Hardcore and Accessible Simultaneously | Lords of the Fallen Review

Ever since From Software introduced us to the hardcore variety of action RPGs, gamers could not seem to get enough. Whether it was the brutal difficulty, engrossing over-world or just solid RPG mechanics; the success was undeniable. The time has come for a game to release to rival From Software’s stranglehold on the niche genre and Lords of the Fallen is a worthy contender. While Lords of the Fallen certainly takes its inspiration from the Dark Souls series of games, there is enough here to prevent it from being another cookie-cutter clone and that is only good news for fans of the genre.

Lords of the Fallen is a lighter, less punishingly difficult version of Dark Souls that is a better entry point to the niche genre. This is great news for those that found Dark Souls to be too difficult or too confusing. The balance between too easy and too hard, too forgiving and too precise or even too much power and too little is a very delicate line to dance on. Going too far one direction or the other can spell certain disaster for the game. Luckily, Deck13 Interactive did a surprisingly good job with this balance and created a competent and well-balanced game.

From the very beginning, players are given an assumed role. This may be surprising since many RPGs give you some level of customization from the very beginning. Even Dark Souls, the series that so heavily inspired this game, allows you to chose classes, body type and gender. However, Lords of the Fallen gives you one male character to play as, Harkyn, like it or not. You do get to chose your class, but that isn’t going to mean a lot until you are a little further in the game. While it may seem like you are being funneled into a cookie cutter, there is more at work than just what you see in the beginning.

Harkyn was just released from a life sentence and is immediately enlisted to save a kingdom from dark forces at work. The story is fairly thin when you start out, but once you spend some time with it, it will open up and even surprise some people on how well it is executed. It will always have that tried and true feeling to the setting, but the story takes a few unexpected turns that makes this branch out from the norm.

The reason you want to play Lords of the Fallen is its straightforward approach to a punishingly difficult RPG and how well the game executes combat. As you would expect, combat in Lords of the Fallen relies heavily on timing. Picking the right opportunity to do damage, and when to defend, will be the difference between life and death. You also do a limited amount of damage so fights can and should take a lot of time, especially when you face bosses themselves. In Lords of the Fallen, you are not Rambo where you dish out one-shot-kills and take next to no damage in return. Almost everything in the game can kill you easily so it is up to you to use your equipment and skills the right way. It works very similarly to Dark Souls, as you would expect, but there are several improvements that set these games apart.

For instance, players can now customize their weapons by adding runes or modifiers to the weapons. With the addition of a rune, you can add poison damage to your swing or eliminate some of the natural negative modifiers to a weighty weapon. This allows you to customize your approach to certain scenarios without having to do a lot of backtracking or grinding for resources. This customization system is very easy to use and makes this game a lot more familiar to even the most casual of RPG fans which is great for the genre.

Another interesting twist is the use of magic in the game. There is not option to be a sole-magic user, but every class uses magic to some extent. Even if you chose to be the warrior, magic is always an option. Most RPGs separate magic from melee and you never get the full experience of both unless you play through the game twice. However, Lords of the Fallen combines the two worlds in an interesting way that gives you the best of both worlds while still maintaining some separation between the two classes. This also helps to alleviate the problem of overly lengthy battles which the game resorts to sometimes. This combo system works great and is a refreshing change of pace from your typical RPG.

While having both magic and melee at your disposal is a very interesting concept, it does have an effect on the difficulty in the game. If you chose to take advantage of this system, it does make the game a little easier than if you were to stick to melee only. It is one of those features that inevitably effects each other and while one area gets better, the other gets worse. In this case, you get a ton of new combinations and ways to do damage, but the game gets a little easier as a result. The game is still well balanced, it is just the way things shook out. This isn’t going to be the most challenging game out there, but it will still give newcomers a run for their money.

From a technical aspect, the game looks great. It does a nice job at presenting a beautifully detailed, albeit slightly smaller, world that is full of danger. The sound track is also quite impressive using music to build up the tension or just support the visuals and sense of adventure. However, we did encounter a few issues with the PC version including some crashing and some minor frame rate issues. It didn’t get in the way of playing the game all that often, but if you are playing this game for long periods of time, you should be aware of these issues.

Overall, Lords of the Fallen is an excellent RPG. You can definitely tell that this game was influenced heavily by Dark Souls, but there is enough here to set these games apart. The combat, story and environments are some of the high points of the game, but its combined magic/melee system does make this a little easier than what you would expect. However, if you are new to the genre, this will give you a challenge nonetheless. If you love action RPGs, or even if you love the hardcore RPG genre, this game will definitely satisfy your itech. We give this game our highest recommendation and if you have any interest, you should check it out.

This review is based on a review copy of the PC version of Lords of the Fallen developed by Deck13 Interactive and CI Games published by Namco Bandai