Review: Lords of the Fallen

When it comes to RPGs, I have a weakness: I’ll go into any game totally optimistic, regardless of reviews or prior experiences. It means I get to try a lot of games in the genre, but not every game comes out smelling of roses. It’s the reason why I ended up playing and reviewing the… imperfect Bound by Flame earlier this year, and this time it’s my reason for diving into CI Games’ Lords of the Fallen.

Lords casts you in the role of Harkyn, a rough-cut warrior whose hard life is written all over his face – literally. As a convicted criminal, Harkyn’s face is branded with runes that tell of his past crimes to anybody he meets. In a world seeking to purge all sin from humanity, the long-thought-dead Rhogar have risen again; a race of gods who have once more set their sights on destroying humanity. Harkyn is released from imprisonment to face down the Rhogar and defend a human race that wants nothing to do with him.

So, it’s fairly standard RPG stuff.

At face value the story seems quite similar to Bound By Flame’s tale of the Ice Lords coming back to kill everyone, and the comparison stands. The ‘returning evil’ and ‘not-so-lovable antihero’ tropes are commonly paired together, and a lack of distinct visual style doesn’t help matters. Both games revel in the ‘brown fantasy’ look, with British voices and a washed-out palette for the world that shows you just how serious everything is. It’s the easy choice for fantasy titles, but it’s not the only one – Dragon Age has managed to use its entire box of crayon colours while still telling a story with gravitas. Nonetheless, Lords of the Fallen does make good use of its art choice. The world is richly detailed and populated with unique elements, impressive vistas, and visual clues that the world is in peril. Light and shadow are used to good effect within the world to add depth and realism, even as you’re assaulted by eight-foot-tall monster people.

Combat in the game is of the Dark Souls variety, and should feel familiar at the very least to seasoned Souls players. Movement is slow and the weapons have real weight to them, meaning that quick reaction times are a must. One wrong move can very quickly lead to your death, losing hard-earned experience. Luckily the game employs another familiar Dark Souls mechanic, letting you reclaim your lost experience if you return your point of death quickly enough. Enemies are relatively manageable when encountered solo, provided you learn their moves, but multiple enemies in combination can quickly overwhelm. A somewhat tight camera makes it easy for enemies to surprise you from behind, meaning you need to pan around areas to ensure no surprises.

The game’s sound design really helps to set the mood, with layered atmospheric sound combining well with the guttural, unnatural sounds of the Rhogar. More than once I found myself twitch at the moans of one of their number coming from behind me on my surround sound system, only to realise it was the death rattle of the enemy I’d just dealt with. The Rhogar can be eerily silent until they’re almost on top of you, so the audial clues of a weapon swing or rushed footsteps can give you that momentary edge before an axe makes its way through your skull.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t the kind of RPG I enjoy. The relentless difficulty (which is not adjustable) and the ‘fail-until-you-don’t’ gameplay methodology is not for me. I like my games to have some form of learning curve and a little leniency in getting to know the controls, but Lords of the Fallen is content to run you through the basics in your first enemy encounter and pretty much leave you to it after that. That said, the game itself is not bad. For those who enjoy the Souls-style gameplay it’s another flavour in the same family, and will punish you accordingly. For players like me who deserve a slightly softer RPG experience, I can’t really recommend it. The game is nice to look at, but it’ll take you down without mercy if you aren’t a serious contender.

Lords of the Fallen was reviewed using a promotional copy of the game on Xbox One, as provided by the publisher.

Lords of the Fallen

The good Great Dark Souls-lite experience for fans of the sub-genre. Weighty weapons. Interesting creature design.

The bad Brown, brown, brown. Not for the faint of heart. No real ‘wow’ elements.

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