Lords of the Fallen couldn't have come at a worse time. Elden Ring changed the conversation around Soulslike games forever and this year's phenomenal Lies of P proved that you can pay homage to something while evolving the best aspects of it. Lords of the Fallen feels a bit stuck in time - an action-RPG that, at least on a technical level, makes the necessary leaps into the current generation while simultaneously taking two steps back in its execution.

Lords of the Fallen's story is about as dark fantasy as it gets. Mournstead, like Yharnam or Lordran before it, is not an inviting place to live. You're tasked by a religious order with lighting five beacons across the land to prevent the resurrection of Ardyr, an evil god that wants to sink the world into darkness and despair. Stop me if that sounds familiar, but that's about all that the narrative really spins before it shoves you into chaos.



From Software games tend to be quite cryptic with their narratives. It's only through exploration and item descriptions that players can begin to piece together the stories in a satisfying way that adds depth and meaning to the world and characters. Lords of the Fallen's story never really gives you that satisfaction. It's a string of incoherent nonsense at first that, even when put together, feels more woefully generic than inspired - as if AI was asked to study Dark Souls and write something in its image. The narrative is never as deep as it tries to be and it ends up getting pushed to the wayside far too often, which is a shame because the lore actually has a lot of potential here.

I was especially impressed by the game's focus on ranged attacks. The bow quickly became one of my favourite weapons because of its great functionality and damage output.

To get started, you're given a selection of classes to choose from in the very basic character creator. To its credit, each class feels balanced and really fun to play. I was especially impressed by the game's focus on ranged attacks. The bow quickly became one of my favourite weapons because of its great functionality and damage output. It's not going to hit as hard as melee weapons but as a tool for picking off distant enemies, it always got the job done and felt great to use. Apart from that, you have a few magic-focused classes where your mana consumption is dictated by another bar that needs to be replenished. It's all par for the Soulslike course, though I wish the game took a few more daring risks in its combat options.



Thankfully, Lords of the Fallen's moment-to-moment gameplay sunk its claws into me and I ended up having a lot of fun when the difficulty was balanced right (we'll get to that in a bit). There's a great ebb and flow to the combat that rewards patience and naturally punishes the reckless. Again, it's not going to win any awards for originality but when compared to its maligned predecessor, it's a few notches above it.

For the most part, you'll be running around large, mostly interconnected zones with all the grim checkbox locations you can think of: dense dark forests, high-rise rickety wooden structures, decrepit castles and forts, and foggy swamps that graciously aren't riddled with poison. The problem with traversal is how unnecessarily confusing it can be. Outside of linear sections, you'll frequently get lost in the mazes of its biomes and find yourself running in circles. Landmarks looming in the distance do little to guide you when you're constantly making sharp left and right turns, or climbing down ladders to entirely new locations that you're probably too under-levelled to be in. That sense of wonder that you get from exploration falls away when it feels like the murky environments are actively working against you all the time.



If one world wasn't enough to frustrate you, Lords of the Fallen gives you two worlds to explore: Axiom and Umbral. Axiom acts as the main overworld while Umbral is a dark, Upside Down-esque realm that you'll visit when you die. Alternatively, you can tap into Umbral using a magical lamp. This is one of the game's few great features. The Umbral Lamp can be used to trigger a shift into the dual world and provide your line of vision with new paths, bridges or puzzles that can only be seen with the lamp. Getting lost in Umbral is a terrifying ordeal altogether as the more time you spend in that realm, the harder the enemies become. A strange spectre also chases you and when caught, it's an insta-kill, meaning you'll lose all of your resources before you get a chance to escape Umbral at the nearest Axiom-aligned checkpoint.

That sense of wonder that you get from exploration falls away when it feels like the murky environments are actively working against you all the time.

Obviously the game doesn't intend for you to spend long periods of time in Umbral because of its insurmountable threats, so repeated visits to this realm - be it in death or for puzzle-solving - become annoying after the fifteenth time. While in Axiom, you can also place Vestige Seeds at certain spots to create a bonfire-like checkpoint. On one hand, it's great that you can set a spawn point at whatever location you want in a level, however, you're only allowed to place one down at a time. This actually discourages you from exploring because you're never quite sure when you're going to run into a tough enemy or get one-shot by the game's several cheap mechanics like mimics or enemies hidden around corners that can suddenly ambush you (which it does a lot).



On that note, Lords of the Fallen's difficulty stings. It fails to understand the complexities of what makes From Software's Souls games difficult and decides to just throw multiple enemies at you at once. In actuality, it's artificial difficulty at best - there's no rhyhm or reason for enemy placement. Snipers are everywhere, often out of reach, so if you don't have a ranged weapon or spell to deal with them, you're in for a world of pain. In some sections, you'll also be ganked by a half-dozen enemies literally a few meters away from each other. Lords of the Fallen has the most random difficulty spikes I've ever experienced in a Soulslike game and it's not even close.

Visually, it's also a stunning game and easily the best-looking Soulslike game since Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake.

It sounds like I've been ragging on Lords of the Fallen a lot but there are aspects that I adore about it too - some enough to make up for its shortcomings. The boss fights, while lacking compelling lore, are gorgeous, well-staged spectacles. Some of them are undermined by very simple combos that are easy to telegraph, but the larger beastly bosses are quite breathtaking and intimidating. Visually, it's also a stunning game and easily the best-looking Soulslike game since Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake. The environments look crisp and jaw-dropping, the dense fogs and misty landscapes all paint a suitably grim atmosphere, and the enemy designs are mostly top-notch without coming across as typical ghoulish monstrosities and undead abominations from other dark fantasy worlds.



The gameplay systems leave a lot open to experimentation for builds. There's just enough freedom to tamper with the various gear, weapons and spells in order to tailor your ideal playstyle. The Blackfeather Ranger class became my main thanks to its high agility balanced with strength and endurance that let me bounce around and evade attacks while firing arrows back in rapid succession (it's also heavily inspired by Bloodborne, so bonus points for that). I dipped my feet into a few classes as well and all seemed perfectly viable, especially for those seeking a great mage class; the Orian Preacher is a must. The gameplay is balanced and combat feels really satisfying when you aren't ripping your hair out.

The big problem with Lords of the Fallen is there's as many frustrating design choices as there are great and inspired ones. It's an incrementally better game than its predecessor since it uses plenty of successful recent Soulslikes as blueprints, but it also misjudges what made them so good in the first place. The difficulty is all over the place without finding a smooth rhythm and the world layout is a confusing mess at times. Perhaps with a bit more time, future updates can turn things around but as it stands, Lords of the Fallen never reaches the heights of greatness like its contemporaries and it ends up leaving only a small dent on the genre.

*PS5 Review code provided by CI Games