A lot of studios have tried to jury-rig their own-brand Dark Souls. I’m happy to Areport that, after four hours with Lords of the Fallen’s 2023 reboot, Hexworks’ new take doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, its devs are building a custom ride using a tried-and-true frame, with a big hunk of weird Umbral nitrous strapped to its engine.
Lords of the Fallen has a troubled past. Its namesake, a 2014 attempt at the Souls-like genre, was viewed by some gamers to be a hollow imitation of the real thing—the first outsider to take a stab at cashing in on the surprise successes of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls.
The ghosts of double-A jank and accusations of being a rip-off have loomed over its release, and I imagine my response to news of a remake was the? OK, but why not start afresh with a new IP?” But the folks at CI Games and Hexworks know their history, and after spending some time with , I think they’re far from doomed to repeat it.
