Lords of the Fallen

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 605 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 263 out of 605
  2. Mixed: 189 out of 605
  3. Negative: 153 out of 605
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  1. Makaveli
    Oct 28, 2014
    6
    If you are expecting Dark Souls, then yu will be disappointed.. It does have a similar look to Dark Souls, but it is not as challenging.

    In this game regular enemies have no real chance against you as in Dark Souls you could be max level and regular enemies could still do their damage.. Not so much in Lords of The Fallen. I'm disappointing with the bosses, they are all pretty much    If you are expecting Dark Souls, then yu will be disappointed.. It does have a similar look to Dark Souls, but it is not as challenging.

    In this game regular enemies have no real chance against you as in Dark Souls you could be max level and regular enemies could still do their damage.. Not so much in Lords of The Fallen.

    I'm disappointing with the bosses, they are all pretty much the same and can all be beaten the same way... I do like the combat... If you wear heavy armor you will be slower, but you can pretty much take everything out.

    Do not try and play this game like Dark Souls.. Dark Souls was more on the level of playing defensivly and trying not to get hit.. In this game, it's more like a hack n slash... You WILL get hit a lot but it's not as much of a big deal as it is in Dark Souls..

    To be honest I bought this game thinking that the boss battles were going to be epic, I do love me my boss battles....The bosses were a let down to me, but the game as a whole is pretty decent and fun. I would complain that you can not make your own character, but this was known before the game came out...

    All in all it's a decent game, but I do not see it being remembered for very long. Keep in mind I have only been playing the game for about 9 hours and I am not finished yet, but this is enough for me to judge the game.. I could not put down the controller when I first played Demon Souls and Dark Souls , this game I had to put the controller down a few times..

    Rent before you buy, I do not think it will be for everyone.    … Expand
  2. Sony_Loyalist
    Oct 28, 2014
    10
    Great game, very similar to Dark Souls. I like the levels very much. Also it's not tht frustrating like Dark Souls. I really recommend it to everyone before Bloodborne will come out in February.
  3. Moffi
    Oct 28, 2014
    10
    amazing beautiful game with fantastic gameplay!! I play as much as 5 hours and I can not break away. As the good old days. I hope that the game is long and we get some DLC in the near future because as it goes on like this for 2-3 days it did not end up getting up from the console
  4. Drchelsea
    Oct 28, 2014
    10
    From what I've played, it looks like an amazing achievement from the Polish guys. And for those comparing it to dark souls and disliking the game for that reason alone, should really play it before criticizing it.
  5. Slazar
    Feb 25, 2015
    6
    If you liked demon/dark souls, you can try this game, but do not expect DS game. If you didnt like DS games, dont play this one. Is just a downgrade version of DS game.

