Upcoming Soulslike Lords of the Fallen's recent new gameplay showcase has shown off the game's impressive art style, as well as giving some promising glimpses of the game's challenging combat and introducing a couple of menacing-looking bosses. Perhaps more intriguingly though, Lords of the Fallen's new 'Dual Worlds' mechanic was also broken down, showing how gamers will be able to traverse parallel worlds using a special lamp, and this could well be where the game looks to differentiate itself from the plethora of other Soulslikes on the market.
Serving as a reboot for the 2014 original title, which was one of the first games to try and replicate what FromSoftware's Dark Souls games do so well, Lords of the Fallen seemed a strange choice for a sequel, to begin with. This is largely down to the lukewarm reception that the first game received, in part due to its slow, labored combat and uninspired narrative. However, the reboot is taking a decidedly different approach, being much darker in tone and more closely aligned with the aesthetic that fans would expect to find in a FromSoftware game. With each new trailer or gameplay showcase, developer Hexworks is showing exactly why Lords of the Fallen should be getting Dark Souls fans excited.
Lords of the Fallen's Dual Worlds Should Be a Welcome Change For the Genre
By now, the usual Soulslike mechanics are extremely well known. Interconnecting maps, a tough, robust combat system, challenging boss fights, and checkpoints that restore health as well as respawn enemies are all standard expectations from any game in the sub-genre. Even games that only loosely borrow some of these elements, such as Respawn's Stars Wars Jedi games, are classified by some as Soulslikes.
Other games wear their inspirations like a badge of honor, such as the upcoming action RPG Lies of P, which so closely resembles a Soulsborne game, right down to the color of the health and stamina meters, that it can be difficult to tell the difference at times. In a genre that is in danger of becoming overcrowded, Lords of the Fallen is looking to lay down its own marker by doing things differently.
The game will give players access to two parallel worlds: Axiom, the land of the living, and Umbral, the land of the dead. While giving access to two maps isn't particularly new, with both critically acclaimed titles Elden Ring and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom doing something similar, the way in which the player traverses between these maps is where the game's innovation starts to take form.
The player can access the Umbral world in one of two ways. Dying will cause the player to respawn in the Umbral world exactly where they fell, or alternatively, they can choose to sacrifice one of their two lives in order to teleport there immediately. The Umbral Lamp, a special item, is able to highlight the hidden monstrosities housed in the land of the dead and will also reveal hidden treasure to the player.
Players can also use this lamp to manipulate the surrounding environment, and even use it to power some of their attacks while in Umbral. Lingering for too long in the land of the dead has consequences though, as the player's presence will attract more of Lords of the Fallen's horrific monsters the longer they stay there.
It remains to be seen exactly how this mechanic works in the context of the overall game, and incorrect execution could result in it feeling like more of an afterthought rather than a meaningful gameplay device. If implemented correctly though, Lords of the Fallen's use of dual worlds could really set it aside from the abundance of other Soulslikes out there, and elevate the long-dormant franchise to a new level.
Lords of the Fallen is set to release on October 13 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.