking around every corner.

Lies of P is very much a Soulslike game with all the trademark bells and whistles. The gameplay is a dance of patient combat and stamina management in an interconnected world with a bleak atmosphere where many NPCs often talk in riddles (or laugh at you).

As Pinocchio, you get access to a handful of new mechanics to shake things up. You initially begin by selecting a "class" that acts as your combat preference but you're free to spin it in whatever direction you like thanks to a very flexible upgrading system. Similar to Sekiro, you can make adjustments to your arm with a variety of multi-purpose tools and gadgets likes flamethrowers or electric pulses. Taking it a step further, you can even mix and match combinations of weapons with sword hilts for several uniquely crafted armaments. These small additions don't make a huge difference in Lies of P but they do give the game personality and just enough differentiation and flexibility in gameplay.



Lies of P also includes a handful of decently-sized skill trees with multiple customisation options that allow you tinker the gameplay to your preferred playstyle, such as buffing up your defence, focusing on ranged combat or juicing up your attack power and agility, allowing you to parry more successfully - and just like Sekiro, parrying is a huge part of the rhythm of combat here and just as punishing if not timed correctly.

When you do tangle with exploration and combat, you might be hit with a sense of deja vu. If you told me that From Software developed Lies of P, I'd wholeheartedly believe you. Round8 Studio and Neowiz come very close to successfully replicating the flow of combat and tightly designed mechanics from the Souls series. Sure, some may see it as sticking a bit too close to From Software's DNA, but I actually commend the developers for getting that close in the first place - having experienced my fair share of Soulslike games, that's no easy task.



Enemies range from mostly robotic monstrosities and terrifying humanoid wind-up toys to more "fleshy" foes in the second half of the game, without spoiling anything. You'll spend most of your time assessing the level of danger with each encounter and figure out ways to strategically defeat tough bosses and mini-bosses while unlocking shortcuts in the zones that loop back to resting points called Stargazers (basically this game's bonfires) that heal you but also respawns all enemies in the surrounding area. In between combat, you can rest at Hotel Krat, which acts as a hub area that allows you to converse with NPCs to give the story and characters a bit more weight and context.

The thing that impressed me the most is the moral ambiguity of characters and events that force you to constantly make tough calls about who or what to believe.

In terms of storytelling, Lies of P is much more straight-forward than the often vague and cryptic narratives of other Soulslike games. There's a clear beginning, middle and end with important beats along the way that play into another great feature called the Lying System. Players get to make decisions in the story by either telling the truth or lying, leading to a possible three different endings depending on the paths you take. The thing that impressed me the most is the moral ambiguity of characters and events that force you to constantly make tough calls about who or what to believe. It's not as intricate as something like Mass Effect but it still makes you question the motives of NPCs that kept me second-guessing my choices throughout.



Lies of P delivers a range of incredible boss fights mixed with some not-so-great and completely forgettable ones. The larger, more intimidating foes like the King of Puppets or Archbishop Andreus are exciting, adrenaline-fueled encounters while multi-phase bosses like Laxasia really ramp up the challenge and take your breath away. In between, you might stumble across unpredictable boss fights that are either jokingly simple and easy or unexpectedly brutal at the drop of a hat. On one hand, it's great that you're never quite sure about the challenge of a fight until you initiate it but it also plays this "surprise" card a bit too much that it loses some steam after a while. I personally like my multi-phase bosses to bring out the pain (am I a masochist?) but I can see where it might divide players more accustomed to having a consistent challenge to overcome.

In terms of performance, Lies of P is extremely polished and runs very well. I bounced between playing the game on Xbox Series X/S and PC to mostly consistent performance across the board with only slight framerate dips on console, especially when entering a new area. I had one instance of a game crash on PC but thankfully I didn't lose much progress. I can't say much about the PlayStation versions of the game but on the plus side, it's easy to pick up and play the game on other platforms thanks to Game Pass.



For fans of Bloodborne (and Sekiro, to an extent), Lies of P is absolutely going to deliver on all those dreams of a spiritual sequel. It's a masterfully crafted Soulslike that doesn't do anything innovative but simply doubles down on what works - and shoots for the stars. Apart from some annoying bosses and random difficulty spikes, Lies of P is a whirlwind action-RPG that demands your undivided attention. I'd be lying (heh) if I said that Round8 and Neowiz didn't give me exactly what I've been yearning for from Soulslike games that have tried - and mostly failed - to make a competent game that really understands the inner workings of the genre quite like this.