So, its a bit late in the month but figured its time for another post and this one will be an update on a previous post, which was the action RPG, Lords of the Fallen, which recently had its latest and final version of the game released, version 2.5.
So, is the game any different or better than on its release? Well, let's find out!
PREMISE
So, as the game is a Soulslike, it is essentially similar to Dark Souls in that uses swords and sorceries but the twist here is that you can go between two different worlds, one which is called Axiom, which is the realm of the living and the other is Umbral, the realm of the dead. So, throughout the game your character must traverse the land of Mournstead and go between both realms and fight many dangerous enemies before finally reaching your goals, which will vary depending on which ending of the game you go for.
THOUGHTS
As for my thoughts on the update of Lords of the Fallen, it is in some ways an improvement over the original release for sure but I still prefer version 2.0, which was released prior to this and was a bit easier (maybe too easy for some!) to get through, as this version definitely can be quite challenging. Regardless there are still some good changes that have been added here that make it worth a revisit.
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay, I will split this section into the usual sub-sections as I always do for video game reviews.
COMBAT & WEAPONS
Starting
with the combat, Lords of the Fallen uses a third person perspective
similar to the Souls games and does the usual mix of regular and strong
attacks, along with shield parries and even kicks, plunge attacks and
critical attacks, where you can stun an enemy with a strong attack
behind, which will allow you to perform a finisher attack. Similar to
Bloodborne, you also have a rally system of sorts where when entering
Umbral you will lose some health but on attacking enemies you can go get
it back as you strike them, however if they attack you, then that white
health (or withered health as its known) will disappear and you will
need to use a healing item.
As for the weapons, there is plenty of variety here to choose from as the player has access to the likes of short swords, long swords, axes, spears, halberds, flails, daggers as well as bows and crossbows and you also have the option to dual wield weapons. You will also have access to catalysts that are used for casting spells and come in different varieties for casting different types of spells, which I will mention in a bit also.
DIFFICULTY MODES
As for the difficulty level, this paragraph will relate to the latest version of the game (2.5) as they have now included two different difficulty levels for players. The first being, legacy mode, which is the standard version of the game, which is aimed at a more balanced challenge but with the bosses now tougher than before . The second however is the veteran mode, which is a much tougher test of players' skills, where the enemy AI is more aggressive and they have higher poise. So, if you fancy a challenge then feel free to try either version as its a tough game either way.
AXIOM & UMBRAL REALMS
As for one of the key concepts of the game, it is split into utilising two different worlds, Axion, the realm of the living and Umbral, the realm of the dead, which the player can access the Umbral realm via their umbral lamp. And in order to progress the game, there will be times where you need to swtich between the two different realms to access areas where you might not be able to access in Axiom, you need to switch over to it Umbral to access unseen paths or climbs unseen ladders that will come apparent when you switch.
There will also be what's called
umbral entities in the Umbral realm, which you need to destroy as they
will block you path otherwise. And although you can enter Umbral
whenever you want, you can only exit umbral by finding certain exit
points resetting yourself at a checkpoint. The Umbral realm will also
have its own enemies, which appear as ghostly figures that will attack
but as you remain in the realm, the enemies will become more present and
stronger, so its dangerous to remain in that realm for too long. Its
also worth noting that when you die in Axiom you will be transferred
into the umbral realm and when you die there, that's you properly dead
and you will lose your souls (or vigor as its known here).
UMBRAL LAMP AND SOUL FLAYING
Another key item of the game is your umbral lamp, which will let you character traverse between the two worlds but it also can be used to gain access to platforms or unlock umbral entities that block your path. You can however also use the lamp for attacking enemies and using a technique called soul flaying, which will force an enemy briefly out of their body allowing you to attack their soul-like form, or you can even pull their form over a cliff, which when the enemy will recover its normal form, they will fall off the cliff. Nice!
