I’ve spent 3 pretty lengthy play sessions with Lords of the Fallen, and my opinion of it was changing with each one.

The first session was very frustrating to me, I actively disliked the game at that point, but that’s just because I was approaching it from the wrong angle. I was playing Lords of the Fallen more like a fast-paced action-RPG, and as a result wasn’t very effective. And rage quit.

But then I realized that Lords of the Fallen is closer to a game like Dark Souls in nature. So my second session I came back with a different mindset. And I started enjoying it quite a bit: getting the hang of the slow and crunchy combat system, trying to get as far as possible without refilling health and storing experience in checkpoints (there’s a whole bonus experience points system going if you don’t use checkpoints), exploring the area. It was pretty neat.

My third play session though also became my last one. Because the engagement that came from getting the hang of the mechanics has passed, so it was up to other things to keep me in the game… and there wasn’t, really.

The characters are all blind and boring. The narrative is… there. Some of the notes provide interesting insights, but it all kinda falls flat.

The world ceases to be interesting to explore, because it all just feels the same. Even when you go into an absolutely different dimension, it might as well be the world you’re from, there’s not much visual difference. And because everything looks the same, it becomes easier to get lost once locations become more complicated. So I wasn’t getting joy from exploration either.

This leaves the combat. To be fair, the bosses and mini-bosses are all well-designed, require their own strategy, and it’s very neat trying to figure out how to beat them. The more common enemies, though… they become boring pretty quickly, even though the game tries to up the stakes by making you face more than one at a time. So is it worth even to get to the interesting opponents?

I don’t dislike the game, but I also don’t really see any reason to keep going. So I personally would recommend Lords of the Fallen only to two groups of people:
a) If you’re a person looking to get into Dark Souls-like games, this would be a good introduction to the style of gameplay, as it seems more accessible and less intimidating.
b) If you’re a person who’s a huge fan of this type of gameplay and are looking for something in that same vein.

For anyone else… do some extensive research on the game before deciding if it’s something you want to get and play.

Also, can I just say that the severely wounded Kaslo managed to get VERY far, through a couple of closed gates and tons of enemies, before getting found by allies? That’s at the very least suspicious if you ask me.

Anyway. Thank you all for reading. Feel free to leave any comments below. If you’d like to keep an eye on my future blog posts, feel free to follow me on Twitter
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