One time I entered the Umbral to cross a bridge, got halfway across, and was immediately knocked to my death by an imp entering orbit at mach one. They're flooded with enemies and ambushes-with placements that occasionally feel downright cruel. To describe Lords of the Fallen's mid-to-late game areas as simply "difficult" seems inaccurate. Weaving in between those bolts as I closed the distance was one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in a soulslike game, period. I realised those shots were perfectly timed to my character's quickstep, letting me dance left and right like I was playing a rhythm game. One boss I fought pulled out a crossbow mid-fight to take pot shots at me. None of that here-Lords of the Fallen's bosses are well-telegraphed, rewarding players who stay attentive and flexible in their playstyle. Elden Ring was a touch infamous for bosses who'd string together infinite, high-stagger combos (I'm looking at you, Margit). They force you to mix up your toolset, parrying one moment, dodging the next, sprinting to avoid ranged blasts or storms of radiant arrows-coaxing you into a satisfying back-and-forth flow that hits so right. The combat system shines in the game's duels against humanoid bosses. Weaving in between those bolts as I closed the distance was one of the most satisfying experiences I've had in a souls game, period. The game is both creative and refreshingly even-tempered with its big bads. Only one fight left a sour taste in my mouth-boiling down to "find and kill a bunch of zombies"-but the rest were fantastic. It's rare that I like every single boss in a soulslike game, but Lords of the Fallen came real close. This turns blocking into an engaging game of risk and reward, one to be applied as a strategy rather than a panic reflex. Wither damage can be healed back by whacking the offending monster, but if you're hit, all your withered health is gone. Enemies can deal wither damage to you with certain attacks, but you'll also take temporary damage if you block an attack without parrying it. Then there's the "wither" mechanic, which prevents turtling. Once it's empty, you can trigger a satisfying counterblow by either parrying them again or hitting them with a fully-charged melee attack. You can also time your blocks a la Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, whittling away at an enemy's posture. More than once I slammed someone with my knight's big stonking sword and cackled with joy as their corpse was flung halfway across the room. Everything feels tactile, and the harder you hit enemies, the harder they ragdoll. The claymore I used for the latter half of my playthrough threw enemies into the air and flattened them into the dirt. If you're using lighter weapons, you feel nice and nimble, while heavier weapons have satisfying heft and a good amount of stagger to them. When you sprint you really motor, blitzing across the battlefield like a bat out of hell. A lot of that's owed to your character's movement-even at medium encumbrance, my lamp bearer turned on a dime. When Lords of the Fallen feels good, it feels really good. I can't really say the system accomplishes anything that more thoughtfully-placed vestiges wouldn't have. Vestiges are very few and far between, and unless you want to tear your hair out, you'll be wanting two to three seedlings in your backpack at all times. In practice it's just a mandatory Vigor tax. In theory, this lets you set your own difficulty based on how much Vigor-the game's currency-you're willing to spend on seeds. You can plant your own vestiges (bonfires, for Dark Souls vets) at certain flower beds with a consumable item, though you're only allowed to have one planted at a time. One thing I could've done without, however, is the Umbral Seeds system. In general, the game seems well put together-I ran it smoothly (bar some strange framerate tanks in certain areas) on a Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 and only encountered a handful of bugs, only one or two of which required a restart. The game recommends an SSD at minimum-it does say it supports hard drives, though I imagine you'll have trouble if you haven't yet made the leap. I'd expected the dual-world elements to throw a spanner into the game's performance, but using the Lamp was a shockingly smooth experience. I once came to a chasm, died, went to the Umbral, and just had to stop and stare at the artfully-arranged corpse giants clinging to the cliff face. It really feels like an alien world-and the horizon always holds some unnerving husk of a giant doing something cryptic.
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