3.5/5 ★ – Lord_Hazenberg's review of Lords of the Fallen.

It only took a year and a half, but well done Hexworks studios. You took broken, barely functioning unreal 5 slop and turned it into a fun video game. No sarcasm here, because Lords of the Fallen 2.0 is night & day compared to its launch version. Which makes me very happy because I wanted this game to be good so badly after the Danzig & Iron Maiden trailers. I played this game day 1 on the PS5 and gave up after the third boss fight because it was unbelievably miserable. Fast forward to now, I’ve achieved the radiance ending & put about 20 hours into a new character. Using performance mode there were almost no frame drops & zero hard crashes. The art design is still top notch, the improved combat is light years better than it was, additional campaign modifiers for those who want a tougher challenge, NG+0 for those who don’t want it to get harder, boss rematches at any time once you beat them, boss gauntlets for unique rewards, & fully functional seamless co-op with crossplay. Also a nifty free friend pass if you know someone who already owns the game. You can create a character & play the tutorial, but can only progress afterwards if you play with someone who bought the game. I’m a little conflicted about the game hiding item descriptions & lore behind magic stat requirements, because I do want to learn more about this world. My character was a strength build, so most of the story was still up in the air from my perspective. This game also has a plethora of inspirations in its design whether intentional or not. The cut create a bonfire system from Dark Souls 3, two versions of the same world similar to the horror game The Medium, having two lives a la Sekiro, & tying summoning NPC companions to quest lines like Dark Souls 2. One major issue however is the blinding magic effects, especially fire, that make seeing anything virtually impossible. Add that to some of the tiniest mandatory mini boss arenas, and it’s a recipe for incredible frustration when these bosses spam magic at you. Voice acting and soundtrack are serviceable. I’m glad to have not recognized any of the same handful of voice actors they cycle through all of the big AAA stuff. Except the voice of an NPC named Andreas, I know Yong Yea’s shitty voice acting anywhere. Although to his credit, it’s not as insulting as his Kiryu performance so I won’t knock on the guy too hard. TLDR; Lords of the Fallen 2.0 is the realized vision that we were promised back in November 2023. Easily becoming one of the best souls like games on the market, because it understands the dark fantasy tone, tightened up the combat, fixed the performance, made use of some optional content, & distinguishes itself enough to be its own thing especially if you have a friend to co-op with. Maybe wait for a sale though as I occasionally see the game drop down to half off pretty frequently.