As a huge From Software fan, I have a lot of things to say about this game. I have a decent amount of negative thoughts, but honestly, it's mostly positive. I'm very surprised by the reaction to this game; though I have a feeling a lot of people that are trashing it barely played it (or didn't play it at all).
I will say, I played this a month and a half after release (after the patch where lots of stuff was rebalanced to make it "more difficult"). This may affect my feelings towards the game versus someone who played it at launch. I am aware that people were experiencing technical issues (to varying degrees). I did not really experience any.
If this game came out before Lies of P, I may have enjoyed it even more. I think everyone would have. Since LoP came out the month before this, I think some people were burnt out on soulslikes already, which is unfortunate. It also doesn't help that LoP is definitely the superior game overall. It overshadows this for sure. Don't let that deter you from trying this one, though. It's great, too.
As always, the most important aspect of a video game for me is how it feels - and Lords of the Fallen feels great. Not perfect, but great. Miles better than the first attempt 9 years ago. The original LotF is a complete joke compared to this. Not only does it feel great to control, but there are multiple additions to combat that I enjoyed a lot. The moveset felt more varied than in a From Soft game, for one. I loved the dashing/dodging R2 attacks, for instance. The fact that there was a different animation and different attack for dashing R2, dodging R2, charged R2, and regular R2 was awesome. FS games usually implement a couple of these but LotF has more options in regards to regular attacks, and that made the combat more dynamic. I also really liked using a crossbow as a second weapon and easily switching to it by holding L2 without having to swap out my regular weapon. Good stuff. I started off the game using a "great hammer" and wasn't particularly enjoying the combat. It was SO slow. 10 hours in or so I crafted a halberd using boss materials and stuck with that the rest of the game. Once I started using that, the game felt a lot better.
I like the idea of the "two worlds simultaneously" mechanic, but it isn't implemented super well. It just feels like a bunch of unnecessary roadblocks. The game wouldn't have been any worse off if this mechanic were entirely absent. I think it would be better, actually. It's just a chore to switch dimensions to solve an easy puzzle, then find a way to switch back to the normal world. It's pointless. Lore-wise, I'm sure it's not pointless, but I can assure you I didn't listen to a single thing anyone in this game had to say. I did not care whatsoever. Nothing about the world was interesting to me. I was just here for the combat and exploration, as I usually am with Souls(like) games - unless it's particularly intriguing.
Speaking of the exploration, this is where the game misses the mark the most. I frequently felt lost because a lot of the areas look the same. There wasn't much personality or distinction between them. Especially when you are constantly switching to the Umbral world. In that world, everything truly is identical - and you're in it constantly. Bland grey and brown areas galore - sometimes with a blue tint. It's just not very interesting to look at. This combined with the way the game handles attempting to give you shortcuts and you have somewhat of a mess in terms of the readability of the environment. I like the idea of placing your own checkpoints in theory, but it's not executed well. Plenty of times I would place a temporary checkpoint somewhere to then instantly come across a shortcut back to a previous checkpoint - and realize I wasted a resource. I was constantly robbed of the feeling a shortcut is supposed to give. It was all over the place in terms of the pacing of the permanent checkpoints vs. the temporary checkpoint spots vs. the shortcuts. It's like different people designed each of these features and they did not communicate with each other.
Difficulty-wise, I found it balanced very well. It's definitely easier than a Souls game but that's totally fine with me. It's not a perfect game so if it was any more difficult I could see it becoming frustrating much faster than a FS game would.
The enemy designs were pretty unremarkable. Pretty standard fare; nothing stands out too much. Also, there was not much variety. On top of that, they constantly threw re-used bosses at you as regular enemies as the game went on. It felt a bit lazy for lack of a better term. I don't like using that word but it really did feel like it here.
A few more positive notes: I liked the build variety, the leveling system, the equipment options, the UI, the speed you used consumables and switched to your ranged weapons, and the ability to change your armor color (although that was a bit lackluster in terms of options).
Overall, there are plenty of great aspects to this game. Absolutely try it out if you're a Souls fan. Between this and Lies of P, LoP is better overall. I would argue that LotF and LoP both have excellent takes on the combat of a Soulslike game. LoP comes out as the clear winner when you add in explorative design and the way the game presents itself. Whether that be the world around you or the characters you interact with. LotF feels generic in some ways, but like I said - it got the most important part right. The combat. So hurray for them!
