Lords of The Fallen PC Review

Ever heard of Hexworks? Well, neither have we, considering this is one of the newer contenders on the gaming development front, but this studio took an entirely different approach in terms of ‘Rising to the top’. Hexworks is, for starters, not directly based but instead focuses more on remote development; this means their team is all over the world but still working together. This alone is already an achievement for a studio that was only founded in 2020, though things take an interesting turn when you find out that their debut release is Lords of the Fallen.

 

Lords of the Fallen recently finished development on 13 October and was unleashed upon the world. Granted, nobody was quite ready for what this sequel/successor to the original Lords of the Fallen from 2010 had in store. While this might be another Souls-like, it’s actually incredibly close to what Dark Souls used to be back in the day, with a few unforgiving twists but also a few bugs. Bugs are a given in any huge release, but if you can look past that, get ready to dive into a metaphorical version of hell.

The world in Lords of the Fallen isn’t your everyday fairytale, and it was designed to be even more difficult than its processor, though that’s more a matter of perspective. Right off the bat, you’ll be greeted by a brilliant cinematic showing the Dark Crusader running from something. He’ll lift his Umbral Lamp and say a prayer to Orius, willing it to go to someone more worthy, then throw it into a nearby hole. Directly after that, well…. He meets his end by the sword of the Lightreaper; he seems to be our BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy). The Umbral Lamp, having lost its keeper, revives a nearby corpse, and this is where you come in.

Glorious character creation, bringing with it the best part of any game or the most disappointment. Luckily, Lords of the Fallen went out of its way to give you as many options as possible while creating your new Dark Crusader, alongside a few extras on top of it all. However, you’re not just making a pretty face to go out and slay evil; you’ll need to be mindful of your chosen class and the stats each one gives you. Think of Elden Ring, but with a few extra steps along the way and a much more direct path for each class.

 

Classes in Lords of the Fallen all have their own unique stats, starting items and armor, and weapons. You might have to experiment a bit with the many classes to see which one suits your playstyle best; because not everybody wants to start off as the Hallowed Knight class, though the same can be said for the Pyric Cultist class, which is an Inferno sorcerer class. However, it does look like there are two sides for each class aimed at a different alignment – The Pyric Cultist focuses on Inferno sorceries, but the Orian Preacher is more focused towards Radiance. This doesn’t mean it’s just a difference between good and evil; it could be the difference between having more melee damage but less defense.

Naturally, a game like Lords of the Fallen would be a little dry if there wasn’t some lore to be found…. And you’ll find lore coming out of every orifice, even during character creation. This might not seem all that important, but you’ll notice that every scrap of lore adds to the story at hand and somehow gives the game a bit more depth. Each class also has a little piece of backstory, though more difficult classes also come with the ‘ADVANCED CLASS’ tag. Then there’s the Condemned class, purely for masochistic types who thrive on punishment - Starting with less than the basic items and baseline stats, you’ll be in for a hell of a time if you’re not prepared. Granted, this is the best bait for a speedrunner…

Now that you’ve made your killing machine, your bloody adventure starts in the Defiled Sepulchre, where you’ll probably have to pay attention, or you might miss a detail in the tutorial. Aside from simple movement controls like sprinting, jumping, and dodging, you’ll need to keep a whole slew of other mechanics in mind. However, something to keep in mind with jumping over gaps, your jump distance is terrible, and you’ll need to jump at the absolute last second. It might be odd to say this, but you’ll need to cross a small gap in the tutorial with a jump, though it’s painfully easy to jump too soon.

 

To get to the good part in Lords of the Fallen, attacking – You’ll have your usual light and heavy attacks, but this gets expanded upon with stance changes, blocking, and parrying. Chaining attacks together light and heavy will get you about halfway there, but blocking, parrying, and mixing in stance changes are key to your survival. The reason behind this is to extend your attack combos but also to wear down your opponent’s poise. Breaking your opponent’s poise not only gives you a moment when you need it, but it’ll also allow you to do some serious damage while they’re down. Naturally, this is just the tip of the iceberg in Lords of the Fallen because that was just the melee side of things.

As mentioned before, while you do have a range of melee attacks, you’ll also have an even bigger range of ranged attacks or even magical attacks. Granted, ranged attacks like throwing axes or stones aren’t nearly as impressive as melee, but the magical side of dealing damage is a whole other beast on its own. However, nothing can ever be simple, and you’ll need the right stats and a catalyst for any form of magic in Lords of the Fallen, that is… Unless you start off with a caster class, though, this comes with the drawback of lacking in defensive capabilities.