    I finished it, i got my 20 hours of game play, and the game is playable. I rate it 6/10
  6. LordZenan
    Mar 27, 2015
    6
    *WARNING HEAVY COMPARISONS WITH THE DARK SOULS FRANCHISE IN THIS REVIEW*
    Clumsy would be the best way to describe my, admittedly, brief encounter with Lords of the Fallen. While blatantly imitating the Dark Souls franchise, CI Games clearly intended to differentiate itself from merely becoming a DS clone by designing many assets (such as enemies, amour and environments) in a Diablo/War    *WARNING HEAVY COMPARISONS WITH THE DARK SOULS FRANCHISE IN THIS REVIEW*
    Clumsy would be the best way to describe my, admittedly, brief encounter with Lords of the Fallen. While blatantly imitating the Dark Souls franchise, CI Games clearly intended to differentiate itself from merely becoming a DS clone by designing many assets (such as enemies, amour and environments) in a Diablo/War Hammer fashion. It almost attempts to take every aspect of Dark Souls and make it more 'hardcore' and spikey. I would love to credit this game for continuing the Souls-like formula that so many have come to love, and in some ways I actually can, however the game falls flat and down right lazy in certain critical areas. Where Dark Souls cleverly weaves challenge and satisfaction of overcoming the various hurdles it lays on its path, LotF often feels cheap and badly designed. Deaths often happen due to unforeseen circumstances or exploitation with the dodging mechanic and so on, which reduces the challenge to a simple 'trial by error' system. The visuals are astonishing and the soundtrack does the game justice for the most part but this is over shadowed by the negatives: A weak plot with unconvincing voice acting, demanding and downright frustrating AI, crashes and glitches on a regular basis, a mixed bag of quality with the bosses, uninteresting (and often overworked) design and a clear bias towards the warrior class. Don't get me wrong, there is fun to be had in LotF but it is not worth the asking price of £50. If many of the issues surrounding this title are ironed out, its, already announced, sequel could be something much more. Definitely recommended on offer if you are a fan of the Souls franchise or similar RPGs.    … Expand
  7. 11254man
    Jun 26, 2017
    4
    I really hate useless _/10 scores, but this platform forces one, so wait until the end for a recommendation on how much you should buy it for, as I feel it to be a more accurate representation of whether the game is, you know... worth it. It should be first noted that I got this game for free, and it's often on sale for under $5. Lords of the Fallen is a Souls-Like Action RPG by CI GamesI really hate useless _/10 scores, but this platform forces one, so wait until the end for a recommendation on how much you should buy it for, as I feel it to be a more accurate representation of whether the game is, you know... worth it. It should be first noted that I got this game for free, and it's often on sale for under $5. Lords of the Fallen is a Souls-Like Action RPG by CI Games and Deck13 Interactive. A lot of people call it a poor man's Dark Souls, but... actually, I agree. It doesn't control as smoothly as Dark Souls, rolling especially feels like it's only possible with the lightest armor, and even then, it's very easy to still get clipped and consequentially lose half your health. The biggest problem I have with it is that it feels unfair, something that I rarely thought during my romp through the Souls continuum. I will admit that comparing it to Dark Souls is pretty unfair, but even on its own, this game is a little (Though not super) below average. Combat feels clunky, and the enemies have very large health bars in compensation for interesting attack patterns. I never found myself trying to memorize enemy placements and attack patterns on my way to a boss. Instead I just kind of trudged through the slew of tanky fodder for 15 minutes before getting to the either overly easy or ridiculously hard boss. The game is also pretty broken, shield bashing being an easy example of a way to cheese through the entire game. It's graphically impressive, however, and everything sounds pretty good too. Even the core mechanics are decent, but it's just very obvious the lack of polish put into the game. So, is this game worth it? On sale for under $5 I'd say, if you're a Dark Souls fan, that is. If you're not, I'd wait for it to be free, as I'm sure it will be some time soon.
    (Edit: notice how I forgot about the story? Don't worry, you will too.)    … Expand
  8. Archulysses
    Dec 12, 2016
    6
    Story - The story begins in the time the humans are in a losing war against the Rhogar, a demonic army summoned by a god named Adyr which was sealed by 3 unnamed heroes in the game. Harkyn, a convicted criminal and the main protagonist of the game is released by a monk named Kaslo in order to turn the tides of the war against the Rhogar. Harkyn's main mission is to defeat all of the lordsStory - The story begins in the time the humans are in a losing war against the Rhogar, a demonic army summoned by a god named Adyr which was sealed by 3 unnamed heroes in the game. Harkyn, a convicted criminal and the main protagonist of the game is released by a monk named Kaslo in order to turn the tides of the war against the Rhogar. Harkyn's main mission is to defeat all of the lords or commander of Adyr which leads the Rhogar army. The story overall is good, however, the characters in the game aren't really likable nor memorable. Harkyn is an ok main character but others like Kaslo and other NPCs are forgettable (I cant even remember most of their names now) and the movement or complication in game are uninteresting. A fair score of 6/10.

    Gameplay - As an avid gamer of the Dark Souls series, i can say that despite the fact that the game's overall gameplay is identical or based from the critically acclaimed action game. I can say that it is easier since Harkyn is really overpowered no matter what class you chose him to be. His skills are powerful when maxed and also the enemies as a whole are easy and not it is a bad AI but compared to the aggressive enemies and bosses of Dark souls this game is much easier. I also liked the way the experience system is made that it is multiplying by the numbers of enemies you killed without using the savepoint and also the hidden challenges in boss fights you need to do in order to get the upraded versions of their boss weapons. Overall, i really like what the developers added new in the game. Overall, A good score of 8/10.

    Graphics - To be fair, the graphics of this game is rather good if not average. Is it on the level of high graphics games? no. But it is not also in league to those lower grahics or bad grahic games. The environment and level design are also good and really liked the Maze type of the world of lords of the fallen despite it being small, which is not really a problem to me. The character design are also good with Harkyn's weapons and armors has good and different designs. my main issue is that NPCs esp those not named have reused character models (monks in the game exept Kaslo are look alikes) and also the lack od enemy design which are just recycled and of different colors for you to see their difference. a fair score of 7/10 will suffice.

    Music and sound - As to music, hm in my opinion it is really mixed. Some are good esp the boss fights but kinda dont like it in exploration or some other things in the game. As to the Sound and voice action, i really love the sound of that hammer attacks (which is my preffered weapon in the game) and the magic attacks of Harkyn. With regard to the voice acting though, meh. They are not good nor giving emotions to them like you are talking to almost robot like characters. The voice actors never really did a good job. Therefore, a score of 5/10 will do for these part.

    Overall = 6.5

    The game overall was a good experience. However, it is short and compared to its obvious inspirations, it is far way too inferior. But to those gamers who want to feel that darksouls like gameplay in an easier game, then they would like this. But to those who love challenges like me, then this game will still be good but i would be unimpressed at the end. Overall though, i hope the developers do better and put more challenging games in the future. I liked this as a new IP and hopefully they continue these series...Thanks    … Expand
  9. TurkeyGoo
    Jun 7, 2015
    3
    I'm literally amazed there are so many '10s' for user reviews here, made me immediately suspect a PR move to curb the bad word of mouth about this game.

    I picked this game up after the comparisons to Souls, me being a huge Souls fan. I shouldn't have even bothered. I was on the fence about buying this for a long time and I wish I had listened to my gut. Put it down after about 3 hours    I'm literally amazed there are so many '10s' for user reviews here, made me immediately suspect a PR move to curb the bad word of mouth about this game.

