Lords of the Fallen 2.0 Is One of the Year’s Best Games

An amazing and meaningful free update

Lords of the Fallen Version 2.0 screenshot captured by the author on PS5 Pro.

I already enjoyed 2023’s excellent and charming Souls-like Lords of the Fallen. Heck, I even enjoyed its predecessor, 2014’s Lords of the Fallen. Yes, they both have the same exact title. And yes, the stories are directly connected to each other. The main protagonist of the original game appears as an NPC about twenty minutes into the newer game, and they’re both set in the same fictional universe.

I don’t know why folks behind the newer installment at Hexworks and CI Games were so afraid to put a “2” in the name of their sequel, but now they’ve sort of rectified that with a massive “Version 2.0” update for the newer game that makes an impressive number of changes and upgrades. I think the game deserves more attention, whether you tried it before or you’re a first-time player.

Lords of the Fallen was already on the action-heavy side for one of these games. Like other titles in the ever-growing pile of Dark Souls inspired content, it’s still all about carefully chaining together parries, dodges, and attacks against powerful enemies, governed by a stamina bar. LOTF further changed up the formula with a much more dynamic-feeling combat system. Rather than locking you into predefined animations, you can instead dynamically chain together…