Lords of the Fallen hands-on - A mighty surprise

I had read many good things about Lords of the Fallen, before my Gamescom appointment. That, however, did not prepare me for what I was about to see.

 

The game, the product of a peculiar co-development arrangement between CI Games and Deck13 (which is dealing more with the technical side, as far as I could understand), could be described as a Western take on the Dark Souls formula, despite the fact that the Executive Producer (Tomek Gop) previously worked as Senior Producer on The Witcher 2.

Most, although not all, of the fights will be 1-versus-1 affairs, and there will be a great emphasis on learning the strength and weaknesses of your current enemy before succeeding; Gop and Deck13’s Jan Klose likened it to a fighting game, in a way, and we noticed during the demonstration that enemies can be quite deadly if attacked without any tactics.

 

 

Still, both Gop and Klose reiterated that while Lords of the Fallen is meant to be challenging, it won’t be as punishing as Dark Souls, which to me is a gigantic relief, as I could really not stand the frustration of From Software’s acclaimed title. This means that the learning curve won’t be as steep, and they intend to gradually ramp up the encounters as the game progresses. We got to see a fight against one of the bosses and it turned out to be fairly long and multi-layered: boss fights will have multiple phases and in each one, the boss will slightly change both the skills and the behavior, forcing the player to constantly adjust in order to win the battle.

 

Like The Witcher, Lords of the Fallen has a predefined main character called Harkyn (more on him later), but unlike CD Projekt’s masterpiece players will be able to choose one of three classes (Cleric, Warrior, Rogue) and customize the hero in every single aspect. We witnessed the change from fighting with a massive two-handed hammer, unleashing heavy but slow hits, to using twin daggers - this changed the pace of the combat, and even the animations of Harkyn who now seemed to dance around the opponent while waiting for the opportunity. Even at this early stage, combat looked really solid and interesting in its multiple facets.

 

 

While Lords of the Fallen definitely won’t be an open-world RPG, it seems like we’ll be able to visit many locations. The main theme of the story is the ongoing struggle between Mankind and a Fallen God who had been defeated in the past, but now is ready to come back. The people in the world are seemingly torn in two factions - those who still follow the Fallen God, and those who are willing to resist its grasp (hint: our antihero Harkyn is part of this one) at all costs. We were promised a series of decisions which will significantly change the outcome of the storyline, thanks to many different endings.

Fans of the “New Game+” feature will be happy to hear that they are planning to implement this mode in the game: players could start another game and change their class while retaining progress.

Last but not least, let me spend a couple words on graphics. The trailer you have seen up to this point is pure CG, but I can guarantee that the actual game (running on PC) is no less impressive. It’s no wonder that they decided to delay the game in 2014 and change the target consoles to next generation ones: such a spectacle really is out of the reach for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Characters and environments are both highly detailed, but the particle effects stood out above everything else - snow, for example, is entirely physics based and will therefore react to everything accordingly. I guessed that these effects were made with PhysX technology and they confirmed it, although apparently in the final game it will be a mix of PhysX and “other solutions”.

 

Lords of the Fallen easily makes into my Gamescom Top 3 list, and I would recommend you to follow it, especially if you like the genre. All in all, 2014 looks to be absolutely glorious for RPG fans with games as Dark Souls 2, The Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Lords of the Fallen, Project Eternity and perhaps even Torment.