    I picked this game up after the comparisons to Souls, me being a huge Souls fan. I shouldn't have even bothered. I was on the fence about buying this for a long time and I wish I had listened to my gut. Put it down after about 3 hours of gameplay. There's lots of technical issue (framerate drops, audio bugs, crashing) that I've experienced. The combat is EXTREMELY clunky, slow, and disjointed. There's something 'odd' with the mocap and character models that just feels poor. The story and characters are bland.

    They've done some cool things with this game. I particularly liked the way they transition from cutscene into action seamlessly. The XP/ghost mechanic is very cool. And, I like the GUI and itemization system more than Souls. It's a shame these supporting mechanics get totally outshadowed by poor core gameplay and performance.

    If you're a Souls fan, don't waste your money.    … Expand
  10. J-pex
    Jan 13, 2016
    3
    Who in gods name is giving this game 10/10? ?

    In a nutshell you play as a sword toting space marine in a crap version of skyrim, with combat so painfully slow that you wonder whether they were TRYING to suck the fun out of the game. Fighting in this game is 50% fighting the enemy and 50% fighting the urge to turn off your ps4/x-box etc. Trying to hit one of the enemies (that look    Who in gods name is giving this game 10/10? ?

    In a nutshell you play as a sword toting space marine in a crap version of skyrim, with combat so painfully slow that you wonder whether they were TRYING to suck the fun out of the game.

    Fighting in this game is 50% fighting the enemy and 50% fighting the urge to turn off your ps4/x-box etc. Trying to hit one of the enemies (that look awful and have some of the worst AI I've ever seen) is like pulling teeth, and be prepared to be knocked over and have to slowly get up, only to be knocked down or slammed with some giant flaming sword before you can even recover.

    I get that they are trying to be realistic with the attack speed and that battleaxes are heavy blah blah blah, but in a world with horned demon beasts and enchanted everything is it too much to ask that your armour clad hero is a badass with a sword????

    the graphics are OK, the rest is crap.

    3/10    … Expand
  11. Tamel_Eidek
    Nov 4, 2014
    6
    An enjoyable game hidden in between a sloppy and unfinished shell.

    After around 10-15 hours I had beaten the game and enjoyed some of the game-play (the mechanics can be lackluster and may not reach the depths that you want them to however) but overall the experience was sullied by a continual onslaught of bugs. They may be mostly minor bugs but it is a HUGE array of "minor" bugs. Ones    An enjoyable game hidden in between a sloppy and unfinished shell.

    After around 10-15 hours I had beaten the game and enjoyed some of the game-play (the mechanics can be lackluster and may not reach the depths that you want them to however) but overall the experience was sullied by a continual onslaught of bugs. They may be mostly minor bugs but it is a HUGE array of "minor" bugs. Ones that can ruin your game experience entirely. Audio not working, hidden walls not breaking, graphical glitches, weightless/bouncing ragdolls, stat changes misrepresented, quests not updating - lets not forget the game breaking bugs either, forcing you to make a new character to progress, or the ones that crash you out to your desktop/XMB etc. How about we then go on to talk about bad game design where quests and trophies refer to areas or items that are called something completely different in game?

    The story was also nothing to write home about. In the start of the game you are thrown into what seems like the midpoint of a story about a criminal who was sprung from jail and asked to fulfill some divine deed which he just decides to do - no questions asked. The characters you meet along the way come and go without so much as a cut-scene and you find yourself pushing forward without really knowing why until you reach the last half hour of the game. By which point you find yourself no longer immersed in the game world and wondering why the game was allowed release with so many bugs and glitches.

    May be worth playing in the future if the issues are ironed out but as it stands this game is not worth the full asking price.    … Expand
  12. asmallcrayon
    Dec 6, 2014
    2
    Presentation on PS4 is terrible, no V-sync, very inconsistent frame rate and brown blurry levels. I was standing in a room I knew had two doors and could not find them, this is how featureless the world is. I have to keep putting the game down because it strains my eyes to try and make out objects in the environment.

    The game tries to be like Dark Souls, but fails terribly. It is often    Presentation on PS4 is terrible, no V-sync, very inconsistent frame rate and brown blurry levels. I was standing in a room I knew had two doors and could not find them, this is how featureless the world is. I have to keep putting the game down because it strains my eyes to try and make out objects in the environment.

