The day after this was published the developers announced some changes to NG+ 1. You can choose to restart on the same difficulty instead of advancing to more difficult versions, which is intended to help people get 100% 2. NG+1 & NG+2 now only remove a few vestiges (essentially what I suggested in this video) before NG+3 brings it to just the main hub and one of the shrines. They also announced an upcoming patch that will aim to reduce some of the more intense patches of enemy density.
I'm reading all these patch notes. I uninstalled the game after 6 hours and I'm happy with this decision. They are changing a lot of things and improving the game, so I'll just wait until december to play it. For now the patch notes are being very positive.
If anyone reading this 2-3 months after game relase, I can confirm that most of mentioned issues are fixed; enemy density isn't so annoying anymore, performance issues are mostly gone (even co-op/pvp works properly 80% of time) and hexworks added some content, new quests etc. There are still minor issues, but game is totally worth playing now.
I still can't believe that they used the exact same title as this game's predecessor, given the negative reception that game had. They must be confident that this reboot can redeem it’s name but you gotta wonder how many people won’t give this game a chance because of this.
It made no sense. If the first game had a good lore, good ideas, a good story or stuff like that, I would understand why they'd want to redeem it. But this just creates confusion without benefits, it's utterly pointless
I've been playing the game since launch and i'm in love with it. It reminds me to the best of all the soulslike that I played. The world is amazing and the umbral part, as a gimmick as it is, it is well implemented.
Same, nice to see some positivity after seeing the cesspool of Steam reviews complaining about the most ridiculous things. Hexworks easily made the best feeling Souls-like yet imo and only appear to be beaten by Fromsoft themselves. They definitely deserve some good feedback since this was clearly a passion project for them and their love of Soulsborne is so apparent in every aspect of the game. Finally devs who understand the fundamentals of making good Souls games unlike other dev teams who just think "hard=Soulsborne! Screw the player this game ain't meant to be fun Lolz!"
@@Funko777 they clearly do not understand the fundamentals of souls games. If you played DS games and ER you will find many things in common. I liked the game but it's obv they got super "inspired" from DS and ER games but without understanding the true basis of souls games and it is the details. In general, they seem the same but when you look deeper, at the details, LotF is losing in almost every aspect of the game, like physics, target lock, control of character, fighting rhythm, monster positioning, boss fights, music, etc. P.S. You could disagree but that's the reality. For their first game of this genre is a good work, but putting on the same level as fromsoftware games is a bit too much
i mean mob placement alone was enough for me to put this game down, and mob density. feel like im fighting for my life... oh hey, use a vestige seed...take a rest... walks 20 steps around a corner. BON FIRE! ooooo shouldnt have used that seed there -_- @@yvannenikolainethercott5709
@@rizztraininghamster everything you mentioned negatively can get fixed in patches, I think it's a refreshing and unique take on the genre, but that's just my opinion, not fact.
The ranged combat system is AMAZING, and I really hope From Software adopts it. I never use items in Souls games because they're so finite, but I got a ton of use out of the Lump Hammers in Lords of the Fallen
Blind, this game is a pile of crap lmao. Such awful level design and enemy spam combined with very boring boss fights at the best of times and awfully designed boss fights at the worst such as the end game boss@@sercravenmohead3631
As a huge souls/soulslike fan, i really like this game flaws & all. It feels like im playing a fix of Ds1-DS3 in a way. Ds1 brilliant interconnected world design, Ds2 clunky combat with some unbalanced enemy density & graphics that rival DS3.. and honestly i love that..
I felt the DS1 and 2 influences immediately, in the world design and enemy placements/densities. I particularly enjoyed DS2 so I loved seeing something like that with upgraded visuals.
@@sikevillain Good question, but for me it's hard to say at this point. I definitely think it does some things better beyond just the visuals, like the environmental puzzles involving Umbral and the lamp and the survival-horror elements, but DS2 melee combat felt more engaging and strategic to me, for instance I loved being able to choose between power-stancing or single-weapon swings with each hand while I'm dual-wielding. I also always loved the DS2 torch mechanic in certain areas and it also wins for its hub area (I want to live in Majula, lol). But I adore DS2 so the fact that LotF even feels on-par with it is no faint praise. It's also funny to me that they both seem to be similarly underrated games, where I don't seem to have a problem with all the issues other people seem to find. But that's okay too, I like a diamond-in-the-rough story :D
@@dufflebagg that was a great enthusiastic reply. I definitely feel ya. My first game was DS3 & I think it along with DS1 are soul masterpieces. DS2 was rough for me and was absolutely kicking my ass lol. I really wanna revisit it now tbh..LoTF has given me that dark souls vibe I've been kinda missing these past few years since DS1-3.
My biggest issue with the game non preformance wise is 100% enemy spam every non boss encounter feels like I’m back in ds2 where the solution for making the game hard is just throwing 6 of those fire serpent crossbows with a few flame casters and a ravager
Yeah the mob density/composition is ridiculous in some spots (Abbey anyone?). You know it's gone wrong when your reaction half of the time is just to run past everything because it's not worth the hassle to re-fight your way through.
Would you rather the enemies be fed to you one by one so you can cheese them? Whatever happened to “git gud” fellas. It’s annoying sure, but to be challenged is to be frustrated and annoyed even. I’ve played all the souls games, some builds manage this better than others so you have to try harder or adapt. The umbral situation is fine because the “spam” gets worse intentionally the longer you stay there as a risk reward system. You get more vigor there and can find hidden items at the risk of being harassed constantly and dying without the revive. It has to challenge you in some way shape or form. I see all these “souls veterans” cry about shit that’s in all soulsborne games probably because some TH-cam told them to. Idc I’m just happy to do it all over again in a different place.
@@sercravenmohead3631 Agreed, there's literally only one erea where I think the enemy comp in a "problem" and it's mostly due to me being impatient, and the devs have created clever solutions to solving it. It feel like you're supposed to sneak your way throug umbral to kill the caster and then work your way back. Which I'm honestly fine with, it's only my impatience that gets me killed. I also "stroggled" a bit in the beginning with the big spiky head enemies because they were so insanely tanky before you got levels and blacksmith upgrades, but when I learned that you could direct your soul flay that too became a laugh as I could just yeet the enemies off the platforms.
@@sercravenmohead3631i think the main problem is enemy design. It gets very repetitive taking out all the smaller enemies before fighting the main enemy so you dont get ganked. You just spam range and spells to kill all the smaller enemies. I’d rather face difficult 1v1 encounters with basic enemies like in lies of p where yes there are ganks, but there are also plenty of 1v1s against bigger enemies with much more complex moveset almost like a mini-boss. In LOTF encounters would be something like encantress with 4 dogs after that its proselyte with a crossbow snake guys before you get a vestige flower bed. In Lies of P it’ll be like you go through some gank encounters but before you get a bonfire you have to face a very difficult basic enemy in a 1v1 (which is also not a reused boss). Challenging encounters in LOTF are just taking out all the add-ons enemies before you get to fight the bigger enemy (i.e spikehead guys, proselyte, or infernal enchantress) and thats very tedious. Ganks are fine but there it gets very boring if almost every challenging encounter is a gank rather than enemies with complex moveset.
@@sercravenmohead3631Yea, I think people make too big a deal out of the mob density...This game gives you every tool you need to handle it...Of course you are going to get overwhelmed sometimes, thats part of the game...I found it very satisfying to dash around and in and out of mobs with a gaint sword! I guess that playstyle just isn't for everyone, but if you take the time to learn the game it becomes pretty easy to do and can be very satisfying...This game definitely has a few issues but I don't think that is one of them...
My main gripe with the combat is that parrying makes you still take wither damage. Like, what? What`s the point, then? Stance breaking is a joke, too, it requires you to parry a boss a dozen times, reducing your health to 1, and rewards you with damage equal to 1,5 of a normal attack.
@@jacobrohrs3439 dark souls was all about dodging, actually, in the entire first game there was exactly 1 parryable boss, so there was nothing to copy. In this day and age I expect Sekiro level of parrying. Lies of P got it right, too.
Very similar to my experience, and my second play has been lot more pleasant with the prior knowledge of areas. Sometimes the terrain is a small slope and every time i attack he stops his animation, and getting into a corner and being unable to move sucks. The vestige seed system has a lot of really cool possibilities and i hope we see more attempts in the genre to mix up the check point system, I had a lot of the same issues as you but i do think the system has potential.
I don't know why you don't have much subscribers but i can tell you this your work is absolutely amazing, the fact that you complete the game before reviewing it sets it more than bars apart from other reviewers because sometimes they only approach it skin deep. Good luck to your future endeavours and keep up the good work
Spot on review, finished the game yesterday (42hours ish). Just swinging around a giant two-hander, kicking enemies of platforms etc. was great, much fun. But exactly every flaw mentioned in this review is accurate. I started on new game+ but it got old fast so I will probably drop the game for now and play something new. To me there really isn´t enough there to make a NG+ with the no teleport stuff tacked on worth it. Due to how the stat system works you can basically find a weapon of any type that scales with anything so choosing a build is more just choose the color of magic you like as they will end up feeling very similar. (edit it was also on of the easiest souls game I´ve played, my deaths was mostly from enemies flooding me when I was trying to run passed them or I got stuck because of some ambush) . Despite all the flaws I had fun.
I rarely play NG+ as I prefer to use fresh new characters. I suggest you go that route as well, been having fun on my 2nd char. However, it's also fine to go play smth else after 1 playthru. Hopefully by the time you come back the game has better performance and maybe some expansion
Archers can be a big pain in the ass, but on the other hand you should consider just about all the player's ranged options are generally viable, not just casting as in recent FROM games. The best bow (Black Bow) in Elden Ring had D/D scaling fully upgraded. Some weapon arts of bows are indeed really powerful, but general use of non-casting ranged attacks tickles enemies in recent FROM games, whereas you can do some big damage with bows and crossbows in this game with the right build. I think Hexworks deserves some credit for making so many ranged attacks of the player viable.
that's my one gripe with the game, it does suffer from the lack of enemy veriety. Especially the enemies that look exactly the same but have different stats, they could at least do with a reskin.
@@tore650exactly, the invisible poison archers and ice archers exact same different color and this games endings are dogshit to its legit mass effect 3 all over again, "do you want the yellow ending? The red? Or the blue?"
I came back to this after 15 hours, and, brother, this is a great review even after nearly two weeks since you dropped the review. My biggest gripe at the moment is they're prioritizing fixing glitches players are taking advantage of due to game imbalance, instead of sprinting to mitigate the technical issues. Overall, I would recommend this game. I'm playing with a friend right now and there's so much to love. But some of the choices they've made do, as you've stated in the video, feel like you the player are in a PvP match with the devs who are constantly spamming the same attacks at you.
Agreed about the lock-on system. I feel switching targets while locked on was surprisingly great, but the initial lock-on was a nightmare. Can’t tell you how many times my camera just repositioned rather than locking onto something. Even when up close to an enemy. Another gripe I have is the vigor economy. -everything- costs so much and uses this one resource. Pair that with grinding being super tedious, I feel like the game encourages players to seek vigor exploits. But, there’s some real good stuff in here too like you said.
Yeah, my issue with the lock-on is that the lock-on distance is a bit too short. There have been a bunch of times where an enemy is like 15 feet away and I try to lock on but instead the camera does a 180 (I don’t know why all of the souls games have the 180 feature - it’s not very useful). Also, when you’re in Umbral, you can’t lock on to the zombies until they fully stand up. Which is silly.
@@therealdonelaitis Yup exactly. It’s so weird given how big of a role ranged attacks and spells are, too. And same pain in Umbral. Also trying to lock onto targets to open passageways or move platforms was a pain. Shame this was an issue.
One thing that Nioh did, and so many of these games never do, including the ones from From (tho I feel like I could do it in Sekiro or AC6, tho I could just be misremembering) is allowing you to turn off “R3 resetting your camera”. I generally have my camera set fast enough that hitting R3 to reset ends up being a pain in my ass more often than something I actually use.
@@KrsJinespecially the objects in Umbral. The lock on would always prioritize the enemies, making it a pain to run in, activate the thing, and run out.
