This is a game that had quite literally everything laid out for itself on the 'idea board' to be a successful soulslike and even carve out an identity for itself in the sea of mediocre copycats. But unfortunately this is made by a bunch of incompetent "soul" jerking apes thus the end result turned out to be one of the worst games made this whole year
Let's get the pros out of the way first as there isn't that many and they get overshadowed quite easily by the myriad of cons
‣ I hear all this nonsense about this game's world/map design being on par with DS1 which flat out isn't true because it's leagues better. The interconnectivity of LoTF remains consistent from start to finish constantly looping you back to the start of the game through various different shortcuts that would leave you surprised while remaining actually cohesive. On the other hand, DS1's interconnected design of the map doesn't extend past the halfway point and is all random starting from Anor Londo till the end of the game.
‣ The levels REQUIRE you to explore every nooks and cranny to progress and having to switch between two different dimensions to find your way through them can be frustrating since you'll spend a good chunk of time being lost but it's also rewarding at the same time. It's obvious that a lot of the work went to crafting the physical space for the levels and having them constantly loop back and making new shortcuts
‣ Even though the combat is largely clunky I appreciate the fact that the posture bar is visible on the lock on. Which might not seem like a big deal at first but once you realize that it's one of the core mechanics to these games, hiding it makes absolutely no sense and honestly more devs should make it visible instead of hiding it for "oh no my immersion" or whatever
I wasn't lying when I said the cons easily outweigh the pros, you'll see why
‣ The game will quite often show off its world through pretty vistas which should make you appreciate its competently designed world and the pretty artstyle, right? But, no. That's not the case. You're left with utter disdain and disgust at the fact that you had to sit through some of the worst areas/levels ever made in any soulslike ever. Which bring me to my second biggest gripe with the game
‣ The levels in this game are absolutely ATROCIOUS to the point going through them made me physically sick at times. I like the fact that the levels are designed in a way that encourages exploration where you have to switch between dimensions but the enemy density and the worthless eyeball mechanics work counter-intuitive and basically kills the whole point of the non-linear and more interconnected layout. The incompetent enemy placement along with the constant fodder spawns due to the eyeball mechanic incentivizes running through the levels instead of engaging in combat as there's no point in doing so since more and more zombies will pop out of nowhere and overwhelm you to death. Putting a timer on exploration in and of itself is extremely hypocritical and only leads to more time being wasted. Speaking of wasted time, the game BARELY gives you any major checkpoints and instead gives you custom ones that you have a limited access to that you can place on certain areas. You have very little access to these at the start of the game and you're left with no choice but to run across the whole area everytime you die. To make things worse sometimes the way the game loops back to the main checkpoints is through elevators and the elevators in this game are so ridiculously SLOW to the point it becomes frustrating to sit through, especially when you have to sit through them repeatedly. Also the custom checkpoints not being permanent is also dumb as you'll be needing to run through the whole level yet again in case you miss a route or some significant items to make progress which is quite common in this game given the non-linear world design. Also, why in the world is platforming a thing? It adds nothing of value to the levels and only makes them more annoying to go through.
Bottom line being, the areas/levels just LOVE to waste your time for no reason at all while simultaneously making you feel sick to your stomach. And what is your reward for sitting through some of the most miserable areas ever designed?
