4.5/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Lies Of P.

Lies of P is an unapologetic ode to the souls series that just might be the most deserving of the moniker of a “souls like.” A sub genre that struggled mightily with mediocre affairs like the original Lords of the Fallen or would completely lose the feeling & atmosphere with anime overload like Code Vein. But this game right here is the closest you’ll get without the name From Software attached. I played this via Game Pass on the Series X, and it took me 30 hours to beat the game (including the optional final boss) & do a little exploring/collecting in preparation for NG+. First & most importantly, let’s discuss the combat. It’s SO close to being incredible but some issues do hold it back quite a bit. Mini bosses & certain multiple health bar bosses have way too much health. Stamina management can be a nightmare as the game wants you to play defensively with perfect parries being your best bet, but enemy combos can last so long that your stamina will be depleted so you can’t take advantage of any openings. The game also wants you to block more than dodge as the unblocked damage you take is insane. Normal enemies can 2-3 shot you at any stage of the game. Fable arts aka your weapon arts/special moves almost aren’t worth doing half the time. They can leave you wide open to attack and enemies can knock you out of it thus wasting your meter. The bionic arms were also incredibly underwhelming, as you’d do more damage from just a normal attack. Perfect parrying can allow you to break enemy weapons, but this maybe happened twice in my entire playthrough. Some bosses have this mechanic too, but that can take dozens of parries to maybe hit that threshold which can drag out fights exponentially. There’s also a stagger mechanic similar to Elden Ring where breaking an enemy’s guard can lead to a critical hit. Except here you have to hit a fully charged heavy attack in the few seconds that an enemies stagger bar is full to trigger this, meanwhile they can still throw out combos or even run away thus diminishing your opportunity entirely. As for the art design & graphics, holy crap this game is beautiful. Unreal Engine 4 is a beast here as the environments, weapons, & characters all look & sound fantastic. Going through the slums district of the city in a downpour was one of many visual highlights. One annoying thing near the end of the game was the entire map getting covered in fog until you beat the 3rd to final boss which temporarily made backtracking & exploring borderline impossible. Level design is a bit iffy at times. The devs really liked the “fall through the floor into a pit of enemies” trope a bit too much as it happens multiple times per area. Some areas are way too cramped for combat as you can’t even swing a dagger without it dinging off a wall. A few mini bosses are mandatory for progression which isn’t inherently a bad thing, but at one point I had to do that 3 times off a single checkpoint and that was really annoying. I also feel like the entire last normal combat area of the game should’ve been cut. You beat the 3rd to last boss, have a big emotional story decision with sad music in tow, then get stuck fighting through dozens more normal enemies which kinda ruined the momentum leading into the penultimate boss. I wish this game took advantage of optional content more. All 14 achievement bosses are mandatory to beat the game minus the final one but let’s be real who’s gonna pussy out at the very end (unless you want 1 of the 3 endings where you don’t fight it). Half of those bosses have multiple health bars as well especially in the latter half of the game which is more than Dark Souls 3 & Elden Ring have. There’s also a couple of rematch bosses in the second half with some changing it up enough to warrant it & others being a slog and a half (looking at you black rabbit brotherhood). All in all, Lies of P is a damn good game. If they adjusted enemy health & damage and had more gracious parry windows then this would easily be one of the best combat systems a souls like has ever had. It can be extremely frustrating at times where you feel like you’re fighting against the game itself instead of a fair challenge, but it’s well worth the journey if you’re a big Souls fan like myself.