The Short:
Its a Dark Souls clone.


You say it like its a problem.

The Long:
Lords of the Fallen is a game that takes heavy inspiration from the Souls games, but does enough on its own that it can be rightfully called its own thing. From the spellcasting being closer to that of a traditional RPG (hurray for mana bars!) to the way the characters and enemies feel, I find it to be just as fun as any Souls game.

Fiords of the Lawnmower (one internet cookie should you get that reference) has a very pleasing visual style. and by pleasing I mean everyone looks bad@$$. Skulls and flames are on basically everything and while it may get old after alittle bit, I still find it to be much more exciting than Dark Souls traditional medieval gear. Everyone has pauldrons the size of a small city and the detail in the armors and weapons are gleefully over designed.

The graphics are absolutely gorgeous even with a medium spec'd rig such as mine. It runs very well outside of the occational open area where the framerate noticably dips, but it never becomes unplayable. Particle effects and such are everywhere; sparks flying when an attack bounces off a sheild, snow swirls, and ash sprouting from flaming weapons and torches make sure it looks extra pretty.

Combat is very weighty, even with the light weapons. All of them feel like they have weight to them and it feels wonderful, especially when you bring a mighty greathammer down on a cowering enemy and watch as they are crushed and the screen shakes from the shear force of it all. Your attacks feel like they're going to do something as your character grunts from the strength needed to heave an axe with the head as large as one of your pauldrons over his shoulder and into an enemy.

The controls on keyboard and mouse a great (I'm looking at you, Dark Souls) as are the ones using a controller. The buttons can all be remapped to your liking, but the default ones should be just fine.

The gameplay is similar to all the Souls games, with you exploring a castle (or 2), fighting enemies, getting loot, and dying. Alot. However the game is easier than Souls, due to it not punishing you as much when you do inevetably kick the bucket. Another thing is how experience is gained. every time you kill an enemy you gain an experience multiplier. The more enemies you kill, the higher the multiplier gets and the more XP you get per kill. However, whenever you go back to a checkpoint to refill your potions, level up, and save; the multiplier is reset so weighing whether or not you want more XP or to live is a key point. The game also encourages multiple playthroughs allowing you to select an additional spell tree on each go. This allows you access to weapons you may not be able to obtain on other playthroughs. From my research an average playthrough takes around 15-20 hours.

Overall, this game is a great pick for those who finished up the Souls games and want to have a game that plays much the same or for someone who wants to get eased into this style of gameplay and found the Souls games too unforgiving.

LotF gets a solid 8/10