00:00I love Dark Souls practically everything
00:05made by from software is an absolutely
00:07fantastic Masterpiece in my eyes yes
00:10Dark Souls 2 included shut up and
00:12whenever given the chance I like to
00:13revisit them or try to explore outside
00:16the walls of from soft and play other
00:18games that were highly inspired by Dark
00:20Souls like Neo L ofp hellpoint tals of
00:24iron and many others however there is
00:27one Souls likee that has come out
00:30recently that has my emotions all sort
00:33of confused like a man when he's making
00:35a sandwich and that game is Lords of the
00:39fallen and I can't get
01:25a reboot kind of of the original Lords
01:28of the Fallen developed by CI games
01:31although this time it was developed by a
01:34subgroup of CI games called hex works it
01:36takes place in the dark fantasy world of
01:38morstead where you as the lamp Bearer
01:41are tasked with fixing the beacons that
01:43have Shackled the evil demon Lord a deer
01:47all the while making your way through
01:48tough enemies bosses and a world that
01:51looks like where Pinhead goes to when he
01:53wants to go to a renaissance fair and
01:54needs a break from BDS sming his victims
01:57it's very much a soulslike and every
02:00sense of the word you have big and epic
02:02boss fights a dark world where
02:05everything is morally ambiguous you lose
02:07your souls I'm sorry Vigor if you don't
02:10get back to them before dying you have a
02:12large assortment of weapons and armor
02:15you're dodging attacks have a stamina
02:17meter vestages which are basically
02:19bonfires and an overall very challenging
02:22experience now this sounds like it
02:24should be an overall really good time
02:27but just like a parent is with their
02:30I'm not angry I'm just disappointed that
02:33you drink Coke through your ass I have
02:35never been more conflicted with a video
02:36game more than I have been with Lords of
02:39the Fallen as I do genuinely like this
02:42game but because with everything that
02:44this game does right and takes from
02:46games that have come before it such as
02:48the souls games it goes backwards and
02:51jumps off a cliff faster than a woke
02:52person jumps to conclusions before I get
02:54into the problems I have with lord of
02:56the Fallen I want to talk about the
02:58positives this game actually includes a
03:00lot of small quality of life
03:02improvements and small tidbits that I
03:04think are actually pretty cool when it
03:05comes to the soulslike genre such as
03:07your ammunition replenishes when you
03:09rest or die just like your healing items
03:12you have the option to Tink your armor
03:14and make outfits match and honestly I
03:16think that's a really cool option
03:18especially because well there's a lot of
03:20really cool color options for your
03:21outfits in this game other than the
03:23vestages you also have the option to
03:25plant vestage seeds at certain locations
03:28just in case it's been a long while
03:30since you've rested and you don't want
03:31to go all the way back in case you die
03:34there's also a lot of cool magic spells
03:37armor weapons projectiles and the most
03:40important new mechanic your umbrell lamp
03:43which can be used as a means to attack
03:45enemies where you can damage their soul
03:47as you suck it out and it's also a
03:49little bit useful if they're at a higher
03:52altitude you can basically uh pull their
03:54soul away and then they slowly start to
03:56fall to the ground or fall off a cliff
03:58which actually I kind of like that's
04:00pretty cool the lamp is also used where
04:03when you either die or activate it you
04:05go to the umbrell world which is
04:07basically the Land of the Dead this is
04:10actually a very cool mechanic for a
04:12multitude of reasons one it gives you a
04:15second chance of keeping your Vigor and
04:17to keep the fight going obviously if you
04:19die a second time you would lose your
04:21Vigor unless you find one of those
04:23totems that bring you back to the world
04:25of the living so this gives you several
04:27opportunities to really keep the game
04:29going and get out of some difficult
04:31scenarios the other thing you can do
04:33while in the Land of the Dead is you can
04:35find secret paths to find cool items or
04:37more upgrades for the lamp or for your
04:39healing item now sometimes it is
04:42required to go to the Land of the Dead
04:44to progress through the game but that
04:46doesn't happen too often where it's
04:48annoying but I will say it does
04:51borderline a bit for my comfort where
04:53you do have to go to the umbrell realm
04:55to move forward in the game as I do
04:57think it should be more of an optional
04:59thing rather than something you have to
05:00rely on or have to move the game forward
05:03in my personal opinion something else I
05:06also want to talk about is the story
05:08overall I find it pretty interesting and
05:11engaging as you Tred to uncover what
05:13happens to this world and how it went
05:15insane how the hollowed Sentinels went
05:18crazy what exactly happened to the King
05:20and his Rule and all the little tidbits
05:22and story details of other characters as
05:24they build up this world and the tragedy
05:26that has befallen it and the more you
