Of "Soulslikes", Lords of the Fallen directly competes with FromSoftware's Dark Souls formula, and generally does an ok job of it. The problem is that the whole game is filled with jank from start to finish that takes away from anything good the game has to offer, leaving it a lackluster competitor for the already highly dominant franchise that FromSoftware has established.

The game has major glitches that start as soon as you open the game for the first time. For me, this entailed the inability to play the game until i restarted it after setting my lighting settings, and not having the soundtrack for a major boss play at any point during it's encounter.

The player movement feels slow and unresponsive. While i actually quite enjoyed the unique approach to dodging, the technical aspects of how you control the player added unnecessary difficulty to every other aspect of the gameplay.

There is a substantial amount of things you can and likely will miss, including bosses, endings, NPCs, and important items, if not consulting a guide. The game makes a habit of hiding things from the player and punishing them for not knowing to check previously explored places to find new things they need to progress alternative gameplay routes. This is particularly frustrating with regards to NPC quests. There is also the matter of NPC shops being invariably accessible, with the majority of them being permanently removed from the game after certain points in progression. While none of the aforementioned content is strictly required to "complete" the game, the amount of content in this game that is restricted in casual playthroughs is absurd.

Enemies frequently serve to bully the player rather than to challenge or educate them. There are dozens of instances where an unalert player will be killed without any opportunity to circumvent or avoid a given obstacle save for a superhuman reflexes. Even more instances where an enemy will be placed to ambush the player. This is a particularly jaring issue when considering certain enemies which are almost exclusively used in this manner. Many enemies also rely on attacks which restrict the player's movement, such as putting hazards on the ground around them, making the player unable to safely attack them up close. This only serves to punish builds that don't have a strong ranged option, which comprises of many, if not the majority of first-time builds. In general, implementation of basic enemies made often made for an unpleasant experience.

As someone who enjoys the challenging dark-fantasy games that are often considered Soulslikes, this was worth playing. But I was given no incentive to continue playing the game after beating it for the first time. It had a lot of good to offer, and anything positive you've read about it likely has merit, but it just can't compete with other games in the same genre. Purchase this game if you like Soulslikes. Don't purchase it if you're not familiar with the genre.

this game is not very fun

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ok ill be more fair. some of the bosses are very cool and the 2 world exploration with the lamp is also neat

but godamn that enemy variety is abysmal. you will be fighting enemies you see in the first hour until the final hour. it makes exploring the game a bit of a chore

There's a reasonable game under the few issues I take with Lords of the Fallen.

♥♥♥♥:
Expected more regular stunning graphics. Graphics good in parts, while average in other parts.

There are questlines for NPC's that could use a journal entry and indications of where to meet NPCs later.
.... The journal only cover maps, unless I missed any other journal content. E.g. one NPC I found stuff for, but had no idea where she would be. I accidentally read about her location after googling about a boss. That's mean by the developers, if you ask me.

The devs buffed the bosses, which made the game more chore like. OK a few bosses were still beatable first go. However we do not all want souls-like brutality. The devs buffed the bosses due to public opinion about bosses not being too difficult. Whereas, the type of game I wanted was a challenge in a dark fantasy world, without brutal bosses. Having said that, not too many bosses were properly difficult.

Not sure about the umbral lamp mechanic. It made going anywhere twice as cumbersome. In a souls game or other similar type of game you explore. In LotF, you have to do that once in Axiom, and once in umbral or regularly pulling out the lamp. It's just work.

Like all souls games, farming pads out the time to play, and makes it overstay its welcome.

Quite a few occasions of, 'where do I go now', and this was genuinely perplexing.

Otherwise:
Not really anything I can add about the game that is not already covered. ... LotF is a difficult but fun game with a sense of achievement. Reaching that next vestige, mastering combat, or boss returned to and beaten, all good.

Overall easier than a FromSoft game, which is a good thing in my book. The original LotF was the same, in being easier than a regular souls game. Again a good thing. ... We are not all pro-gamers with the reflexes of e-sports champions, for various reasons.