RADIANT, UMBRAL AND INFERNO SPELLS
In the game, it uses three different types of magic for players that want to play as a caster, so you have the choice of radiant, umbral and inferno magic. Starting with radiant spells, they are very similar to miracles in the Souls games, where offensive spells will deal holy damage and resemble lightning and laser like beams, however you also have healing radiant spells that restore your hp. As for the umbral magic, this is more akin to like regular magic in the Souls games which has a blue light to it and is a mix of projectiles, magic weapons and weapon buffs. And lastly are the Inferno spells, which are basically pyromancies from the Souls games and again features mix of offensive projectiles and fire infused weapon buffs or damage buffs.
VESTIGES AND VESTIGE SEEDS
Another key aspect of the game are the use of its checkpoints, which are known as vestiges, which are found throughout the game but they can be quite far apart from one another. However, as a way around this, you can use what is called vestige seeds, which you plant in areas known as flowerbeds, which will become visible when you see your umbral lamp glow. The only issue here is though, you can only plant one vestige seed at a time, so you need to be careful with your usage of them but you can carry up to 99 of them with later updates, which is pretty good given you could originally only hold 5.
CHARACTER STATS
As for character stats, they are again quite similar to the Soul games, where your character has six stats to choose from to level up their character. So, the stats are strength, which you can level up to use strength based weapons, agility, which can be used to wield skill based weapons, endurance, which affects your stamina levels and equipment load. The other stats are vitality, which determines the amount of health your character has and also effects your equipment load, Radiance, which is used to increase your ability to use radiant spells and weapons and lastly there is Inferno, which is used to boost pyromancy spells as well as umbral ones. An important secondary stat also worth mentioning is called Mana, which is basically like your focus points bar in the Souls games and determines the amount of spells you can cast at one time, which can be replenished with the use of items called mana stones.
CHARACTER CLASSES
Moving onto the character classes, you will have a similar mixture to what you see in the Souls games of knight classes, warriors, sorcerers, pyromancers, hunters and the most difficult class, the condemned, which starts off with the lowest points of any class. So, you can choose between these different classes when you start the game and you can also later respec your character if you want to rejig your stats to fit your character. You will also gain three new classes based on the ending you choose, which are the Radiant Purifier for the radiance ending, the Lord for the inferno ending and also the Putrid child for the umbral ending. You can also purchase a bonus class, which is the Dark Crusader if you buy the deluxe version of the game.
XP AND VIGOR
Another aspect of the game is the use of XP (or experience points) which you will gain when you kill enemies, you will gain vigor, which is similar to souls in the Souls games, which is your currency for buying items or leveling up your character. Also similar to the Souls series, if your character dies then they will lose all their vigor and they will need to pick it up afterward they have respawned at the point where they died last, but if they fail to get it and die again, the vigor will be lost forever. Your required vigor level will also go up each time you level up your character but overall the level requirement remains quite low as I get up to 11,000 vigor per level after I had finished my first playthrough but then the vigor gained from enemies is also lower than you find in the Souls games.
ENEMIES AND BOSSES
As for the game's enemies, there is reasonable mixture of humanoid and monster enemies to be found throughout the game, which will vary in challenge from easy to downright difficult and areas can quite often become overwhelming to deal with as there plenty to be found! As for the bosses, again there is a variety of humanoid and monster bosses to fight and some of them can be very challenging whereas others can be pretty easy, which does highlight the game's somewhat inconsistent in terms of difficulty.
There have also been some newer bosses added over time, such as General Engstrom, who is said to be one of the hardest bosses in the game but you need to undergo a specific number of steps in order to access his fight. Then there is the final boss, (SPOILER!!) Adyr, which has been amended from a gimmicky fight to an actual boss battle and been renamed as Eidolon of Adyr.
MULTIPLAYER MODES
As for the game's multiplayer, in version 2.5 there has been a few changes with modes for the host (i.e. you the player) to share co-op on a progression or non-progression basis. This means the the guest can join the player's playthrough but they must match their progress in the game to within one boss of each other and they will both also get the same items and rewards. As for non-progression, the guest will not be able to get the items or rewards for boss fights but the host retains them. You also have the option to join a host yourself as a guest, which pretty much works the same way as described above for the guest options.
