We can't get enough of punishing fantasy-horror-action RPGs. Following last year's "Elden Ring" and September's "Lies of P," Lords of the Fallen, despite complaints about its early performance and its proximity to RPG blockbusters "Baldur's Gate 3" and "Starfeed," has already sold more than 1 million copies, according to the publisher. sales.

Lies of P also sold a million copies, but it took a little longer. We once called that game "literally Bloodborne" (except that Pinocchio is the star), and Lords of the Fallen's studio, Hexworks, likewise drew entirely on FromSoft's inspiration and is not shy about it. And they don't shy away from it. Studio head Saul Gascon said earlier this year that he wanted to be "the second reference (after FromSoftware)" in the soul-like genre.

Whether Lords of the Fallen is truly the best of the non-from-soullike is debatable, but it's pretty good. Harvey praised the boss fights in his review, and later said that he enjoyed playing it a second time even more than the first time.

It was only more fun the second time around because Harvey was plagued by Lords of the Fallen's biggest complaints: surprise ambushes and boring mob tactics. He enjoyed the second play more because he knew where to expect the cheesy stuff. Harvey speculates that "Lords of the Fallen would have been more enjoyable on the first play if Hexworks had mitigated a little of the axe mania popping out from behind the box."

So be prepared for surprise attacks and difficulty spikes. But once properly prepared, you can expect great boss fights and a delightfully creepy world full of proper nouns about evil gods and the people who oppose them.

There are actually two worlds: The novel centerpiece of Lords of the Fallen is a lantern that allows you to peer into and step into the land of the dead, a blue-filtered reality that is even more grotesque than the dark fantasy world beneath it. It may not be the most sophisticated puzzle design ever, but it is neat.

Lords of the Fallen's user review ratings on Steam are still "mixed," but there are now more positive than negative reviews. Thanks to a quick post-launch patch, there have been fewer performance-related complaints in recent negative reviews. They are more likely to cite ambushes, which Harvey commented on in his review, and to be disappointed with co-op support.

On the topic of co-op, publisher CI Games plans to deploy an "expansion patch" for Lords of the Fallen this Thursday, and will resume PC/console cross-play, which Hexworks disabled while working on improvements just after launch He stated that.