Great review! Thanks as always for all your effort in delivering a detailed review that comes from a position of having really experienced how the game functions as completely and transparently as possible. You hit on so many things a feel the same way about. I LOVE the art and style of this world and all the different ways to play. My biggest issues that add to my frustration a bit on top of what you mentioned were traversal issues and hunted timing in umbral. With movement in this game, I find that when I am locked on to something, movement feels "right", but when moving with no lock on, everything feels off. Movement is oddly fast and, more importantly, your rolls feel WAY too big/long. This is also true of some attacks locked on or not. So, I found myself falling to my death a great deal until I got used to this and even then hitting a mob at the end of a platform was either magic or a kick because anything else would kill me. The other thing is more of a want than a problem. I wish that you had a bit more time in umbral to explore before things get out of control. This second world they made is truly a work of art, but it is not usually possible to spend any amount of time enjoying it because you need to get where you want to go fast before the eye of Sauron locks onto you completely and he sends a Nazgûl (sorry I couldn't resist the analogy). I am impressed by the fever pitch with which they are patching this game as it shows real dedication to making their game work as they envisioned it.
Really great review. One issue not addressed was the movement and momentum of your character. Specifically, when you swing your weapon your character slides forward about 3 meters. This happens every swing and makes attacking an issue of spacing and commitment. Also, your character runs extremely fast and when you jump, you will roll an extra 5 meters from where you land. This adds a layer of difficulty to the platforming sections. These things aren’t necessarily bad. It’s actually kind of nice to be a speed demon after slogging through the snail paced movement in remnant or dark souls. There are two sides of the momentum in this game and they affect the “feel” of the game in major way.
I've been waiting for this review! I think they had many great ideas to work with, the umbral and differences between worlds being one of the biggest, but they majorly failed when designing a challenging game, relying too much on enemy clusters and swarms, and many "gotcha!"-moments without any thought behind them. So much insane potential, yet it fails to reach those heights...
The enemy spam, umbral, flying forward with attacking, and level design were a MAJOR issue to learn to adapt to, but once I did learn to deal with it, it's become my most preferred Soulslike out there. I truly enjoy cutting through hordes and making thousands of XP in Umbral now. It's an unusually challenging experience which is all the more rewarding for it.
Same, the more I played the more I liked. Once I got used to it it's pretty alright. I just want them to fix bugs and performance, after that it'll easily be my fav non Fromsoft/Team Ninja soulslike
You're spot on about the enemy placement - it reminds me distinctly of Scholar of the First Sin (Dark Souls 2). Enemies galore, constant ambushes, gank squads. And frustration. I suppose those of us who like SotFS should feel at home with this one, then.
Exactly my opinion as well. I enjoyed this game, and I also enjoyed dark souls 2. They’re very similar in feel, and in flaws, but both offer a lot of enjoyment if you can stomach the issues.
i gotta say this was even worse in that aspect than ds2, a bonfire every hour mixed with the fact that even the weakest enemy could kill you in two hits was so frustrating. Basically the only way they could think of making it hard was just to gank you every time and have enemies killing you in two hits while they tanked everything, which is sad
I didn’t care to much about the gank squads in DS2 but the moves that hit you that clearly didn’t or where you teleport into a grab after clearing the enemy was infuriating. I just used bonfire aesthetics to fight the bosses I liked over after I completed my build (really I only cared about the DLC bosses and the rotten to farm levels). As long as the combat actually works I’m excited for this one.
Well in my opinion they need to challenge you, go back to DS1 and try to tell me that isn’t the easiest game out of the franchise. I think the crowd spam issues y’all had would be mitigated by fixing the lock on but I don’t see issues. I don’t like when people complain about Umbral because that’s actually the point is to intentionally harass you. It’s a risk-reward system because the horde is a consequence of you being there as time progresses because in Umbral you get more vigor and all the hidden items but stay too long.. you’re gonna get hunted. That was intentional and it’s a difficulty that builds with time.. you’re not immediately ganked but you will be and you’re meant to be aware of that fact.
I absolutely adore this game. It's certainly flawed, but holy hell does it feel like a unique experience. Sometimes I think the combat is closer to Nioh 2 than Dark Souls. It's got a very Gaiden-esque flow to it when you really get thing going.
Comparable with Nioh 2? That game hast the most refined, precise combat, and you compare it with a sluggish, unresponsive turd like LOTF. Mind boggling.
@@Bae_Cop2027 And he is completely right. This doesn't have anything to do with Nioh 2, it's not a matter of "opinion". If your opinion is the Moon is purple, it still won't turn into purple.
@@bkorodi1797 yeah dude. It is an opinion. Some aspects of the combat remind me of Nioh 2. That's the opinion. Keyword being "me." That's how opinions work.
I LOVED THIS GAME. Despite all its launch issues. The dual world exploration is soooo cool and fun. Everyone should try it out. The combat was very satisfying. I rank this game to be top 5 of all souls games I played and I have played most of the established ones (Fromsoft all, Lies of P, Nioh, mortal shell, code vein, surge, ashen etc). I absolutely agree that you should buy this game but maybe wait a couple of weeks for all the improvements. I am just very happy with the experience I had and I am happy to see that this now probably turned into a franchise and we will see more coming in the years ahead. I rate this game, despite its issues 9/10 from my play experience.
@@OffShotGamingDemon souls remake like the other guy said if you have a PS5 followed directly by Bloodborne. Or, if you grind your teeth a bit and play bloodborne first, it'll be harder for sure but it'll train you how to play the other games the "right" way....not passively hiding behind a shield throwing magic. People are free to enjoy playing that way but you're not really engaging fully with the combat if you don't learn how to dodge (and eventually parry but don't worry about that right now). If you don't have a PS5 (I'd say buying one is honestly worth it to play Bloodborne/DeS), Elden Ring is honestly very beginner friendly and the least punishing although the bosses are the hardest in the series (not counting Sekiro). The game allows you to set your own difficulty though sort of by using summons and what not. Plus 80% of it is optional so just explore the masterpiece of Elden Ring! I'd definitely give Lords of the fallen 2023 a try in the future once you can appreciate the call backs to Dark Souls. It really is a great game, but play the OG Fromsoft games if you're new. LotF is a bit harder boss wise than Demon's souls but they both have more difficult levels than the bosses themselves. (usually). Demon Souls bosses are mainly gimmick/puzzle bosses. 3rd best option and still a must play for beginners is Dark Souls 3. Most modern Dark Souls and closer to Elden Rings combat. I'd avoid playing the first 2 until much later. They're good but didn't age well combat wise/some visuals. Rolling feels like ass in DS1. Like you're a morbidly obese man rolling through molasses. Do sekiro last due to its departure from the formula. Still an amazing game .....skip Lies of P. Seriously, just play Bloodborne. I'll never do another playthrough in LoP. Most unfair Dev vs. Player BS I've ever seen. Story is meh, translation is weird sometimes, npcs are meh, maps/aesthetics (which are basically Bloodbornes art style) are good, dodging is absolutely useless despite the game not telling you this and acting like it isn't and it literally forces you about 70% of the way through to abandon it totally and rely entirely on "perfect blocks" which are basically deflects from sekiro but unlike in sekiro LoP has the most least forgiving sweaty success window for those blocks. The enemies and bosses except for a few entirely rely on absurd spongy HP levels, gank fights (4vs1),and the most bs delayed attacks that come out so fast and random you're forced to memorize the animation timings to a T while following no pattern-like beat which Sekiro did helping you understand the cadence you needed to deflect. The human NPCs feel absolutely horrible to fight too, they literally have infinite stamina and spam attack chains resulting in them looking like meth heads. Speaking of attack chains the bosses have the longest combo attacks I've ever seen in any game and they literally expect you to perfect block every one or get your HP chunked in half. The game got a big online following from people new to Soulsborne games which seemingly love it probably due to not understanding much of the source material it "takes inspiration" from or ever really thinking about the God tier game design philosophy of Fromsoft and how they create challenge while still knowing when to chill, when to reward the player, how to encourage them to continue etc. These games are meant to be fair and always give the player an honest shot the first time without memorizing timings to a literal nanosecond in order to win. The other games also never feel like the devs are just being asses and repeating the same "gotcha!"s over and over again because they think that's what made Fromsoft games so good....Fromsoft knows when to use cheap shots (ex. Mimic chest in the first level of DS3) like that sparingly to help reinforce cautious feelings into the player and because it normally aligns with the narrative of that world. LoP seriously just says what if every bridge the player crosses falls? Lol!.... It just gets boring because after the 3rd one you expect it. Anyway don't mean to rant if you actually read this giant wall of text. Soulsborne games are super important to me and basically ruined all other video games so I love to see new players try them out! If you get stuck watch guides or TH-cam videos no harm in that but don't give up! The main reward you get from these is a feeling of dread and helplessness that is eventually replaced with accomplishment. They all have perfect and interesting level design, artistic stories, and amazing world building. Obviously the combat is great too. So don't cheat yourself out of those awesome things because you feel stuck! Perseverance is required! Unless it's LoP in which case the devs ask more of you than any other video game I've played (including Escape from tarkov) just so you can role play as a twink puppet version of Timothee Chalamet
Felt like they increased the health on small mobs to always prevent me to one shot them as a two hand giant weapon and it always felt like ass especially when they have two hp from a hit.
Good review, very balanced. I agree 100% with the lock on, I was regularly wrestling with it with the points you mentioned.. I even had issues in boss fights as instead of locking on to the only enemy, it would turn me around 180 degrees... so frustrating. Overall, despite it's flaws.. I had a good time with LotF.
I feel exactly the same about this game. The mobs are ridiculous. Compound that with the lock on system and you have the makings for a frustrating experience. Matchmaking is poor. I also noticed that when I would join someones game to assist, I frequently lost them in the level. With so many mobs, I would often be fighting off enemies while the host would be running by them and suddenly I'm alone with no idea where the host went. Eventually a timer will take you to them if you get far enough away from each other, but by then you could be swarmed with enemies and dead. If you die, the host has to backtrack and search the level looking for your ghost to resurrect. I never had that issue in a DS game. To me, this is a game that is more enjoyable in co op. It will be an incredibly frustrating experience for a lot of players to try and solo it. If you don't have a friend with a mic, I'd seriously consider buying this title unless you really feel like suffering. That's a shame because there's some real potential here.
This is so interesting to watch just 1 week later since the devs have patched the game like 6 times or something and are actively working on every criticism if not fixing it outright. My 1 big issue right now while doing an umbral playthrough is that for umbral magic essentially taking double the levels that radiance or inferno takes, it feels extremely weak. At level 50 with a radiance playthrough with about 25 vigor, 25 endurance and the rest dumped into radiance every spell seemed extremely powerful. Yet with a level 50 umbral build where radiance and inferno are each at 22 with an upgraded catalyst it’s still taking 4-5 umbral bolts just to take out a ranged enemy. As opposed to the same level radiance taking 2 shots for the same mana spent. I thought that putting points into both radiance and inferno would be rewarded with feeling even more powerful and somehow manage to feel weaker. Maybe they’ll buff it soon. Anyway great review Mortim, you know there’s some fair criticism when even the devs listened lol 😂
Great review. I feel like I’ve found my people; I fully acknowledge this game for all of its bullshit, but I still can’t put it down, even after fighting the same overly dense area of the same enemies over and over. The coop itch, when it doesn’t disconnect, feels so much like DS2.
I've been tied up with Lies of P and that game is an absolute banger. Really appreciate your harsh critiques here and can say I'm interested still for sure. I'll probably wait a month until a patch or 2 comes out and see where it's at. Thanks man!
Im enjoying this game so much. I've finished a playthrough and am now enjoying a new playthrough with the provided new build, going after the evil ending. It's addictive and fun as hell. I think I'll be enjoying this game as much as DS3 and bloodborne. Not even exaggerating. Sucks people are hating on it but I'm glad it was made.
This game feels like the closest thing to dark souls 1 that I've ever experienced. Even the clunkiness feels like dark souls 1. It's almost nostalgic. I genuinely love it.
This game is not clunky. Just because attacks require a commitment and you can't animation cancel does not make it clunky. A true Souls like locks you into your attacks. That's the whole point of combat. Risk reward.
