Lords of the Fallen (2023) Hands-On Preview – Same Name, Familiar Game

wccftech.com:

Few Soulslikes have had the tumultuous development cycle as Lords of the Fallen, a title that has changed hands just as often as crowned with a new title. First dubbed Lords of the Fallen 2, the follow-up to 2014’s masocore action RPG was supposed to be made internally at CI Games (whereas the original was developed by Deck 13) for a 2017 release. That effort failed, and CI Games passed the baton to Defiant Studios, which only lasted about a year on the project. Eventually, the newly established Hexworks studio (with offices in Barcelona and Bucharest) is carrying the game to completion, and any numbers or subtitles have been dropped, with the reboot finally known simply as Lords of the Fallen once again (to the bane of all those involved in SEO design).

Ahead of the October 13th release later this year, Wccftech was invited to an afternoon gameplay session, getting both hands-on with the opening act on PC and interviewing two key developers on the Hexworks team. From character creation to the first exploration of the main hub locale, we were given the opportunity to see the dual worlds of Axiom and Umbral firsthand. This also marked one of the first times that the Unreal Engine 5-developed title would be playable by a wider audience.

While the first Lords of the Fallen was developed to be in line with the more tactical and deliberate Dark Souls entries, the upcoming title of the same name instead aims to achieve a faster pace more akin to Deck13’s The Surge and Bloodborne. The player champion might not be able to jump freely but don’t let that feel like there’s a limit to the exploration that can be found in Lords of the Fallen.

The core mechanic that separates Lords of the Fallen from its contemporaries is in the