Lords of the Fallen - action-RPG reboot from Hexworks

[thesheeep]

Everything about Lords of the Fallen was horrible.

Combat was catastrophically terrible with how enemies can just casually one-hit you even in the frigging tutorial level.
Enemy design in general was horrible with spiders as small as your foot stun-locking you (Souls-like with jankiness of Gothic 1 combat, oof).
Weapon balance was completely out of whack with slow weapons being practically useless (due to aforementioned stun-locking).
Level design was trash with stuff like tiny staircases and other small, narrow corridors - all of these things are poison to a Souls-like game.
The camera was orders of magnitudes worse than in Dark Souls (and the camera already is one of the worst enemies in DS...).
Controls were just plain buggy, with potion drinking sometimes simply not happening (the potion was used up, but no healing happened), dodges not triggering, etc.

And all of the above I gathered from playing less than five hours
There's a reason the game sits at a ~50% rating.

I have 0 faith that the same developers could produce a good game.
However, at least from the store page, it seems that only the publisher is the same, but the developer is not for this remake? Intriguing.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Where's the gameplay though. Developers spend all this money making these cinematic when they can instead showcase at least a couple of seconds of gameplay and fans will go crazy. Then again. Can also mean they have absolutely no faith in their product so they gotta use these cinematics as a clutch.

While I agree, I still can't help but notice that's exactely what From has been doing since DS1 - first release a cinematic teaser, then only after 1/2 years of radio silence show some game footage - yet no one complains... ever
Funny how things work...

 

[Renevent]

I thought the first was really fun, def looking forward to this game.

 

[Harthwain]

'Western' devs? Weren't the devs Polish?

He could've meant "Western" as "Europe" vs Asia (developers of Dark Souls are from Japan, if I am not mistaken).

 

[Elwro]

On PS4 I was unable even once to perform the ridiculous move you're supposed to use to bash walls and discover secrets, even if the location of the given secret was obvious. That was some design choice...

 

[TwoEdge]

This is not being developed by the original creators, those moved on and eventually developed The Surge. Also, the lack of a proper enumeration seems to come from the fact that this is a reboot, not a sequel.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1501750/view/3648509051973539942

 

[Fedora Master]

Infinitron is like a cat dropping dead chewed up mice on your doorstep. Except the cat at least means well.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Looks good...

 

[RepHope]

Don’t know why they’d bother making a reboot instead of a new IP but I’m mildly interested.

 

[Dadd]

Still looks like a dollar store dark souls

 

[Lyric Suite]

Show trailer for a medieval fantasy game with knights and demons.
Completely unfitting rock music starts playing.

Why do western devs do this?
At least it wasn't hip hop this time.

They are just following the current trend but if i had to take a guess of why the trend exists in the first place... is that the elites want you to forget there's any history outside of the perpetual now they have created. Those 70s, 80s and 90s songs are now the "classical music" for the zoomer generation.

Basically, this joke is now reality:

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The game's Steam page was updated:

The Lords of the Fallen introduces an all-new, epic RPG adventure in a vast, interconnected world more than five times larger than the original game.

After an age of the cruellest tyranny, the demon God, Adyr, was finally defeated. But Gods… do not fall forever. Now, aeons later, Adyr’s resurrection draws nigh. As one of the fabled Dark Crusaders, journey through both the realms of the living and the dead in this expansive RPG experience, featuring colossal boss battles, fast challenging combat, thrilling character encounters, and deep, immersive storytelling. Will your legend be one of light… or one of darkness?

Dare to Hope.

Explore A Vast, Interconnected World​

Journey across two expansive, parallel worlds in your epic quest to overthrow Adyr. While the living realm presents its own brutal challenges, untold terrors lurk in the nightmarish realm of the dead.

Define Your Own Legend​

Fully customise your character’s appearance from a wide array of visual options, before selecting one of nine character classes. Whichever starting path you take, develop your character to your own playstyle by upgrading stats, weapons, armour and spells.

Master Fast, Challenging Fluid Tactical Combat​

Only those that master the deep, tactical combat can hope to survive. Choose from 100s of uniquely brutal weapons, or forgo metal for magic with devastating attacks of the arcane.