05:28dig into the story story you start to
05:30wonder if there truly is a good side or
05:33if these are just deities who are trying
05:35to take advantage of humanity in some
05:37way or another which is very dark souls
05:39to be honest one other very cool element
05:42in my opinion is every time you beat the
05:44game you can unlock an extra class and
05:47there are four you can unlock which to
05:49me gives a bit of an incentive to not
05:51only beat the game but also Play It
05:53Again with the new class you unlocked
05:55and when you do finish the game unlike
05:58an other Souls games you can play what
06:01is called new game plus zero which
06:04instead of the difficulty going up every
06:06time you play it will just start again
06:08with the same level of difficulty as
06:10your first playthrough which I
06:12personally found very useful not because
06:14I don't like a challenge but for the
06:16completionist side of me who likes to
06:17collect and complete everything I really
06:20liked the option of just being able to
06:22go back to the beginning of the game
06:24where the difficulty is same level but I
06:28am overly much more powerful just so I
06:30can play the game again at my own
06:32Leisure now overall this sounds cool
06:35right all the pieces sound like they fit
06:37and overall it sounds like we have a
06:42well it is for a little
07:28a starting with the biggest addition to
07:31the game which is the world of the dead
07:33or the umbil realm it is honestly some
07:35of the most frustrating mechanics that
07:38we are introduced to in this game
07:40because of the difficulty that it places
07:42on players when you go to the Land of
07:44the Dead depending on where you are not
07:46only do you still have to deal with the
07:48enemies that you normally have to fight
07:50but you also are bombarded by moth women
07:53gangly faceless Pricks hooded douchebags
07:56that throw up mystery flavored Mountain
07:58Dew on you and worst of all
08:01these Reapers which not only appear as
08:04normal enemies in the Land of the Dead
08:06But if you stay too long there is a
08:08bloody timer where red versions of these
08:11Reapers show up and pursue you until you
08:14can get back to the land of the living
08:17and you can't use your normal heels
08:19while they are out also unlike in normal
08:22Souls games or Souls like where you kill
08:25an enemy it doesn't come back unless you
08:27rest these freaking dead ey jackasses
08:31respawn constantly I want you to
08:35understand I have played and beaten each
08:37of the Dark Souls games Elden ring and
08:39Demon Souls I am familiar and okay with
08:43more difficult video games when they are
08:46fair this is a certain level of [Â __Â ]
08:49that makes me pull my hair out boil it
08:51and feed it to my children with
08:52spaghetti sauce okay that's just how the
08:55game is difficult and in my opinion
08:57unfair at times but it is something that
08:59eventually I was able to overcome as
09:01frustrating as it was but then the game
09:04is plagued with a lot of incredibly odd
09:07design choices such as bosses that are
09:10repeated as normal enemies multiple
09:12different times not only negating the
09:14cool factor of the boss you just fought
09:17but also adding an extra annoyance when
09:19adding them to normal areas and yes I'm
09:22aware that Elden ring sort of did the
09:24same thing but they were nowhere near as
09:27numerous as these guys and on top of
09:29that they are literally
09:31reskins yes they might have a different
09:34effect or power but overall it's the
09:37same exact enemy with the same damn move
09:41set on top of that there is barely any
09:44diversity and enemy types you have all
09:47the umbrell enemies and then you have
09:49Templar dudes bigger Templar dudes
09:52soldier with mace soldier with crossbow
09:55and yeah you have some unique looking
09:57enemies but they are cop copy and pasted
10:00everywhere across the world where it
10:02doesn't feel unique to come across them
10:04or fight them also you know how when you
10:07kill an enemy in literally any game
10:09including Souls games the XP is
10:12automatically given to you not in Lords
10:15of the tripping whenever you kill an
10:17enemy you have to walk over to them to
10:20pick up your Vigor and if an enemy falls
10:22off a cliff or glitches into the
10:24environment which happens a lot most of
10:27the time it's just stuck [Â __Â ] but the
10:29devs knew this because they purposefully
10:32added that you can grab them with the
10:34lamp if you are too Out Of Reach which
10:36I'll just say it why the hell didn't you
10:38just have it automatically picked up
10:40when they die it makes no sense also
10:44there's no bloody Parry button okay I
10:46kind of lied there is a Parry but it
10:49sucks also no backstabbing you have to
10:53walk over to someone's backside stagger
10:56them with a heavy attack and then you
10:59can backstab them and that's if they get
11:02staggered I know this is nitpicking but
11:05as I said earlier it's like the
11:06developers wanted to add things in just
11:08for the sake of being a little bit
11:10different but instead of actually being
11:12different you just get put in special ad
11:14classes but your scientists were so
11:15preoccupied with whether or not they
