Lords of the Fallen is a great souls-like game which got all the difficult stuff right, but failed at the most basic expectations for any game - a bug-free experience.

Overview

Lords of the Fallen (2023) is a dark fantasy RPG which is a continuation of the original Lords of the Fallen game released back in 2014. It is the first AAA game developed using Unreal Engine 5, and the graphical prowess (with the frequent crashes) reflects the power and rawness of the new engine.

Heavily inspired by the Dark Souls and Elden Ring formula, Lords of the Fallen surprisingly manages to evolve itself beyond the traditional FromSoftware games. With fast-paced combat, dual-world system, overpowered builds and beautiful landscapes, Lords of the Fallen has something for both the casual and hardcore fans alike. While a few design decisions could have made it even better, what truly holds this game back is the crude state in which the game released.

Constant stuttering, frequent crashes and co-op bugs have completely marred an otherwise great game. Even the top-line graphics cards are not safe from these performance issues, which really shows the poor state of the game. While a number of patches have made the game more stable, the numerous balancing decisions have again drawn the ire of everyone.

Umbral breathes new life into the Elden Ring look-alike

The Umbral is a new mechanic which splits the world into two - somewhat skin to a overworld and underworld system. What's unique is, however, that you can anytime switch from the main world into umbral, which has its very own mechanics and landscapes not visible otherwise.

This makes the exploration much more exciting as you try to find new paths to otherwise inaccessible locations. It also has a risk-reward mechanism which allows you to earn more vigor (similar to souls/runes) in exchange for increasingly dangerous enemies.

The best part of it all - umbral acts as your second life! If you die in the main world, you will automatically revive at the same place in umbral. This makes the boss battles much more forgiving which can further be abused by items to give temporary invulnerability.

Fast-paced combat with overpowered builds

Lords of the Fallen really tries to give players all the tools possible to overwhelm their enemies. With its fluid combat, beautiful landscapes and powerful builds, even destroying enemies without much effort is really fun and never gets old. The build variety might be a little skewed due to the overpowering radiance build, but proper stat allocation and equipment will let you feel powerful no matter which path you choose.

Rough on the edges

The gameplay may be good, but the implementation definitely lacks polish. There are constant performance issues and stuttering even on the high-end graphics cards which is not a good sign. I played the game on a laptop RTX 3060 and had to tune the DLSS to performance with medium-low graphics to get decent performance. It gets worse as the game randomly crashes during heavy processing, especially in the later game areas.

Leaving the performance aside, there are other issues with the game itself where the design is not well thought out. Many sidequests are confusing and cumbersome to complete, especially if done without a guide. As an example, one sidequest will instantly fail if you proceed through the game normally which doesn't make sense.

There is also a lack of visual indicators as to where to go next. Regions like the swamps can easily make players lose their way, and without any minimap you are literally advancing until you reach some save point or die. The maps are completely redundant and offer little help. Take a look at this Lower Calrath map, which won't make sense even for players who have completed the game.

Should You Buy?

With patches coming in every week and major rebalancing decisions being made on the fly, it is hard to recommend the game in its current state no matter how good it is. The usage of Unreal Engine 5 doesn't do it even favours as well since it is a newer version with its own share of problems.

It is better to wait for a few months until the game is properly patched out and stabilized, or buy it during a sale.