Lords of the Fallen PS4 Preview

Preview

April 22nd, 2014 By Dean Howard





In our latest Bandai Namco preview of Lords of the Fallen on PS4, we couldn't help but recollect the striking similarities to the highly acclaimed Dark Souls Franchise after watching the game in action. Even the latest teaser trailer hints at a Dark Soul-esq type of remake, but developer Tomasz Gop who was also involved in making the Witcher games would say otherwise. Despite the constant comparisons Lords Of The Fallen receives to Dark Souls he is extremely confident that LOTF will in due time carve a niche of its very own, but for now Tomasz Gop is happy to accept the comparison to the hugely popular Dark Souls series.

The fallen in the game’s main title is in reference to an evil god and its legions of demons conquered and buried by humans over a thousand years ago. Defeating the evil god gives humans the faith that all evil can be banished for good. As a result of this new found faith, a religion of purity is conceived that strongly denounces sin, punishing those who partake in it and branding them with tattoos for all to see their transgressions.  Lords of the Fallen’s story start when the demons begin to re-appear. Humanity cast their gaze to Harkin, a human being who has been marked with more tattoos than any one else. Placing their faith in him, they believe Harkin has the skills to defeat evil once more based on his ungodly track record with sin.

When you start playing Lords Of The Fallen, you won't be able to change Harkin's appearance, however you will be able to choose his class at the beginning of the game. Your class choices are warrior, rogue, or cleric and the selection you make from this point will determine the path of Harkin's spell trees. Harkin's armor, weapons and stats are class free, so it is easy to shape him according to your style of playing as you progress through the game than having to make that choice at the start.

The game opens up with Harkin walking through a catacomb, holding a large spear in one hand and a flaming shield in the other. The surrounding visuals and realistic movements even of the characters costumes are remarkably distinct, thanks to the power of the Playstation 4's new gen technology.

Making our way through the tombs, we are presented with enemies that Harkin disposes off with a string of combo attacks. Taking down one enemy at a time Harkin uses a variety of pyromancer spells, timed attacks, blocks and counter attacks to break down the enemies defenses. Once the room has been cleared of foes, Harkin discovers a locked door with a symbol. Exploring the previous room before this one he comes across the same symbol. Stepping on this symbol unlocks the sealed door ahead, but Harkin must hurry sprinting to make it through the door before it closes once more. In this new room Harkin discovers some new armor. Lords Of the Fallen does feature a variety of puzzles in limited amounts but as Tomasz Gop was clear to point out during the preview, LOTF's main focus is on Harkin's character and combat development.

One Of LOTF's Big Boss

Marvel's Rhino

Making it to the end of that level we are confronted with the big boss as seen on the teaser trailer above. This hideous demon resembles Marvels villainous, 'Rhino' but on steroids. Its main attack just like Rhino, is to charge at full speed towards Harkin,  which can be avoided by rolling out of the way of the speeding locomotive before countering with a pyromancer fireball spell, or quickly getting a few attacks of your own as the demon recovers.

According to Tomasz Gop, Lords of The Fallen is more like a Zelda game with very wide open spaces to explore, separated by loading screens in between each stage rather than an open world title. Lords Of The Fallen is separated by two realms, human and demonic. Making it to the demonic realm will require Harkin's character and skills to develop in the game's story. Gop also mentions that there isn't just one way to complete Lords Of The Fallen as the ability to re-explore previous levels with new skills will always be available to gamers. Unfortunately for fans of Multiplaying genre's, Lords Of The Fallen is strictly a single-player affair with no plans to include multiplayer features in the future.

"The game was developed to be difficult," says, Tomasz Gop. Expect to die quite a few times  as you learn and study your enemies fighting techniques especially during boss battles."  Saying that, Tomasz doesn't want to put off new players unfamiliar with this genre of games and promises although the game won't be a walk in the park, repetitive frustrating deaths will be limited.

Expect Lords Of The Fallen later this year on Playstation 4 and stay tuned for more updates in future articles.