Lords of the Fallen - action-RPG reboot from Hexworks

[cruel]

That is true, the game is getting better with every patch. I didn't have a crash to the desktop in a while now, enemies (and player character as well) are less likely to get stuck in the environment, and invasions started to actually happen for some reason. I also feel that drop rate of useful stuff was improved as well.

As for design decisions that I don't like, if I were to list them in order:
1. Enemy (zombies) spawn rate in Umbral - ridiculous. At times it converts the game to hack & slash instead of a Souls-like, contributes nothing to the experience other than tedium, and makes me hate Umbral for all the wrong reasons (tedium != danger). The game would only gain if the spawn rate got reduced to 1/5 of current value, or at least controlled in some way via consumables or equipment.
2. Over-reliance on ranged enemies. They probably needed to do it because regular melee enemies are not dangerous enough (you can easily stagger most), but it just gets old too fast. I met WAY too many pilgrim guys throwing balls at me at this point.
3. Not enough challenging Elite enemy encounters. This related to this 'skill based difficulty' I've mentioned - it's quite rate to have a really difficult non-boss enemy. There are small exceptions: first encounter with Cage-head in Pilgrim's Perch; tanky knight on the hidden path in Umbral in Forsaken Fen; group of knights guarding the Justice sword, but that's about it. All 3 encounters I mentioned right now were actually fun and challenging in a good way, but this feels sort-of rare. It's much more common to have a standard scenario of archer + 2 guys / dogs + someone else, which is more about crowd control than combat skill in my opinion.
4. (minor) I'm not sure if repeating former bosses as a regular enemy few minutes after fighting a boss was a good idea. At least they could have waited a little bit longer, I couldn't believe when I saw infernal enchantress waiting for me so soon after beating her as a boss. Strange.

But, as I said, I don't hate the game any more and will probably finish it.

 

[Jinn]

Also @Jinn's opinion is irrelevant. The dude likes everything. Literally.

Nah, I just don't feel the need to lambast every game I have an issue with. Usually I'll reasonably cite my dislikes without being a total sperg about it. In fact, I tried that Sands of Aura game you liked, but really couldn't get into it. Didn't need to write a wall of text about how shit it was. But yeah, I do tend to try to highlight the positives when I see them.

 

[Spike]

Thinking about picking this up on the sale...Yet the dex seems divided.

I hated the game in the beginning, but after playing for 30h (level 75), I hate it less. It's a flawed and unfinished product, but there is some enjoyment to be had here and there. Not worth it for a full price, but for $39, maybe. If I were to judge buy vs no buy, it would go like this:

Buy the game if:
- level design is one of the most important things for you (definitely great work here)
- you appreciate a variety of weapons, armor, shields and character builds
- you value exploration
- you don't mind a slower / not refined combat system
- few bugs here and there are acceptable
- you don't need an extreme challenge from bosses
- ... but are happy with bigger challenge from the levels themselves
- enemy spam in Umbral world doesn't looks like something that will bother you

Don't buy the game if:
- you expect a fully finished, polished product
- you want an amazing 10/10 combat system with tight timings etc.
- boss design & difficulty is one of the most important factor
- tons of range enemies sound like something that will be annoying
- stupid / illogical game design decisions annoy you
- enemy variety is an important factor for enjoying a game
- you want a creative / carefully crafted encounter design
- expect a skill-based difficulty, not 'difficulty by numbers'

Important notes: this is based on on 30h of playing (finished Revelation Depths). Not sure how it is later (I heard it's not so great).

I like both things. So it seems like I will enjoy this. I can appreciate a game for the things it does well/right rather than skree about the game I incorrectly expected it to be. I have grabbed enough games for now, though. Maybe next sale!

 

[cruel]

Finished the game yesterday, level 128h and 70h spent. I don't regret buying this at 34% off, but I have a strong feeling that this would be a much better experience with few design decisions here and there changed.

Good things:
+ excellent level design (interconnected world, many shortcuts, rare bonfires)
+ very good exploration, game tries to reward the player for looking behind every corner
+ lots of classes and builds to pick from (with some questionable balance between them)
+ some of the bosses were fun to fight (Pieta, Dervla, Tancred, Judge Cleric, Lightreaper)
+ co-op & invasions actually started to work after few patches
+ clearly tons of effort was put into creating this game

Bad things:
- uninspired & lazy as fuck encounter design
- ranged enemies galore (the game has probably more ranged enemies that all From games combined)
- not enough enemy variety, copy & paste + HP bloat becomes king at the end of the game (Bramis Castle being the biggest offender)
- extremely annoying enemy spam in Umbral world
- most of the bosses are very easy
- questionable balance (eg. Radiance seems to be OP compared to other options)
- retarded quest design (you will fail some of the quests without a walkthrough - guide needed for: Byron, Stormund, Tortured Prisoner)
- final boss fight for the most common ending (Radiant) qualifies as the worst final fight ever in any Souls game
- best possible ending (+ best boss fight, Elianne) needs a guide

I rated Wo Long as 6.5, and Lies of P as 9. LotF is a better game than Wo Long, but nowhere close to Lies of P, so it's only fair I rate it as 7/10. Note: I played after most of the patches (including enemy density nerf) were in place.

