You have to feel a bit sorry for 2014’s Lords of the Fallen. One of the first games to attempt to emulate the unforgiving dark fantasy action RPG set out by Dark Souls, it fell, unfortunately, desperately short. Even Dark Souls 2, also released in 2014 and widely considered the low point of FromSoftware's series, remained leagues ahead of its imitator.
But nine years has been a long time to allow CI Games to rethink its approach, even as the planned sequel's growing pains saw it cycle between multiple studios until its publisher set up its own subsidiary studio, Hexworks, to effectively reboot the game from scratch. That’s why the new Lords of the Fallen has gone with the exact same title - while not outright throwing its predecessor under the bus, this new instalment is for all intents and purposes a fresh start.