Then there is the invasion mode where players can invade another online player's world to challenge them to fight similar to how the Souls games work. This is performed via the multiplayer menu and choosing the amusingly titled option "slaughter lampbearer" which will allow the player to be matched up online with another. You can however also use an item called, the mirror of protection, if you don't want to be invaded, which will last for 30 minutes at a time.
NPCS & SKYREST BRIDGE
And last of all, I will mention the NPCs in the game and there quite a few to be found here and there are some that will have their own quests that you can follow throughout the game. Some of the NPCs you will find are at the central hub of the game, which is known as Skyrest bridge, where you find NPCs such as Exacter Dunmire, who will give you a series of tasks to complete, Pieta, who can boost your character's healing item's potency and number of usages known as a Sanguinarix and Gerlinde, who is a blacksmith, who can upgrade your weapons.
You will also meet plenty of other NPCs that you can summon into boss fights, such as the Iron Wayfarer, Pieta (the game's first main boss) as already mentioned and Kukajin, who you need to free but once you do, she will move to the hub and you can summon her but she requires you to pay her if you defeat the boss. Some quests if certain steps are missed or not favoured in some way, may also lead to actual boss fight encounters as well, so if you want to follow a specific NPC quest, be careful to read a guide for the necessary steps.
GRAPHICS
As for the graphics, the game itself looks very impressive and it features a good mixture of environments that have plenty of good detail in their surroundings and the game also has a good colour palette as it offers some nice vivid colours in areas, which is a nice welcome to some of the more dreary coloured games out there. The character models pretty decent in the game although they are not the very best out there as there are way better ones but they aren't bad.
In terms of the game's frame rate performance, thankfully the game now runs very smoothly (especially on PC as I just replayed it there) as it was originally a real mess on its original release with stuttering frame rates all over the place! But thankfully, this has now been resolved and it plays great like it should have been on release.
MUSIC
As for the game's soundtrack, it was composed by American composer Cris Velasco and Norwegian composer Knut Havenstroup Haugen and overall its a great score with plenty of variety in its themes. So, the score has plenty of standout moments such as the boss fight themes for Pieta, The Hushed Saint, the Skinstealer, the Lightreaper and many more and even the main theme of the game itself is very good. So, overall I was quite impressed with the score's variety of styles and at times it sounded like I was listening to a mix of Souls games, The Matrix and even Doctor Who. So, the score is definitely one of the game's strongest aspects and personally one of my favourites to listen to independent of the game.
FLAWS
As for flaws...yes Lords of the Fallen does have some worth mentioning.
For starters the game's difficulty level in version 2.5 is for the most part quite balanced but towards the end of the game, it remains consistent with the original version's difficulty as it turns into sh** show! So, yeah the later areas, specifically Abbey of Hallowed Sisters and Bramis Castle are STILL both a nightmare to navigate through with plenty of enemy gankage going on! So, yeah at this point, the game can start feel a bit waring with its enemy overkill.
I also felt there were a few bosses that felt a bit unfair in this version (or maybe I really just suck!) especially the Bringers boss fight, which I died to numerous times as I couldn't figure out how to NOT die to them as I kept either falling off the platforms or died to their BS combos. Then there is the second to last boss, the Sundered Monarch, who was a real nightmare in this version and he feels more aggressive here than before plus he hits pretty hard. However in the end, I did manage to eventually get him with a cheese strat involving a crossbow.
Another of course relates to the limit checkpoints in the game as there are very few vestiges to be had in the game with only or two tops in each area. However you can of course use your vestige seeds to plant a seed in an umbral flowerbed and use that as a temporary checkpoint but you can only place one at a time and be careful that you don't run out of any as you progress although they are only 1200 vigor each, so its not too bad in that respect.