11:16could they didn't stop to think if they
11:18should earlier I did praise the World
11:20building and the story a bit but to me
11:23there are still some problems that left
11:25me Desiring more and not feeling
11:27fulfilled for the most part the
11:29characters the motivations and how they
11:31fit into the overall story and world
11:33were pretty good I didn't really have
11:35too many problems with the characters
11:38overall but there was one character who
11:41I believe that they built up to a
11:43ridiculous degree and didn't really do
11:45anything with him which is the light
11:48Reaper in the trailers intro and the
11:51opening of the game they build him up to
11:53be your Nemesis this major threat and
11:56someone who's going to stalk you until
11:58he gets the lamp from you and they do
12:01kind of do that with the fact that if
12:03you lose to him at the beginning of the
12:05game he'll come back again in another
12:08Boss Arena and if you lose to him in
12:10that Boss Arena he'll just come back
12:12again at another one and another one
12:14until the end of the game where you
12:16finally have to actually defeat him but
12:19isn't it kind of weird that every time
12:22he kills you he doesn't bother to take
12:24the lamp at all I mean at the beginning
12:26it kind of makes sense he's interrupted
12:28after killing you but I mean I'm
12:30guessing there's some lore reason behind
12:32it but that is never clarified as far as
12:35I'm aware and if you do somehow kill him
12:38at the beginning of the game it becomes
12:41kind of a joke especially since you come
12:43across all these umbrell of uh him
12:45killing other Knights and lamp bearers
12:48and then this nobody basically just
12:50kills him off on top of that I had a lot
12:53of problems with the endings so spoiler
12:56alert if you don't want to hear about
12:58the endings skip to this time frame on
13:00the screen bringing up Dark Souls again
13:02although neither ending is necessarily
13:05good you still feel like you are part of
13:07a bigger purpose and that you had a
13:09major impact on the world bringing in
13:12the age of darkness and becoming the
13:14dark lord or accepting your fate as the
13:17one to light the fire again and
13:19sacrificing yourself to keep things good
13:21in the world even though someone else is
13:24just going to have to deal with the same
13:25thing you just went through to light the
13:27fire again and again just to keep some
13:31level of a false peace with Lords the
13:33Fallen the whole point of the story is
13:35that a dear the Demon Lord is coming
13:37back and you are supposed to cleanse
13:39these beacons in order to keep him
13:40imprisoned but there are three paths to
13:43take one is the radiant ending which has
13:45you defeating a deer and then just
13:47bloody evaporating because Oreo I know
13:50it's orius but I don't care basically
13:53Oreo doesn't give a about his servants
13:55and is like well you killed him time for
13:58me to kill you now and you just
14:00evaporate into nothingness there is the
14:02umbrell ending which brings about a
14:04completely new age of chaos and Insanity
14:07with the realm of the Dead basically
14:09taking over and you getting sucked up
14:11into a giant eyeball with teeth which
14:14although accurate for something that was
14:16clearly inspired by HP Lovecraft it
14:19still comes off as an ending that
14:21doesn't leave you satisfied or that you
14:23accomplished anything the only
14:26satisfying ending is The Inferno ending
14:28when you side with a deer and you wind
14:30up freeing him because not only are you
14:33valued and thanked for his release you
14:35are also made second in command like I
14:38know evil endings are supposed to be
14:40cool my favorite evil ending will always
14:42be from Knights of the Old Republic but
14:44the fact that the other two endings are
14:46not only not satisfactory don't leave
14:49you with a sense of accomplishment but
14:51in the end absolutely nothing matters it
14:54doesn't leave you with a sense of choice
14:56in my opinion I know some some people
14:59will say well isn't that what Dark Souls
15:01does no it doesn't because you do bring
15:04some amount of Peace for a little bit by
15:07lighting the fires or you become the
15:09dark lord and bring about an age of
15:11darkness and Humanity with these endings
15:13you and the world just geted over other
15:16than if you side with a deer because
15:18then at least you get to be involved
15:20with corporate on top of that there are
15:2212 different weapon types and a total of
15:25217 weapons all together that's honestly
15:29a lot of weapons to choose from and I
15:30really like the designs of some of them
15:33as there are some incredibly cool and
15:34unique looks for a lot of these weapons
15:36but each weapon honestly doesn't feel
15:40that different or unique other than in
15:42looks and some stat differences take
15:45Dark Souls 3 for example there are about
15:47190 weapons in the game and although for
15:49the most part pretty similar a lot of
15:51the weapons have their own unique
15:53attacks Buffs and other things that make
15:55them stand out other than just looks in
15:58in Lords of the Fallen each weapon might
16:00have different stats to them but they
