Lords of the Fallen - the first Dark Souls clone!

[ninja666]

What's wrong with just having difficulty levels in a game? Serious question. Whether it's reducing damage from enemies, or adding quicksave to cut on the reptition in Dark Souls for a certain mode, why is it so tough for a game to be inclusive of people of all skill levels?

To be honest - nothing's wrong with that, as long as it's executed properly (e.g. enemies on "hard" setting aren't OP damage sponges and you're a total weakling), but looks like Deck13 isn't going that way at all with their game - there were no options regarding it in any preview they've shown so far. That's why I'm worried about the difficulty. I hope they hit the sweet spot with it because neither too easy nor too hard is fun.

 

[endtherapture]

What's wrong with just having difficulty levels in a game? Serious question. Whether it's reducing damage from enemies, or adding quicksave to cut on the reptition in Dark Souls for a certain mode, why is it so tough for a game to be inclusive of people of all skill levels?

To be honest - nothing's wrong with that, as long as it's executed properly (e.g. enemies on "hard" setting aren't OP damage sponges and you're a total weakling), but looks like Deck13 isn't going that way at all with their game - there were no options regarding it in any preview they've shown so far. That's why I'm worried about the difficulty. I hope they hit the sweet spot with it because neither too easy nor too hard is fun.

Yeah I agree I don't agree with HP inflation, it's a really cheap way. I think Dark Souls did an okay job with difficulty for the most part but the repetition is the main downfall of the game for me personally. If they added some kind of item in which you could set up your own bonfire/safe zones at your convenience I guess that could be the "easy mode" for the game, or lock harder combos of enemies behind the difficulty setting or whatever.

Vaati is one of the foremost Dark Souls commentators though and is madly in love with the games, so if he thinks the gameplay here is sufficiently challenging and engaging then I think it'll probably be fine for most Dark Souls fans.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

It looks alright.

Combat looks solid, I like what he said about the way experience and the bloodstains work. The art style however looks so incredibly average and uninteresting that I can't get past it. I hate the blizzard style high fantasy bullshit where everything has gigantic shoulders and spikes all over. Dark Souls might not have completely realistic armor and weapons, but they're at least semi-realistic, and this just all looks like form over function (and bad form at that).

Might pick it up eventually but this isn't really a day one purchase.

Eh I like the style of the game but I really dislike how it tries to copy the Souls series, I'm not a fan of Souls due to their style of gameplay,mechanics and balls to the walls difficulty with super cryptic lore, for every game trying to be Souls is a game I just can't buy which means I've less choice.

I'm not trying to imply any criticism of these views, but it was pretty damn funny to read them literally back to back.

I more or less agree that Demons Souls effectively created a sub-genre, and it doesn't hurt to see more games populating it.

Semi-related note: my recent experiences with Shadow of Mordor have reinforced the value of challenge in gaming. The game starts out surprisingly difficult (relatively speaking, of course); you can get yourself into serious trouble and even wander into some borderline auto-lose situations. But the power creep of character development really starts to outpace the difficulty. In short order, you're slow motion head-shotting enemies by the half dozen and abusing stealth mechanics like nobody's business. Eventually you unlock a certain ability, combine it with a certain weapon rune, and trivialize every other mechanic - along with almost the entire last half of the game. Very disappointing finish to what began as easily my favorite game in quite some time.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Semi-related note: my recent experiences with Shadow of Mordor have reinforced the value of challenge in gaming. The game starts out surprisingly difficult (relatively speaking, of course); you can get yourself into serious trouble and even wander into some borderline auto-lose situations. But the power creep of character development really starts to outpace the difficulty. In short order, you're slow motion head-shotting enemies by the half dozen and abusing stealth mechanics like nobody's business. Eventually you unlock a certain ability, combine it with a certain weapon rune, and trivialize every other mechanic - along with almost the entire last half of the game. Very disappointing finish to what began as easily my favorite game in quite some time.

It's not that bad at all, I just fear that we'll see another tip in the scales, we're at that point now where both groups exist and both can have their games, just that I don't want all devs doing the same as one another, I want games that are unique for what they are and bring rather than try to emulate someone else's work if you get what I mean.

 

[ninja666]

I don't want all devs doing the same as one another, I want games that are unique for what they are and bring rather than try to emulate someone else's work if you get what I mean.

Not gonna happen. The whole gaming industry revolves around people copying, and sometimes improving, other people's ideas and concepts.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I was talking about games in the past and in the present - games that are made for the mass market and the "lowest common denominator", therefore are made to be stupidly easy, so everyone can complete them and feel like a boss. There's plenty of games of that type, from the top of my head (and relatively similar in gameplay): Assassin's Creed, Shadow of Mordor, Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur, Prince of Persia 2008, Tomb Raider 2013. There are some gamers who were fed up with it and turned to Dark Souls - basically the only action RPG/action adventure in the recent years that made them actually stay focused the whole time and think about what they're doing.

