Playing Soulslikes is a pretty standard experience for FromSoftware fans at this point. You spend your first few hours puzzling out the new names for the Estus Flask, Bonfires, Boss Souls, Titanite, and all the well-known mechanics you've come to expect from a familiar genre. But perhaps due to the fact that their formula is often carried over wholesale, Soulslikes tend to innovate in more minor ways.
Bearing similarities to Bloodborne and Sekiro, Lies of P is one of the most pleasant surprises in terms of this year's Soulslikes, and has a tonne of great ideas. While Lords of the Fallen has an unfortunate tendency to recycle bad genre habits too often—an enemy hiding around every corner—it also shows off some clever little mechanics of its own.