16:02don't feel different from each other and
16:04the attack itself my
16:09God I don't mean to keep comparing but
16:12look at the attack animation in Dark
16:14Souls three again it's a simple short
16:16move forward with each attack so you
16:18stay within decent range with your enemy
16:21and Lords of the Fallen whenever you do
16:23a simple attacks it feels and looks like
16:26you're lunging forward to be first in
16:27line at the old you can eat Chinese
16:29buffet then there's the bugs the bugs
16:33are bloody endless texture Poppins NBC's
16:38glitching into existence as you are
16:40getting closer to some trees blocks of
16:43it will come into existence as if
16:45someone was building one in Minecraft
16:48the drop in frame rates to the point the
16:51game becomes a crawl this weird [Â __Â ]
16:53where every time I completed something I
16:56got this weird error and then on top of
16:58of that one of the endings is completely
17:00broken and cannot be finished unless you
17:03are literally staring at the bloody
17:05floor and just to let you know I am
17:07playing this on the PlayStation 5 just
17:10to let you know which console you know
17:12these problems are happening on this
17:16unhinged mess it is absolutely bloody
17:20ridiculous in my opinion how broken this
17:24game can be at times so why the do I
17:28keep playing it you can get a pumpkin
17:30head and that immediately makes it a 10
17:31out of 10 game I don't make the rules
17:33all joking aside I did genuinely enjoy
17:36my time in Lords of the Fallen despite
17:39the [Â __Â ] I have to endure to play it
17:41and the things that wind up taking me
17:43out of the experience because I do like
17:46the world a lot and the story in some
17:48ways actually reminds me a little bit of
17:50Dark Souls 2 which is actually my
17:52favorite of the Dark Souls Stories the
17:55bosses although not necessarily the best
17:57in the genre and as I mentioned several
18:00have the major issue of being copy and
18:01pasted common enemies outside of those
18:04they can be incredibly fun and engaging
18:07and have some cool aspects to them in
18:09terms of how they are connected to the
18:11world the emotion and the buildup behind
18:14them as you're looking at the umbrell
18:16and you eventually face off against one
18:19of those bosses that the story is
18:21starting to tell you about it's honestly
18:23a pretty cool experience in many regards
18:27on top of that the devs are clearly hard
18:30at work post launch trying to optimize
18:32their game and even add in free content
18:35which to me is something not found in a
18:37lot of game devs nowadays and that is
18:40something I do commend them for in order
18:42for a game to truly grab my attention I
18:45have to be immersed in its world and
18:47either the main character or the
18:49character I created myself and Lords of
18:51the fallen in my opinion does truly do
18:54that which is honestly why I've beaten
18:56this game several times already trying
18:59to get all the endings the weapons and
19:01armor the Spells and trying to complete
19:04the side quest for the NPCs I keep
19:06finding myself coming back to morstead
19:09despite the huge sometimes literally
19:12gamebreaking issues and technical issues
19:15I have with this game I really hope that
19:18they do follow through and make a sequel
19:20similar to this game and its world and
19:22not reboot it again or Worse go back to
19:25the original because that one really was
19:27not good in comparison to the first game
19:30this game is a major major step forward
19:34which is honestly one of the reasons why
19:36I'm on the side of the devs and really
19:39hope that they do succeed in either
19:40making this game a little bit better
19:42through their updates or are able to
19:45make a much better sequel with it
19:47because they clearly have something here
19:50but in order for that game to be a
19:52success the devs need to learn from
19:54their lessons of why people have a
19:57problem with this game and on top of
19:58that just keep the game a bit longer in
20:00the oven to take care of the bugs
20:02glitches and maybe some more testing out
20:05on the mechanics so would I recommend
20:11game I honestly don't know I am glad I
20:16bought the game but even though
20:17Stockholm syndrome is clearly having an
20:19effect on me here I have so many
20:21problems with it that even though I do
20:23enjoy it I don't think that's enough for
20:26me to tell people to buy the game unless
20:28it's discounted I enjoyed my time in the
20:31land of morstead and even though I can't
20:33fully recommend it I do see a
20:35potentially bright future shining this
20:37Lantern in the darkness for a potential
20:39Sequel and I do hope to return to This
20:42Land once again I mean after all isn't
20:45that what the souls games are all about
20:48it's about getting good learning from
20:51your mistakes and improving yourself
20:53it's about overcoming challenges and
20:55hardships which I'm sure the game devs
20:57did have to deal with with this game
20:59there is a lot of room for improvement
21:01but I am sure with a good skill check
21:03the devs will be able to live up to the
21:05challenge to make improvements when the
21:07sequel I really truly hope does come