All Tomb Raider has to do is only have checkpoints at its campsites to be harder than Dark Souls. Most games with a Dark Souls checkpoint system are much harder than Dark Souls. All you have to be is cautious in Dark Souls, just about all enemies can be killed with the exact same strategy. I made it through entire dungeons (including not getting hit by one trap in Sen's Fortress) not dying once with no walkthrough. The combat system is far too simplistic to be difficult, just block then attack, even light shields block almost all attacks (including most boss attacks). Dark Souls is far from a hard game even when you don't use any cheap exploits such as simply using a bow and arrow or strafing, things that shouldn't even be exploits yet Dark Souls is considered some masterpiece.

 

[Nomanslander]

The combat system is far too simplistic to be difficult, just block then attack...

That's EVERY hack and slash game.

-_-

 

[Broderick]

The combat system is far too simplistic to be difficult, just block then attack...

That's EVERY hack and slash game.

-_-

Dont mind Phoenix, he/she tends to show up in Dark Souls thread now and then to explain his/her opinion on why he/she dislikes the series. Frankly, I figure there is no point to talking with him/her about it; it is a song and dance that has been done quite a few times before. I don't think anyone is changing his/her mind on the matter, and that is ok. Not everyone needs to like the souls series, and people have different preferences.

 

[Duster]

turns out it was just a rushed tech demo. A shame, it looked promising.

Dark souls is improperly compared to hack and slash games with a grim looking art style though.

 

[ninja666]

turns out it was just a rushed tech demo. A shame, it looked promising.

Care to explain what you mean by that?

 

[Duster]

Care to explain what you mean by that?

Lack of depth in combat, generic hollywood story, terrible optimization.

 

[ninja666]

Care to explain what you mean by that?

Lack of depth in combat, generic hollywood story, terrible optimization.

It's all I've been fearing about with this game. A shame indeed.

 

[Weaver]

I'm watching Jim stream it right now; it kind of doesn't look very good.
If they fix it up over the next few months it could be pretty solid but there's some pretty obvious balance issues happening.

 

[go-10]

looks more like Diablo + Darksiders if you ask me

 

[Greg White]

Been playing it for about 2 hours and I can't say I see any optimization issues, but aside from that one enemy with the greatshield and greatsword I haven't had any problems so far.

It's interesting so far, though I can't say I've been paying much attention to the story beyond the scrolls.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

The combat system is far too simplistic to be difficult, just block then attack...

That's EVERY hack and slash game.

-_-

I shouldn't be able to block the knight's triple sword attack with a light shielding dex character. You don't block in Bayonetta...

 

[gonzo20]

The combat system is far too simplistic to be difficult, just block then attack...

That's EVERY hack and slash game.

-_-

I shouldn't be able to block the knight's triple sword attack with a light shielding dex character. You don't block in Bayonetta...

you do with the right rune or whatever its called. look, if you dont want to block, dont use a freaking sheild then man. i play dks2 without a sheild cause i find dodging more fun. did i just blow your mind? just because you dont block in bayo or dmc doesnt mean that dks cant have it, do you know why? because dks is a rpg with hack and slash mechanics where as dmc and bayo are pure hack and slashes where being stylish is the coolest thing evar

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

you do with the right rune or whatever its called. look, if you dont want to block, dont use a freaking sheild then man. i play dks2 without a sheild cause i find dodging more fun. did i just blow your mind? just because you dont block in bayo or dmc doesnt mean that dks cant have it, do you know why? because dks is a rpg with hack and slash mechanics where as dmc and bayo are pure hack and slashes where being stylish is the coolest thing evar

It's not that I DON'T WANT TO BLOCK, it's that I SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO BLOCK with a dex build with a light shield. Even Bayonetta gets that right; quick, agile characters don't block. Dark Souls has some pretty poor combat and RPG mechanics. You can't even do normal things like using a bow and arrow or strafing without exploiting the game. The stamina system isn't even that well thought out as you can lower your shield in-between enemy swings and lose like no stamina against their attacks. Then, there's stuff like a stat that does nothing; come on, that sort of thing shouldn't have made it out of the conceptual stages let alone the final game. I haven't touched Dark Souls 2 because Dark Souls is what From did on their 2nd try, I don't really have confidence in them making a solid game. I'm all for some other developer taking the good aspects of Dark Souls and fixing/improving everything else. Just from the video Lords looks to be a more skill-based game.

 

[Windcaler]

Im not sure I would call it a dark souls clone, its more of dark souls soft core edition IMO. Its certainly influenced by the title though and it lets From software tell a different story without getting into the souls universe and they can make it about a single character instead of one made by the player. For once, Im not disappointed by that. Im totally fine with someone making a soft core dark souls style game as long as its not titled Dark souls.

Anyway, if you want a more detailed look at it I suggest you check out the breakdown done by EpicNameBro whos a bigger dark souls guru then even me, which is saying something. Ill leave a link below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkDn5r1CieI

 

[ninja666]

Im not sure I would call it a dark souls clone

Honestly, me neither. The game strikes me more as a game similar to Severance: Blade of Darkness [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoLgRznpUBA], especially because of its generic Warhammer-esque artstyle, but there are other things, too.