Another issue I had with the game (and its BIG one!) was the disappearance of the one of the key merchants in the game, Thek-Ihir, who sells cures and resistance balms for different ailments such as poison, bleed, fire or ignite build-up as well as other useful items. However, at a certain point late on in the game (at the Empyrean vestige) he will disappear forever and you will never be able to purchase anything from him again! So, I found this to be a REALLY stupid decision on the developer's behalf, because it means you then need to try and farm these items off specific enemies instead, which is nowhere near as handy or straight forward.
Update: to be fair, even though, Thekh-Ihir's disappearance is very annoying, you can still get some rings that will help with certain elemental damage as well as some spells that can combat this damage (dependent on your build though). There are also the moth ring and bountiful ring, which can be used to increase vigor gained and boost item discovery respectively, so even if you can't buy anymore lucky paws for item drop boosts, you still have this ring.
Then there are also some frustrating issues to do with the layout of the areas, as you can easily get lost in certain areas after a while and one such area for me was Forsaken Fen, which is a poison area and it took me forever to get through that area alone on my first run! I also spent a lot of time running around trying to find an entrance into the Revelation Depths area, which you access via the Sunless Skein area but again the access point is far from obvious or easy to find. So, this game is definitely quite frustrating when it comes to navigating its confusing areas.
And then we have the issue of the enemy variety as there is simply not enough enemy variety in the game here and you will have seen pretty much the same enemies in each area over and over again as you progress. There are one or two new enemies included in the later areas but overall in the final areas of the game, I was just seeing the same old enemies and its a pity the developers got lazy with their choices here as more variety would have been a good thing.
Last of all, I had to mention issues I've had with the multiplayer features of this latest version, which proved to be a real pain for me on my latest PC playthrough! For starters, I was confused by the changes to the different modes at first for shared and non-shared progression, so I ended up going into another player's world to help out but realising I was in an entirely different area, I quit out the game. However on doing this, I discovered, I had now inherited this player's game save and I found some areas I had not already accessed, which are now open to me!
Now this doesn't sound too bad but then I discovered that there were some items I wanted to get, such as saintly quintessences but when I got to an area (the revelation depths, which the player had already done) I could not get the one I wanted, as this player had already taken it!! This was also the case with another item, I wanted, the inferno spell, infernal weapon (fire buff for melee weapons) which had disappeared at the shrine of Adyr, as they had already accessed it! So, yeah this was definitely very frustrating missing out on these items!
Further to this, another issue was to do with the crossplay feature being enabled as I was literally forced into an online player session for a boss fight without my permission!! This was really infuriating as I did not want to be summoned in and I was trying to farm for items at the time on my playthrough. So, this is definitely a change that really sucks in the latest version of the game.
QUICK TIP: before finishing, I thought I'd mention a quick tip if you get caught in this scenario like I did, if you are forced into an online co-op session, just go into the network settings and click on the leave option and it will take you back to the menu. From here, you should now be able to access your previous save, so then it will save it from being overwritten with the player you were helping (or forced into helping!). Also ensure to select the option in the network for crossplay to off, so then this will prevent from being summoned in the first place. Last of all, also ensure to back up your save before going into any co-op option as well, so that way you can load the original back in to undo any problems.
So, that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up, Lords of the Fallen in its latest version 2.5 remains a very enjoyable Soulslike, which will present you with many hours of enjoyment if you are into RPGs. The game definitely feels more balanced and optimised for the most part from its original release and technically its way better as I really enjoyed having smooth frame rates on my PC run unlike the mess on my original Series X one. There are still some issues here and there and some bosses still felt a bit unfair and the multiplayer has quite a few problems, which can result in your save file being overwritten!
However, if you can forgive it all its faults, then Lords of the Fallen is still worth checking out and for the most part, it remains a worthy and enjoyable Souls-like RPG.
So, I will rate Lords of the Fallen V 2.5:
8.5 out of 10 (well 8.5 for the game but probably just an 8 for version 2.5!)
So, that's it for now guys and I will try and be back with another post before May is out.
Till then, its bye for now!
