Lords of the Fallen (2023) Review – A Flawed Return

Lords of the Fallen’s early hours captured my attention more than the predecessor of the same 2014 name. By the 48-hour mark, I had a strong gameplay foundation and a stunning world. But I still felt elated to have finished. By the half-way point, what starts as an impressive soft reboot has unraveled due to issues with pace, excessive repetition and level design. 

Lords Of The Fallen is no different from any other Soulslike. The world – Mournstead, in this instance – is a terrible place to live, but you can save it. You’re tasked by a religious order with lighting five beacons spread across the land to prevent the return of Adyr, a dark god who wants to instill chaos. The adventure takes you into an area where enemies of all levels can quickly take your health down. With patience and determination, however, it is possible to beat these opponents. You will level up as you progress and become more confident about your abilities to advance. 

What sets Lords of the Fallen’s exploration and action apart from the rest of the genre is its use of two realms: the realm of the living, Axiom, and that of the dead, Umbral. With a specially designed lamp you can look into Umbral any time, live. It’s a genuinely impressive mechanic that feels new-gen, even if we are three years into the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S’s lifetimes. Useful as it is to peer into the Umbral, like discovering a wall in between you and a chest in Axiom is no longer there in the opposite realm, the most significant benefit is that upon dying in Axiom, you’re given a second chance – survive through Umbral until you reach a particular emergence point that brings you back to Axiom, with your vigor (currency from killing enemies to level up and purchase items) intact.

It’s not easy to survive, since Umbral has more enemies than Axiom. At first I had a lot of fun exploring Umbral. The lamp helped me solve puzzles, and it pulled platforms to me. But as I continued my journey through Lords of the Fallen, my biggest issue became apparent, highlighted sharply in Umbral: developer Hexworks mistakenly interprets the carefully crafted challenge of a great Soulslike as “add more enemies.” 

I didn’t feel like I was able to conquer this part of Umbral, or this castle in Axiom. Instead I felt the need to run through. It’s not that Lords of the Fallen was too hard; instead, it too often felt unfair. After 20 failed attempts, I like to defeat a boss that seems insurmountable. However, I don’t enjoy a hallway or staircase with 10 enemies attacking at once, including a miniboss I defeated minutes ago who is now a standard mob enemy. With a lock-on screen that was fickle, it felt awful to try and defeat these mobs, especially in Axiom or Umbral where there are even more enemies. When Lords of the Fallen stopped throwing me new enemies and only re-used the few that I’d already killed a hundred times half way through, I felt no need to even try. The excitement of my adventure was artificially increased. 

Playing through Lords of the Fallen’s lengthy adventure was an odd thing. The world was beautiful, the mechanic of the two realms was fascinating, combat and exploration felt great, and I enjoyed discovering shortcuts and secrets in Mournstead. Lords of the Fallen slowed down and lost my interest about half way through. The game felt like it was stale and drained. Its enemies were repetitive. Secrets and shortcuts had become mundane. Exploration and world design also seemed stale. 

Even bosses struggled to thrill in the latter half, with two that particularly stand out as some of the worst I’ve fought in a Soulslike, not because they were tough – they weren’t – but because they were generally unenjoyable, even if I recognize Hexworks’ attempt at doing something different, like an unreachable boss where I had to kill various exploding minions in the vicinity to lower its health.

Lords of the Fallen brings out minor irritations which I could have forgiven in a more refined experience. For example, the lock-on cameras, the bugs that are always present, the overuse of the minibosses and the enemies who follow players too closely or snipe them from unobservable distances. Still, Hexworks is on to something here; it’s just not Lords of the Fallen, despite its solid foundation, that can capitalize on it. 

As I clicked the credits, Lords of the Fallen left me feeling nothing but a sense of relief. This is unfortunate because the first half of the game had made me eager to see what else was in store. Beautiful worlds, unique two-realm mechanics and voice acting that is excellent when combat doesn’t feel overly cluttered by enemies, are the foundation of this game. Lords of the Fallen, however, fails to deliver beyond this. Instead it becomes more frustrating the deeper adventurers go into Mournstead.