Lords of the Fallen: A Dark Souls That Doesn't Hate You? Preview With New Gameplay

Lords of the Fallen is a punishingly difficult third person RPG. In it, you go around medieval dungeons fighting rock hard bosses, and when you die all your XP hangs around the spot where you died in a big cloud.

Yes, it sounds exactly like Dark Souls, but developers CI Games and Deck 13 are aiming to create a game with a feel that’s all its own, one that maybe doesn’t hate you quite as much as From Software’s bleak masterpiece.

From the start, it’s apparent that Lords of the Fallen is much less willfully obtuse than Dark Souls. Where Dark Souls made you figure out what was going on yourself by piecing together fragments of information, here there’s a definite story, concerning a convicted criminal named Harkyn who is given the chance to redeem himself by setting out on a quest against a power that threatens all of mankind.

Harkyn is fully voiced, and there are other characters for you to interact with in the game, letting you form alliances, be a dick to people, or help those in need, depending on your mood.

Combat is tough, but there are some forgiving touches thrown in, such as combos, which reduce the amount of stamina required for certain attacks, and sneak attacks, which allow you to cause major damage to enemies if you can get the drop on them.

Killing enemies earns you XP, and when you die, that XP gathers into a cloud next to where your corpse would have been. Thing is, that XP slowly diminishes, so you’ll need to get back to where you were as fast as you can if you want to get as much of it back as possible.

XP can be spent on upgrading your character at shards, the game’s version of checkpoints, but every enemy you defeat without visiting a shard increases the amount of XP you get from the next enemy. Die and your XP multiplier resets and you’ll lose some XP. So there’s a risk reward system at play - move forward and get more XP or bank a lower amount now for immediate upgrades? It’s basically The Weakest Link but with greatswords.

From the brief hands on time we’ve had with it, Lords of the Fallen feels like a more accessible Dark Souls, which is clearly what the developers are going for. Combat feels weighty and takes skill and timing, and the bosses require careful study and meticulous planning to defeat. That said, there’s also less of that queasy sense of unease that seems to permeate the Souls games, which may be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about that.

Lords of the Fallen is out in North America on October 28 and on Halloween in Europe.

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