    The game tries to be like Dark Souls, but fails terribly. It is often confusing with no clear means to obtain goals, and where Dark Souls is a game based on strategy and skill Lords of the Fallen tends to be more about levelling up your gear so you can give and take more abuse. It simply lacks the controls and responsiveness to be anything like Dark Souls and skill often has very little to do with success in the game.    … Expand
  13. Wawacoffee89
    Nov 4, 2014
    5
    *****DIDN'T MEAN TO REVIEW PC VERSION OF THE GAME, THIS WAS MEANT FOR PS4*****Sucks to know that this game had alot of potential. Great graphics(FPS go in and out tho), awesome looking equipment and enemies, boss battles have special quality, but...when a game crashes more times than you have booted up the game to play it, that's a problem; a major one. Plus there is a list of game*****DIDN'T MEAN TO REVIEW PC VERSION OF THE GAME, THIS WAS MEANT FOR PS4*****Sucks to know that this game had alot of potential. Great graphics(FPS go in and out tho), awesome looking equipment and enemies, boss battles have special quality, but...when a game crashes more times than you have booted up the game to play it, that's a problem; a major one. Plus there is a list of game breaking glitches too. SO....saying that; the game runs on checkpoints and has no autosave feature. Playing without hitting checkpoints yield you better drops and experience. Basically im saying that, you DON'T want to hit checkpoints cause you will reset your "bonuses" for sticking it out against the enemies but......again if you don't hit the checkpoints and the game crashes, you lose EVERYTHING because you haven't been hitting the checkpoints. Vicious circle. Personally i would wait for them to fix these bugs and glitches before buying the game cause it will just give you a bad impression about the game like it has for me. Its a shame cause without the problems it has, its a pretty decent game.… Expand
  14. dj_cole
    Feb 11, 2015
    5
    When I heard Lords of the Fallen referred to as Dark Souls lite I looked forward to playing the game. I'm a huge Dark Souls fan. I dumped over a hundred hours into each entry of the series starting with Demon's Souls back in the day. And the description is fairly accurate. It is a lite version of Dark Souls. It is a persistent game in that there is no save and load. The game continues onWhen I heard Lords of the Fallen referred to as Dark Souls lite I looked forward to playing the game. I'm a huge Dark Souls fan. I dumped over a hundred hours into each entry of the series starting with Demon's Souls back in the day. And the description is fairly accurate. It is a lite version of Dark Souls. It is a persistent game in that there is no save and load. The game continues on even when you die and you have to recover from your mistake and retrieve your experience which waits for you where you originally died. It has the same tropes of melee combat, equipment burden, magic, boss fights and exploration. But none of it is as good as Dark Souls. It, how do they put it, lacks that certain something.

    The game looks ok, not great, but no one plays the Souls series for the graphics. The sound is decent, and the voice acting is mostly well done. The world is decently interesting and the lore is worth reading.

    The gameplay is more melee focused than the Souls series. There is magic which is useful but the system isn't as deep or wide as the Souls series. There is a gauntlet that is basically a hand cannon which is powerful and useful, but slowly recharges and shares the magic pool which left quite a few times where I would fire it and then fall back waiting for it to charge while I circled to the side avoiding the enemy. There is a Diablo style loot system that keeps you looking for gear, and in all honesty I would say the game is more like a 3rd person version of Diablo than it is similar to the Souls series.

    There were two things that bothered me from the game, and kept it from being better. The first was random spikes in difficulty. And I mean random. I would be exploring and come to a side hallway where I would be killed over and over trying to get through, which of course made me feel like there must be something great at the end, There wasn't. When I say random spikes in difficulty I mean just that. Random. The other were the dull marathon fights with some of the bosses or occasionally tougher enemies. Enemies are skilled at blocking, and fights can turn into tests of endurance while trying to nickel and dime an enemies health rather than a feeling of skilled combat.

    Lords of the Fallen is an ok game. It's not great, and the large drop in its price shows that general feeling. I have a hard time seeing a large hardcore community developing around the game, but it's not the worst way to spend a couple hours here and there. There are three different classes you can play with, and a new game + system. I didn't do multiple playthroughs on new game +, and I doubt a lot of people will be inspired to either.

    I would recommend avoiding Lords of the Fallen, but that's a pretty soft recommendation. It's the kind of game that I played and just felt "meh" toward. It had highs, it had lows, but it didn't really stick with me. If you want to rent it or buy it at its lower cost these days I doubt you'll regret the decision.    … Expand
  15. TheHunterWild
    Oct 29, 2014
    6
    To be brief, after around 14 hours in I find Lords of the Fallen to be a bit of a disappointment but still largely worth playing. I spent 74 hours this week playing Dark Souls 2; it was my first playthrough of anything in the Souls series. Having that as a completely fresh experience and then moving into Lords of the Fallen was an interesting transition. I did not find myself to beTo be brief, after around 14 hours in I find Lords of the Fallen to be a bit of a disappointment but still largely worth playing. I spent 74 hours this week playing Dark Souls 2; it was my first playthrough of anything in the Souls series. Having that as a completely fresh experience and then moving into Lords of the Fallen was an interesting transition. I did not find myself to be exceptional at DS2 nor do I find myself particularly skilled at Lords of the Fallen, just to be clear about who you're reading here.

    LotF has beautiful and vibrant art that doesn't sacrifice deadliness for attractiveness. The combat is beefy and satisfying; striking an enemy feels legit instead of your weapon just ghosting through and reducing an HP bar by a few pixels. There might be some replayability here but that will depend on some factors. The narrative is interesting and accessible while being relevant and not over-the-top or excessively deep to the point of distracting from the actual game itself (though I often like that sort of thing). The XP and loot system is really a nice advancement in this quasi-genre, where the longer you hold on to your XP instead of spending it the greater your multiplier becomes as you progress thereby providing an optional higher risk higher reward system since dying could possibly amount to losing all of that XP.