It is pretty clunky. Lurching bizarrely forward 2 metres for a variety of attacks, the weirdly vague omnidirectional rolling and a few other smaller details make this clunky in a very similar way to DS1.
@@JoeJones-mo8ff I've noticed some weird jank also. Try to roll left, my guy rolls right or straight. Go to use my lantern on an object that for some reason is just out of reach while on a platform and fall off because I used it at the point where it was within reach. It needs more work, but it's still a good alternative.
I'm trying so so hard to love this game, but there's just so many frustrating aspects like bloated enemies.. clunky lock on, animations that move me 10 feet forward or just enemy snipers from a whole continent away. Ugh such a shame
It's funny because I've seen the enemy density and vestige sparsity be almost universal complaints for people, but I honestly feel that this is a significant strong point of the game and something that sets it apart from other soulslikes I've played. No matter what level segment I'm in, I'm always in danger of becoming overwhelmed or getting ambushed (obviously especially in Umbral) if I'm not careful, so I have to move methodically and think critically about who and when I fight. If I do that I find I actually don't usually end up wildly outnumbered. 5-10 enemies, yes, but 20-30 is not something I've seen to this point. Even then, given how many significant enemies there are throughout, I'm still consistently running through my heals and other resources so that if/when I finally make it to the next vestige (or flower bed) by the skin of my teeth, it's a huge relief. I find this consistent tension and release to be a high-point of the game and is reminiscent of really good survival horror, to me, which I think is the genuine intention, given how dark and spooky the world is. Plus vestige seeds are basically Resident Evil ink ribbons, and I have been absolutely LOVING that system. I agree that lock-on is buggy and can be a pain, particularly when there are tons of enemies, but I also find you can get away with NOT locking on if you're fighting a mini-horde of smaller mobs, so that's also mitigated the problem for me (not that it shouldn't be fixed, it absolutely should). Needless to say, I'm really enjoying my time with LotF, and have found lots of the broader complaints people have had with it to be either not an issue to me, or actually things I consider positives. If anyone is on the fence still, but happens to be a big survival horror fan, maybe this perspective can help (although waiting for a month or so for performance and bug patches is also a solid idea). P.S. Great review, very thorough!
I think most people myself included just find the enemy spam to be a cop out to 1 not having many different enemy types and two not understanding how to capture what made dark souls “hard” and the enemy spams make it hard to real invest in exploring the world let alone actually take the world in and submerge yourself into it because you so constantly overwhelmed most of the time your just fighting or running, dark souls told a story through its environment you actually had a chance to piece the story together when finding armor or weapons or just looking at the lay of the land in this game you don’t get to have that emergence and it takes away a lot of the appeal that is “souls like”
@@jamesmiller6294but like the person who you responded to said, you CAN explore the world and not be overwhelmed by the enemy spam, you just have to traverse the world SLOWLY and CAREFULLY. I’ve watched a bunch of streamers play this game and they just sprint into an area, immediately get overwhelmed, die, and then complain. You can’t do that in this game. The game presents a realistic number of enemies in a given area (you’re gonna have to face a Rhogar army if you’re venturing into a city they ransacked, and there’s millions of dead people to attack you if you’re in the land of the dead), and you just have to navigate it. If you’re not scoping out an arena to kill snipers before they kill you, and preemptively killing those lying in wait to ambush you, and THEN attacking the big guys, then you’re gonna have a bad time. The enemy density is not a cop-out, it’s part of the level design that you need to overcome. If that’s boring to you, then that’s your opinion. But for me, it’s as the OP said - a nail-biting thrill ride where I sit back and exhale in relief when I finally find that next vestige or seed bed. The comparison to survival-horror is spot-on, especially when in Umbral. And there’s SO MUCH to explore in this game. The world-building is honestly S-tier. It’s mind blowing. There have been so many times where I’ve just stood at the edge of some cliff looking out at a gorgeous vista, just mind blown.
@@therealdonelaitis There were a few areas the game threw like 5-6 enemies at you, but you're given a lot of aoe throwables (spells, grenades, aoe arrows/bolts). If players use the systems that the game gives them, you never really get that overwhelmed.
I'll definitely be picking it up whenever it goes on sale. I love the atmosphere and world, and it's always good to have another, atleast AA, soulslike.
Yeah I got this game 20% off out the rip, don't think id have bought it otherwise.. I'ts fun but as review said theirs a lot of times it gets frustrating to play. Def pick it up on sale.
@@suffer8318Same I got it cheaper in CDkeys and so far I'd say it was worth the price. I got 2 copies (one for my gf to coop) and I'm satisfied with it. The bugs made me so glad I didn't get it full price lol
Great review! You nailed it. Fun game but mob density, vestige sparsity, and lock on make some of the exploration miserable especially if you’re lost. Would love to see some adjustments.
A very in-depth video as found nowhere else as usual, thanks! On a personal opinion, I didn't like the game balancing of weapons in my own case. I was targeting before to start, a strength heavy 2-handed weapon build. You receive very early a hammer (faith bludgeon or something like that). I tried it and damn' the run/R2 or RT was so fast to pull out and hitting so hard (staggering/stunning and damaging) that it broke the whole fighting experience. I stopped leveling half-game and still felt too OP during the whole run. I quit playing before the last area knowing the game would almost feel like a button mashing game. I'll return to it one day but not now. The NPCs quests system is the worst I ever saw (ex: a NPC gives you a key, you use it, you mess his quest and the quest of another one, was that a joke?) and bosses' patterns are far too limited in my own opinion. It's a pity because I loved everything else in the game: its lore, its level design, its gameplay and build mechanics, everything. It could have been so much more than a relatively good game...
Best Review of this Game i have seen. Exactly what i also think about LotF. I also cant stop playing it, at the Moment i almost finished my Second Char and planed what i will play for the 3 Ending. I dont have touched New Game+ yet. This is the first game (beside Lies of P) i am not Interrestet in New Game+ . (New Game+ just must have more then just more Enemy HP and Damage to make it Interresting for me, new Loot,Wappons,Magic,Lore,Areas etc. for exemple) . But its like you say - Frustrating some Times and also satisfying, but overall the Good Sides are winning for me in LotF. I have most of the Time Fun and be Entertainet.
I appreciate the co op features they added. Summons stay with you when you die. You can DIRECTLY INVITE FRIENDS. You can summon real people an an npc at the same time which is nice. Haven’t had co op issues on ps5, but I’ve only just started.
I felt the exact same way pretty much. I also did not like the amount of cheap ranged enemies but maybe if there wasn't so many regular enemies that wouldn't have bothered me. Also the bosses were all pretty easy but maybe that is because I play these type of games a lot. It blew my mind when I heard about no vestigaes in NG+. Seems like they might have a massive misunderstanding of what makes souls-likes enjoyable.
Also people imply you’ll be mostly in Axium and can decide when to go to umbral; you’ll spend more time than you want to in umbral, which turns the game more glitchy, gray and boring and stressful due to the knowledge that with increasing glitches comes the increasing chance of dying, like sliding down a ladder when it flips you to the inside of the ladder, teleports you halfway back up the ladder where you fall to your death looking at a vestige that would have saved you that 30,000 vigor you just got from a boss. The ranger class is awful particularly with bows, you’re basically an axe character, or spending tons of vigor on ammo pouches so if you want to be a solely bow wielding character, prepare to mostly use an axe for farming to buy ammo pouches or fighting, which is absolutely stupid. Neither myself nor my friend prefer using radiance magic but it’s by far superior over fire which is mostly only good against Pieta. You can have the most fire protection in the game and the enemy won’t catch on fire from themselves while your fire alone will light you up, accompanied with theirs it makes no sense. The game is still a favorite and umbral is fun although seriously man you have to go to umbral like every 5-15 minutes, especially around level 120 prepare to have to go to umbral to progress quite often.
Would you ever add in how difficult a game was to 100% for those of us that are also achievement hunters? Trying to 100% this one myself and some of them like getting ALL armours, ALL spells, ALL weapons, etc are really tedious
Like I said at the beginning I used a lot of guides and wiki info for all that and I play games like 12 hours a day which is enough time to push through tedious things. Specific info beyond just that would be better suited for a guide, which a lot of people are already making/made as mentioned. So as for a section dedicated too it, probably not, its not why most people watch these (they are reviews first and foremost) and adding a big section that most people skip would hurt the channel for the sake of resources that already exist.
100% in this game is gonna be miserable because you need to collect everything on 1 character and do all the NPC quests and some items come from certain quests that will be failed on certain paths. So you will undoubtedly need to slog through NG+ if you have any desire to 100%. The endings could be other characters but the collection needs to be on 1 character.
I’ve platinumed bloodborne and elden ring and finished most of the others, and so far I’m enjoying the game a lot. When I first booted it on release on ps5 the frame rate on quality mode was choppy. But by now it runs fine. It’s crazy to me that ps5 is already considered last gen compared to gaming PC’s. We need a ps5 pro or something lol.
@@aaronhumphrey3514 It doesn't even matter because the whole reason you notice anything with framerate or what not is because you spoil yourselves with (exaggeration) billions of frames per second. Even going from any other ps4 game to bloodborne it hurts my eyes, because the other games run at a stable, smooth fps, then I only notice bloodborne's 30fps because I haven't played it for so long. Once I play bloodborne long enough I don't see the 30fps, my eyes adjust and get used to it. PC has teeny improvements to visual quality aside from that.
They really need to fix the lock-on. I have to not touch the right joystick very much when locked on or it'll just keep switching back and forth to other enemies and its a real problem that makes fighting crowds way harder than it should be. Problem is as we all know thats how you control the camera and watch our surroundings so we don't get ambushed. Also if I had a dollar for every time I died because I backed up too close to a wall and the camera basically went behind the wall so I can't see anything very well. I find myself luring enemies into wider sections if it's really tight halls etc because of the wall thing but also because you can get stuck between the enemies and any small rocks or anything that slightly sticks out along a wall.
Finally an honestand objective review without hate that can see why the game is awesome: world, level design, lore and even combat much of the time. Yes the game needed more polish, but the amount of hate it gets is incredible. I believe this game will be an 8.5 after most bugs and issues gets fixed.
I genuinely think the general reception for this game would be more positive if they had simply just changed the name and never associated themselves with the shitty original Lords of the Fallen.
So interesting. I love everything about this game. I think the vestige placement is perfect, seedlings are awesome, it's not too hard, perfect amount of mobs. I think people have forgotten how dark souls was that these games are emulating. I played dark souls 3 lately. Talk about gank squads and difficulty. Way way harder than this game. I think they did an amazing job with LOTF
To each his own, but I think the largest difference with the amount of mobs is the aggro range. This has a larger aggro radius for the player, and there are times I have been getting attacked by a laser beam fire spell from a mob that somehow saw me running by a platform above and like 300 feet away. It's definitely overtuned. And the inability to pick off mobs is also a pain. Elden Ring had similar issues at times, but not in hallways or claustrophobic areas nearly as much. That's this game's staple. They could keep the enemy difficulty where it is, remove 30% of the mobs and it would be fine.
@georgen5882 I hear you and get that. I just am fine with all of that if the rest is as great as it is. I mean it's not like elden ring 2 js coming out soon so I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this until that time.
Just a heads up, Smite (the lightning bolt strike), Ignite (The Fire Wave on the floor), and Bleed all increase your damage from those respective sources. (Radiant, Inferno, and Physical in the order I listed them). The damage they do themselves isn't the point.
Update a year later turned this into a legit 10/10 soulslike and I my opinion the absolute best in the genre. Game rules and is so fun to replay half a dozen times, speedrun, built-in randomizer etc.
You can also farm Vestige seeds. The Sanctuary Vestige was a good place to farm them before the patch. I was getting one almost every other drop from the umbral toothfairy at that location.
Status effects, bleed is decent as it amplifies bleed damage, i finished my first playt yesterday on a 75 radiance build and my holy explosion dealt very nice poise damage with amulet, it also serves as debuff while bar is filled. I think they are not meant as damage source but utility source, combined with gear. Mortismal, do you perhaps know if runes stack? I cannot get a consistent answer while sloting holy damage up into my weapon. Great review and keep it going
Great review. As an older gamer who doesn't have the reflexes of someone born with a controller in their hands, I appreciate these reviews that show the flaws. When a game stops being strategic and just throws a lot of enemies at once, I stop playing because it's just not fun at that point. Unless it's a game like the old painkiller.
