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The Demon God Adyr’s revival draws nigh, and the essence of Umbral is converging into the living world, such is the premise of 2023’s Lords of the Fallen.
Developed by newly formed studio HEXWORKS, Lords of the Fallen is a reboot to the original of the same name, a game that once held the distinction of being one of the earliest non-From Software Souls-like with its own twist.
While the original did not leave a lasting mark on the action RPG subgenre, this newer reincarnation of Lords of the Fallen is certainly aiming to leave a stamp on the Souls-like genre with its ambitious and unique parallel reality twist.
Mournstead in Two Worlds
As darkness slowly consumes the world with Adyr’s influence, the Umbral Lamp found a new owner, you – the newest member of the Dark Crusaders embarked on the journey to cleanse off the evil.
The Umbral Lamp is indeed the heart of the Lords of the Fallen, setting itself apart from the ever-increasing Souls-Likes and bringing about the most unique aspect of the game, the parallel realms of the living and the dead.
Axiom, the world of the living is basked in the warm sunset while the Umbral realm can be described as something out of the Upside Down dimension from Stranger Things, decorated with depraved imagery, grotesque tendrils, and hellish landscapes in shapes of twisted deformed humanoid anatomies in bleak gray atmosphere.
The existence of these two realms runs parallel to each other and illuminating the surroundings with the Umbral Lamp in Axiom will expose the land of Umbral. This relationship between the realms opens up a whole new dimension in terms of exploration, allowing players to peer into the other side to potentially find secret pathways, items, or clues for progression.
There are times when the lamp may guide you through a blocked route that impedes your progress in Axiom, however, there are also times when you may want to enter the Umbral world of your volition to traverse certain parts of the land or interact with certain objects. There are even some NPCs that only reside in the realm of Umbral, thus only interactable in the hellish world.
Umbral Hellscape
The experience of exploration is further enhanced by the non-linear nature of Mournstead especially when players step foot into Skyrest, the central hub where all the NPCs lie and suddenly you can find yourself venturing into many different branching pathways in both Axiom and Umbral.
Such diverse branching routes do remind me of the times playing the first Dark Souls where you can accidentally stumble upon a dangerously leveled zone or end up at the other side of the map.
Of course, there is a significant risk of walking among the inhabitants of Umbral. While players can pull themselves into the realm of the dead at their own will, they cannot escape the dreary dimension unless they find themselves a special totem to emerge from Umbral.
Death is also tied to the realms as you are slayed in Axiom, you will reincarnate in Umbral with half of your maximum health restored while the remaining filled with Withered Health, a mechanic which we will touch on later.
This essentially means you are given a second chance at life, giving you an opportunity to finish off whichever battle or map traversing parkours.
On the flip side, dying in Umbral ensures actual death and will resurrect you at the last checkpoint, forcing you to retrace your steps to your corpse to retrieve your Vigor, the Souls equivalent in this game.
Arise! Lampbearer
The Umbral Lamp does not stop at exploration as it is also a combat tool, allowing you the Lampbearer to execute a technique called Soul Flay. This technique essentially yanks the soul out of a target and opens up an attack opportunity for a brief moment to wail on the now-vulnerable enemy.
Certain enemies will also be latched on by an Umbral Parasite, making them invulnerable in Axiom unless you shine the Lamp on them and burn them away. This creates some rather interesting encounters where sneaking ambush may not work or you have to leave the invulnerable enemy alone to focus on other foes first.
Speaking of combat, Souls fans will find Lords of the Fallen fit right at home as the combat system takes many cues from other similar titles, and its control scheme is also assigned to a familiar layout. There are still various key differences between Lords of the Fallen’s combat system and let’s say, Elden Ring.
For one, Lords of the Fallen aims to provide players with more attack options, as swinging around with heavy attack and tapping on the stance switch button allows for a seamless and stylish one-handed to two-handed transition and vice versa.
