One thing fans look forward to with events such as Gamescom’s Opening Night Live is the fair share of surprise announcements. One that took fans by surprise came from developers Hexworks and publisher CI Games in the form of Lords of the Fallen 2, which has now been retitled The Lords of the Fallen.
The dark fantasy game was given a fresh trailer and is set to be a soft reboot taking place more than a thousand years after the events of 2014’s Lords of the Fallen, a game that on release drew a lot of comparisons to the Dark Souls franchise. Players will be excited to learn that the RPG is currently in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
The latest entry in the Fallen series is currently targeting a 2023 release date and sees an all-new adventure set in a huge open world that features an interconnected dual world that splits players between the realms of the living and dead. Early estimates from the developers show that the game is approximately five times larger than the original game and will feature a fast and fluid combat system along with a deep RPG narrative.
From the trailer, players can get a sense of the Soulslike gameplay which will feature a large number of NPC quests and interesting characters to meet along the journey. The immersive RPG will be playable either solo or with a friend through an uninterrupted online co-op experience, which is a first for the series. The Lords of the Fallen will also include a fleshed-out character creation tool as well as a reworked progression system that will allow players to experience an ambitiously expansive RPG experience.
While players will undoubtedly be excited by the re-reveal of The Lords of the Fallen, some will draw comparisons to FromSoftware’s Elden Ring, a game that took the Soulslike formula and expertly crafted a highly celebrated open-world experience. The game will have a lot to prove in 2023 that it isn’t just another Soulslike clone, especially as the long-rumored Elden Ring DLC could soon make an appearance.
The road to The Lords of the Fallen has been a long one. Numerous developers were brought onboard after the original developer Deck 13 passed on the opportunity to create a sequel. In 2020, publishers CI Games created Hexworks specifically to oversee Lords of the Fallen 2 and since then everything went rather quiet. The teams actively chose to beaver away on the new game, waiting until the game was ready to be shown, rather than drip feeding players regular information.
The Lords of the Fallen is set for release in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S