I will say, I played this a month and a half after release (after the patch where lots of stuff was rebalanced to make it "more difficult"). This may affect my feelings towards the game versus someone who played it at launch. I am aware that people were experiencing technical issues (to varying degrees). I did not really experience any.
If this game came out before Lies of P, I may have enjoyed it even more. I think everyone would have. Since LoP came out the month before this, I think some people were burnt out on soulslikes already, which is unfortunate. It also doesn't help that LoP is definitely the superior game overall. It overshadows this for sure. Don't let that deter you from trying this one, though. It's great, too.
As always, the most important aspect of a video game for me is how it feels - and Lords of the Fallen feels great. Not perfect, but great. Miles better than the first attempt 9 years ago. The original LotF is a complete joke compared to this. Not only does it feel great to control, but there are multiple additions to combat that I enjoyed a lot. The moveset felt more varied than in a From Soft game, for one. I loved the dashing/dodging R2 attacks, for instance. The fact that there was a different animation and different attack for dashing R2, dodging R2, charged R2, and regular R2 was awesome. FS games usually implement a couple of these but LotF has more options in regards to regular attacks, and that made the combat more dynamic. I also really liked using a crossbow as a second weapon and easily switching to it by holding L2 without having to swap out my regular weapon. Good stuff. I started off the game using a "great hammer" and wasn't particularly enjoying the combat. It was SO slow. 10 hours in or so I crafted a halberd using boss materials and stuck with that the rest of the game. Once I started using that, the game felt a lot better.
I like the idea of the "two worlds simultaneously" mechanic, but it isn't implemented super well. It just feels like a bunch of unnecessary roadblocks. The game wouldn't have been any worse off if this mechanic were entirely absent. I think it would be better, actually. It's just a chore to switch dimensions to solve an easy puzzle, then find a way to switch back to the normal world. It's pointless. Lore-wise, I'm sure it's not pointless, but I can assure you I didn't listen to a single thing anyone in this game had to say. I did not care whatsoever. Nothing about the world was interesting to me. I was just here for the combat and exploration, as I usually am with Souls(like) games - unless it's particularly intriguing.
Speaking of the exploration, this is where the game misses the mark the most. I frequently felt lost because a lot of the areas look the same. There wasn't much personality or distinction between them. Especially when you are constantly switching to the Umbral world. In that world, everything truly is identical - and you're in it constantly. Bland grey and brown areas galore - sometimes with a blue tint. It's just not very interesting to look at. This combined with the way the game handles attempting to give you shortcuts and you have somewhat of a mess in terms of the readability of the environment. I like the idea of placing your own checkpoints in theory, but it's not executed well. Plenty of times I would place a temporary checkpoint somewhere to then instantly come across a shortcut back to a previous checkpoint - and realize I wasted a resource. I was constantly robbed of the feeling a shortcut is supposed to give. It was all over the place in terms of the pacing of the permanent checkpoints vs. the temporary checkpoint spots vs. the shortcuts. It's like different people designed each of these features and they did not communicate with each other.
Difficulty-wise, I found it balanced very well. It's definitely easier than a Souls game but that's totally fine with me. It's not a perfect game so if it was any more difficult I could see it becoming frustrating much faster than a FS game would.
The enemy designs were pretty unremarkable. Pretty standard fare; nothing stands out too much. Also, there was not much variety. On top of that, they constantly threw re-used bosses at you as regular enemies as the game went on. It felt a bit lazy for lack of a better term. I don't like using that word but it really did feel like it here.
A few more positive notes: I liked the build variety, the leveling system, the equipment options, the UI, the speed you used consumables and switched to your ranged weapons, and the ability to change your armor color (although that was a bit lackluster in terms of options).
Overall, there are plenty of great aspects to this game. Absolutely try it out if you're a Souls fan. Between this and Lies of P, LoP is better overall. I would argue that LotF and LoP both have excellent takes on the combat of a Soulslike game. LoP comes out as the clear winner when you add in explorative design and the way the game presents itself. Whether that be the world around you or the characters you interact with. LotF feels generic in some ways, but like I said - it got the most important part right. The combat. So hurray for them!