Lords of the Fallen Review (clem666)
This didn't even try to cover its Dark Souls inspirations. It took (or at least it tried to take) from it its difficulty, its environment, a part of its atmosphere and its mechanics.
The moveset is very weak, with a slowness rarely seen in the genre, and despite the fact of doing anything you can to reduce your weight. Your character really is slow and even sprinting won't get you out of trouble (in addition to reduce your stamina to 0).
The game remains beautiful, dark of course (a bit too dark even when brightness is set on highest), but also showing a palette of varied colours as some great viewpoints here and there. The cutscenes and cinematics are gorgeous. The bestiary is okay, opponents becoming quite redundant as you have to cross some zones multiple times. Bosses and their outfits are particularly vibrant. It goes the same for the music, it is okay. You can easily customize your character, equipping a lot of different cool weapons, shields, armor sets, etc. Those are superbly all detailed. Characters that you encouter are interesting, bring a bit of depth to the universe you are evolving in (special mention to Yetka). There are some cool sidequests to achieve if you know who to talk to or search.
Even if it has a (disappointing) DLC about a labyrinth, the game itself is one, with a lot of closed doors opening later in the adventure, than closing again, of automatic passages triggered by random mechanisms, of weird shortcuts. And the fact that you don't have a map at all, not even a way to teleport makes it even more trash. Speaking of the 'bonfires', the way they work definitely is rotten and there are ridiculously few of them. Add this to the fact that knowing where to go and what to do is often unclear, and you got your disaster.
I had many hitboxes issues with the monsters: times I parried but got hurt, times I clearly touched them but they had no damage, and I also had collision bugs, especially for the few jumps you have to do during the playthrough. Believe me, you don't want your character to jump. The fights with enemies, even the simplest ones, become way too long as you gain exp, because their level is adjusted to yours.
The ending (no spoil) is original and allow you to play it any way you want. It is a demanding game, but one which itself sometimes fails to execute even the simplest mechanics. Worth a look but don't stay too close.