I love that game. I wonder why there are so many negative comments around internet ? I am sure that with time all the minor problems will be fixed. I'm a big fan of all Fromsoft souls games (all platinum). I'm trying to get platinum on this game too, although it seems too hard at the moment. However, for me, the game has a lot of potential!!!
If at the least you could have unlimited of your own vestige seeds. I'm having really good time with this game. I do want to ng plus and I'll give it a try I'm disappointed about the fast travel points being gone.
@@tej7854 oh yeah I know that I mean in ng plus if you can plant an unlimited amount of them anywhere to make your own fast travel spots. I haven't got that far but I just assume it's like your first playthrough where you can have just one at a time.
@@DreadNoughtus01 There is no way I am playing NG+ simply for that reason. The world isn't tied to Skyrest close enough for me to want to run through all those mobs and shit again. No thank you.
@@georgen5882 the devs said they weren't going to change that either, it's a shame really because it only takes away fun and time from the player. Hopefully when enough ppl quit and player count drops off they will change their minds
For anyone that likes this new wave of souls likes, i encourage all of you to try out thymesia. I feel like it got glossed over, but it has really fun bosses (a few stinkers, but overall pretty good), a great and unique combat system, and a cool theme. My only complaint is that it is quite short, but its only $30 and i encourage people to try it.
It definitely wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have any armor or new weapons to use, which really bummed me out. The fights were quite annoying at times because of the amount of health some enemies and bosses have.
@@depalodor who cares about glitches and pvp when the game is nearly unplayable for a lot of players. Idc how good the game is if I can’t even play it bc of stutters and lag
I don’t mind enemy spam. It has some replay value. Cause not a lot of souls games has it where you face enemies randomly. Dark souls 2 made red phantoms in new game. But after 2nd playthrough. You know what to expect
I play this primarily on my steamdeck. The major point to know is that the game should be downloaded to the steamdecks internal storage. Do not install on the micro sd card. It won’t run fast enough and the game will even warn you about that fact. Granted I’m not too far into the game but I have yet to see the fps drop below 30-28 at its worst. Maybe I’m just lucky because I haven’t adjusted a single setting for the steam launcher or in game. It doesn’t look the best but it’s still good which is awesome. Also I have the scaling filter set to linear. There is the infamous minor studdering at points but it does that on my pc so I can’t blame it on the steamdeck hardware. If it doesn’t get at least a “playable” rating, then I’d be shocked.
I haven’t watched your video yet but wanted to say I’m about 30 hours into this game and I’m completely obsessed. I went in expecting it to be decent but not as good as Lies of P, but at this point I’m convinced it is even better than Lies of P. The further I get, the more impressed I am.
Are you in the last area of the game ? The castle? This shit fck killed the game for me . Its So unbalanced, enemies everywhere. Sucks . Rest was really good . But by far Not better than any fromsoft or lies of p 🎉
I can't be alone in thinking it's way more fun for me hearing people talk about the Soulsboure games than actually playing them? Judging by the number of views for lore videos on these kinds of games, I don't think I'm alone in that take. They're cool games, but I like other games more. For me there's just something about nonsensical apocalypse worlds populated by a supernatural creatures doing an end of the world that just... doesn't do it for me the same way it does for a lot of people. The worlds feel too unreal to me to really grab me. It usually feels like things are only still somehow alive because otherwise there'd be no game, as the world is not livable, very artificial, and can only operate thanks to magic keeping stuff alive. 🤔 I mean, gameplay is king, but the worldbuilding (as in how the game visually presents its world) just isn't my cup of tea, because the world is unlivable if you think about it.
I have been playing the game in my free time, and while I haven't had the technical issues, I agree with some of the problems. The lock on issue has been frustrating, and the DS2 strategy of every enemy having someone hidden waiting to ambush you gets old really fast. The checkpoint system hasn't been much of an issue for me because I quickly learned the flying umbral enemy often drops them, so I at times farm umbral for vigor and seeds. I wish the umbral had a bigger variety of enemies, but oh well. I have been playing melee, but can see where ranged would make things easier. I haven't gotten to NG+, but the no teleport does not sound fun. I don't look forward to it. It is nice they are updating things, such as picking up dropped experience being faster with I frames, but do hope they fix the lock on.
I refunded it, no way it is worth the asking price. They want £70 digitallly for this game, that is absurd. The invasion was a rubberbanding, glitchy mess. Ill pick it back up when its inevitably 50% off in a few months
Yo, they took the Vestige Seed thing from Bleak Faith: Forsaken and somehow did it worse. Bleak Faith has its own raft of issues, but its version lets you place it absolutely anywhere and when you reach a major teleport point, it automatically undoes your last checkpoint so you can make another one.
I've been enjoying this one but I am still early in the game. I also liked the first, not so much because it was a great game, but because it was the closest to what I think the Warhammer IP soulslike would look/feel like.
I encounter this annoying problem. When in Umbral sometimes we are supposed to go to area that doesn't exist in axiom. Then the non umbral enemy can some how hit me from below, their ranged attack can go through the Umbral only platform. I figured it's because that platform doesn't exist in Axiom but it just annoying when I'm on Umbral platform suddenly i got hit from below. Then I died there and couldn't find my dropped vigor.
I was very hesitant about the game when I first my friends were constantly I still have a little bit of frame dropping but it's much better now I absolutely love this game and anybody that's complaining about hordes being too much are the enemies following you you shouldn't be playing this game I for one love the if anything is easy to do it's not worth doing
I'm playing on steamdeck and my overall experience is quite okay. I struggled in the beginning but I feel like "bonfires" are too far apart. Setting up seeds is kinda annoying, too. The overall gameplay is cool, I just miss online coop as this still doesn't work on my end.
Shame to hear that. Online coop works for me and my friend, we're both on steam (but not steamdeck). Btw, the seeds become cheaper fairly soon so you'll probably have like 4-5 of them at all times.
@@SolusBatty Yes on PC it seems to work fine, but since release I wasn't able to connect to anyone. I'm not good at soulslikes but I love these kind of games. And I think LotF is great (besides couple of crashes and bugs here and there) but it's fun. But I wish I could explore it with a friend or a random player
I loved the seedling mechanic honestly! Real checkpoints felt meaningful again and adding that extra layer of decision making on top of already challenging areas was a breath of fresh air in my opinion. 2500 is a little steep of a price to ask for, especially in the early game, but they already lowered it to 1200 so I think its honestly fine imo.
This game is good but viciously irritating. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older or what, but I'm losing patience with games that don't respect your time. There're so many elements within this game that exist purely to be aggravating. I just don't think the devs that jump on the Souls wagon understand what challenge is. Or what rewards are.
I don’t think it’s anything to do with age. Too many games today are just arbitrary time wasters. This game is filled with them, such as the random hidden enemy placed specifically to knock you off the edge of the map. That’s a big reason the only games I’ve really played & dedicated hundreds of hours to the past 8 years or so have been roguelikes/lites, Vampire Survivors is free on mobile and has optional ads, it’s the definition of respecting my time AND money. I’m not expecting all AAA games to be free, but I at least expect them to be functional when I’m spending so much money on them. This game hasn’t only been annoying in its design choices, but it has begun to crash more & more on my PC with each patch, with the worst of it occurring last night where I crashed 3 times in 10 minutes after updating my game. I’m just about ready to uninstall, steam say I have about 20 hours, but I’ve only interacted with the game for about 10-15 because of all the frustrating mess. This one definitely isn’t a game or company that respects your time.
agree 100%. i also dislike the gimmicky 2 world mechanic that ends up just being really annoying and impeding the flow of exploration. the dodge distance is insane, the swing speed is insane…i didn’t last more than 2 hours, and those were pretty brutal 2 hours, especially the intro. just too much gimmicky stuff that gets in the way, along with mechanics i just don’t vibe with. wont even touch on the multiplayer issues, yikes
Bought it at release, but am still way too addicted to BG3 to sit down and play it. Hopefully by the time I get tired of BG3, LotF's issues will have been sorted out. The devs have been very good about listening to constructive criticism, so I have high hopes. I also hope the game does well, because I really want to see more of this setting. It's like Custodia, Yharnam, and Nosgoth all merged into one, with a wee bit of Forgotten Realms mixed in.
Im gonna take your advice and wait to play it. I bought it on release but im so hooked to cyberpunk right now i think i have another 50 hours on it before i get sick of it anyways.
I don’t think I’ve been so excited for a SOULS-like game since I saw trailers for DS3. Honestly watching the gameplay here makes me even more excited than the hype for Elden Ring. I just have to decide if I want to get it for PS5 or the Series S :/ and then I gotta find the extra money to buy! A lot easier said than done in this economy lol
I agree 100% that the aiming system needs more work. On my xsx the camera will do a 180 and look behind when trying to target an enemy right in front of me.
![14 Things You Missed In Pilgrim's Perch [probably] Lords Of The Fallen FULL WALKTHROUGH & GUIDE #ad](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mnOqx0rJX04/mqdefault.jpg)
The day after this was published the developers announced some changes to NG+
1. You can choose to restart on the same difficulty instead of advancing to more difficult versions, which is intended to help people get 100%
2. NG+1 & NG+2 now only remove a few vestiges (essentially what I suggested in this video) before NG+3 brings it to just the main hub and one of the shrines.
They also announced an upcoming patch that will aim to reduce some of the more intense patches of enemy density.
At least they are responding to some of the communities issues. Nice to see.
I'm reading all these patch notes. I uninstalled the game after 6 hours and I'm happy with this decision. They are changing a lot of things and improving the game, so I'll just wait until december to play it. For now the patch notes are being very positive.
They are doing so much work to address all community concerns. This is a great game and getting better by the day
I love your reviews and how open minded you are thank you!
It´s really good to see that the developers care about the communitys concerns.
If anyone reading this 2-3 months after game relase, I can confirm that most of mentioned issues are fixed; enemy density isn't so annoying anymore, performance issues are mostly gone (even co-op/pvp works properly 80% of time) and hexworks added some content, new quests etc. There are still minor issues, but game is totally worth playing now.
Lifesaver 🙏
Just completed it and you are spot on ! ......amazing game 👏
Yeah I started playing almost 2 weeks ago and I experienced next to no issues, fav souls like for sure
bought it for 20 bucks right after 1.5 update and i am enjoying it same as i did elden ring. totally worth playing.
Yea youre a liar, yesterday my game crashed SIX TIMES in total, only played for two hours.......
I still can't believe that they used the exact same title as this game's predecessor, given the negative reception that game had. They must be confident that this reboot can redeem it’s name but you gotta wonder how many people won’t give this game a chance because of this.
Most people have no idea about the first game. I sure didnt.
The people not giving the game a change cause of the same name are the same people that whine about difficulty in a souls game.
actually gave the game a chance despite that, and then refunded it on it's own merit :D
@@cs108828it’s famous in the souls community of being a sluggish copy of what souls genre is.
It made no sense. If the first game had a good lore, good ideas, a good story or stuff like that, I would understand why they'd want to redeem it. But this just creates confusion without benefits, it's utterly pointless
I've been playing the game since launch and i'm in love with it. It reminds me to the best of all the soulslike that I played. The world is amazing and the umbral part, as a gimmick as it is, it is well implemented.
Same, nice to see some positivity after seeing the cesspool of Steam reviews complaining about the most ridiculous things. Hexworks easily made the best feeling Souls-like yet imo and only appear to be beaten by Fromsoft themselves. They definitely deserve some good feedback since this was clearly a passion project for them and their love of Soulsborne is so apparent in every aspect of the game.
Finally devs who understand the fundamentals of making good Souls games unlike other dev teams who just think "hard=Soulsborne! Screw the player this game ain't meant to be fun Lolz!"
@@Funko777Better feeling than Nioh 2? That's a bold claim, but I guess I'll find out soon enough.
@@Funko777 they clearly do not understand the fundamentals of souls games. If you played DS games and ER you will find many things in common. I liked the game but it's obv they got super "inspired" from DS and ER games but without understanding the true basis of souls games and it is the details. In general, they seem the same but when you look deeper, at the details, LotF is losing in almost every aspect of the game, like physics, target lock, control of character, fighting rhythm, monster positioning, boss fights, music, etc.
