My time with Lies of P was exactly the intense and gratifying experience that I hoped for. As one who holds Bloodborne in the highest regard as one of FromSoftware’s finest achievements, I found myself absolutely enamored with Round 8 Studio’s unique, clever take on the formula. While the game broadly functions similarly to the best the Soulslike genre has to offer, Lies of P‘s tweaks and refinements are so masterfully planned out and implemented that they make every moment of gameplay a pleasure. From the dopamine hits provided by exploring the labyrinthine level layouts, to the extreme elation of finally besting a challenging boss, there’s nary a moment of Lies of P‘s meaty campaign that feels wasted or unsatisfactory. With a post-credits teaser hinting at a second incredible twist on another literary classic lying in wait, the future looks bright for this new addition to the genre. Lies of P, welcome to the top!
Neowiz took something well-known and really made it their own with stunning results. Lies of P is a game you can easily get lost in - provided you don't lose your cool.
All things considered, Lies of P is a product that has managed to convince us from practically every point of view. Neowiz's new work, although it plays very defensively and doesn't do anything truly new for the category to which it belongs, is a title with a living and breathing soul that reveals all the passion lavished by the studio during development. An exciting plot combined with the perfect artistic direction are the flagship of a robust and exhilarating play structure that will delight all fans of the genre. Are you ready to discover the darkness that lies in the depths of Krat?
The developers of Lies of P can be proud of having created one of the best, if not the best, soulsborne game made by a non-FromSoftware studio. Be that as it may, we really hope that in their next game they will try creating a more unique aesthetic untethered from copying the visuals of Bloodborne to such an extent.
Lies of P suffers from a slow start with boring levels and uninspired enemies. Thankfully, later down the line game gives you much more interesting things to play with, including different weapons, unique gameplay systems and so on, turning itself into a pretty good addition to the genre.
Lies of P borrows very enthusiastically from FromSoftware games and is therefore fun to play, but it adds very little to the well-known formula. The only exception to this is the weapon system, which comes out well and just in the nick of time gives the game the right to exist and its own face that it so desperately needs. It's a nice treat for Game Pass, but the five bucks you have to put down makes it a little more difficult to recommend in a jam-packed gaming year.
There’s some enjoyment to be found in Lies of P. Its action is competent, but lacks the polish and stir of its contemporaries. Its atmosphere can be engrossing, but it’s a hodgepodge of themes and aesthetics you’ve seen before that never rises above the familiar. I was never impressed by it, and I never stopped questioning the point of the entire endeavour throughout my time with it.
Admittedly i have not quite finished this but this is goty for me. Arguably better than the souls games and i am a souls fanatic. This has me spellbound. Its epic.
Enjoyed my time with Lies of P for the most part, but at the end of the day, it's essentially a Souls-like that doesn't know what it wants to be. The game essentially has mechanics from the Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro all in one, but does none particularly well. I played a strength build for my first run, and my first and most critical gripe is the lack of poise this game gives your character, considering the slow windups of some of the heavier weapons. This is especially difficult towards the second half of the game, where the bosses hit harder and move incredibly fast to interrupt any attack mid-swing. Weapon durability is also a needless concept added in, as it's annoying to be fully focusing on the boss and noticing too late that your weapon is broken and in need of repair mid-fight, I believe that it's overkill. The story, vibe, and immersion are all top-class class though, and I felt the dialogue, item descriptions, and little notes you find scattered around all do a good job with the world-building. Character progression is also slightly tweaked, as the P-Organ system acts as a nice supplement to the typical RPG mechanic of putting points into stats. Overall, the first half of this game was absolutely glorious for me, but as time went by, the excitement I initially had faded away due to some of the unbalanced nature of certain enemies, the shoehorning of multiple mechanics all at once hoping it would stick, and the obvious bias of the game against strength builds. After around 40 hours, I felt satisfied but at the same time, disappointed, as I felt that this game had loads of potential, but didn't quite live up to it in my humble opinion. Hopefully, NEOWIZ irons out some of the kinks with patches, as, despite my gripes, this is still a pretty solid effort considering it's their first Souls-like title...
It’s well made and I applaud the dev effort in polishing this. That being said, graphics are the best thing about it. It’s a solid attempt at a FromSoft-like title (probably the best I’ve played not made by FS themselves), but it still lacks a lot of the charm that makes those games so special. It feels stiff and clunky at times, which is a shame considering it’s obviously so heavily inspired by Bloodborne and Sekiro, and I was hoping for combat that felt much more fluid like those titles.
The game is ruined by a design misstep that stems from a shallow idea.
My assessment of the game began with the boss in Chapter 3 and continued through to the end.
The game has a lot of problems, such as the viewpoint being too close for the large size of the bosses, many of the bosses' motions having mid-frames removed, etc.
A lot of these problems are due to a lot of disjointed ideas that come from simple copying.
Bloodborne's regain system was designed to make players react more aggressively.
But Lies of P's "Guard" regen system does not fulfill the essence of a regen system at all.
There's the bosses' staggered patterns and the forced fury attack without instant wake up dodge, but the biggest problem I see is the perfect guard.
Perfect Guard is described as very important to the game.
But it's a trap, and dodges are also very important to get to the end of the game.
However, the game just throws in features from a bunch of other games and creates enemy reactions that seem like they're trying to poke fun at players who don't know how to mix it up.
It's also clear that the developers haven't really thought through the concept of a challenging but fun game, as they start by limiting the Perfect Guard and other features of the Dodge to upgrades called P-Organ, which you should have from the start.
Eventually, you'll need to mix it up to beat the late game bosses, and since you can't use the dodge to skip the different motion delays of the many weapons, it's not a sense of accomplishment, but rather an exhausting feeling of having to memorize all the enemy patterns and calculate the timing of your own attacks.
To wrap things up, my 4 is just for graphics and optimization.
The game looks good on the outside, but underneath it's a mishmash of shallow ideas borrowed from multiple games that don't hold together in a solid way.
P.S. At least I don't want to play a soul-like game where throwing tools is easier than just an attack
SummaryYou wake up at an abandoned train station in Krat, a city overwhelmed by madness and bloodlust. In front of you lies a single note that reads:
"Find Mr. Geppetto. He's here in the city."
Play as Pinocchio, a puppet mechanoid, and fight through everything in your path to find this mystery person. But don't expect any help along the ...