Inspiration to the 'Fallen'

 

Lords of the Fallen is the sequel to Lords of the Fallen but also the reboot of Lords of the Fallen so that Lords of the Fallen can exist as it's own Lords of the Fallen irrespective of Lords of the Fallen and move on in order to establish it's own, now confirmed, upcoming real sequel called, tentatively, Lords of the Fallen 2. (Dammit, they had the perfect chance to do the funniest marketing ever!) Lords of the Fallen is also shorthand for 'bad souls-like' in some circles (referring to the original) for decent reasons. The original Lords of the Fallen felt like a holdout for some of the worst prejudices about the genre-type brought to life. Boringly sluggish movement that made every swing feel like it was triggred in the last age of humanity, horrendously tanky bosses that take 10 minutes of blocking the same attack patterns in order to gradually tap to death and a paper thin generic dark fantasy narrative interwoven into a worldspace nowhere near as interesting as it thinks it is. Dark Souls began at a place that felt more advanced than Lords did- and that original released in the same year as Dark Souls 2, by the by.

But it was also the other considerably major Souls-like at the time so we could actually see what it could be like if other developers took to this space. You know, before it became so unending popular that even Respawn Entertainment aped it for their Star Wars franchise. Which might just be the only aspect of the original Lords that kept it alive in the mind of gamers, because god knows the game wasn't doing that for itself! With an indistinct world, uninspired monster designs and a 'save the world from the demon king' plot that lacked the flamboyancy to rise above it's routes like Japanese titles need to have- I doubt many Souls lovers have actually finished the original. I haven't and I tried twice, before giving up to sheer boredom. Which is why I had no intentions of trying out the reboot/sequel.

But then people started talking about how much better it was than that original, praise called it above average for a title of it's calibre, and I got gamepass which made the game pretty much a free grab and after all that I just went "Screw it! I'll play the thing myself!" And since then I've been able to see it for myself and say: "Yeah, this is actually tons better than the original!". For one the game feels absolutely smooth as butter to play, I really like the movement playing as a lightly armoured character when doing so felt like an inside joke the developer's were privy to in the original. And movement counts for a lot when it comes to Souls-likes: it's one of the few reasons why the original Dark Souls can be hard to recommend. That 4-way-directional stickiness is a killer in games requiring precision movement!

I also think the world has a bit more going on with it now, and though I am largely flabbergasted at exactly what medieval period of history the team are trying to evoke- (dialogue sounds nigh-on whimsical at times, with one of the key companions having a hardly disguised American accent.) there's a substance to the world they've made. Monster designs are a bit more interesting, sometimes in a grotesque manner I haven't see really reached since some of the most memorable of Dark Souls 2. Oh, and the biggest win? The main character doesn't speak! Thank the gods! That's means this game actually has a full character creator too, so I can be anyone but tat-face! (Bless the small miracles, for they are few.) Although I have to say- I understand why even after all these years of improvements the game is still only being called 'Average or barely above at best'.

It feels like CI Games are developing their Souls-Like Games (yes, plural- they published for the 'Surge' games too.) in a total vacuum oblivious to literally everything else the rest of the genre is doing. And that perception is only worsened by the absolute trainwreck of development cycles this reboot went through before being dumped on the laps of a fresh studio 'HEXWORKS', who have been treating this game as their own personal war to win since launch. There are huge structural decisions that confound the senses as they press on seemingly solved pressure points in this genre that has been improved upon over the stretch of the past decade and a bit. It's almost as though these developers shun looking at what FromSoft and their contemporaries are doing for fear that would be 'cheating', or perhaps in a desire to strive in a different direction altogether and wiggle upon some new development direction no one else could have. And to that- well, maybe they need to wiggle a bit more- they ain't there yet.

Having extended walk-back periods for difficult bosses is such a Dark Souls 1-coded way to lay out your levels- but even Dark Souls 1 used to hide quicker shortcuts here and there for prosperities sake. But then Dark Souls could have that option, because that game's maps weren't anywhere near as needlessly labyrinthian as Lords' are. Defenders seem to mistake size for size's sake as 'facilitating exploration', but when you endure every environment until the point of frank illness with the aesthetic- maybe you've mistaken your 'open world' design with how a level based game would present itself. Then there's the 'other world'; Umbral, which is such a chore to endure. I get that's supposed to be the point, it's supposed to feel dangerous to travel around the shadow world, but they present that by forcing you into 'the land of chip damage' in order to do something as mundane as climb a ladder- it doesn't feel like embracing this dark world of carnage in order to meet the challenge to save the world- it feels like the game is constantly baiting you into the shadow world for giggles.

And of course then comes the design. As I play the game whenever I enter any location with a visible enemy on screen there is one thing I know- that there's someone else in the rafters waiting to ambush me. It's a funny little gotcha the first time- but after the fifth it becomes a bit of a crutch. Actually, it's a lot of a crutch. And to think this is the problem improved from launch! At launch I heard they actually spawned waves of enemies on top of you! Talk about miserable! And on the topic of combat- why is practically every boss a gimmick fight? Don't get me wrong it's actually somewhat impressive that the team managed to come up with so many gimmicks- but did they know this was a Souls-like whilst they were designing it? Clever and complex enemy patterns just seem to fall into wayside so the team can focus on horse-back fights with mines or mob gank spam, or any number of ancillary crap that get between you and the fight. At the utmost a Souls-Like should make you feel always in control- but half the time during these bosses it doesn't feel like anyone is in control, of even the experience the team is trying to get us to have!

I think there's actually a lot of potential in the bones of Lords of the Fallen- and I like playing the game. They could be a little less stingy on handing out gear to change up my build- I'm still basically rocking the exact same stuff I started the game with simply because the game doesn't offer much at all to play with- but I like seeing the extent of the game, sure in it's tropes but also in it's occasional cool mechanic- 'even if most of their 'cool' mechanics are the one's they borrowed'. Maybe Lords of the Fallen 2 might be a good game from the get-go next time around! (Wouldn't that be a stretch!) So yeah, this ain't a review- but if it were: I'd probably be erring to a C Grade, and I'd be very surprised if that changed as I got any further into the game based on what I've already experienced. Still, that's a passing grade by most metrics!