Lords of the Fallen - six ways it could be Xbox One's first killer dungeon crawler
http://www.totalxbox.com/79045/prev...ld-be-xbox-ones-first-killer-dungeon-crawler/
this is for the XBOX people
There's a sound I'll never tire of, and that's the satisfying crunch of an enemy's weapon hitting my shield as I hide behind it, waiting for the right moment to strike a well-timed riposte of my own. Is that a touch sadistic to admit? Probably, but I'll still never tire of it and you can't make me.
It's always said that games necessitating that sort of back and forth feedback in combat require a good deal of patience, but I don't think that's quite true. Patience is a virtue I lack - but stubbornness? Not so much. It's that stubborn streak that always carries me through, even when I'm multiple deaths in and success seems a very distant, unlikely notion. That's usually when the swearing starts.
So I found myself recently with a controller in hand and at the mercy of a Lords of the Fallen demo. Here are seven things I learned after the dust had settled, my shield had taken a thorough beating, and the nearby swear jar was a good deal heavier.
1. It's a bit like Dark Souls
Yeah yeah, I know this point has been covered before and pretty much been done to death, but I still think it's worth saying from the outset - the control scheme layout on Xbox One is more or less identical to that of From Software's Souls series on the Xbox 360. That's no bad thing: it meant that as an experienced Souls player I could pick things up more or less instantly. The enemies and attacks were different, but there was enough familiarity there that I felt pretty comfortable very quickly.
2. It should run in 1080p at 60 frames a second
There's a reason preview demos of the game have looked so good. Lords of the Fallen runs on brand new tech, designed specifically for the game, that takes full advantage of next gen graphical capabilities. Developer CI Games wants the game to be platform agnostic, which suggests it'll be 1080p, 60fps across next gen consoles and PC. Nothing is locked down yet, mind you, but that's the plan.
3. Enemies can come back after you kill them
You'd better make sure that the Infested you just ran through with your sword is well and truly dead before you risk turning your back on it. Some - but not all - enemies in Lords of the Fallen have the ability to return to life after you slay them. It's a tricky little twist that has the potential to catch out hasty players when they're trying to make their way back to the point of their last death to reclaim lost XP.
Zoom
4. There's room to explore
The game is divided into three worlds, but how big those worlds are and how exactly they're divided up has yet to be revealed. However, I'm told that it should take "an experienced Dark Souls player" around 20 hours to complete the game. That's pretty modest by open world standards, but for a dungeon crawler it's none too shabby.
5. The bosses are tough - and inventive
During my hands-on time, I went toe to toe with two bosses from early on in the game, the Champion and the First Warden. The Champion, a great hulking brute that will charge you down and slice you up with his formidable elbow blades, took me two tries to defeat, but the First Warden, whose boss battle is divided into four stages, took me considerably longer.
The fight takes place in a cathedral of sorts, and starts out with the First Warden rocking a sword, a full-length tower shield and a complete set of thick body armour. As you gradually whittle down his health, however, he will discard first his armour and then his shield in a kind of desperately unsexy striptease, until he's pirouetting around the cathedral with just a sword (and the requisite amount of undergarments), smashing up rows of pews as he goes.
Zoom
6. There are hundreds of weapon upgrades
The team are still putting the finishing touches on specific weapon and armour upgrades in the game, but I was shown how you can mix and match items and equipment from various sets to best suit your playstyle. For example, you can go full-on DPS with daggers and light armour, or you can counterbalance a heavy weapon like a hammer with light armour to make your attack time slightly faster.
Items, weapons and armour may be scavenged from chests or found scattered across the world, but some enemies will also provide random equipment drops that could lead to a change of tactics. For example, one of the enemies in the Catacombs area just before the Champion boss fight has the potential to drop a massive, weighted shield that you can stick into the ground, stopping the boss in its tracks - and completely changing how the fight pans out.
http://www.totalxbox.com/79045/prev...ld-be-xbox-ones-first-killer-dungeon-crawler/
this is for the XBOX people
There's a sound I'll never tire of, and that's the satisfying crunch of an enemy's weapon hitting my shield as I hide behind it, waiting for the right moment to strike a well-timed riposte of my own. Is that a touch sadistic to admit? Probably, but I'll still never tire of it and you can't make me.
It's always said that games necessitating that sort of back and forth feedback in combat require a good deal of patience, but I don't think that's quite true. Patience is a virtue I lack - but stubbornness? Not so much. It's that stubborn streak that always carries me through, even when I'm multiple deaths in and success seems a very distant, unlikely notion. That's usually when the swearing starts.
So I found myself recently with a controller in hand and at the mercy of a Lords of the Fallen demo. Here are seven things I learned after the dust had settled, my shield had taken a thorough beating, and the nearby swear jar was a good deal heavier.
1. It's a bit like Dark Souls
Yeah yeah, I know this point has been covered before and pretty much been done to death, but I still think it's worth saying from the outset - the control scheme layout on Xbox One is more or less identical to that of From Software's Souls series on the Xbox 360. That's no bad thing: it meant that as an experienced Souls player I could pick things up more or less instantly. The enemies and attacks were different, but there was enough familiarity there that I felt pretty comfortable very quickly.
2. It should run in 1080p at 60 frames a second
There's a reason preview demos of the game have looked so good. Lords of the Fallen runs on brand new tech, designed specifically for the game, that takes full advantage of next gen graphical capabilities. Developer CI Games wants the game to be platform agnostic, which suggests it'll be 1080p, 60fps across next gen consoles and PC. Nothing is locked down yet, mind you, but that's the plan.
3. Enemies can come back after you kill them
You'd better make sure that the Infested you just ran through with your sword is well and truly dead before you risk turning your back on it. Some - but not all - enemies in Lords of the Fallen have the ability to return to life after you slay them. It's a tricky little twist that has the potential to catch out hasty players when they're trying to make their way back to the point of their last death to reclaim lost XP.
Zoom4. There's room to explore
The game is divided into three worlds, but how big those worlds are and how exactly they're divided up has yet to be revealed. However, I'm told that it should take "an experienced Dark Souls player" around 20 hours to complete the game. That's pretty modest by open world standards, but for a dungeon crawler it's none too shabby.
5. The bosses are tough - and inventive
During my hands-on time, I went toe to toe with two bosses from early on in the game, the Champion and the First Warden. The Champion, a great hulking brute that will charge you down and slice you up with his formidable elbow blades, took me two tries to defeat, but the First Warden, whose boss battle is divided into four stages, took me considerably longer.
The fight takes place in a cathedral of sorts, and starts out with the First Warden rocking a sword, a full-length tower shield and a complete set of thick body armour. As you gradually whittle down his health, however, he will discard first his armour and then his shield in a kind of desperately unsexy striptease, until he's pirouetting around the cathedral with just a sword (and the requisite amount of undergarments), smashing up rows of pews as he goes.
Zoom6. There are hundreds of weapon upgrades
The team are still putting the finishing touches on specific weapon and armour upgrades in the game, but I was shown how you can mix and match items and equipment from various sets to best suit your playstyle. For example, you can go full-on DPS with daggers and light armour, or you can counterbalance a heavy weapon like a hammer with light armour to make your attack time slightly faster.
Items, weapons and armour may be scavenged from chests or found scattered across the world, but some enemies will also provide random equipment drops that could lead to a change of tactics. For example, one of the enemies in the Catacombs area just before the Champion boss fight has the potential to drop a massive, weighted shield that you can stick into the ground, stopping the boss in its tracks - and completely changing how the fight pans out.