    On the downside, there are enough bugs, flukes, and design oversights or flaws to really distract me from the potential fun of the game, at least from time to time. One of my biggest complaints (that could be my own fault, but I can't seem to fix it) is the lock-on targeting system. I've gotten used to a lock-on system where I can easily (though perhaps TOO easily) switch from one target to another, and where a new target is automatically selected once the old target dies. LotF seems to have a lot of trouble allowing me to switch from targets that aren't standing directly next to each other, and it disengages the lock-on system when the target dies. It might just require an adjustment of gameplay on my part but I can't help but really despise how this feels during combat with multiple enemies or more difficult fights where rapid and clean target switching is a must.

    As a final negative point, the camera can be terrible at times. When engaged in combat you can sometimes find yourself in a bush or something and completely incapable of seeing what's going on, especially if you get stunned and are unable to strafe out of it. What's more, getting backed into a wall makes your character disappear from the screen and puts you in a first person perspective that often annihilates your sense of combat (and more than once even literally prevented me from fighting, for whatever reason). Even backing down a hallway and having the camera hit a small object jutting out from a wall, like a lever, can cause it to begin to zoom in on you and again destroy your view of combat. In a game that is built around difficulty this sort of design is a massive flaw since it can get you killed and destroy quite a bit of progress all because of a technical camera issue.

    In terms of boss fights they are largely endurance challenges wherein you will always have to survive roughly the same series of attacks (per boss stage) while often using a gimmick to find a way to deal damage. This boss can't be damaged by this type of attack, or that boss stuns itself under certain conditions. Nothing unique there, but the complaint is largely that this ends up feeling like an artificial difficulty barrier. There's no doubt that greater skill will win out, but I (and many of my Twitch viewers) felt that under all circumstances you going to have a protracted battle with every boss which inevitably felt like it was far longer than it had to be due to design instead of skill. I think this really says it's not "hard" because it's challenging, it's "hard" because the designers said so, in a manner of speaking. In DS2 I could sometimes go into a boss fight and just be in the zone and drop it in one try; in LotF I feel like I will always invest a serious amount of time in every boss for the sole reason that this is how the designers wanted it. It's almost as though they said, "C'mon, it's a boss. It should always take more than 15 minutes per fight where no amount of skill will make a mechanical difference."

    All in all, I think it seems worth playing though not necessarily worth the price right now. With future updates, patches, and DLC it could turn into something worth spending a lot of time in. As of right now I find it to be a sub-par competitor in what it is helping to define as a new genre in gaming.    … Expand
  16. ToddDow
    Nov 11, 2014
    1
    LINEAR, SLOW, CLUNKY, BORING, REPEAT. Only the second game I have ever returned in my life. This game is like a bad game from the 80's, but with beautiful graphics. The gameplay is super linear as you walk through narrow passages, kill the bad guys that you stumble upon, open some chests sitting against the walls, then try to figure out the repetitive actions and timing to beat theLINEAR, SLOW, CLUNKY, BORING, REPEAT. Only the second game I have ever returned in my life. This game is like a bad game from the 80's, but with beautiful graphics. The gameplay is super linear as you walk through narrow passages, kill the bad guys that you stumble upon, open some chests sitting against the walls, then try to figure out the repetitive actions and timing to beat the boss. You get to wander through the same exact linear hell over and over until you learn the repetitive actions and timing properly. To make it worse, the character moves SUPER slow and the controls feel clunky and delayed. "Heavy" attacks can take around 3-4 seconds to "wind up" and execute, "rolling" out of the way of an attack takes a few seconds as well. It feels like the part of the movie in Austin Powers where the steam roller is slowly coming towards the guard and he just stands there in the way for 30 seconds without moving then gets rolled over. You see the hazard coming, you react to it, but then your character takes FOREVER to respond. The ONLY thing this game has going for it is the beautiful graphics. The gameplay, the controls, and the execution are awful.… Expand
  17. ZeNorwegian
    Nov 1, 2014
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Lords of the Fallen is a Western RPG that bring you into the world as Harkyn, a middle aged man whom must face down foes called Rhogar in order to bring an end to an ongoing war between humanity and the fallen god Adyr.

    Possible Minor Spoiler!

    The game starts off rather well by introducing you to all of the main mechanics of the game in a calm section of the game, allowing players new to the genre to adapt to the way the game works. The combat feels heavy and that it carries a lot of force behind each blow making but you, and your enemies, feel powerful. The game tries to encourage you to experiment with different weapons and make combos so that you'll have an easier time slaying your enemies, but it fails to teach you some other important things.

    You will meet foes using both range and melee. Some are rather straight forward in how you kill them, using the same methods you've learned early on, but others take whatever you've learned and throws it in your face. Shield user in particular are much more obnoxious to fight for new players as the game doesn't teach you anything about breaking their guard. This leaves you either bashing on a shield that makes your every attack bounce off like a bouncy castle, or back peddling for days using your magic gauntlet in order to take them down. Later on you will also face enemies who are much faster than you are, making attacking near impossible without taking a large amount of damage, until you abuse faults in their AI.