With such a massive variety of ways to take down anything that stands in your way, Lords of the Fallen has to throw several more curveballs at you using the Umbral Lamp. You see, the world is divided into two separate planes of existence – Axiom, the land of the living and where you’ll likely spend most of your time, and Umbra, the land of the dead. These two worlds tend to hide things from each other, like different paths, enemies, loot, and much more. Getting to Umbral is straightforward using the Umbral Lamp; sadly, getting out isn’t as easy. You’ll have to use a Vestige to return back to Axiom, though these aren’t available everywhere.

 

Vestiges serve a second purpose; aside from escaping back to Axiom, they’re also your rest points and where you can spend Vigor for levels. Think of the Vestiges as safe havens (or campfires); you’ll get to recover and resupply, along with spending the Vigor you get from everything you’ve killed to increase your stats. However, Vigor has other uses, too, such as purchases at shops; this makes life a bit harder when you need to strike a balance between leveling up or buying better gear.

Naturally, Lords of the Fallen has to throw a wrench in the works by targeting your Vigor. Death doesn’t mean you’ll die at first; you’ll instead be revived in the Umbral if you die the first time. The second time around means you drop all your Vigor and you get revived at the last Vestige you rested at. This is a nice touch for the tougher fights, but having to sacrifice your Vigor can slow down your progress if you need to grind a bit more first before taking on what killed you again.

Lastly, we can’t forget about the ever stress inducing thought of death. As we all know, your health is your life; letting it drop to zero means you’re dead. Lords of the Fallen already gives you a second chance by throwing you into the Umbral upon dying the first time, but there is one other thing to keep in mind, Wither Damage. It’s as odd as it sounds, but it also makes life a little more forgiving; Wither Damage will mostly affect you in the Umbral and essentially turns huge chunks of your health into temporary health. It’s a bit more forgiving because you can regain that lost health by dealing damage to enemies.

 

You’re not entirely stuck praying that you don’t get hit or that you’ll instead take Wither Damage; as a Dark Crusader, you’ll also have your most valuable item – The Sanguinarix. Sadly, it is limited in charges; it can still save your skin when you need it most for a quick heal, and you can just get a quick recharge at a Vestige. The alternative is using one of several consumable items that can give you a less effective healing, or you can change tactics and still use consumables for other buffs like adding fire to your weapons or even the ability to deal with Wither Damage.

Lords of the Fallen wouldn’t be complete without some way to get an extra edge; this edge comes in the form of upgrades. Aside from stats, you can also upgrade your gear to increase your chance at survival; and get a nice damage boost too, while you’re at it. Granted, no upgrade is ever possible without the right materials, which you can find all over Axium and Umbral. It’s good to keep in mind that you can also upgrade your Sanguinarix to hold more charges, though those upgrades come with different requirements, which are not as easy to come by either.

One of the bigger things that sets Lords of the Fallen apart from its other Souls-like counterparts is that it seems to be trying to be as close to Dark Souls as possible, but it might also be trying too hard to be even more unforgiving. Between the divided worlds and the already present Souls-like environment to work with, it already has more than enough to be great, but instead, it’s being made more unforgiving with simple things like animation locks while trying to dodge roll or long and drawn-out animations for something like Soul Flay. A little speed in the right places can make a hell of a difference where it’s needed most.

 

Lords of the Fallen already goes above and beyond on visuals alone; the opening cinematic is already enough to really get you ready for some chaos. Things take a slight turn when you’re in-game; while this is a more technical issue, AMD FSR might be the biggest culprit in this case with how it’ll scale down the texture resolution just to maintain a high frame rate. Sadly, the game will go out of its way to maintain that high frame rate, even if it means bouncing between looking stunning and looking like you have some serious vision issues more often than it should. Once you get past that, the worlds of Axiom and Umbral are a delight to explore, and the game as a whole will keep you coming back for more just to explore some of the incredibly detailed sights.

On the sound design front, there might not be much to pick up on at first, though this changes very quickly as you progress. First off, Lords of the Fallen might not have much in terms of being voiced for your character; every other NPC and boss you meet are voiced, and the dialogues already build a great atmosphere. Sadly, there isn’t really much in terms of background music unless you’re in the middle of a boss fight, but that’s also the beauty in it; the lack of background music while exploring keeps you focused because you never know what might try to attack you from behind.

 

Overall, Lords of the Fallen is a brilliant Souls-like and a great successor to the previous attempt, even though it has a few drawbacks. Between the story and the visuals, you’ll find yourself losing hours (or even days) just exploring the worlds of Axium and Umbral, but you might also end up putting the game aside due to how unforgiving it can be. All the game really needs is just a bit of cleanup on resolution scaling and some minor quality-of-life fixes for it to really shine.

Jay Claassen (@R3GR3T_3NVY)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed