A Surprising Turnaround – Lords of the Fallen (Post 2.0 Patch Review)

[Jackson]

🔄 Originally posted as a negative review – updated after retrying with patch 2.0

I was highly critical of Lords of the Fallen at launch. The movement felt like skating, the enemy density was frustrating, and the level design overwhelmed more than it intrigued. But credit where credit is due: the developers went back, listened, and rebuilt. Patch 2.0 is a serious overhaul—and honestly, a commendable one. They didn’t have to fix this game, but they did, and that alone deserves recognition. Here's how it plays now:

✅ What's Improved (and Great)

🗡️ Overhauled Combat

• Attacks no longer feel like you're sliding around on ice. Each weapon type has a grounded, weighty moveset.
  
• Light/heavy attacks can be mixed and charged mid-combo.
  
• Enemies now have both health and posture. Depleting posture leads to satisfying Grievous Strikes.
  
• Blocking allows for parries and builds up wither damage, which you can recover by going on the offensive. Risk and reward, baby.
  
• Ranged and magic attacks are now seamlessly integrated. Swapping between ammo or spells mid-fight is fluid and tactical.

🪙 Quality-of-Life Upgrades

• Enemies knocked off cliffs drop items at the ledge now. Smart touch.
  
• Jumping now has a dedicated button—no more sprint-jump platforming nightmares.
  
• You can still kick or soul-grab enemies off ledges, which is just as fun as ever.

🌍 World & Level Design

• What once felt like a confusing maze now reveals itself as a beautifully interconnected world.
  
• Enemy density has been reduced, making encounters more deliberate and memorable.
  
• Umbra (the dark world) adds an incredible layer of verticality and exploration. Dead ends in Axiom? Check again in Umbra.
  
• Vistas you see in the distance? Yeah, you can reach those. And probably kick someone off them.

🛡️ Vestige System

• Sparse Vestiges (checkpoints) encourage use of Vestige Seeds—temporary rest spots you can plant. I always had enough, and it added strategy to progress.
  
• Travel menu is clean and distinct due to fewer checkpoints. Streamlined without feeling restrictive.

⚔️ Enemy & Boss Design

• Standard enemies are easier to dispatch but placed meaningfully.
  
• Elites require memory and care—dodging/blocking matters.
  
• Sinner mini-bosses serve as roadblocks—some fair, some brutal.
  
• Bosses are unique, technically sound, and most I beat first try... barely. They're not genre-defining, but they’re enjoyable. Bonus: you can re-fight them!

⚠️ What’s Still Flawed

📉 Late-Game Scaling

• The further in you go, the more the enemies turn into damage sponges and glass cannons.
  
• Scaling feels artificial: enemies aren’t more interesting, they just hit harder and take longer to kill. Boring.
  
• The player also becomes a tank later, which breaks pacing and makes things feel uneven.

🤯 Poorly Balanced Sinners

• Paladin’s Burden is a standout in the worst way: giant HP pool, homing lightning, self-healing. A patience test, not a fun boss.
  
• Abbess Ursala teleports, beams, heals. Long fight, high damage—frustrating design that highlights the flaws of stat-scaling.

📜 Story & Pacing Stumbles

• Light on story (which I liked), but forced Lightreaper encounters where you lose by default? No thanks. Just let me play.
  
• One ending requires external steps to unlock. Could annoy completionists.
  
• Sometimes, you're forced into long walkbacks between checkpoints and fights, which kills momentum.

🧩 Optional Game Modifiers

• Love this. You can tailor difficulty with settings like:
  
• Ironman mode (die = restart game)
  
• Increased enemy density
  
• Healing only gives wither HP until you strike back
  
• Smart inclusion for both challenge-seekers and masochists alike.

🎬 Final Thoughts

At the risk of being dramatic, I’ve disliked this series since its 2014 debut. But Lords of the Fallen (2023) post-2.0 shows serious potential. Is it perfect? No. But the devs did the work. And if they're willing to try again, I feel like I should be too.

This is the definition of a game worth a second chance.

👍 Recommended (Post-Patch)
🕒 Time Played: 23 hours
📅 Reviewed after 2.0 Patch (April 2025)

[Jackson]

Original review for those interested.

