But this game also does some things uniquely. The main difference between Lords of the Fallen and other souls-likes is its navigation method. You need to travel to a parallel dimension (similar to the upside-down from Stranger Things), called Umbral, in order to progress in many regions. If you die while in Umbral, you return to the "bonfire", and drop your "souls" (called vigor in this game). If you die in the real world/Axiom, you just go to Umbral. You can use your lantern, infused with dark blue Umbral magic, to peek at Umbral. Staying in Umbral for too long brings the attention of many nasty enemies, including a "red reaper."
The magic in the game is more otherworldly. Radiant magic is associated with the Church, Infernal with Adyr Cultists who worship the Demon God, and Umbral, which is similar to Dark Souls 2 Hexes, scales with both infernal and radiant attributes. The game has only six attributes: strength, agility, endurance, vitality, infernal and radiant. The other main difference between this game and Dark Souls is that around mid-game, you can infuse special runes into your weapons and shields. The game also differs from Dark Souls because, at NG+, you can put modifiers into the game. The unique difference between the classes is the starting point in attributes and gear.
CLASSES & CHARACTER CREATION :
The basic classes are: Hallowed Knight, Udirangr Warwolf Partisan, Mournstead Infantry, Blackfeather Ranger, Exiled Stalker, Orian Preacher, Pyric Cultist, and Condemned. Condemned is like the deprived in Dark Souls; they start with almost nothing. The hallowed knight is the typical knight with a sword and shield and a grenade as a starting ranged weapon. Udirangr Warwolf is the typical "barbarian" with a two handed swrod and a hatchet as a throwable weapon. Partisans start with a flail and crossbow. Mournstead Infantry starts with a spear and shield. The Blackfeather Ranger starts with a bow, axe, and shield. The Exiled Stalker is the dagger assassin. The Orian Preacher starts with a mace and powerful holy spells. Pyric Cultist starts with a staff and powerful fire magic, but I recommend for those who play as one to get the infernal scaling axe early on.
There is no class for Umbralist casters in the game. If you plan to play the game as one, you will have to start as a Pyric Cultist or Preacher and get a catalyst in Skyrest, the main hub of the game.
The game has four hidden classes: one locked behind a relatively long quest and three locked behind the game endings. Dark Crusader is a class unlocked after a very long questchain, and the last 3 classes are "hybrids" of the mage and melee classes and are respectively the Lord and Radiant Purifier. Both start the game with great armor and long-range damaging spells. Below is an image of the "Lord" class and the "Purifier" class. The lord is the "red" one on the left, and the Purifier is the yellow one on the right.
The Lord and Purifier classes
The last class is "putrid child" and requires the hardest to obtain ending to unlock. It is a hybrid of melee Umbralist with caster Umbralist. The class starts with a Putrid Child Sword, a short sword that inflicts frostbite and has a very subpar catalyst. The character creation in the game is very good in every aspect and allows you to choose everything that you could ask for, including tattoos, skin tone, hair, and facial hair, among other things. [Editor's note: The developers have removed "body types" in a patch, the game now uses male/female sex.] My only problem with character creation is use of "body types" instead of gender.
Contrary to other games, in Lords of the Fallen, every class starts, and stays, good at range and melee. Yes, this includes casters. Casters can get good Inferno or Radiant scaling melee weapons early on, and umbralists, despite taking a very long time to get a decent weapon scaling with both, can use poison weapon spells and have a decent weapon relatively early on. Martial arts classes always start with a bow, crossbow, grenade, or any other long-range tool, but instead of mana, they use ammunition.
Radiant builds are considered the best in this game because you can get a "lightsaber" from a boss with a short blade, a very fast moveset, and a pure radiant scale early in the game. Many umbral creatures and demons are weak or non-resistant vs. radiant damage. The sword also deals "smite," which deals massive damage after some strikes and makes the enemy vulnerable to holy damage.
LEVEL DESIGN :
Level design is excellent in this game. The game is very well interconnected, similar to Dark Souls 1. It is full of shortcuts and secrets. Level design helps with the combat a lot. For instance, you can use your "umbral lantern" to spirit-move deadlier enemies into a place where they can die. Umbral is a really nasty place, and the mimics are a unique twist over Dark Souls mimics; they drag you into Umbral and eat most of your life. Each location has its own lore and is very interesting to explore. The unique problem of level design is some platforming puzzles for optional stuff. Jumping in the game is a problem. Many times your character ignores the "jump" command, and you need to start running before you can jump.
The unique problem that I found in my run is the following: if you progress too fast in a certain area of the game, an NPC will kill another NPC who sells the best items for mages. There is no indication of it. Many quests are also nearly impossible to complete without a guide.
COMBAT & BOSS DESIGN :
Combat in this game is great. I personally didn't like the fact that some enemies are protected by a strange umbral parasite, forcing you to go umbral or use the lantern to kill the parasite before the enemy. Many reviewers, like Asmongold, and many Steam reviewers, complain about the enemy density. In my opinion, this is just a matter of taste. I had no problems with enemy density in my playthrough. When you beat the game, you unlock modifiers (details later in the review); one of the most popular modifiers is increasing enemy density. There are a lot of ways to deal with the huge enemy density in the game. You have grenades, large AoE spells, and halberds, among many other things.
Many bosses become regular enemies, and the boss design in the game is great with few exceptions. If you are having trouble with a boss, there is always a strategy that can help you negate the boss's main advantage. I had problems with one boss, whose name I will not spoil. Not because he was too hard but because the arena was too small. The camera made it very hard to know where I was and where I should go to escape his deadly magma attack. I only won against him by spamming Barrage of Echoes.
The Barrage of Echoes Icon
The spell creates a barrage of umbral orbs, each dealing a bit of damage. If all orbs hit the enemy, which is not hard to do in melee, the spell works like Shrapmetal in Might & Magic VI, dealing incredibly high damage.
But if someone wonders about seeing shittier bosses like Bed of Chaos or Dragon God in this game, I haven't found any bosses like them in Lords of the Fallen.
GRAPHICS & PERFORMANCE :
This game is gorgeous but is considered "too heavy" by many. I wouldn't judge much on the performance of the game. Why? I played in Debian 12 on a GTX 1050 Ti, below the minimum requirements. It wouldn't be fair for me to judge a game in this aspect. And played with everything in minimum, and to run in Linux, I had to use the proton 8 and run with:
VKD3D_SHADER_MODEL=6_6 gamemoderun %command%
Without gamemode, there is a huge delay between key presses and movements. Without VKD3D_SHADER_MODEL=6_6, the game stuck in "running" forever, and I only managed to find this problem via protonlog. With a high end PC, the game look gorgeous. But I played with everything as low as possible.
► How I played the game :
This game in NG+ allows you to change a lot about how it runs. After completing the game for the first time, you can choose to replay with modifications, such as random loot, permadeath (essentially transforming the game into a roguelike), increased enemy density, upgraded weapons, and no place to rest. This makes subsequent runs more unique, similar to how NG+ in DS2 is better than 1 and 3. In DS2, NG+ features new enemy placements and changes in enemy bosses.
The NG+ Modifier Menu
SOUND
The sound design in the game is great. The sound enhances the atmosphere while in Umbral. The voice acting of most NPCs is great, and everything is fully voice-acted. However, if you plan to play without sound while listening to podcasts, many "clues" that you destroyed a umbral parasite protecting an enemy can only be heard through sound.
Overall I rate this game 8.5/10. It would be 10/10 if it had: a starting Umbralist class, no small arena bosses with bad cameras, no easy-to-miss item merchants, and more enemy variety.