‣ You should be rewarded with a fun fight at the end of a level that has a satisfying learning curve to it, right? Wrong, all you'll get is more misery. The boss fights are incontestably the worst part of this game and it's not even close. The fights are mostly all mobs slapped on with boss HP or ganks that make no logical sense at all or plain out annoying gimmick fights. Even the ones that you'd think are decent by this game's standards are completely ruined by stupid design choices like slapping on an AoE that is completely desynced with the actual moveset and last for so long that it becomes a genuine annoyance. I've also noticed movesets of major bosses getting recycled with dual phase bosses with identical movesets with little to no difference in how you approach the fight except for the fact that it's suddenly far tankier which drags the fight to an unbearable length. The run back to the bosses can be quite insufferable if you're out of custom checkpoints and sometimes you're forced to clear out mobs every single time you face off against the bosses as there are certain mobs can one shot you from 200 miles away
‣ Enemy variety in this game is quite literally non-existent the only way this game can overwhelm the players is through spamming the same worthless zombie mobs or to reuse the mini bosses as fodders with bloated HP only to add to the overall misery of going through the already cramped levels with 500 different zombies spawning on your ass
‣ As you'd expect from a soulslike there isn't really much to its combat but the implementation of parrying is done in such an incompetent way that it leaves you questioning why they even added it to begin which is why I couldn't help but bring it up. Making lighter weapons parry better than the heavier ones make absolutely no sense as you already have a weight advantage when it comes down to lighter weapons and nothing when it comes down to heavier weapons. It should've been the other way around then parrying would legitimately be a viable playstyle despite the lackluster presentation with god awful sound effects
‣ I've respecced in this game 3 different times and the conclusion I came to is that this game is biased towards spell casting magic builds while making melee builds utterly useless especially when you're going through the god awful areas which is like 90% of the game. Even against the complete excuse of "bosses" spells can make the fights somewhat less miserable as you can quickly deal with dogs in one hit that the game LOVES to spam for whatever reason. Basically, build variety is non-existent go with either inferno/radiance build or suffer
‣ The lock-on in this game screwed me over way too many times than I could even bother to remember. It'd automatically remove itself or move onto another object in the area causing you to die. And when the platforming segments that require you to use the lock on most of the time never works if there are enemies nearby in turn making running past everything not a viable option.
‣ The requirements to get different endings are beyond idiotic. The fact that you get locked into the worst ending possible with the Deacons of The Deep final boss only makes it worse as from what I've seen the other endings reward you with far better finale
There are some things I'm on the fence about or simply don't care for and these are
‣ Art direction is quite strong with plenty of variety in its visuals with the different biomes and all but I honestly couldn't careless when the levels individually look quite samey especially in the umbral realm where everything just has a blue tint
‣ Music is nothing I'll go out of my way to listen to but they aren't offensively bad either
‣ the NPC quests are extremely convoluted but so is the case with every Fromsoft souls game so I'll cut them some slack here
Lords of the Fallen is an incompetent title made by a group of incompetent devs.
Steer clear of this game at all cost
0/5
Let's get the pros out of the way first as there isn't that many and they get overshadowed quite easily by the myriad of cons
‣ I hear all this nonsense about this game's world/map design being on par with DS1 which flat out isn't true because it's leagues better. The interconnectivity of LoTF remains consistent from start to finish constantly looping you back to the start of the game through various different shortcuts that would leave you surprised while remaining actually cohesive. On the other hand, DS1's interconnected design of the map doesn't extend past the halfway point and is all random starting from Anor Londo till the end of the game.
‣ The levels REQUIRE you to explore every nooks and cranny to progress and having to switch between two different dimensions to find your way through them can be frustrating since you'll spend a good chunk of time being lost but it's also rewarding at the same time. It's obvious that a lot of the work went to crafting the physical space for the levels and having them constantly loop back and making new shortcuts
‣ Even though the combat is largely clunky I appreciate the fact that the posture bar is visible on the lock on. Which might not seem like a big deal at first but once you realize that it's one of the core mechanics to these games, hiding it makes absolutely no sense and honestly more devs should make it visible instead of hiding it for "oh no my immersion" or whatever
I wasn't lying when I said the cons easily outweigh the pros, you'll see why
‣ The game will quite often show off its world through pretty vistas which should make you appreciate its competently designed world and the pretty artstyle, right? But, no. That's not the case. You're left with utter disdain and disgust at the fact that you had to sit through some of the worst areas/levels ever made in any soulslike ever. Which bring me to my second biggest gripe with the game
‣ The levels in this game are absolutely ATROCIOUS to the point going through them made me physically sick at times. I like the fact that the levels are designed in a way that encourages exploration where you have to switch between dimensions but the enemy density and the worthless eyeball mechanics work counter-intuitive and basically kills the whole point of the non-linear and more interconnected layout. The incompetent enemy placement along with the constant fodder spawns due to the eyeball mechanic incentivizes running through the levels instead of engaging in combat as there's no point in doing so since more and more zombies will pop out of nowhere and overwhelm you to death. Putting a timer on exploration in and of itself is extremely hypocritical and only leads to more time being wasted. Speaking of wasted time, the game BARELY gives you any major checkpoints and instead gives you custom ones that you have a limited access to that you can place on certain areas. You have very little access to these at the start of the game and you're left with no choice but to run across the whole area everytime you die. To make things worse sometimes the way the game loops back to the main checkpoints is through elevators and the elevators in this game are so ridiculously SLOW to the point it becomes frustrating to sit through, especially when you have to sit through them repeatedly. Also the custom checkpoints not being permanent is also dumb as you'll be needing to run through the whole level yet again in case you miss a route or some significant items to make progress which is quite common in this game given the non-linear world design. Also, why in the world is platforming a thing? It adds nothing of value to the levels and only makes them more annoying to go through.