    Which brings me to one of the more disappointing things about Lords of the Fallen. The game feels very incomplete and this is noticeable rather early on. The magic gauntlet you get early on, which serves as your ranged weapon, has it's own category as a weapon. However, there are no other gauntlets to be found. There are only 3 different firing modes for the same gauntlet, which are all unlocked from the get-go, so it doesn't really count as 3 different weapons. Equally the other weapons in the game are all completely static in their shape and feel. You will constantly change out weapons and armors for other weapons and armors as their stats means everything. This gives a false sense of customization as the game very much forces you to use a weapon you don't really like the feel and look of due to superior stats.

    The rune system is very much the same as it doesn't seem to have much thought put into it. You can get several types of runes, of varying quality, from shards you collect throughout the game. You take these to the blacksmith-guy-with-no-name-because-we-couldn't-think-of-one who can open them and give you the runes inside. But, of all the runes I found myself only using 2 of the 5 runes for my weapons and 3 of the 5 runes for my armors as those I didn't use was either inferior or rather useless.

    The same unfinished business goes for the story-line, back-story and quests found throughout the game. The up front story is easy to predict and with stereo-typical characters making it rather boring and forgetful due to bad presentation. You never really feel any sort of connection to any of them as they seem to only appear when the story demands it before phasing out of existence again. This became a problem later on when I had a quest to gather tablets for Yetkha whom is one of these characters as she decided to either disappear before I had found all of them, or not accept them at all. There are also a back-story to be found, but it is very fragmented and it is again so badly presented I can't really remember most of it.

    The visuals however seems to have gotten most of the attention as it is beautiful in it's own way. It manages to pull off a gritty look while not getting too washed out and bland. This gives the game a more relate-able feel to it, which in turn helps pulling you into the game. The animations are also great and flows rather well with some minor exceptions. The enemies look harrowing and intimidating with distinct differences from each other, again with some minor exceptions. The armor and weapon designs feels slightly overboard and while I understand they want you to feel powerful, it's not actually achieved by adding thousands of spikes to impale yourself on. It is overall a very good looking game whom manages to pull of a dark and gritty feeling.

    In the end, Lords of the Fallen is a good game worth buying, but it lacks the finesse expected from it. The replayablity is lacking, but it will give you many hours on your first time through and some extra hours the second time through trying to gather everything you missed the first time.

    Overall
    + Good visuals
    + Combat feels heavy and powerful
    - Story is dull and forgetful
    - Many loose ends in the different side and back-stories
    - Poor customization
    - Dodgy and edgy mechanical moments in the game    … Expand
  18. Jacketrooper
    Sep 8, 2016
    0
    Absolute garbage, this plays tries to copy dark souls games only miserably, combat mechanics are dull and unsophisticated, skills are bugged and don't usually work. It's a terrible piece of **** of a game.
  19. XxSoULxMaNxX
    Nov 2, 2014
    7
    I gave this game a negative review on PC - the game is/was broken for PC. I purchased an additional copy for PS4 so I could play it. Putting that aside, the game was enjoyable for PS4 and there should be more games that strive to be like Dark Souls generally, i.e. with an emphasis on combat mechanics. However, I beat LOTF in one afternoon. By mid-game with my character leveled up theI gave this game a negative review on PC - the game is/was broken for PC. I purchased an additional copy for PS4 so I could play it. Putting that aside, the game was enjoyable for PS4 and there should be more games that strive to be like Dark Souls generally, i.e. with an emphasis on combat mechanics. However, I beat LOTF in one afternoon. By mid-game with my character leveled up the game became exceedingly easy. There is only one environment type, little variety between build types, and hardly any enemy variety. Accordingly, I am already ready to move on from LOTF to a new game. I would like to see a DLC in a completely different environment with much more enemy variety. P.S. I am still playing the Dark Souls games.… Expand
  20. Doutzen
    Jan 28, 2015
    7
    Well - I expected more after first optimistic reviews. This game is good and guarantees a lot of fun, but in every single aspect it's worse then Dark Souls. Even the graphics. It's visually better, but not that dark and artistic anymore. It has a lot of bugs and a tragic, horrible camera, which should be perfect in that kind of games. Battles are easier than in Dark Souls and you don'tWell - I expected more after first optimistic reviews. This game is good and guarantees a lot of fun, but in every single aspect it's worse then Dark Souls. Even the graphics. It's visually better, but not that dark and artistic anymore. It has a lot of bugs and a tragic, horrible camera, which should be perfect in that kind of games. Battles are easier than in Dark Souls and you don't feel that you have that much control as in DS. But it's still a good fun for action RPG fans and also for that guys who were to fat for DS, but like Fable or Assassin's Creed, because it's not as hard as From Softwares games are.… Expand
  21. SladeX13
    Oct 28, 2014
    10
    I had just got this because I was a fan of The Witcher 2 (executive producer Tomasz Gop worked on) and Dark Souls. I have only gotten to the second boss so far and I like how it plays so far. Don't compare it to Dark Souls like I almost did or you will miss a really great Game.
  22. Acornfilms
    Nov 11, 2014
    2
    I think giving this a 2 is overly generous, but it's "technically" playable which puts it above the broken PC version which is really the best thing I can say about it. Possibly the worst console optimization I've ever seen, horrible frame rate, screen tearing, texture pop up, object pop up (sometimes right in front of you), awful blurry messy flickering shadows. What a mess, looks badI think giving this a 2 is overly generous, but it's "technically" playable which puts it above the broken PC version which is really the best thing I can say about it. Possibly the worst console optimization I've ever seen, horrible frame rate, screen tearing, texture pop up, object pop up (sometimes right in front of you), awful blurry messy flickering shadows. What a mess, looks bad for a PS3 game let alone PS4. The patch didn't do **** btw. From Software they ain't. Bad developers all round, apparently this isn't the first "game" they made like this, don't know how they stay in business.… Expand
  23. dpc
    Nov 3, 2014
    5
    For the gamers saying the bosses were too easy...really? Wow, you are clearly better than I am. That said, I was extremely excited to get and play this. Loved the opening. Was pumped to get lost in an awesome fantasy world and level up and all that. But I couldn't get past the very first boss. I've played Demon's Souls and beat it. I've played the first Dark Souls and didn't finish, butFor the gamers saying the bosses were too easy...really? Wow, you are clearly better than I am. That said, I was extremely excited to get and play this. Loved the opening. Was pumped to get lost in an awesome fantasy world and level up and all that. But I couldn't get past the very first boss. I've played Demon's Souls and beat it. I've played the first Dark Souls and didn't finish, but did love it. Lords of the Fallen seemed frustrating for the sake of being frustrating. I felt like it was unnecessarily annoying to be in the "if you like Dark Souls, then you'll love us" category, but it was missing all the atmosphere, class, and just about everything else that makes the Souls games amazing. It just didn't feel worth it to finish this, so I sold it within a day and got Shadow Warrior instead - which I freakin' love! Should've gone with my instincts and done that in the first place. So, long story short, if you just can't get enough of purposely difficult battles (without the "magic" and charm that makes games like Dark Souls incredible) then you will probably get value out of this game. For the rest of us, skip it and wait for Dragon's Age Inquisition in a few weeks.… Expand
  24. Kuraditosin
    Dec 10, 2014
    8
    So this game is obviously inspired heavily from the Souls series. It even has an appropriate trophy/achievement that a souls veteran will immediately recognize. Nonetheless it also has its own characteristics. From this mix of old and new I don't need to grasp straws for fun!

