First footage of next-gen RPG Lords of the Fallen
A "faster and more arcade" Dark Souls.
It's coming out this autumn and it's most simply described as a next-gen Dark Souls, and now Lords of the Fallen has finally shown its face in a videoed gameplay walkthrough several minutes long.
The world and enemies are chunkier and brighter than in Dark Souls, and reminiscent of the comic-inspired Darksiders series, and according to executive producer Tomasz Gop, who demoed the game to IGN, Lords of the Fallen is "faster and more arcade" than From Software's seminal Souls series.
There are limited combos you can trigger in battle, for instance, but this is no hack and slash: standard enemies are not to be underestimated, and you won't slaughter them in droves. Each battle requires concentration, suitable equipment and patience.
Bosses raise the stakes and require adaptation as their health lowers, triggering different phases in the battle. The boss in the video, the First Warden (also the first boss), gets significantly more aggressive and gains new attacks as he sheds his armour.
Lords of the Fallen is co-developed by CI Games (Sniper: Ghost Warrior), headquartered in Poland, and Deck 13 located in Germany. It's been in development since September 2011.
The game follows anti-hero Harkyn as he tries to prevent the Fallen God from returning to the world. Leading the evil army are Lords, the game's bosses, and ridding the world of them is your mission (hence the name Lords of the Fallen).
Player classes are tied to magic, a system that hasn't been detailed yet, but any class can use any piece of equipment - and change it up you will need to.
There's a degree of exploration and you can revisit areas and unlock new parts of the world, but this is no Skyrim, Gop said. "I don't want to lie to anyone that we're an open-world, sandbox kind of game - it's not that kind of experience."
When I spoke to Gop about Lords of the Fallen last spring, he said it will "primarily be a single-player game", although some of the functionality can apparently be called "online-ish".
Lords of the Fallen is in development for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.