Bottom line being, the areas/levels just LOVE to waste your time for no reason at all while simultaneously making you feel sick to your stomach. And what is your reward for sitting through some of the most miserable areas ever designed?
‣ You should be rewarded with a fun fight at the end of a level that has a satisfying learning curve to it, right? Wrong, all you'll get is more misery. The boss fights are incontestably the worst part of this game and it's not even close. The fights are mostly all mobs slapped on with boss HP or ganks that make no logical sense at all or plain out annoying gimmick fights. Even the ones that you'd think are decent by this game's standards are completely ruined by stupid design choices like slapping on an AoE that is completely desynced with the actual moveset and last for so long that it becomes a genuine annoyance. I've also noticed movesets of major bosses getting recycled with dual phase bosses with identical movesets with little to no difference in how you approach the fight except for the fact that it's suddenly far tankier which drags the fight to an unbearable length. The run back to the bosses can be quite insufferable if you're out of custom checkpoints and sometimes you're forced to clear out mobs every single time you face off against the bosses as there are certain mobs can one shot you from 200 miles away
‣ Enemy variety in this game is quite literally non-existent the only way this game can overwhelm the players is through spamming the same worthless zombie mobs or to reuse the mini bosses as fodders with bloated HP only to add to the overall misery of going through the already cramped levels with 500 different zombies spawning on your ass
‣ As you'd expect from a soulslike there isn't really much to its combat but the implementation of parrying is done in such an incompetent way that it leaves you questioning why they even added it to begin which is why I couldn't help but bring it up. Making lighter weapons parry better than the heavier ones make absolutely no sense as you already have a weight advantage when it comes down to lighter weapons and nothing when it comes down to heavier weapons. It should've been the other way around then parrying would legitimately be a viable playstyle despite the lackluster presentation with god awful sound effects
‣ I've respecced in this game 3 different times and the conclusion I came to is that this game is biased towards spell casting magic builds while making melee builds utterly useless especially when you're going through the god awful areas which is like 90% of the game. Even against the complete excuse of "bosses" spells can make the fights somewhat less miserable as you can quickly deal with dogs in one hit that the game LOVES to spam for whatever reason. Basically, build variety is non-existent go with either inferno/radiance build or suffer
‣ The lock-on in this game screwed me over way too many times than I could even bother to remember. It'd automatically remove itself or move onto another object in the area causing you to die. And when the platforming segments that require you to use the lock on most of the time never works if there are enemies nearby in turn making running past everything not a viable option.
‣ The requirements to get different endings are beyond idiotic. The fact that you get locked into the worst ending possible with the Deacons of The Deep final boss only makes it worse as from what I've seen the other endings reward you with far better finale
There are some things I'm on the fence about or simply don't care for and these are
‣ Art direction is quite strong with plenty of variety in its visuals with the different biomes and all but I honestly couldn't careless when the levels individually look quite samey especially in the umbral realm where everything just has a blue tint
‣ Music is nothing I'll go out of my way to listen to but they aren't offensively bad either
‣ the NPC quests are extremely convoluted but so is the case with every Fromsoft souls game so I'll cut them some slack here
Lords of the Fallen is an incompetent title made by a group of incompetent devs.
Steer clear of this game at all cost
0/5