Lords of the Fallen is more like Elden Ring than its developer intended – this, despite the fact that work on the former began long before the announcement of the latter. Indeed, Hexworks' upcoming ARPG – the successor to the 2014 game of the same name – is a Soulslike that wears its influences firmly on its sleeve, but it's also a reflection of how the genre born from FromSoftware's slant on action-role-playing games has matured over time. Its latest trailer, aired at the Future Game Show in the midst of the E3 2023 schedule, underlined this and then some.
Now, almost nine years on from the first Lords of the Fallen, the landscape of Soulslike games has evolved beyond recognition. Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 have since made speed just as important to the genre as its signature unforgiving combat and bastard-hard boss battles; Sekiro introduced verticality in offense like never before; and Elden Ring changed the game entirely as a fully-fledged open-world adventure. Which is to say: now certainly feels like the right time to revisit Lords of the Fallen's dark fantasy fare.