 

[Anonona]

Couldn't agree anymore with you review, pretty much my thoughts about the game 1:1. Considering the rocky development probably a lot of the issues like the repetitive enemies, lack of enemy variety and lackluster final bosses and areas are due to it, but still the game ain't bad and some people shit way to hard on it. It really feels like with some changes it could have been something really great.

 

[cruel]

Yeah, agreed. What also didn't help the devs is putting the most annoying areas (Pilgrim Perch pre-patch and Forsaken Fen) so early into the game. Most of the areas after those two are much less annoying, and Pilgrim's Perch is actually not annoying at all now.

 

[toro]

"To preserve business strength and stability, CI Games has made the tough but necessary decision to implement a targeted round of redundancies, affecting approximately 10% of employees across the company," shared CI Games' CEO Marek Tymiński with GamesIndustry.biz.

Sources pointed us towards affected staff posting on LinkedIn claiming the majority of the marketing team has been made redundant. GamesIndustry.biz was told that Lords of the Fallen developer Hexworks and Sniper Ghost Warrior studio Underdog had also been affected.

 

[cvv]

Lords of Fallen gained huge traction amongst gamers when it was initially released, selling over a million copies in just 10 days from the official launch. The game was popular amongst those who desired a Soulslike title, and it was immediately evident that the studio would indeed launch a sequel to the title, to maintain consumer interest periodically.

The upcoming projects by CI Games include the next iteration of Lords of Fallen, called Death of Fallen, along with an open-survival title Gate to Gehenna, a new entry in the Sniper Ghost Warrior series, and Project Scorpio which is said to be a multiplayer tactical FPS.

Toro:

 

[toro]

Lords of Fallen gained huge traction amongst gamers when it was initially released, selling over a million copies in just 10 days from the official launch. The game was popular amongst those who desired a Soulslike title, and it was immediately evident that the studio would indeed launch a sequel to the title, to maintain consumer interest periodically.

The upcoming projects by CI Games include the next iteration of Lords of Fallen, called Death of Fallen, along with an open-survival title Gate to Gehenna, a new entry in the Sniper Ghost Warrior series, and Project Scorpio which is said to be a multiplayer tactical FPS.

Toro:

Codename Project Survive

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Lords of Fallen gained huge traction amongst gamers when it was initially released, selling over a million copies in just 10 days from the official launch. The game was popular amongst those who desired a Soulslike title, and it was immediately evident that the studio would indeed launch a sequel to the title, to maintain consumer interest periodically.

The upcoming projects by CI Games include the next iteration of Lords of Fallen, called Death of Fallen, along with an open-survival title Gate to Gehenna, a new entry in the Sniper Ghost Warrior series, and Project Scorpio which is said to be a multiplayer tactical FPS.

Toro:

Honestly having so much new projects doesn't inspire confidence in me, especially Open World Survival + 2 FPS that could easily flop and results in closure

 

[toro]

new patch dropped

To the Dev's:

First thumbs down from me?!

Your new graphical settings are just shifted. The Cinematic setting is the previous Ultra setting.
All this just to integrate a lower LOW setting?

The viewing distance is now catastrophic in cinematic, the vegetation popping up is clearly visible!

Before today's patch, you could completely avoid pop-ins by changing the scalability ViewDistanceQuality=4

Now that doesn't work anymore, so a significant graphic downgrade. Likewise, GlobalIlluminationQuality in Cinematic is the previous Ultra.

I don't even know what to say about that?! I'm pissed!!! (after +360 happy hours. What the hell?!)

these devs never stop delivering drama fixes

 

[toro]

and another one

Cinematic settings are a scam...
Hi there,

I was soooo happy about this patch, finally the Soulslike I prefer will be smooth 100%, no more stutters and micro freezes while playing....
And more, there are new cinematic settings, which is great because it's the only settings which get rid of the awful LOD popin, even if you had to edit an .ini file, it was working PERFECTLY with Draw Distance set on "4"
So I thought that setting my draw distance, not via .ini, but in game on Cinematic is easier...
But.... SURPRISE....:
Now Cinematic settings seems to be... old Ultra settings, what a scam!!!!
And LOD popin is back, but now you CAN'T FIX IT, because these old cinematics settings don't exists anymore, what they call Cinematic is just Ultra...
I had no problem running draw distance at 4 before this update and now it doesn't exists anymore...
And this popin is AWFUL, it's ruining my enjoyment of the game...
Is it how you fix your game...? by lying or scamming with settings?
I'm super pissed of, I don't understand....

 

[toro]

It's over.

Today was the last day they tried to push this shit with sponsored streams. Almost all streamers like Cohn, Hob, Ellajaz were streaming the game.

