Lords of the Fallen (2023) Reviews
Lords of the Fallen sets a new benchmark for all Soulslikes out there. It masters what we love about the genre, and adds to it in many ways. It won't get better than this for a while.
Lords of the Fallen stands as a genuine ode to the souls-like genre, a shining masterpiece that deserves recognition as one of the finest action RPGs in recent years.
Lords of the Fallen is a stunningly good game. Following a path set for it by Dark Souls 3 it nails every major part of what makes From’s games so damned good. Stunning visually, the art style and music are some of my favorites. While the very end does get too “big” for its gameplay this one is an easy recommendation to both the most hardcore Souls lovers and those who feel intimidated. Seamless co-op takes what is a great game and makes it a special one.
As unfairly challenging as I could find Lords of the Fallen to be, I also appreciated its creativity. The Umbral world and mechanics surrounding it made for an extremely compelling and risky adventure where I often rode the line between safety and death. I feel like the game could have done better at making the threat of Umbral more than escalation of foes up to an unkillable pursuer that could one-shot me, but I can’t deny I was tickled by the possibilities and always curious of what was on the other side. Mix its intertwined-worlds mechanics into good melee, magic, and archery in a beautiful gothic setting and 2023’s Lords of the Fallen feels like something I’ll more than remember for what it did right and how it set itself apart. The duality of this game’s settings is both dastardly and dazzling.
Most of what fans of Soulslikes want are at the maximum: masterclass-level design, unforgettable bosses, and extensive freedom toward build creation. The combat can feel rough at times, and there are way too many enemies in certain levels, but these downfalls don't negate the fact that Lords of the Fallen reaches for a spot in the highest tier among the genre's greats and finds itself right at home.
After nearly a decade since the launch of the original Lords of the Fallen, CI Games and HexWorks deliver a reboot that exceeds all expectations. With responsive, precise, and challenging combat, innovative twists, stellar grimdark presentation, and more, it's one of the best Soulslikes I've ever played.
With its stunning visuals and unique mechanics, Lords of the Fallen has quickly become one of our favourite Soulslikes. Its setting may be derivative, but it’s so well realised that you likely won’t care, especially when you’re switching between the worlds of the living and the dead, each with their own monstrosities to deal with and treasures to find. Hexworks has created something that genuinely feels like a successor to Dark Souls, leveraging the power of next-gen to push the genre forward. And so, put the mediocrity of the original Lords of the Fallen out of your mind: this may have the same name, but it stands head and shoulders above its predecessor in every single way.
Lords of the Fallen is an impressive release that trumps the original in every way, all whilst introducing some splendid mechanics that help it stand out in the crowded Souls-like genre. The parallel worlds idea is really, REALLY cool, whilst simply exploring the land of Mournstead is always satisfying thanks to its wonderful environmental design and sense of unpredictability across both Axiom and Umbral. It gets all of the basics right too, with combat slick and varied throughout and each epic boss encounter putting your skills to the test. Whilst I’ll admit there were some areas which lacked the polish for it to fully match up to the likes of Elden Ring, Lords of the Fallen is still a very good game. The difficulty spikes can be a little bit unfair in places, especially when the game overwhelms you with a high enemy count, but it doesn’t stop Lords of the Fallen from being another Souls-like release that REALLY deserves your attention.
To sum it up, Lords of the Fallen turned out to be an excellent entry into the soulslike genre, cleverly combining trusty mechanics from other projects while maintaining its own identity. The game offers a unique challenge due to its complexity but at the same time doesn’t forget about the newcomers, giving them ample time to adapt.
Lords of the Fallen is an amazing achievement from the Hexworks team, and Souls-like fans will immediately feel at home in this highly ambitious title. Despite a few performance issues, and a handful of bugs, Lords of the Fallen is some of the most fun I've had this year, and that's saying something considering the titles that have launched in 2023.
Lords of the Fallen comes with some big caveats - it's designed to ambush the player in really snide ways, its boss distribution is erratic, and it really needs a proper map. Despite these annoyances, I’ve been utterly entrenched in a beautiful world, hooked on solid gameplay, and inspired by exquisite art direction. The persistent multiplayer is a treat, while the two-sided world makes for some clever navigation. It might be fundamentally unoriginal, but it heaps of ton of stuff onto that foundation.
Possibly, we are facing the closest soulslike and almost equal to the Dark Souls saga itself. It has absolutely everything a fan of the franchise could want from this type of game: It is difficult, challenging, but not impossible or unfair, it has many possibilities to approach the adventure, and technically accompanies both sight and ear. Perhaps the story does not become so transcendental, because it is one that we have already seen more than once, but we must not detract from it, because the design of the characters is impressive in many cases, something that also happens with the more than 30 bosses that are in the game, each with its own mechanics, phases and aesthetics.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Lords of the Fallen is probably the closest game to the Dark Souls series. Its unique world-switching mechanic, resurrection upon death, and bonfire-building features show the development team's deep understanding of Souls game design.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Lords of the Fallen ranks amongst the best Soulslikes!
CI Games and HEXWORKS have realized their potential by creating one of the greatest souls-likes I’ve had the pleasure of getting lost in.
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.
Lords of the Fallen far exceeded my expectations and has instantly jumped to be among my favourite Soulikes franchises alongside hits like Nioh and Remnant. The huge interconnected world was a joy to explore and the huge variety of weapons, armour and stats lets you really customize your character to your liking. If it wasn't for the performance issues this would be a near flawless experience.
You know at the end of the day, LOTF (2023) has a lot of great aspects, but man these bugs are numerous, significant, and very damaging to the experience. Hexworks is probably going to make this right — I believe they will. If Cyberpunk 2077 can do it, so can these guys and frankly LOTF does not have as far to go to be made right. LOTF could be a great investment of your money and time, but in complete transparency, it’s going to take them some more time to get there. I’d recommend waiting to bite on this one for a few more months until things are really ironed out and tuned. It’s not like we don’t all have a ton of other things to play anyway — but the state of LOTF right now is just too technically unsound to give it a glowing thumbs up. There’s still a great game undernearth all the mess if you can survive the bugginess, but give it a little more time to ripen for now and I think you’ll be glad you did.
Lords of the Fallen can take and sweep the house with the 2014 release. It's a game with its own charisma, very rewarding artistically, and with ideas that fit the genre like a glove. I only regret that it didn't debut as polished as the standards demand, but I trust that HEXWORKS will update it over time to become a game that achieves excellence.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Lords of the Fallen is an awesome soulslike with a fantastic dual-realities premise, even when performance shortcomings and wimpy bosses crash the party.