Lords of the Fallen - Review @ RPGFan

RPGFan checked out Lords of the Fallen:

Lords of the Fallen

Few games wear their inspiration on their sleeves quite as proudly as Lords of the Fallen. Creative director Cezar Virtuoso even went so far as to call the game “Dark Souls 4.5”. While it doesn’t quite hit the high marks of Miyazaki’s extensive catalog, Lords of the Fallen is nonetheless a valiant effort in the sea of soulslikes.

Anyone versed in FromSoftware’s library (or any of the millions of soulslikes that followed it) will immediately feel at home in Lords of the Fallen. Gritty third-person combat full of dodging, parrying, and posture-breaking, an esoteric world requiring players to do most of the heavy lifting to fill in the gaps, and of course, a healthy selection of bosses to test your mettle. Thankfully, Lords of the Fallen isn’t so brazen as to simply copy the formula without adding its own spin, but not without its share of blunders.

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At the end of the day, Lords of the Fallen is a fun but oftentimes frustrating experience. The level design and combat adjustments are spot on, but extremely haphazard enemy placement and poor variety mar the experience. The game is beautiful yet dull to look at, with very few standouts in its grimdark landscape. It never quite manages to become more than the sum of its parts, but those parts had their fun moments all the same. I hope Hexworks can take everything they did right this time around and iterate further with their next release to make a truly stand-out soulslike title because the pieces for a home run are here in Lords of the Fallen.

Score: 80/100