In Lords of the Fallen, Lampbearers can also weave in kicks in between combos, allowing for a long chain of consecutive brutal slashes. Ammunition is also not tied to item counts but rather a resource bar that depletes with each use while using magic will change the said meter to a mana bar.
Parry This!
Another notable feature is the way parrying works as it takes inspiration from games such as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, deflecting attacks with a perfectly timed block and filling up a posture bar to stun an enemy for a critical grievous strike, dealing devastating damage.
Since parrying is not tied to shields, means that players can still block attacks even while dual-wielding weapons, allowing for some defensive options in such an otherwise offensive build path.
As mentioned before, the game also has a mechanic known as Withered Health, essentially a gray bar that symbolizes recoverable health through attacking enemies. This particular type of health appears whenever you block a strike, receive certain enemy attacks, or enter Umbral, whether through death or voluntarily.
Healing in Umbral will also result in half of the health restored becoming Withered, however, such a mechanic opens up some interesting ways in combat such as purposefully dying to enter the realm of Umbral to fill up health through offense.
Soul Flaying Combat
While Lords of the Fallen offers plenty of combat options, the way stages are set up, unfortunately, does not allow these mechanics to shine.
You see, the game has a tendency to throw hordes of enemies at you, surrounding you in all corners and barraging you with ranged attacks, resulting in many frustrating encounters as I feel overwhelmed by the number of things happening on screen.
This is particularly prominent in the realm of Umbral as enemies can spawn indefinitely and the longer you stay within the world of the dead, the deadlier hellspawns will emerge. Given how you are dealing with multiple foes at a time, the opportunity for timed blocks for parries or utilizing Soul Flay came few and far between.
There are also some issues I encountered during my playthrough, particularly the camera lock-on which threw me off with sudden corrections and changing targets at times.
That said, the combat does shine when it comes to some encounters or boss battle and the game do have some grandiose adversaries to face, even right at the early stages with the angelic Pieta or the imposing Lightreaper.
Admittedly, the auditory design can do with some adjustments as certain sound effects do not feel as impactful or distinctive as they should be.
For example, the sound effects of enemies’ projectiles can be so subtle that they blend into the ambiance, making it difficult to pinpoint when to evade or if there are any alerted foes.
Verdict
From the first announcement to getting my hands on Lords of the Fallen, it was clear that the developers were taking feedback from the original, rebooting, and aiming for the game to stand side by side with the game that inspired its existence.
Indeed, the concept of Axiom and Umbral stood out as the highlight of the game and set it apart from its peers.
While the idea of parallel dimensions isn’t new in games, HEXWORKS has cast a magic that made it the core of Lords of the Fallen rather than a gimmick, enhancing every aspect along with the mechanic. Exploration is a lot more exciting than ever, now every corner may have a secret as you raise your lamp to unveil what lies on the other side.
Every moment traversing into Umbral and back, uncovering new pathways, shortcuts, or discovering new gears marked an experience every Souls-like fan will surely enjoy.
Although, the idea of crossing realms breeds new exploration opportunities, the intricate combat system was unfortunately not able to shine as the hordes of terror lurking in Mournstead are rather quick to overwhelm you and mark frustrating moments.
Despite some of my gripes with some of the combat set pieces, the experience of venturing through the hazardous world of Mournstead, piecing together obscure lore, and facing demonic adversaries was extremely enjoyable and rewarding.
As such, Lords of the Fallen reboot will be a game to remember for a long time, redeeming itself from its lackluster predecessor and cemented itself as a worthy Souls-like.
Lords of the Fallen was reviewed on the Windows PC and early review code was provided by Ripples Asia Venture.
The Review
Lords of the Fallen
PROS
- The two realms of Axiom and Umbral open up exciting exploration opportunities, especially with how interconnected and non-linear Mournstead is
- Intricate yet familiar combat system, allowing for more tactical options
- Main boss fights are a spectacle
CONS
- Overcrowded enemies especially within the Umbral realm, making certain encounters frustrating and tiring
- Sound effects aren’t as impactful
