In November, I played Lords of the Fallen on PS4 and enjoyed it. I didn’t finish it at the same, partly due to workload and also because over the course of the next month, I was putting the finishing touches on a new gaming PC, the first that I had built in (too) many years.
Lords of the Fallen was going to be one of the first games to be installed on my new rig because I was impressed with its gameplay and the stunning visual presentation. I had halted my progress on PS4, and picked up a copy on Steam. Initial, brief testing on my new ASRock Z97 Extreme6/i7-4790K/Gigabyte GTX970/16GB G.Skill TridentX on a 29″ display in 2560x1080p with all details maxed out were awesome. The game looked stunning, and played smoothly during this testing phase.
I soon ran into some issues though, the most damning of which were the inability to get past the title screen. I was using a wired Xbox 360 controller but could not get passed the “Press A” prompt on the title screen, with or without the gamepad. I did not dig into it too much, as simultaneously, I had a couple of ghosts to chase with the new PC build that required some research and, obviously, time. Between that, ‘review fatigue’ from the annual insanity that’s inherent in the industry from August-mid December, and realizing that Lords of the Fallen needed some patching, I decided to let things simmer. In this respect, Lords of the Fallen was like many of its peers — a big, ambitious title that was tainted at launch, at least to some degree, and in need of patching (Halo Master Chief Collection, CoD: Advanced Warfare, Assassin’s Creed Unity come immediately to mind).
On December 16th, a massive 8GB+ patch was released that addressed everything from an archer character who could shoot through walls, to disappearing items from chests, to game corruption, and bad physics, and much more. But by this time, I was about done playing anything for the year. January and February were surprisingly busy and full, both personally and professionally — with more games released this February, many of which I needed to review, than I can ever recall. But finally — on March 2nd — things quickly fell into place. A new, far smaller patch was released that addressed another batch of miscellaneous and important issues, as well as adding support for the Ancient Labyrinth DLC. Simultaneously, my ‘slate’ as far as work for the site and at my day job were clear — I had a great window of opportunity…
And I absolutely jumped on it, but it didn’t start off well. After installing the v1.5 patch, I still could not get past the title screen, so I deleted and re-downloaded the 17GB beast. To my dismay, I still had trouble, even though the controller was working fine in Windows and other games. At this point, I realized the fix was on me; I hooked up my Xbox One gamepad, and at last, after a few initial bumps and inconsistencies whereby I had to use the keyboard to get into the Options, I was rolling. I started a new game in earnest, with ShadowPlay recording the entire experience from title screen to title screen. I went Warrior class over the Rogue and Cleric because I felt I needed the higher Strength and Vitality. I knew this from playing as Rogue, with a heavy emphasis on Faith (magic ability) on the PS4 — I struggled mightily. Even having played some of the opening areas previously, in November — the Citadel, the Catacombs, the Monastery, etc — Lords of the Fallen still provided me with a stout challenge, but a fair one. A humbling one.
For the first six in-game hours, death was common and new areas were harrowing. I learned that, even though I could go into an area, I really shouldn’t. My character is not ready for it. I needed to find alternate paths first, level up, and acquire new gear. This was a brutal truth I encountered with the Catacombs, an underground prison that was rife with aggressive Rhogar creatures. Even though I was playing as a Warrior (with a lot of Attribute Points spent on Faith I should add), I decided to wait to return here. And when I finally did around hour fifteen, the tables were turned so much in my favor that I was grinning ear to ear. The opposite would happen with the new DLC, though, which only unlocks after you’re about 2/3rds of the way through the main campaign (after you defeat the Lord named Beast). Ancient Labyrinth, as I stated in my review, provided my level 59 character a good challenge until I encountered the lost Rhogar Lord, The Keeper, who was insanely hard. I felt beatdown, but I kept at it, a persistence this game engrained in me in previous struggles (looking at you, Infiltrator!). I finally figured out a strategy that would work for me, and the sense of triumph after the lengthy boss fight when it all came together put an extra spring in my step that day.
Strangely, it was only within the DLC boss fight that I experienced any kind of technical issues — in the, like, 75+ attempts I made to defeat the boss, the game CTD (Crashed To Desktop) about five times. But, I have had no problems with save games or crashes or much of anything in the original game other than some minor clipping which is pretty much unavoidable in most Unreal engine games. Despite constantly recording with ShadowPlay and often Alt+Tab’ing out and back from the pause menu to tend to work or go online for something, the game never gave me an issue. Minor geek note, it idles using about 2.6GB of RAM and 30-33% of my CPU.
To sum up for anyone still reading, Lords of the Fallen, be it on console or PC where I have spent the majority of time with it, is a great experience. It took a while to fully get there — and for some it still may not be there, for whatever reason. But to be fair, few major titles release these days without a day one patch, or multiple patches. I’m not condoning shipping games with issues, but any modern gamer knows, or should know, that patches are just to be expected anymore; is it right, or fair? Eh, that’s a topic for another discussion entirely. But to me, the important thing is to not let a less than ideal (or outright bad) first impression ruin what could be a great game. Give the devs time; they’ll usually get it right. In my experience with Lords of the Fallen, that has proven true, and as I enter my twenty-sixth hour of the game I’m already thinking about what I want to do in New Game+, and I’m damn excited for the sequel.
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