    Yes it's full of bugs, but none of them are generally game breaking. There are instances where the screenshot    So this game is obviously inspired heavily from the Souls series. It even has an appropriate trophy/achievement that a souls veteran will immediately recognize. Nonetheless it also has its own characteristics. From this mix of old and new I don't need to grasp straws for fun!

    Yes it's full of bugs, but none of them are generally game breaking. There are instances where the screenshot feature will disable in-game dialogue sounds, some bosses fail to register damage from incoming blows, chests that cannot be opened due to no prompts. The list goes on. Still considering all this I thoroughly enjoyed the game and am now in NG+. I especially like the dark souls-esque obscurity on the part of bosses, game lore and side quests. You can complete the game withouth knowing much of the story and without doing any side quests. If you're not interested, you can ignore such elements. If you thirst for more, you can read and listen to prerecorded "tapes".

    The game does have some framerate hiccups, but mostly runs at a solid 30fps. So at no point did I find myself at a disadvantage due to technical limitations. If you're looking for a game more difficult than the Souls series, then Lords of the Fallen is not for you. It's a good Souls-fix until Bloodborne but also a good action RPG on its own merits. 8/10 from me.    … Expand
  25. Allthat
    Dec 3, 2014
    9
    It's not mind blowing... but it's definitely worth your money. You can get serious hours of pure fun out of this game. A must buy for any Souls fan who isn't still playing the first Dark Souls.
  26. the_great_owl
    Nov 18, 2014
    8
    Lords of the Fallen is a good game. it is often compared to Souls series from which it takes the best parts,

    Graphics are great, one can see that after having a first hour of the gameplay. The fighting system is somewhat challenging. Depends which class you choose it varies from "let me charge you with shield and beat **** of of you" to "roll like a monkey and wait for a good chance to    Lords of the Fallen is a good game. it is often compared to Souls series from which it takes the best parts,

    Graphics are great, one can see that after having a first hour of the gameplay. The fighting system is somewhat challenging. Depends which class you choose it varies from "let me charge you with shield and beat **** of of you" to "roll like a monkey and wait for a good chance to attack",
    I liked the music, it creates atmosphere very well.
    There are not much enemies types but every of them requiers different approach. Boss fights are not that hard as advertised, they lack diversity, 8/10 are just big guys with swords.
    World is relatively small, there is no map so you need to memorize everything. There is a lot of hidden content like breakable walls, chests, unseen passages that leads to various places - exploration profits in nice loot. Checkpoint system is well crafted, it is a bit of gamble if you decide to not spend your experience but then your exp multiplier grows with each killed enemy. I found that very rewarding after restraining to use any chekpoint for more than an hour.

