Lords of the Fallen Review (PC)

It's pretty hard to launch an all-new triple-A game nowadays due to the huge risk, the adversity towards it by the current video games industry, as well as the pretty finicky nature of actual players, who might judge things a bit too harsh.

Even so, Polish studio CI Games, formerly known for the Sniper: Ghost Warrior titles, together with German developer Deck13 Interactive, decided to bite the bullet and roll out Lords of the Fallen, a brand new role-playing game that features big characters, huge monsters, and tough combat, not to mention some pretty impressive visuals.

Does the new medieval fantasy title manage to make a lasting impression or does it fall in combat? Let's find out.

Story

Lords of the Fallen follows the adventures of Harkyn, a prisoner whose crimes are written on his face. While the world is busy finding ways to vanquish all evil, an ancient god awakens and sends his Rhogar Lords to destroy it. As you can imagine, Harkyn is apparently the only man fit to go up against those demonic legions so he, together with mentor Kaslo, go on an epic quest to stop them from crushing the world.

They get to explore a fair amount of environments and interact with different characters. Unfortunately, while you can make quite a few choices along the way, many don't have consequences and quite a few of the supporting cast members either use stereotype attitudes or are undeveloped.

Plot moments are kept to a minimum and cut scenes do a decent job making things clear, without wasting time on things that don't immediately matter to the player. The world of the game gets fleshed out a bit more thanks to the audio diaries, but not many players will actually pay attention, which is a shame, as Deck13 and CI have done a great job in terms of world building.

Explore the environments

Gameplay

Lords of the Fallen tries to combine the traditional role-playing mechanics with those seen in hack and slash titles, delivering a result that works pretty well. Harkyn isn't remotely as agile as Devil May Cry's Dante, but his moves are pretty swift and his blows pack quite a punch, depending on the equipped weapon type.

You can pick between three classes – Warrior, Cleric, and Rogue. Each has its own magic category, relying on spells to buff survivability and damage for the warrior, healing and enemy manipulation for the cleric, or stealth and critical hits for the rogue.

Leveling allows you to spend points in either the stats category, thereby boosting your health pool, your damage, and other such things, or the magic one, where you can unlock new spells to unleash, depending on your available Faith level.

The combat relies on regular and heavy attacks, with the beefier ones requiring a few moments of build up before they're ready to go. Without a doubt, fans of the Souls games made by From Software will feel right at home, but there are quite a few more elements added on top to draw in more people.

Among them is the XP multiplier system. Each kill results in Harkyn getting more experience. When you reach the bonfire-like checkpoint, you can opt to use those points, thereby losing your multiplier, or you can keep going and see it increase exponentially. This high-risk, high-reward system is quite good, and if you die, you have a set amount of time to get back to your XP pile before it vanishes forever.

The loot system is quite well done, and besides offering better and better armor or weapons, it also allows players to collect runes that can be used to provide great bonuses to your existing gear. These can often make or break a tough battle, so spending some time to analyze their pros and cons is essential. Unfortunately, you need to wait until you get to an NPC that can unlock the runes, so at least in the beginning you can only open certain chests with them.

The environments look quite impressive, but they don't vary all that much, as you'll often be fighting through ruined castles or snowy areas. The world of Lords of the Fallen certainly looks amazing but it's not explored all that much. What's more, the lack of a map or at least a semblance of a waypoint system means that you might end up going down wrong paths filled with enemies only to encounter closed doors and other such things.

Thankfully, the enemy variety is quite solid, with a decent amount of monsters wielding different weapons, spells, and attacks going up against Harkyn during the campaign. Some of the Rhogar Lords require quite a bit of out-of-the-box thinking, but sufficiently leveling up certain skills, especially on the warrior, make a few of them die rather easily.

Of course, like in Dark Souls, the difficulty, at least in the beginning, is grueling, so expect plenty of deaths and other such things. Unfortunately, until you start leveling up your attributes and spells, you'll have a really tough time, especially when you go up against enemies that know when to use their shields. Some of their attack patterns are also erratic, so don't be fooled into thinking you've memorized their moves.

Enemies are also quite agile, and in some cases, this exposes a few problems with hit and collision detection. Speaking of problems, you'll also find that there are no difficulty options. This means that experienced RPG fans might soon feel like their version of Harkyn becomes a bit too powerful towards the end stages of the game. There is a New Game + option that buffs difficulty but also allows your character to unlock a second type of magic spells from another class, so things get even easier if you make smart choices.

It's also worth noting that, at least right now, the game is quite unstable on the PC platform. It crashes in all sorts of moments and the framerate spikes when transitioning from inside areas to exterior ones. Enemies will sometimes freeze in place, and if you attack them, they'll immediately fight back in a flurry of frenzied blows.

Visuals and Sound

Lords of the Fallen is a gorgeous experience in terms of visuals, delivering realistic graphics but with plenty of rich colors. Provided your computer can run it, turning on all the different effects makes the whole experience look even better. Character models are sharp and textures look amazing in quite a few situations, although in some things get blurry. Animations, unfortunately, are a bit erratic, especially when characters talk to one another, as they flinch and gesticulate even when they deliver regular sentences. Also, expect a lot of clipping when it comes to your character's cloak and shield.

In terms of sound, the RPG also performs quite well, with decent voice acting and an orchestral score that makes Harkyn's adventures even more impressive. In some cases, the monsters tend to sound pretty alike, but you won't notice it all that much.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion