If you could major in Dark Souls, Lords of the Fallen would be your introductory course. City Interactive's new game owes a great deal to From Software's Souls series as it takes the most basic ideas and tries to create an adventure all its own with mixed results. Meandering somewhere between loving ode and cheap knock off, Lords of the Fallen may surprise you with some ingenious ideas that sometimes work even better than the source material, but as a whole Lords of the Fallen is an inconsistent, if not enjoyable action game that shows true promise for future installments.

Lords of the Fallen follows the story of Harkyn, a gruff and fierce criminal who is freed from prison to fend off a coming invasion of inter dimensional beasts known as the Rhogar. It's largely a throwaway plot that's meant to get you from one encounter to the other, but it didn't have to be. Lords of the Fallen frequently introduces you to new characters and plot points, only to abandon them shortly after with little to no thought. To say that Lords of the Fallen is lay with it's exposition would be putting it mildly. We never learn much about Harkyn beyond the fact that he's big and likes to fight monsters; we're not even told why he's in prison - we're just supposed to sort of accept that he is. The game doesn't even give major enemies ample time to explain the plot, which in itself isn't that surprising as many action games are light on plot, but by the end of Lords of the Fallen's near 17-hour campaign I tended to forget what was even happening.

"...more focused on being more accessible and more..."

Unquestionably, the Dark Souls series is known for it's crushing yet rewarding difficulty and it's clear that City Interactive is trying to match that very early on with Lords of the Fallen - with trying being the key word. There's a certain rhythm you'll have to get the hang of to truly master the combat but it gets more and more apparent as you progress through the game that Lords of the Fallen is less concerned with giving the player a series of hardcore gaming scenarios to suffer they're way through and more about filtering that idea with an arcade sifter. While there are definitely similarities between the combat system of the two games, Lords of the Fallen is definitely more focused on being more accessible and more fun than it's notoriously difficult colleague. Playing through the game, I was more reminded of games like Diablo and Darksiders than Dark Souls, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially since most of the encounters, especially those you'll come across in your first play-through of the game seem much more balanced for newer players and those who may not be into the thrill of crushing defeat Dark Souls offers.

Lords of the Fallen is also much more giving with it's rewards system than Dark Souls. A Diablo like reward system dispenses new items, weapons and gear at nearly every turn and they're as fun to experiment with and use as you'd expect. You'll choose whether you'll play the game as a warrior, rouge or cleric and though each one has a set skill tree and distinct strengths and weaknesses, you'll mostly be able to control Harkyn however you see fit. I played through my first time as a Warrior but found myself using a good mix of ranged spells and melee attacks in most battles. While the search for loot and experimenting with it's capabilities leads to a unique experience, it also leads to one of the game's biggest problems.

While Dark Souls prides itself on being incredibly difficult, Lords of the Fallen likes to give you that illusion but never backs it up, choosing to make the player remarkably overpowered very early in the game. Each step in Dark Souls needed to be carefully plotted but here, everything feels much more like a dead-on sprint, only stopping to lay waste to the enemies in your way. That in itself isn't a bad thing since it's usually a lot of fun to cut down the game's biggest bad guys but even before the game's midway point, I felt like I could do no wrong and realized that as long as I dodged and blocked from time to time, I could win most fights (even the boss fights) by doing little more than simply wailing on my enemy until they toppled over. This only became apparent in the game's later chapters when the really impressive loot became available and I was no less than a Demi-God, able to take out much of my competition without even thinking about it.

"...I didn't feel like I needed to level up..."

Lords of the Fallen lifts Dark Soul's dying mechanic directly but puts a different spin on it, almost making it better than the original, at least the idea of it anyway. Each time you die you'll have to venture back to that same point and try to collect the XP you dropped, but Lords of the Fallen adds a timer on to the mechanic - get to the spot of your death in time or lose what you've earned. Furthermore the game gives you the option to stash XP in markers sprinkled throughout the world to safeguard it from your next death. Not stashing the XP for long enough periods of time will earn you chain multipliers than will earn you even more in the long run. This risk VS reward system adds a new level to the mechanic, but I couldn't help but wonder how it would work in a game that I didn't feel like I needed to level up because of how overpowered I was.

While Lords of the Fallen is not a bad looking game, it is a familiar looking one. Save for a few ascetically surprising sections, Lords of the Fallen takes it's visual cues from pretty much every other mythical action game on the market. Snowy peaks stand over crumbling castles and nearly the whole world is full of grays, browns and fire..lots of fire. As a gamer who really loves scale, the game performed best when working with huge bosses and wide open spaces. In my time with both the PC and console versions, there was a bit of slowdown in the more cramped sections of the game, but it was never too much.

With Lords of the Fallen, City Interactive attempted to take the ideas behind Dark Souls and spin them enough to create their own identity. While the results ended up being more mixed than anything else, the game shows a ton of potential and great ideas peppered throughout. The more accessible arcade style will appeal to those who were apprehensive to jump into Dark Souls's crushing combat - even if it's too overpowering at times. While Lords of the Fallen tends to disappoint more than it impresses, it made me more excited for what could come should we ever see a Lords of the Fallen 2.