If you never heard about this game or don't know why we don't like this game: It tries to be Dark Souls but misses the point. In Dark Souls all bosses had patterns and cooldowns/openings and it is possible to beat the game without being hit. The levels invited you to explore and were designed thoughtfully. In Lords of the Fallen? The second boss you encounter and the shield enemies after that have attacks that are impossible to counter after dodging or blocking them, since their cooldowns end before you recover from your dodge/stagger which makes the already slow fights unbearable unless you exploit the A.I. All bosses after that have this problem. Also this game has many bugs and glitches. Imagine you get stuck in the ground or a wall after playing a long time without saving just to have to restart because you are stuck somewhere. Great fun. This game is product of clumsy development and people who have no idea why the souls-formula was a great success back then. The Surge, the follow up by the same devs still have the same problems so these guys will never learn from their mistakes. It is a shame hat gog is now adding so many low quality products instead of focusing on "good old games" or quality titles that are on people's wishlists for years. Great gems like the Zachtronic games are not allowed on gog because they would look like phone games and devs are becoming more more dissatisfied with gog because only curators are important to them, hence why they add low quality products/scams like this instead or allow games that will be abandoned on gog whole the Steam versions are updated. R.I.P gog.
I would like to mention the few issues right at the beginning of this review: The game seems to have some technical issues such as fps drops/stuttering and some people seem to have mouse issues where inputs won't register. I am only experiencing the stutter problem at the moment, but the developer is already working on a patch. Other than that it is a very good mix between Hexen and Wolfenstein 3D. More Wolf than Hexen in terms of level design and a more straightforward horizontal gameplay without jumping and verticality. As someone who grew up with Wolfenstein, Doom and what have you, I am more than pleased with this title. It is fast and the weapons feel really good for the most part...except the magic staff that you have to charge up until you upgrade it. Yes this game gives you weapon upgrades which alter your weapons and sometimes completely changes them. You can upgrade an uzi to make a nailgun out of it, or you can use them akimbo, the shotgun can shoot buckshots or become an auto shotgun etc. You also receive status upgrades to improve your health/mana pools, ammo capacity or melee damage. I was worried because of that but it really is not a big game changer. The game is not too difficult on normal and it would be great if we could get more difficulty options in the future. At the moment you have easy, normal, hardcore, where hardcore has permadeath and lets you restart the whole game after dying. Normal is a bit too easy for me. I finished 3 out of 5 episodes and only died once at the first boss because I was not paying attention. Overall you should really try this game when you are a fan of retro fps. It is not perfect but the Dev responds fast and is open for suggestions and ideas. I think people who complain about the lack of verticality and gameplay did not "get" what the game wants to represent and be.