P.S. You could disagree but that's the reality. For their first game of this genre is a good work, but putting on the same level as fromsoftware games is a bit too much
i mean mob placement alone was enough for me to put this game down, and mob density. feel like im fighting for my life... oh hey, use a vestige seed...take a rest... walks 20 steps around a corner. BON FIRE! ooooo shouldnt have used that seed there -_-
@@yvannenikolainethercott5709
@@rizztraininghamster everything you mentioned negatively can get fixed in patches, I think it's a refreshing and unique take on the genre, but that's just my opinion, not fact.
I loved this game despite all of its issues, and not just performance wise
Agreed me too.
Same. I’m still playing and just got to the 7th vestige.
Me too, this game is a guilty pleasure I guess. It's not cool to love it because it's not a GOTY contender. If it's not a 9 it's trash these days.
Same
Same here, such a consistently pleasant surprise.
The ranged combat system is AMAZING, and I really hope From Software adopts it. I never use items in Souls games because they're so finite, but I got a ton of use out of the Lump Hammers in Lords of the Fallen
Thrown weapons are easily farmed in every souls game and make the game very easy, what are you talking about.
@@prawngravy18 I don't like farming
God please no, I don't want From to copy anything from this game other than maybe the really nice graphics and high refresh/FPS support
@@MaTtRoSiTy This game is just like any other souls game dude.
Blind, this game is a pile of crap lmao. Such awful level design and enemy spam combined with very boring boss fights at the best of times and awfully designed boss fights at the worst such as the end game boss@@sercravenmohead3631
As a huge souls/soulslike fan, i really like this game flaws & all. It feels like im playing a fix of Ds1-DS3 in a way. Ds1 brilliant interconnected world design, Ds2 clunky combat with some unbalanced enemy density & graphics that rival DS3.. and honestly i love that..
This!! I started with DS2 and LOTF really reminds me of that first soulslike experience.
I felt the DS1 and 2 influences immediately, in the world design and enemy placements/densities. I particularly enjoyed DS2 so I loved seeing something like that with upgraded visuals.
@@dufflebagg would you say LoTF is an improvement over DS2 ?
@@sikevillain Good question, but for me it's hard to say at this point. I definitely think it does some things better beyond just the visuals, like the environmental puzzles involving Umbral and the lamp and the survival-horror elements, but DS2 melee combat felt more engaging and strategic to me, for instance I loved being able to choose between power-stancing or single-weapon swings with each hand while I'm dual-wielding. I also always loved the DS2 torch mechanic in certain areas and it also wins for its hub area (I want to live in Majula, lol). But I adore DS2 so the fact that LotF even feels on-par with it is no faint praise. It's also funny to me that they both seem to be similarly underrated games, where I don't seem to have a problem with all the issues other people seem to find. But that's okay too, I like a diamond-in-the-rough story :D
@@dufflebagg that was a great enthusiastic reply. I definitely feel ya. My first game was DS3 & I think it along with DS1 are soul masterpieces. DS2 was rough for me and was absolutely kicking my ass lol. I really wanna revisit it now tbh..LoTF has given me that dark souls vibe I've been kinda missing these past few years since DS1-3.
My biggest issue with the game non preformance wise is 100% enemy spam every non boss encounter feels like I’m back in ds2 where the solution for making the game hard is just throwing 6 of those fire serpent crossbows with a few flame casters and a ravager
Yeah the mob density/composition is ridiculous in some spots (Abbey anyone?). You know it's gone wrong when your reaction half of the time is just to run past everything because it's not worth the hassle to re-fight your way through.
Would you rather the enemies be fed to you one by one so you can cheese them? Whatever happened to “git gud” fellas. It’s annoying sure, but to be challenged is to be frustrated and annoyed even. I’ve played all the souls games, some builds manage this better than others so you have to try harder or adapt. The umbral situation is fine because the “spam” gets worse intentionally the longer you stay there as a risk reward system. You get more vigor there and can find hidden items at the risk of being harassed constantly and dying without the revive. It has to challenge you in some way shape or form. I see all these “souls veterans” cry about shit that’s in all soulsborne games probably because some TH-cam told them to. Idc I’m just happy to do it all over again in a different place.
@@sercravenmohead3631 Agreed, there's literally only one erea where I think the enemy comp in a "problem" and it's mostly due to me being impatient, and the devs have created clever solutions to solving it. It feel like you're supposed to sneak your way throug umbral to kill the caster and then work your way back. Which I'm honestly fine with, it's only my impatience that gets me killed. I also "stroggled" a bit in the beginning with the big spiky head enemies because they were so insanely tanky before you got levels and blacksmith upgrades, but when I learned that you could direct your soul flay that too became a laugh as I could just yeet the enemies off the platforms.
@@sercravenmohead3631i think the main problem is enemy design. It gets very repetitive taking out all the smaller enemies before fighting the main enemy so you dont get ganked. You just spam range and spells to kill all the smaller enemies. I’d rather face difficult 1v1 encounters with basic enemies like in lies of p where yes there are ganks, but there are also plenty of 1v1s against bigger enemies with much more complex moveset almost like a mini-boss.
In LOTF encounters would be something like encantress with 4 dogs after that its proselyte with a crossbow snake guys before you get a vestige flower bed. In Lies of P it’ll be like you go through some gank encounters but before you get a bonfire you have to face a very difficult basic enemy in a 1v1 (which is also not a reused boss). Challenging encounters in LOTF are just taking out all the add-ons enemies before you get to fight the bigger enemy (i.e spikehead guys, proselyte, or infernal enchantress) and thats very tedious.
Ganks are fine but there it gets very boring if almost every challenging encounter is a gank rather than enemies with complex moveset.
@@sercravenmohead3631Yea, I think people make too big a deal out of the mob density...This game gives you every tool you need to handle it...Of course you are going to get overwhelmed sometimes, thats part of the game...I found it very satisfying to dash around and in and out of mobs with a gaint sword! I guess that playstyle just isn't for everyone, but if you take the time to learn the game it becomes pretty easy to do and can be very satisfying...This game definitely has a few issues but I don't think that is one of them...
My main gripe with the combat is that parrying makes you still take wither damage. Like, what? What`s the point, then? Stance breaking is a joke, too, it requires you to parry a boss a dozen times, reducing your health to 1, and rewards you with damage equal to 1,5 of a normal attack.
Agreed, sounds like they dropped the ball there. I am not playing this anyway, though, so no big loss there.
Yea Fr like even when you do get your visceral it barely moves the health bar
Heard it was patched on PC and coming to console soon. Now you take 20% either and maybe crits do more. I think crits should do a lot more personally.
Honestly I've always hated dark souls parrying and am happy this game didn't just copy it over. Instead they made dodging better
@@jacobrohrs3439 dark souls was all about dodging, actually, in the entire first game there was exactly 1 parryable boss, so there was nothing to copy.
In this day and age I expect Sekiro level of parrying. Lies of P got it right, too.
Very similar to my experience, and my second play has been lot more pleasant with the prior knowledge of areas. Sometimes the terrain is a small slope and every time i attack he stops his animation, and getting into a corner and being unable to move sucks. The vestige seed system has a lot of really cool possibilities and i hope we see more attempts in the genre to mix up the check point system, I had a lot of the same issues as you but i do think the system has potential.
I don't know why you don't have much subscribers but i can tell you this your work is absolutely amazing, the fact that you complete the game before reviewing it sets it more than bars apart from other reviewers because sometimes they only approach it skin deep. Good luck to your future endeavours and keep up the good work
He has 250k??
I made a nearly identical comment 3 years ago when he was at 15k lol. He's doing just fine.
It's a fairly new channel.
exactly lol. that's a lot @@marlow7376
Definitely the best reviews !
No joke, your reviews are what got me back into gaming and loving it again after years. Thank you for your work
Spot on review, finished the game yesterday (42hours ish). Just swinging around a giant two-hander, kicking enemies of platforms etc. was great, much fun. But exactly every flaw mentioned in this review is accurate.
I started on new game+ but it got old fast so I will probably drop the game for now and play something new.
To me there really isn´t enough there to make a NG+ with the no teleport stuff tacked on worth it.
Due to how the stat system works you can basically find a weapon of any type that scales with anything so choosing a build is more just choose the color of magic you like as they will end up feeling very similar.
(edit it was also on of the easiest souls game I´ve played, my deaths was mostly from enemies flooding me when I was trying to run passed them or I got stuck because of some ambush) . Despite all the flaws I had fun.
I rarely play NG+ as I prefer to use fresh new characters. I suggest you go that route as well, been having fun on my 2nd char. However, it's also fine to go play smth else after 1 playthru. Hopefully by the time you come back the game has better performance and maybe some expansion
I agree completely with the checkpoints. Also, the archers have to be the reason I gave the game a 7, not an 8. Also not enough enemy variety
Archers can be a big pain in the ass, but on the other hand you should consider just about all the player's ranged options are generally viable, not just casting as in recent FROM games. The best bow (Black Bow) in Elden Ring had D/D scaling fully upgraded. Some weapon arts of bows are indeed really powerful, but general use of non-casting ranged attacks tickles enemies in recent FROM games, whereas you can do some big damage with bows and crossbows in this game with the right build. I think Hexworks deserves some credit for making so many ranged attacks of the player viable.
that's my one gripe with the game, it does suffer from the lack of enemy veriety. Especially the enemies that look exactly the same but have different stats, they could at least do with a reskin.
@@tore650exactly, the invisible poison archers and ice archers exact same different color and this games endings are dogshit to its legit mass effect 3 all over again, "do you want the yellow ending? The red? Or the blue?"
Shield, range attacks, and soul flay help with that.
I came back to this after 15 hours, and, brother, this is a great review even after nearly two weeks since you dropped the review. My biggest gripe at the moment is they're prioritizing fixing glitches players are taking advantage of due to game imbalance, instead of sprinting to mitigate the technical issues. Overall, I would recommend this game. I'm playing with a friend right now and there's so much to love. But some of the choices they've made do, as you've stated in the video, feel like you the player are in a PvP match with the devs who are constantly spamming the same attacks at you.
Agreed about the lock-on system. I feel switching targets while locked on was surprisingly great, but the initial lock-on was a nightmare. Can’t tell you how many times my camera just repositioned rather than locking onto something. Even when up close to an enemy.
Another gripe I have is the vigor economy. -everything- costs so much and uses this one resource. Pair that with grinding being super tedious, I feel like the game encourages players to seek vigor exploits.
But, there’s some real good stuff in here too like you said.
Yeah, my issue with the lock-on is that the lock-on distance is a bit too short. There have been a bunch of times where an enemy is like 15 feet away and I try to lock on but instead the camera does a 180 (I don’t know why all of the souls games have the 180 feature - it’s not very useful).
Also, when you’re in Umbral, you can’t lock on to the zombies until they fully stand up. Which is silly.
@@therealdonelaitis Yup exactly. It’s so weird given how big of a role ranged attacks and spells are, too.
And same pain in Umbral. Also trying to lock onto targets to open passageways or move platforms was a pain. Shame this was an issue.
One thing that Nioh did, and so many of these games never do, including the ones from From (tho I feel like I could do it in Sekiro or AC6, tho I could just be misremembering) is allowing you to turn off “R3 resetting your camera”. I generally have my camera set fast enough that hitting R3 to reset ends up being a pain in my ass more often than something I actually use.
@@KrsJinespecially the objects in Umbral. The lock on would always prioritize the enemies, making it a pain to run in, activate the thing, and run out.
@@kinggoon565 Lot of assumptions coming from you haha.
And grinding != skill, especially in a game like this. It’s just a time sink.
Great review! Thanks as always for all your effort in delivering a detailed review that comes from a position of having really experienced how the game functions as completely and transparently as possible. You hit on so many things a feel the same way about. I LOVE the art and style of this world and all the different ways to play. My biggest issues that add to my frustration a bit on top of what you mentioned were traversal issues and hunted timing in umbral.
With movement in this game, I find that when I am locked on to something, movement feels "right", but when moving with no lock on, everything feels off. Movement is oddly fast and, more importantly, your rolls feel WAY too big/long. This is also true of some attacks locked on or not. So, I found myself falling to my death a great deal until I got used to this and even then hitting a mob at the end of a platform was either magic or a kick because anything else would kill me.