The funny thing is that the game is still stuttering on high end machines

 

[Frank Capicoli]

It's over.

Hopefully their next game makes you just as butthurt.

 

[cvv]

Breaking news, a lone gunman opened fire in the offices of Hexworks, developers of Lords of the Fallen. After questioning by the police about his motives he explained he did it because the game had "bad design".

Upon further investigation the police unearthed disturbing posts the perpetrator shared on various social media, especially "RPG Codex", full of inarticulate rage and bad gaming taste. The latter was a basis for a subsequent trial and incarceration, whereby he will spend the next 10 years in the Supermax Federal Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, playing nothing but Lords of the Fallen all day, every day.

 

[janior]

It's over.

Hopefully their next game makes you just as butthurt.

he's not wrong, this game was bad and flopped like crazy despite the massive shilling campaign

 

[SpoonFULL]

For me, LoF is one of the best soul-likes that I have played with its huge and varied world, huge build possibilities and satisfying combat and enemies. It really shows how much efforts the developers have put into it. Much better than Dark Souls 3 for me (enjoyed LoF as much if not more than Dark Souls 1 and 2). My only gripe with LoF was the crashing which I hope they would have solved by now.

 

[Spike]

For me, LoF is one of the best soul-likes that I have played with its huge and varied world, huge build possibilities and satisfying combat and enemies. It really shows how much efforts the developers have put into it. Much better than Dark Souls 3 for me (enjoyed LoF as much if not more than Dark Souls 1 and 2). My only gripe with LoF was the crashing which I hope they would have solved by now.

I'm glad some people are really enjoying it. It looks so cool. Between this and Wo Long having such a mixed reaction, it's a little discouraging so it's nice to see some hype for either of them.

 

[DemonKing]

Much better than Dark Souls 3 for me (enjoyed LoF as much if not more than Dark Souls 1 and 2). My only gripe with LoF was the crashing which I hope they would have solved by now.

It was ok - I didn't like the twin-worlds mechanic and the stutter on "the most powerful console ever" Series X in some areas was unplayable. Also some of the boss battles where ridiculous when the arenas were so tiny it was impossible to tell what was happening with effects going off everywhere.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Much better than Dark Souls 3 for me (enjoyed LoF as much if not more than Dark Souls 1 and 2). My only gripe with LoF was the crashing which I hope they would have solved by now.

It was ok - I didn't like the twin-worlds mechanic and the stutter on "the most powerful console ever" Series X in some areas was unplayable. Also some of the boss battles where ridiculous when the arenas were so tiny it was impossible to tell what was happening with effects going off everywhere.

I played it on PC and there was no stuttering when I lowered the details and transitions to the other domain were very smooth. The issue that I had on my AMD graphics card was random crashing. Regarding bosses, the only boss battles that I struggled with in a tight arena (which I think you are referring to) is the Iron Wayfarer on the pass and Andreas (here is a list of all bosses https://thelordsofthefallen.wiki.fextralife.com/Bosses).

 

[deama]

I didn't really have any stuttering or any of that, sure the fps wasn't a nice 120, but was good enough I guess.
My issue was just with the game itself I didn't like that much. The world switching was cool, but would have liked the switching mechanic to be done in a different way, more freeform way.
Also the stupid mimick chests were really retardedly done in the game.

 

[Jinn]

Some of the absolute best level design in the entire genre, made only better by the addition of the Umbral world. Feels like an actual dungeon crawler the majority of the time. If you're an exploration lover such as myself, there's really no reason why you shouldn't try this game out someday at least on a deep sale. Then you add actual meaningful RPG mechanics and character progression, interesting atmosphere/art design, and a plethora of varied equipment on top of it all. Makes me wonder what exactly it is people prioritize in their expectations of the genre. I feel like fans of DS 1 - and particularly 2 - would enjoy what this has to offer, whereas DS 3 fans would be the major detractors.

 

[DemonKing]

Iron Wayfarer

Yeah he was a bitch with the tiny arena and his constant spamming of flame attacks.

 

[cvv]

Between this and Wo Long having such a mixed reaction

Mixed reactions should always be taken with a pinch of salt.

People tend to treat Steam ratings like the typical 1-10/10 review scores but it's a completely different beast. 60% on Steam feels like 6/10 but what it actually means is the majority has liked the game and recommends it.

 

[cvv]

The issue that I had on my AMD graphics card was random crashing.

Yeah same. Seemed to me the more they were fixing it the more it was crashing for me.

The game simply wasn't ready. They probably wanted to release it before the ER DLC steamrolls everything in its path but there is never a good reason for a premature release, devs should be really learning their lesson by this point.

Maybe they'll have their redemption arc now tho, the final content patch made some waves. Even Asmongold, who kept shitting on the game those last 6 months, was impressed and will give it another try. Let's hope for the best because without the bugs and glitches and performance woes and some bizarre balancing issues the game is a genuinely great soulslike.