A heavily-armoured warrior slowly advances down the corridor before him, cautiously glancing around him for danger before proceeding. Up ahead he glimpses a coupled of Infested – foes with warped faces and long, lank hair that are blind, but still deadly – and so manoeuvres himself carefully into position to take them out silently. Suddenly, he missteps. With guttural bellows the demons are instantly upon him, reducing his life to naught in a matter of seconds. Next to me Tomasz Gop, executive producer at CI Games and the man in charge of controlling our onscreen champion, lets out an exasperated sigh before respawning and beginning the trek back to his dead body to pick up all the experience dropped upon dying. Despite all the protestations that Lords of the Fallen is more than just a next-gen Dark Souls, it’s easy to see where people may have picked up such an idea. Lords of the Fallen takes place in a world once dominated by a cruel and evil god. After aeons of torment, humanity tires of his malice, rising up and laying his demon army low, before finally managing to best the god himself in combat. The effect this has on the humans’ collective psyche and culture is profound. It becomes an accepted belief that evil can and should be banished from human nature. A codex of sin is created, listing all the transgressions a mortal can perform. Anyone found to have committed anything in the tome is instantly branded across their face and cast out from society, never to return. And so things progress until, centuries later, the demons start to reappear, sowing destruction across the land. Desperate for aid, the remaining humans make the only logical decision they can: they decide all that can stand against evil is evil, so begin to search for the outcast that has been branded most heavily in punishment for his crimes. That’s where you come in. The importance placed on the story is just one of the many ways in which Gop believes the title stands apart from the Souls series, a franchise the title Lords of the Fallen initially seemed happy to liken itself to, being described as “Borderlands meets Dark Souls” upon its debut. Along with a slightly lighter and more fantastical aesthetic (though rest assured hulking armour still plays a key role), and the fact that combat is much faster-paced. “I was afraid of that comparison for quite a long time, until I said to myself ‘Man, you have to let it go.’ I sleep a lot better since then,” he admits. “I think there are a lot of differences between the Souls series and this game. For example, the art direction - I don’t think we’re that dark. For example, the story prominence, as it’s more prominent with Lords of the Fallen. Also, even on the combat side not everything feels like it was inspired by the Souls series; we’re more arcade-ish, faster-paced, more combo- and slasher-orientated, even though it’s definitely not a slasher. It’s a technical game, but still I think it feels a bit more that way. So I’m not afraid of the comparison. “Having said that I’d be stupid and dishonest to say there are no Dark Souls inspirations in the game whatsoever. No, I will also commit to that because Dark Souls is a wonderful game and if anyone sees good similarities between Dark Souls and this game, I’ll be happy to commit to that. If anyone says we’re a rip off, I’d be sad, but of course then maybe we need to work harder to be different next time. But I don’t think that’ll happen.” The section we saw took place in a dungeon midway through the game, though the option exists to attempt it earlier if you think you’re hard enough. Though it’s not an open world game, Gop refutes the idea that it’s linear either, explaining, “Open world and sandbox bring too many connotations. Then again, it’s not really a linear experience either. To give you an example, the level I was playing today, you can access it as a skilled player after about 40 or 60 minutes of the game. It’s possible. It’d be challenging as hell but possible. But only after playing 40 or 50 percent of the game does this place become mandatory for you, where you have to defeat the champion to progress the story. So it’s not a sandbox, but it’s not linear either.” Alongside the Infested mentioned previously, a range of other enemies were on show, demonstrating the versatility of combat. Certain foes rely on ambush tactics, requiring you to keep your wits about you, while giant spiders need to be killed quickly; failure to do so will see them scuttle off and breed, bringing their broods to bear against you later. By far the most interesting though was an enemy possessing a massive shield that furiously charges at you. Taking him down is a tough task but, thanks to some conveniently located planks in the centre of the battle arena, if you can convince him to charge over them he’ll fall to his death without you needing to get your hands dirty. Unfortunately, this means any loot he’d offer is also lost but, seeing as health is quickly depleted in Lords of the Fallen, the opportunity for risk-free combat is unlikely to be something to shy away from. Of course, you need to be sure you’re not wearing heavy armour yourself otherwise you may be the one to trigger the trap. At the end of the dungeon lies the Champion Lord, a gargantuan monstrosity with hands morphed into two massive blades, ominously adopting a boxer’s stance. The battle against him is a test of your wits as much as your strength as, should he take too much damage too swiftly or land one too many blows on you, he’ll enter an empowered state where a single blow spells the end for you. For the record, this section once again saw Gop’s character sent back to his last save point. This is not an easy game. As previously mentioned, death sees you drop all the XP earned so far. As with Dark Souls, it can be recovered should you reach it without dying again, but you’ll want to be swift, as the longer you take the more disappears into the abyss. Thankfully, regular checkpoints allow you to bank your XP to ensure its safety following your inevitable demise, though there are incentives to avoid doing this. The longer you go without banking or dying the larger the multiplier that determines how much XP you receive upon exiting a battle victorious becomes. Once again, it’s all about balancing obvious risks against potential rewards. At the end of the dungeon lies the Champion Lord, a gargantuan monstrosity with hands morphed into two massive blades, ominously adopting a boxer’s stance. The battle against him is a test of your wits as much as your strength as, should he take too much damage too swiftly or land one too many blows on you, he’ll enter an empowered state where a single blow spells the end for you. For the record, this section once again saw Gop’s character sent back to his last save point. This is not an easy game. As previously mentioned, death sees you drop all the XP earned so far. As with Dark Souls, it can be recovered should you reach it without dying again, but you’ll want to be swift, as the longer you take the more disappears into the abyss. Thankfully, regular checkpoints allow you to bank your XP to ensure its safety following your inevitable demise, though there are incentives to avoid doing this. The longer you go without banking or dying the larger the multiplier that determines how much XP you receive upon exiting a battle victorious becomes. Once again, it’s all about balancing obvious risks against potential rewards. Though Gop can complete the game in around 15 hours, he reckons most people will be clocking in at double that. The story is the main focus, though re-exploring old locations to unlock new areas is an option, along with the existence of portals to demonic planes where you can grind loot and XP ad infinitum. The biggest draw for many, however, will surely be New Game Plus, which allows you to pick another class and add a second spell tree to your repertoire. There’s still a way to go before the game’s planned release in autumn this year, but Gop is already hoping this could be the start of something special. Focusing on the notion that there’s immense complexity behind Lords of the Fallen’s armour that stops short of reaching Dark Soul’s punishment levels, he hopes his first major project since The Witcher and The Witcher 2 is just the beginning. “I definitely hope to do more. I don’t want to say right now we’ll be doing Lords 2, Lords 3, Lords Add-On, Lords Pre-Sequel, whatever, because it all depends if people want these games. If this is well-received though, we’re stoked to do sequels. Fingers crossed.” Source: IGN