The other thing is more of a want than a problem. I wish that you had a bit more time in umbral to explore before things get out of control. This second world they made is truly a work of art, but it is not usually possible to spend any amount of time enjoying it because you need to get where you want to go fast before the eye of Sauron locks onto you completely and he sends a Nazgûl (sorry I couldn't resist the analogy).
I am impressed by the fever pitch with which they are patching this game as it shows real dedication to making their game work as they envisioned it.
I appreciate the nuanced review with no ego-based opionions.
Really great review. One issue not addressed was the movement and momentum of your character. Specifically, when you swing your weapon your character slides forward about 3 meters. This happens every swing and makes attacking an issue of spacing and commitment. Also, your character runs extremely fast and when you jump, you will roll an extra 5 meters from where you land. This adds a layer of difficulty to the platforming sections. These things aren’t necessarily bad. It’s actually kind of nice to be a speed demon after slogging through the snail paced movement in remnant or dark souls. There are two sides of the momentum in this game and they affect the “feel” of the game in major way.
I've been waiting for this review! I think they had many great ideas to work with, the umbral and differences between worlds being one of the biggest, but they majorly failed when designing a challenging game, relying too much on enemy clusters and swarms, and many "gotcha!"-moments without any thought behind them. So much insane potential, yet it fails to reach those heights...
The enemy spam, umbral, flying forward with attacking, and level design were a MAJOR issue to learn to adapt to, but once I did learn to deal with it, it's become my most preferred Soulslike out there. I truly enjoy cutting through hordes and making thousands of XP in Umbral now. It's an unusually challenging experience which is all the more rewarding for it.
Same, the more I played the more I liked. Once I got used to it it's pretty alright. I just want them to fix bugs and performance, after that it'll easily be my fav non Fromsoft/Team Ninja soulslike
@@kevo300learn to parry him otherwise get used to dodging and hitting him once or twice at a time
You're spot on about the enemy placement - it reminds me distinctly of Scholar of the First Sin (Dark Souls 2). Enemies galore, constant ambushes, gank squads. And frustration. I suppose those of us who like SotFS should feel at home with this one, then.
Exactly my opinion as well. I enjoyed this game, and I also enjoyed dark souls 2. They’re very similar in feel, and in flaws, but both offer a lot of enjoyment if you can stomach the issues.
i gotta say this was even worse in that aspect than ds2, a bonfire every hour mixed with the fact that even the weakest enemy could kill you in two hits was so frustrating. Basically the only way they could think of making it hard was just to gank you every time and have enemies killing you in two hits while they tanked everything, which is sad
I've heard so many mixed reviews. But I'm one of those weird people that loved DS 2. Maybe that''s enough for me to try this one out.
I didn’t care to much about the gank squads in DS2 but the moves that hit you that clearly didn’t or where you teleport into a grab after clearing the enemy was infuriating. I just used bonfire aesthetics to fight the bosses I liked over after I completed my build (really I only cared about the DLC bosses and the rotten to farm levels). As long as the combat actually works I’m excited for this one.
Well in my opinion they need to challenge you, go back to DS1 and try to tell me that isn’t the easiest game out of the franchise. I think the crowd spam issues y’all had would be mitigated by fixing the lock on but I don’t see issues. I don’t like when people complain about Umbral because that’s actually the point is to intentionally harass you. It’s a risk-reward system because the horde is a consequence of you being there as time progresses because in Umbral you get more vigor and all the hidden items but stay too long.. you’re gonna get hunted. That was intentional and it’s a difficulty that builds with time.. you’re not immediately ganked but you will be and you’re meant to be aware of that fact.
I absolutely adore this game. It's certainly flawed, but holy hell does it feel like a unique experience. Sometimes I think the combat is closer to Nioh 2 than Dark Souls. It's got a very Gaiden-esque flow to it when you really get thing going.
Comparable with Nioh 2? That game hast the most refined, precise combat, and you compare it with a sluggish, unresponsive turd like LOTF. Mind boggling.
@@kiekiek That's like your opinion maaaan
@@Bae_Cop2027 And he is completely right. This doesn't have anything to do with Nioh 2, it's not a matter of "opinion". If your opinion is the Moon is purple, it still won't turn into purple.
@@bkorodi1797 yeah dude. It is an opinion. Some aspects of the combat remind me of Nioh 2. That's the opinion. Keyword being "me." That's how opinions work.
ng+ and Coop suck
Really appreciate you, man. I feel like you're one of the most thorough and fair reviewers on YT, hands down.
I LOVED THIS GAME. Despite all its launch issues. The dual world exploration is soooo cool and fun. Everyone should try it out. The combat was very satisfying.
I rank this game to be top 5 of all souls games I played and I have played most of the established ones (Fromsoft all, Lies of P, Nioh, mortal shell, code vein, surge, ashen etc). I absolutely agree that you should buy this game but maybe wait a couple of weeks for all the improvements. I am just very happy with the experience I had and I am happy to see that this now probably turned into a franchise and we will see more coming in the years ahead.
I rate this game, despite its issues 9/10 from my play experience.
which ones do you recommend for noobs?
@OffShotGaming Demon souls remake is the easiest souls game, imo. I think bluepoint increased the parry window so it's cake
Radiance build is very "noob" friendly as you can sustain yourself in fights a lot with the self buffs.@@OffShotGaming
You're trolling.
@@OffShotGamingDemon souls remake like the other guy said if you have a PS5 followed directly by Bloodborne. Or, if you grind your teeth a bit and play bloodborne first, it'll be harder for sure but it'll train you how to play the other games the "right" way....not passively hiding behind a shield throwing magic. People are free to enjoy playing that way but you're not really engaging fully with the combat if you don't learn how to dodge (and eventually parry but don't worry about that right now). If you don't have a PS5 (I'd say buying one is honestly worth it to play Bloodborne/DeS), Elden Ring is honestly very beginner friendly and the least punishing although the bosses are the hardest in the series (not counting Sekiro). The game allows you to set your own difficulty though sort of by using summons and what not. Plus 80% of it is optional so just explore the masterpiece of Elden Ring!
I'd definitely give Lords of the fallen 2023 a try in the future once you can appreciate the call backs to Dark Souls. It really is a great game, but play the OG Fromsoft games if you're new. LotF is a bit harder boss wise than Demon's souls but they both have more difficult levels than the bosses themselves. (usually). Demon Souls bosses are mainly gimmick/puzzle bosses.
3rd best option and still a must play for beginners is Dark Souls 3. Most modern Dark Souls and closer to Elden Rings combat. I'd avoid playing the first 2 until much later. They're good but didn't age well combat wise/some visuals. Rolling feels like ass in DS1. Like you're a morbidly obese man rolling through molasses.
Do sekiro last due to its departure from the formula. Still an amazing game
.....skip Lies of P. Seriously, just play Bloodborne. I'll never do another playthrough in LoP. Most unfair Dev vs. Player BS I've ever seen. Story is meh, translation is weird sometimes, npcs are meh, maps/aesthetics (which are basically Bloodbornes art style) are good, dodging is absolutely useless despite the game not telling you this and acting like it isn't and it literally forces you about 70% of the way through to abandon it totally and rely entirely on "perfect blocks" which are basically deflects from sekiro but unlike in sekiro LoP has the most least forgiving sweaty success window for those blocks. The enemies and bosses except for a few entirely rely on absurd spongy HP levels, gank fights (4vs1),and the most bs delayed attacks that come out so fast and random you're forced to memorize the animation timings to a T while following no pattern-like beat which Sekiro did helping you understand the cadence you needed to deflect. The human NPCs feel absolutely horrible to fight too, they literally have infinite stamina and spam attack chains resulting in them looking like meth heads. Speaking of attack chains the bosses have the longest combo attacks I've ever seen in any game and they literally expect you to perfect block every one or get your HP chunked in half. The game got a big online following from people new to Soulsborne games which seemingly love it probably due to not understanding much of the source material it "takes inspiration" from or ever really thinking about the God tier game design philosophy of Fromsoft and how they create challenge while still knowing when to chill, when to reward the player, how to encourage them to continue etc.
These games are meant to be fair and always give the player an honest shot the first time without memorizing timings to a literal nanosecond in order to win. The other games also never feel like the devs are just being asses and repeating the same "gotcha!"s over and over again because they think that's what made Fromsoft games so good....Fromsoft knows when to use cheap shots (ex. Mimic chest in the first level of DS3) like that sparingly to help reinforce cautious feelings into the player and because it normally aligns with the narrative of that world. LoP seriously just says what if every bridge the player crosses falls? Lol!.... It just gets boring because after the 3rd one you expect it.
Anyway don't mean to rant if you actually read this giant wall of text. Soulsborne games are super important to me and basically ruined all other video games so I love to see new players try them out! If you get stuck watch guides or TH-cam videos no harm in that but don't give up! The main reward you get from these is a feeling of dread and helplessness that is eventually replaced with accomplishment. They all have perfect and interesting level design, artistic stories, and amazing world building. Obviously the combat is great too. So don't cheat yourself out of those awesome things because you feel stuck! Perseverance is required! Unless it's LoP in which case the devs ask more of you than any other video game I've played (including Escape from tarkov) just so you can role play as a twink puppet version of Timothee Chalamet
Felt like they increased the health on small mobs to always prevent me to one shot them as a two hand giant weapon and it always felt like ass especially when they have two hp from a hit.
Good review, very balanced.
I agree 100% with the lock on, I was regularly wrestling with it with the points you mentioned.. I even had issues in boss fights as instead of locking on to the only enemy, it would turn me around 180 degrees... so frustrating.
Overall, despite it's flaws.. I had a good time with LotF.
I feel exactly the same about this game. The mobs are ridiculous. Compound that with the lock on system and you have the makings for a frustrating experience. Matchmaking is poor. I also noticed that when I would join someones game to assist, I frequently lost them in the level. With so many mobs, I would often be fighting off enemies while the host would be running by them and suddenly I'm alone with no idea where the host went. Eventually a timer will take you to them if you get far enough away from each other, but by then you could be swarmed with enemies and dead. If you die, the host has to backtrack and search the level looking for your ghost to resurrect. I never had that issue in a DS game. To me, this is a game that is more enjoyable in co op. It will be an incredibly frustrating experience for a lot of players to try and solo it. If you don't have a friend with a mic, I'd seriously consider buying this title unless you really feel like suffering. That's a shame because there's some real potential here.
This is so interesting to watch just 1 week later since the devs have patched the game like 6 times or something and are actively working on every criticism if not fixing it outright. My 1 big issue right now while doing an umbral playthrough is that for umbral magic essentially taking double the levels that radiance or inferno takes, it feels extremely weak. At level 50 with a radiance playthrough with about 25 vigor, 25 endurance and the rest dumped into radiance every spell seemed extremely powerful. Yet with a level 50 umbral build where radiance and inferno are each at 22 with an upgraded catalyst it’s still taking 4-5 umbral bolts just to take out a ranged enemy. As opposed to the same level radiance taking 2 shots for the same mana spent. I thought that putting points into both radiance and inferno would be rewarded with feeling even more powerful and somehow manage to feel weaker. Maybe they’ll buff it soon. Anyway great review Mortim, you know there’s some fair criticism when even the devs listened lol 😂
2nd best soulslike of 2023 in my opinion.
I absolutely love this game, if they fix all the performance issues and bugs it would I be incredible
Great review. I feel like I’ve found my people; I fully acknowledge this game for all of its bullshit, but I still can’t put it down, even after fighting the same overly dense area of the same enemies over and over. The coop itch, when it doesn’t disconnect, feels so much like DS2.
I've been tied up with Lies of P and that game is an absolute banger. Really appreciate your harsh critiques here and can say I'm interested still for sure. I'll probably wait a month until a patch or 2 comes out and see where it's at. Thanks man!
Im enjoying this game so much. I've finished a playthrough and am now enjoying a new playthrough with the provided new build, going after the evil ending. It's addictive and fun as hell. I think I'll be enjoying this game as much as DS3 and bloodborne. Not even exaggerating. Sucks people are hating on it but I'm glad it was made.