Lords of the Fallen presents a high dark fantasy setting that is visually striking, with a strong emphasis on stylized, bulky armors adorned with elaborate details. This choice creates a distinct and memorable aesthetic, contrasting sharply with the game's alternate world, Umbral—a decayed version filled with skulls and bones, evoking a sense of dread and decay. This artistic duality not only enhances the game's atmosphere but also impacts navigation and combat in unique ways. Thankfully, the game's cutscenes can be skipped, allowing for a smoother flow for those who prefer to stay in the action.

However, navigating the game's world isn't particularly enjoyable. The interconnected world is expansive and filled with winding, overlapping pathways that can feel overly stretched to ensure connectivity between areas. This results in extended bouts of sprinting through corridors, attempting to reach the next objective, which can become tedious. The Umbral world, a key mechanic that triggers when a player dies, adds another layer of complexity. While it offers additional platforms and puzzles—such as finding and removing corpses to open doors—the platforming can feel cumbersome. Jumps require precise timing and placement, but the controls for sprinting and jumping don't feel fluid or responsive, adding frustration rather than challenge.

Combat in Lords of the Fallen revolves around managing both life and posture meters. Players can perform light and heavy attacks, where heavy attacks can be charged to deal more damage. When an enemy’s posture meter fills, they can be staggered, allowing for a powerful grievous strike. While this sounds engaging on paper, the execution feels lacking. Regular attacks don't have a significant impact, as enemies—especially the larger ones—barely react unless fully staggered. Moreover, the player character's forward lunge with every attack creates a sensation of skating on ice, making it easy to slip off ledges and fall to your death, especially in tight areas.

The combat also feels repetitive due to the abundance of weak mobs scattered between checkpoints, which quickly becomes monotonous as they lack variety and depth. The Umbral world further complicates this, introducing additional enemies that spawn when you’re already dealing with the standard mobs. Picking up a "purple soul" after slaying enemies to collect experience and currency felt like an unnecessary step, adding friction to an already flawed system.

Despite these issues, there are some redeeming elements. Kicking enemies off ledges, for example, felt consistently satisfying and was arguably the most enjoyable mechanic. Ranged weapons and spells add some variety, with charged attacks and up to four assignable spells that can either damage enemies or provide buffs. Defensively, blocking works differently from similar games. It mitigates a portion of damage, "withering" the life bar, and if you manage to attack soon after blocking, you can recover some health. Properly timing a block can also result in a parry, adding depth to defensive strategies.

Enemy variety, or the lack thereof, is another sticking point. Regular enemies with melee weapons don't pose much of a challenge, even in groups, while those with ranged attacks need to be dealt with quickly due to their constant projectile barrages. Elite enemies provide more challenge but require memorization of their movesets, and while the bosses are a technical highlight of the game, they often feel more like a slog than a rewarding experience.

Ultimately, while Lords of the Fallen isn't necessarily a bad game, it struggles to stand out in a genre filled with more polished and engaging titles. The core combat and navigation mechanics didn't resonate with me, and the constant repetition in both world design and enemy encounters detracted from the overall experience. However, for players who enjoy exploring interconnected worlds and don't mind the additional complexity of navigating between different realms, there may be some enjoyment to be found here. For others, there are likely better games to invest time in.

[Wicked Sick]

Hello, Chat GPT.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

Hello, Chat GPT.

Do you type that due to the emotes being used? I wanted to make readability easy, but unsure if that cheapens the messaging.

[Wicked Sick]

Before anything else, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.

It's just that I have seem this format before too many times and GPT does exactly like this. Not just the emoticons, but also the dahs lines used to add emphasis to the idea of the phrase.
Not that is bad and as I type this now, I see that i was an ass. Sorry, op.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by Wicked Sick:

Before anything else, sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.

It's just that I have seem this format before too many times and GPT does exactly like this. Not just the emoticons, but also the dahs lines used to add emphasis to the idea of the phrase.
Not that is bad and as I type this now, I see that i was an ass. Sorry, op.

All good, I don't think you were out of line or anything - I appreciate you explaining why you felt that way about the writing. I try a lot of different review styles and it's difficult to get a grasp on what people actually find useful and easy to read. Unironically, the formatting to create lists is incredibly annoying, so I wish ChatGPT could make it for me.