    What I did not like?
    The plot. It is not a well written game, collecting the audio logs across the game may give you an insight to lore but the story itself is not told in a proper way. Apart from killing Lords until the last hours of the game I had no idea what is the purpose of all of this.
    The characters. If it wasn't for Tomasz Gop itself I would have no idea who Harkyn is, what his tattoos mean, why was he cast into prison, nothing. Besides the main character there are few other which are not memorable at all.
    Bugs. The game, even after the first patch, is more than unfinished. There are some major problems with audio that simply can disapear in the middle of conversation. I experienced occassional crashes. Loading of textures and objects was noticable but not that irritating.
    Facial animations are abysmal. It is really a shame that devs put almost none work to make the conversations even a little bit convincing.

    All in all I liked this game. If you are a kind of person that disliked Dark Souls for its difficulty or dumb savepoint s system you will like Lords of the Fallen.
    It took me about 19 hours to complete the game, most of that time I had my fun. So will you.    … Expand
  27. Mutated
    Oct 28, 2014
    10
    This game kicks ass. Don´t let the "this is not exactly like dark souls so I don´t think its good" people distract you. There are some fantastic mechanics in there and the gameplay is amazing overall. You might have heard that the camera isn´t that good and that the bosses are easy. If you like dark souls 2 - then this is going to be on the same level. The camera is as much as a **** as inThis game kicks ass. Don´t let the "this is not exactly like dark souls so I don´t think its good" people distract you. There are some fantastic mechanics in there and the gameplay is amazing overall. You might have heard that the camera isn´t that good and that the bosses are easy. If you like dark souls 2 - then this is going to be on the same level. The camera is as much as a **** as in DS2 and the bosses are about as hard as the bosses in DS2. If you want a dark souls-esque game to play until bloodborne arrives then you should grab this one. I sincerely hope they´ll make a LOTF2 because there is a ton of potential in this IP!… Expand
  28. rpgLover80
    Oct 28, 2014
    10
    I've taken 3 days of vacation starting from today just to play this game and I must admit that till now it was worth every hour! Very satisfying combat system - you really feel heaviness of your weapon. There's nothing better that wielding a giant hummer and rushing towards 10x bigger Lord. Flawless!
  29. Evertigo
    Oct 30, 2014
    9
    A great promising new IP. Graphics are really nice in a warhammer way. Camera can be awkward att moments and so the lock-on but everyone that loves dark/demon-souls has already experienced that. Levelling and battlemechanics are fun.
    With a bigger budget for a future game in this IP it just might be a tremendous hit. I would for sure by it either way.
  30. schizolingvo
    Oct 28, 2014
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So, the game is good, it's Souls-like, but it's not perfect (yet, I hope).
    So, firstly, PS4-version has some annoying framedrops at some open areas. The game is supposed to be running at 30 FPS, but it feels like it drops to 20 quite often. I hope that can be patched.
    Secondly, there's that weird lock-on system. I don't mean the controls, but its unresponsiveness. Sometimes it just won't lock, sometimes the lock will just vanish, turning your fleshy back to your opponents.
    Lastly, some quite strange issues with bosses, like they were'nt worked on too thoroughly. For example, the second boss (Commander) has that stunning attack which does no damage, but eats up all your energy. I think it's supposed to be followed by some devastating HP-costly hit, but instead he just stands there and waits till your energy fills up again. I have done only two bosses so far, so I hope there aren't too much things like that later on.
    But, technicals problems aside, it's a really good Action-RPG with Souls-like mechanics, which manages to make me, as an experienced DaS1/2 player, feel uncomfortable sometimes. Most enemies are bigger than you and hit quite hard. Local exp-regain system, which allows you to build up experience multiplier if you don't activate local checkpoints, is both rewarding and deceptive as you may die quite far from your last checkpoint. However, there's a catch: the bigger multiplier you had before death, the more time you have before points at your "bloodmark" will start fading away.
    It's important to notice that LotF, unlike Souls, is all about your armor, so the better armor you have, the easier it gets. The more raw damage your weapon does, the easier it gets.
    Also, I really liked art-style of the game, somewhat like Darksiders mixed with Warhammer, with giant chestplates and gorgeous weapons with some useless edges on them.
    So, as for me, it's a solid 7 (which may climb to 9 if those technical issues are patched)    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

97
#97 Best PS4 Game of 2014
22
#22 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2014
14
#14 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 45 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 45
  3. Negative: 0 out of 45
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Dec 28, 2014
    60
    A packet of steak McCoy's next to Dark Souls II's ribeye. The action is handsome and combat can bite, yet with Bloodborne on the horizon, Lords is a bit of a hard sell. [Christmas 2014, p.86]
  2. Games Master UK
    Dec 21, 2014
    60
    At times bearably similar to Souls, at others woefully at odds with its philosophy. [Christmas 2014, p.]
  3. Play UK
    Dec 18, 2014
    75
    Lords is a solid and enjoyable action RPG, but suffers a little at the hands of over-ambition. [Issue#251, p.74]
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