This game feels like the closest thing to dark souls 1 that I've ever experienced. Even the clunkiness feels like dark souls 1. It's almost nostalgic. I genuinely love it.
This game is not clunky. Just because attacks require a commitment and you can't animation cancel does not make it clunky. A true Souls like locks you into your attacks. That's the whole point of combat. Risk reward.
@@johnhuddleston1986maybe instead its the feeling of the combat that gets interpreted as clunky, whether its intentional combat design or not
I sort of agree, the world at least which is really cool. Combat and enemy encounters smack of DS2
It is pretty clunky. Lurching bizarrely forward 2 metres for a variety of attacks, the weirdly vague omnidirectional rolling and a few other smaller details make this clunky in a very similar way to DS1.
@@JoeJones-mo8ff I've noticed some weird jank also. Try to roll left, my guy rolls right or straight. Go to use my lantern on an object that for some reason is just out of reach while on a platform and fall off because I used it at the point where it was within reach. It needs more work, but it's still a good alternative.
I'm trying so so hard to love this game, but there's just so many frustrating aspects like bloated enemies.. clunky lock on, animations that move me 10 feet forward or just enemy snipers from a whole continent away. Ugh such a shame
It's funny because I've seen the enemy density and vestige sparsity be almost universal complaints for people, but I honestly feel that this is a significant strong point of the game and something that sets it apart from other soulslikes I've played. No matter what level segment I'm in, I'm always in danger of becoming overwhelmed or getting ambushed (obviously especially in Umbral) if I'm not careful, so I have to move methodically and think critically about who and when I fight. If I do that I find I actually don't usually end up wildly outnumbered. 5-10 enemies, yes, but 20-30 is not something I've seen to this point. Even then, given how many significant enemies there are throughout, I'm still consistently running through my heals and other resources so that if/when I finally make it to the next vestige (or flower bed) by the skin of my teeth, it's a huge relief. I find this consistent tension and release to be a high-point of the game and is reminiscent of really good survival horror, to me, which I think is the genuine intention, given how dark and spooky the world is. Plus vestige seeds are basically Resident Evil ink ribbons, and I have been absolutely LOVING that system. I agree that lock-on is buggy and can be a pain, particularly when there are tons of enemies, but I also find you can get away with NOT locking on if you're fighting a mini-horde of smaller mobs, so that's also mitigated the problem for me (not that it shouldn't be fixed, it absolutely should). Needless to say, I'm really enjoying my time with LotF, and have found lots of the broader complaints people have had with it to be either not an issue to me, or actually things I consider positives. If anyone is on the fence still, but happens to be a big survival horror fan, maybe this perspective can help (although waiting for a month or so for performance and bug patches is also a solid idea).
P.S. Great review, very thorough!
I think most people myself included just find the enemy spam to be a cop out to 1 not having many different enemy types and two not understanding how to capture what made dark souls “hard” and the enemy spams make it hard to real invest in exploring the world let alone actually take the world in and submerge yourself into it because you so constantly overwhelmed most of the time your just fighting or running, dark souls told a story through its environment you actually had a chance to piece the story together when finding armor or weapons or just looking at the lay of the land in this game you don’t get to have that emergence and it takes away a lot of the appeal that is “souls like”
@@jamesmiller6294but like the person who you responded to said, you CAN explore the world and not be overwhelmed by the enemy spam, you just have to traverse the world SLOWLY and CAREFULLY. I’ve watched a bunch of streamers play this game and they just sprint into an area, immediately get overwhelmed, die, and then complain. You can’t do that in this game. The game presents a realistic number of enemies in a given area (you’re gonna have to face a Rhogar army if you’re venturing into a city they ransacked, and there’s millions of dead people to attack you if you’re in the land of the dead), and you just have to navigate it. If you’re not scoping out an arena to kill snipers before they kill you, and preemptively killing those lying in wait to ambush you, and THEN attacking the big guys, then you’re gonna have a bad time. The enemy density is not a cop-out, it’s part of the level design that you need to overcome. If that’s boring to you, then that’s your opinion. But for me, it’s as the OP said - a nail-biting thrill ride where I sit back and exhale in relief when I finally find that next vestige or seed bed. The comparison to survival-horror is spot-on, especially when in Umbral.
And there’s SO MUCH to explore in this game. The world-building is honestly S-tier. It’s mind blowing. There have been so many times where I’ve just stood at the edge of some cliff looking out at a gorgeous vista, just mind blown.
@@therealdonelaitis There were a few areas the game threw like 5-6 enemies at you, but you're given a lot of aoe throwables (spells, grenades, aoe arrows/bolts). If players use the systems that the game gives them, you never really get that overwhelmed.
@@Vipertooth007 yeah, 100%. I loved the poison grenade and enhanced hatchet. Those two are OP.
I'll definitely be picking it up whenever it goes on sale. I love the atmosphere and world, and it's always good to have another, atleast AA, soulslike.
Yeah I got this game 20% off out the rip, don't think id have bought it otherwise.. I'ts fun but as review said theirs a lot of times it gets frustrating to play. Def pick it up on sale.
@@suffer8318Same I got it cheaper in CDkeys and so far I'd say it was worth the price. I got 2 copies (one for my gf to coop) and I'm satisfied with it. The bugs made me so glad I didn't get it full price lol
What sale price will be satisfactory for this game?
-10%,-20?
-20 to -30% @@marcinciurko8149
@@suffer8318Yo where did you buy it, I feel like I got scammed now…lmao
Great review! You nailed it. Fun game but mob density, vestige sparsity, and lock on make some of the exploration miserable especially if you’re lost. Would love to see some adjustments.
A very in-depth video as found nowhere else as usual, thanks! On a personal opinion, I didn't like the game balancing of weapons in my own case. I was targeting before to start, a strength heavy 2-handed weapon build. You receive very early a hammer (faith bludgeon or something like that). I tried it and damn' the run/R2 or RT was so fast to pull out and hitting so hard (staggering/stunning and damaging) that it broke the whole fighting experience. I stopped leveling half-game and still felt too OP during the whole run. I quit playing before the last area knowing the game would almost feel like a button mashing game. I'll return to it one day but not now. The NPCs quests system is the worst I ever saw (ex: a NPC gives you a key, you use it, you mess his quest and the quest of another one, was that a joke?) and bosses' patterns are far too limited in my own opinion. It's a pity because I loved everything else in the game: its lore, its level design, its gameplay and build mechanics, everything. It could have been so much more than a relatively good game...
Best Review of this Game i have seen. Exactly what i also think about LotF. I also cant stop playing it, at the Moment i almost finished my Second Char and planed what i will play for the 3 Ending. I dont have touched New Game+ yet. This is the first game (beside Lies of P) i am not Interrestet in New Game+ . (New Game+ just must have more then just more Enemy HP and Damage to make it Interresting for me, new Loot,Wappons,Magic,Lore,Areas etc. for exemple) . But its like you say - Frustrating some Times and also satisfying, but overall the Good Sides are winning for me in LotF. I have most of the Time Fun and be Entertainet.
I appreciate the co op features they added. Summons stay with you when you die. You can DIRECTLY INVITE FRIENDS. You can summon real people an an npc at the same time which is nice. Haven’t had co op issues on ps5, but I’ve only just started.
Excellent, been waiting to hear your opinion on this one!
I felt the exact same way pretty much. I also did not like the amount of cheap ranged enemies but maybe if there wasn't so many regular enemies that wouldn't have bothered me. Also the bosses were all pretty easy but maybe that is because I play these type of games a lot. It blew my mind when I heard about no vestigaes in NG+. Seems like they might have a massive misunderstanding of what makes souls-likes enjoyable.
Also people imply you’ll be mostly in Axium and can decide when to go to umbral; you’ll spend more time than you want to in umbral, which turns the game more glitchy, gray and boring and stressful due to the knowledge that with increasing glitches comes the increasing chance of dying, like sliding down a ladder when it flips you to the inside of the ladder, teleports you halfway back up the ladder where you fall to your death looking at a vestige that would have saved you that 30,000 vigor you just got from a boss. The ranger class is awful particularly with bows, you’re basically an axe character, or spending tons of vigor on ammo pouches so if you want to be a solely bow wielding character, prepare to mostly use an axe for farming to buy ammo pouches or fighting, which is absolutely stupid. Neither myself nor my friend prefer using radiance magic but it’s by far superior over fire which is mostly only good against Pieta. You can have the most fire protection in the game and the enemy won’t catch on fire from themselves while your fire alone will light you up, accompanied with theirs it makes no sense. The game is still a favorite and umbral is fun although seriously man you have to go to umbral like every 5-15 minutes, especially around level 120 prepare to have to go to umbral to progress quite often.
Great review! Thorough easy to understand. Thanks.
Would you ever add in how difficult a game was to 100% for those of us that are also achievement hunters?
Trying to 100% this one myself and some of them like getting ALL armours, ALL spells, ALL weapons, etc are really tedious
This is my suggestion too
Like I said at the beginning I used a lot of guides and wiki info for all that and I play games like 12 hours a day which is enough time to push through tedious things. Specific info beyond just that would be better suited for a guide, which a lot of people are already making/made as mentioned. So as for a section dedicated too it, probably not, its not why most people watch these (they are reviews first and foremost) and adding a big section that most people skip would hurt the channel for the sake of resources that already exist.
100% in this game is gonna be miserable because you need to collect everything on 1 character and do all the NPC quests and some items come from certain quests that will be failed on certain paths. So you will undoubtedly need to slog through NG+ if you have any desire to 100%. The endings could be other characters but the collection needs to be on 1 character.
I’ve platinumed bloodborne and elden ring and finished most of the others, and so far I’m enjoying the game a lot. When I first booted it on release on ps5 the frame rate on quality mode was choppy. But by now it runs fine. It’s crazy to me that ps5 is already considered last gen compared to gaming PC’s. We need a ps5 pro or something lol.
@@aaronhumphrey3514 It doesn't even matter because the whole reason you notice anything with framerate or what not is because you spoil yourselves with (exaggeration) billions of frames per second. Even going from any other ps4 game to bloodborne it hurts my eyes, because the other games run at a stable, smooth fps, then I only notice bloodborne's 30fps because I haven't played it for so long. Once I play bloodborne long enough I don't see the 30fps, my eyes adjust and get used to it. PC has teeny improvements to visual quality aside from that.
Thank you for the professional and nuanced review. It was a pleasure ingesting it.
They really need to fix the lock-on. I have to not touch the right joystick very much when locked on or it'll just keep switching back and forth to other enemies and its a real problem that makes fighting crowds way harder than it should be. Problem is as we all know thats how you control the camera and watch our surroundings so we don't get ambushed. Also if I had a dollar for every time I died because I backed up too close to a wall and the camera basically went behind the wall so I can't see anything very well. I find myself luring enemies into wider sections if it's really tight halls etc because of the wall thing but also because you can get stuck between the enemies and any small rocks or anything that slightly sticks out along a wall.
Finally an honestand objective review without hate that can see why the game is awesome: world, level design, lore and even combat much of the time. Yes the game needed more polish, but the amount of hate it gets is incredible. I believe this game will be an 8.5 after most bugs and issues gets fixed.
I genuinely think the general reception for this game would be more positive if they had simply just changed the name and never associated themselves with the shitty original Lords of the Fallen.
What i wanted from the update, was the ability to have enemies in Axiom, stay in Axiom once you transition to umbral.
Very cool that you talk about how it runs on steam deck. Thanks for that 😊🤙
As always thanks Mortis. These reviews always help me out a lot! 😊
So interesting. I love everything about this game. I think the vestige placement is perfect, seedlings are awesome, it's not too hard, perfect amount of mobs. I think people have forgotten how dark souls was that these games are emulating. I played dark souls 3 lately. Talk about gank squads and difficulty. Way way harder than this game. I think they did an amazing job with LOTF
To each his own, but I think the largest difference with the amount of mobs is the aggro range. This has a larger aggro radius for the player, and there are times I have been getting attacked by a laser beam fire spell from a mob that somehow saw me running by a platform above and like 300 feet away. It's definitely overtuned. And the inability to pick off mobs is also a pain. Elden Ring had similar issues at times, but not in hallways or claustrophobic areas nearly as much. That's this game's staple. They could keep the enemy difficulty where it is, remove 30% of the mobs and it would be fine.
