Build it in the middle of an enemy patrol zone and you’ll risk it getting destroyed, wasting those resources. By collecting rare resources, players can build a bonfire anywhere they want on the map, though there’s a major risk/reward component that comes with that. Those sites are fewer and farther between in this game, but for good reason: players can craft their own. The first has to do with its version of bonfires, the safe points where players can level up and heal. In addition to that setup, Lords of the Fallen brings a few intriguing twists to standard Souls traversals. Virtosu does say that there’s an optimal order, though, comparing its structure to Demon’s Souls. There’s a major boss at the end of each, though the world is dotted with tons of massive fights, both required and optional. There are five specific “dungeons” marked on the map with a red beacon, and players can technically chase them in any order. Considering there’s a whole secret world beneath that, it all looks pretty enormous at first glance - not to mention gorgeous and meticulously detailed thanks to Unreal Engine 5.Īfter completing a sort of tutorial level, the game opens up into a wider world that’s broken into explorable chunks. I’d see a sizable swath of Axiom during my session, with the person in charge of the demo flying the camera through dark catacombs, over grim swamps, up the side of a mountain, and into a castle-like structure where no two rooms looked the same (Virtosu notes that there’s very little asset copy and pasting, with each room holding its own environmental story). Structurally, Lords of the Fallen takes a “semi-open world” approach. At a point, you’re like, ‘I don’t know what this is about.’ We stripped all those elements and wanted that dark, gothic feel like Bloodborne.” Semi-open world Usually, these games bring too many elements. And our grimdark fantasy is tangible you can lean against it. “We’re a game that’s more about detective work, very hard combat, a lot of horror, and seamless multiplayer. “The texture of the game puts us in a very cozy place,” Virtosu says. In addition to its unique genre twists, he feels that the laser-focused art direction makes the game stand out in a crowded genre. Virtosu is confident with that change in direction, especially considering that the game is launching in Elden Ring’s enormous shadow. There, I’d see a hidden layer of snake-like tendrils and menacing stone bodies hiding in plain sight. That change can especially be seen in the aforementioned Umbral world, where the imagery is at its most unsettling. One boss battle has me fighting what seems like a normal human in phase one, but phase two has it retching around on four twisted limbs that I can hack away at. I’d see a much darker world compared to the original game during my demo session, filled with eerier environments and grotesque bosses that dip more into supernatural body horror. That tonal shift is pretty apparent from the get-go. And you see there are ambassadors of evil, but you must ask yourself: who are these people? Why am I fighting them? Am I becoming them?” And we wanted to move away from high fantasy to dark, Berzerk-like grit. We wanted new characters that carried gravitas. “We wanted to make the world very compelling. “We all dream of the anime Netflix adaptation at some point,” Virtosu tells Digital Trends. That approach is bringing some major changes, both in terms of gameplay and how the team is approaching its narrative. That’s a very intentional change, as Virtosu stresses how much this version is a full reboot of the original rather than a continuation of it (he jokes about how goofy a title like Lords of the Fallen: Origins would have been). The title is no longer The Lords of the Fallen it’s just Lords of the Fallen, like its 2014 predecessor. If you’ve been following the game since its announcement, you may have noticed a subtle change already. That makes Lords of the Fallen a strong Soulslike to watch in a post- Elden Ring world. It still looks like the incredibly challenging game that genre purists crave, but those patient enough to master its various systems can turn themselves into a tornado of violence. The demo I saw at this year’s Game Developers Conference highlights a faster-paced Soulslike that gives players a ton of tools to work with. Though he was describing that specific Umbral concept, the phrase “John Wick of Soulslikes” stuck with me the more I thought about what developer Hexworks is creating here.
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