Unite or Fight in Online Multiplayer​

Experience the expansive, single player campaign alone, or invite a second player to join your adventure in uninterrupted, online co-op. But be warned - heroes from other realms can, and will invade.

Wield a Device of Ungodly Power​

Your lantern possesses the ungodly power to cross between worlds. Use this dark art to reach forgotten places, unearth fabled treasures, and even manipulate the very soul of your foe.

Rise from Death​

Fall in the world of the living, and rise again… in the world of the dead. You now have one final chance to return to your living state, as all manner of hellish creature descends upon you.

Key Features:

• Embark upon two vast, parallel worlds - that of the living… and the dead
• Master a fast, fluid and challenging combat system
• Wield devastating magic attacks and character buffs
• Invite a second player to join your campaign in uninterrupted, online multiplayer
• Encounter a wide array of characters, eager to offer a dubious hand…
• Fully customise your own unique character
• Choose from 9 starting character classes, including Knight, Rogue and Fire Apprentice

 

[curds]

Looks way cooler than the original did, actually. I'm interested now.

 

[Harthwain]

Yeah, I dig the art direction. Will wait and see how the combat turns out though.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Aesthetically the game seems to be "Heavy Metal Dark Souls"
So the choice of Danzig for the trailer's music is fitting

 

[Lyric Suite]

Where's the gameplay though. Developers spend all this money making these cinematic when they can instead showcase at least a couple of seconds of gameplay and fans will go crazy. Then again. Can also mean they have absolutely no faith in their product so they gotta use these cinematics as a clutch.

While I agree, I still can't help but notice that's exactely what From has been doing since DS1 - first release a cinematic teaser, then only after 1/2 years of radio silence show some game footage - yet no one complains... ever
Funny how things work...

The difference is that FromSoftware is a known quantity so they don't have to do anything to get people interested in their games beyond showing that something is in the works.

Blizzard used to be like that back in their hayday. When they dropped this i was instantly interested, no need to show gameplay or anything further:



That said, i don't think gameplay footage is guarantee of quality either. You can probably cobble enough gameplay footage from the original Lords of the Fallen to make it look like a great Dark Souls clone but turns out it was a mediocre one.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Still it's a bit of a double standard...

I like cinematic trailers, but as game intro's - something which unfortunately seems to have disapeared in the last decade

But for trailers, devs should always try to show some gameplay

 

[Wunderbar]

they even copied a bullshot composition.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

While I agree, I still can't help but notice that's exactely what From has been doing since DS1 - first release a cinematic teaser, then only after 1/2 years of radio silence show some game footage - yet no one complains... ever
Funny how things work...

It's ok when gooks do it.

 

[luj1]

Why are shit games getting rebooted or remasteted recently?

 

[Wunderbar]

Why are shit games getting rebooted or remasteted recently?

it's not actually a "recent" reboot.

The original Lords of the Fallen was a moderate success, so the publisher (City Interactive, those polaks known for releasing a fuckton of low budget polish shooters back in the 00s) decided to make a sequel. Except without the devs of the first game, for some reason. So CI found some other studio to do the job, but then that studio failed and the game got scrapped, CI found another studio to do the job, and that another studio failed as well and the game got scrapped, etc.

This is like the fourth iteration of this cursed cycle, City Interactive probably spent more money on failed projects than they profited from the OG Lords of the Fallen in the first place. At this point they are probably doing this out of sunk cost fallacy.

The funny thing it that in the meantime the devs of OG Lords of the Fallen (Deck 13) managed to make The Surge, and then its sequel, The Surge 2.

 

[luj1]

I played the Surge. It is a turd, just like Lords of the Fallen.

 

[havox]

I disagree, modern factory setting was nice, and making your rig out of dismembered enemy parts was also cool. The only thing that sucked were extremely unremarkable boss fights.
Plus getting upgraded boss weapon required completing some stupid arbitrary optional requirement not communicated to you. So not only you had to google what the game wants from you, you also had to back up the save in case you accidentally whomp the boss without the optional objective. That part sucked hard too.
Don't have much expectations from LotF reboot but at least there's char customization this time, the ugly mofo from original was very off-putting. Also looks like a functional lantern for once, so that's nice too. Having to crank up gamma in undead-infested catacombs in every soulslike clone except Ashen, blech.

 

[Abu Antar]