They need better bosses
@georgen5882 I hear you and get that. I just am fine with all of that if the rest is as great as it is. I mean it's not like elden ring 2 js coming out soon so I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this until that time.
Just a heads up, Smite (the lightning bolt strike), Ignite (The Fire Wave on the floor), and Bleed all increase your damage from those respective sources. (Radiant, Inferno, and Physical in the order I listed them). The damage they do themselves isn't the point.
Update a year later turned this into a legit 10/10 soulslike and I my opinion the absolute best in the genre. Game rules and is so fun to replay half a dozen times, speedrun, built-in randomizer etc.
You can also farm Vestige seeds. The Sanctuary Vestige was a good place to farm them before the patch. I was getting one almost every other drop from the umbral toothfairy at that location.
Status effects, bleed is decent as it amplifies bleed damage, i finished my first playt yesterday on a 75 radiance build and my holy explosion dealt very nice poise damage with amulet, it also serves as debuff while bar is filled.
I think they are not meant as damage source but utility source, combined with gear.
Mortismal, do you perhaps know if runes stack? I cannot get a consistent answer while sloting holy damage up into my weapon.
Great review and keep it going
Runes that increase scaling stack for sure, probably all of them do.
Just discovered your channel - really loving the content! Easy subscribe, keep it up!
Great review. As an older gamer who doesn't have the reflexes of someone born with a controller in their hands, I appreciate these reviews that show the flaws. When a game stops being strategic and just throws a lot of enemies at once, I stop playing because it's just not fun at that point. Unless it's a game like the old painkiller.
You sir are a gem, thank you.
I love that game. I wonder why there are so many negative comments around internet ? I am sure that with time all the minor problems will be fixed. I'm a big fan of all Fromsoft souls games (all platinum). I'm trying to get platinum on this game too, although it seems too hard at the moment. However, for me, the game has a lot of potential!!!
If at the least you could have unlimited of your own vestige seeds. I'm having really good time with this game. I do want to ng plus and I'll give it a try I'm disappointed about the fast travel points being gone.
The seeds can be bought easily and get 50% cheaper i think
@@tej7854 oh yeah I know that I mean in ng plus if you can plant an unlimited amount of them anywhere to make your own fast travel spots. I haven't got that far but I just assume it's like your first playthrough where you can have just one at a time.
@@DreadNoughtus01 There is no way I am playing NG+ simply for that reason. The world isn't tied to Skyrest close enough for me to want to run through all those mobs and shit again. No thank you.
@@georgen5882 the devs said they weren't going to change that either, it's a shame really because it only takes away fun and time from the player. Hopefully when enough ppl quit and player count drops off they will change their minds
Excellent, detailed and very helpful review, thank you for assisting folks work out what's what with these games. Great stuff! :D
For anyone that likes this new wave of souls likes, i encourage all of you to try out thymesia. I feel like it got glossed over, but it has really fun bosses (a few stinkers, but overall pretty good), a great and unique combat system, and a cool theme. My only complaint is that it is quite short, but its only $30 and i encourage people to try it.
It definitely wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have any armor or new weapons to use, which really bummed me out. The fights were quite annoying at times because of the amount of health some enemies and bosses have.
Also the amount of updates since launch has been incredible. Day one we had those terrible horizontal lines in Umbral, they got rid of it instantly.
Yet none of the glaring issues have been addressed. Lazy devs
@@jeremydayner1482 elaborate
@@depalodor who cares about glitches and pvp when the game is nearly unplayable for a lot of players. Idc how good the game is if I can’t even play it bc of stutters and lag
Very well done agree totally. Barely 25% in, still enjoy even though often frustrated.
bruh, I just started watching your first impressions video.
I know I was a week late, but hot damn.
Came here from Tim Cain’s channel and loving my stay!
Thank you Mort, excellent review as always
Playing it co-op and really enjoying it, I probably won’t play it solo (at least not for awhile) cuz I’m not very good at it lol
I don’t mind enemy spam. It has some replay value. Cause not a lot of souls games has it where you face enemies randomly. Dark souls 2 made red phantoms in new game. But after 2nd playthrough. You know what to expect
I loved this game. It was very good aside from minor performance issues and the sporadic lock on. It was on par with dark souls 3 imo
I play this primarily on my steamdeck. The major point to know is that the game should be downloaded to the steamdecks internal storage. Do not install on the micro sd card. It won’t run fast enough and the game will even warn you about that fact. Granted I’m not too far into the game but I have yet to see the fps drop below 30-28 at its worst. Maybe I’m just lucky because I haven’t adjusted a single setting for the steam launcher or in game. It doesn’t look the best but it’s still good which is awesome. Also I have the scaling filter set to linear. There is the infamous minor studdering at points but it does that on my pc so I can’t blame it on the steamdeck hardware. If it doesn’t get at least a “playable” rating, then I’d be shocked.
I haven’t watched your video yet but wanted to say I’m about 30 hours into this game and I’m completely obsessed. I went in expecting it to be decent but not as good as Lies of P, but at this point I’m convinced it is even better than Lies of P. The further I get, the more impressed I am.
this!
Are you in the last area of the game ? The castle? This shit fck killed the game for me . Its So unbalanced, enemies everywhere. Sucks . Rest was really good . But by far Not better than any fromsoft or lies of p 🎉
I love this game, and I haven’t had too many performance issues on PS5.
I can't be alone in thinking it's way more fun for me hearing people talk about the Soulsboure games than actually playing them? Judging by the number of views for lore videos on these kinds of games, I don't think I'm alone in that take. They're cool games, but I like other games more.
For me there's just something about nonsensical apocalypse worlds populated by a supernatural creatures doing an end of the world that just... doesn't do it for me the same way it does for a lot of people. The worlds feel too unreal to me to really grab me. It usually feels like things are only still somehow alive because otherwise there'd be no game, as the world is not livable, very artificial, and can only operate thanks to magic keeping stuff alive. 🤔
I mean, gameplay is king, but the worldbuilding (as in how the game visually presents its world) just isn't my cup of tea, because the world is unlivable if you think about it.
I have been playing the game in my free time, and while I haven't had the technical issues, I agree with some of the problems. The lock on issue has been frustrating, and the DS2 strategy of every enemy having someone hidden waiting to ambush you gets old really fast.
The checkpoint system hasn't been much of an issue for me because I quickly learned the flying umbral enemy often drops them, so I at times farm umbral for vigor and seeds.
I wish the umbral had a bigger variety of enemies, but oh well. I have been playing melee, but can see where ranged would make things easier.
I haven't gotten to NG+, but the no teleport does not sound fun. I don't look forward to it. It is nice they are updating things, such as picking up dropped experience being faster with I frames, but do hope they fix the lock on.
I refunded it, no way it is worth the asking price. They want £70 digitallly for this game, that is absurd. The invasion was a rubberbanding, glitchy mess. Ill pick it back up when its inevitably 50% off in a few months
Yo, they took the Vestige Seed thing from Bleak Faith: Forsaken and somehow did it worse. Bleak Faith has its own raft of issues, but its version lets you place it absolutely anywhere and when you reach a major teleport point, it automatically undoes your last checkpoint so you can make another one.
Now the game is truly one of the best soulslike I've played, with the updates it's just so much better. My favorite soulslike by far
Fairest review I’ve seen, this was well done 👍
one thing that I would really enjoy for them to do is to be able to use pyromancy and holy damage spells basically using them
I've been enjoying this one but I am still early in the game. I also liked the first, not so much because it was a great game, but because it was the closest to what I think the Warhammer IP soulslike would look/feel like.
I encounter this annoying problem. When in Umbral sometimes we are supposed to go to area that doesn't exist in axiom. Then the non umbral enemy can some how hit me from below, their ranged attack can go through the Umbral only platform. I figured it's because that platform doesn't exist in Axiom but it just annoying when I'm on Umbral platform suddenly i got hit from below. Then I died there and couldn't find my dropped vigor.
I was very hesitant about the game when I first my friends were constantly I still have a little bit of frame dropping but it's much better now I absolutely love this game and anybody that's complaining about hordes being too much are the enemies following you you shouldn't be playing this game I for one love the if anything is easy to do it's not worth doing
I'm playing on steamdeck and my overall experience is quite okay. I struggled in the beginning but I feel like "bonfires" are too far apart. Setting up seeds is kinda annoying, too. The overall gameplay is cool, I just miss online coop as this still doesn't work on my end.
Shame to hear that. Online coop works for me and my friend, we're both on steam (but not steamdeck). Btw, the seeds become cheaper fairly soon so you'll probably have like 4-5 of them at all times.
@@SolusBatty Yes on PC it seems to work fine, but since release I wasn't able to connect to anyone. I'm not good at soulslikes but I love these kind of games. And I think LotF is great (besides couple of crashes and bugs here and there) but it's fun. But I wish I could explore it with a friend or a random player
I loved the seedling mechanic honestly! Real checkpoints felt meaningful again and adding that extra layer of decision making on top of already challenging areas was a breath of fresh air in my opinion. 2500 is a little steep of a price to ask for, especially in the early game, but they already lowered it to 1200 so I think its honestly fine imo.
,
Lots of mixed reception for this one.
I can finally make up my mind now 😂❤
This game is good but viciously irritating. I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older or what, but I'm losing patience with games that don't respect your time. There're so many elements within this game that exist purely to be aggravating. I just don't think the devs that jump on the Souls wagon understand what challenge is. Or what rewards are.
I don’t think it’s anything to do with age. Too many games today are just arbitrary time wasters. This game is filled with them, such as the random hidden enemy placed specifically to knock you off the edge of the map.
That’s a big reason the only games I’ve really played & dedicated hundreds of hours to the past 8 years or so have been roguelikes/lites, Vampire Survivors is free on mobile and has optional ads, it’s the definition of respecting my time AND money.
I’m not expecting all AAA games to be free, but I at least expect them to be functional when I’m spending so much money on them.
This game hasn’t only been annoying in its design choices, but it has begun to crash more & more on my PC with each patch, with the worst of it occurring last night where I crashed 3 times in 10 minutes after updating my game.
I’m just about ready to uninstall, steam say I have about 20 hours, but I’ve only interacted with the game for about 10-15 because of all the frustrating mess.
This one definitely isn’t a game or company that respects your time.
They absolutely don't understand the difference between fun challenge and pure trolling and frustration.
Fr Uninstalled last night just annoying af over all think I'm going to do another playthrough of elden ring or ds3
Sounds like it was inspired by dark souls 2
agree 100%. i also dislike the gimmicky 2 world mechanic that ends up just being really annoying and impeding the flow of exploration. the dodge distance is insane, the swing speed is insane…i didn’t last more than 2 hours, and those were pretty brutal 2 hours, especially the intro. just too much gimmicky stuff that gets in the way, along with mechanics i just don’t vibe with. wont even touch on the multiplayer issues, yikes
On wishlist. Will grab it on sale. Thanks.
I'm definitely going to play this game but I'm also definitely waiting more than a month or two.
Bought it at release, but am still way too addicted to BG3 to sit down and play it. Hopefully by the time I get tired of BG3, LotF's issues will have been sorted out. The devs have been very good about listening to constructive criticism, so I have high hopes.
I also hope the game does well, because I really want to see more of this setting. It's like Custodia, Yharnam, and Nosgoth all merged into one, with a wee bit of Forgotten Realms mixed in.
Personally I love this game, and haven't had a single stutter after updating my gfx drivers
Im gonna take your advice and wait to play it. I bought it on release but im so hooked to cyberpunk right now i think i have another 50 hours on it before i get sick of it anyways.
I really didn't think I'd like this game but boy I was wrong. It's got some absolutely great atmosphere.
I don’t think I’ve been so excited for a SOULS-like game since I saw trailers for DS3. Honestly watching the gameplay here makes me even more excited than the hype for Elden Ring. I just have to decide if I want to get it for PS5 or the Series S :/ and then I gotta find the extra money to buy! A lot easier said than done in this economy lol
I agree 100% that the aiming system needs more work. On my xsx the camera will do a 180 and look behind when trying to target an enemy right in front of me.