Playtime: 42h.
A surprisingly good game, with balanced mechanics and combat. Full of depth. Only sometimes frustrating.
So here I was, days before my birthday, but not allowed to purchase and play the games I actually want to (Ghost of Tsushima or God of War: Ragnarök) because I gave put them on my b-day gift wishlist that my wife always ask for and, like magic, I end up being gifted by either her or my friends.
So I sift through the other titles of my Steam wishlist and find Lies of P with a decent discount. “Alright, lets kill time with this one until my birthday”, I think.
But I wasn’t ready for it to be so good, addictive, challenging and rewarding. Here I am, a month later and just finished with it. Some of you might say “so long? git gut, man”, but (while certainly there was some getting my ass handed to me involved) I took my time enjoying every nook and cranny of the game.
Plot
The story is interesting enough to keep you entertained while high adrenaline combat isn’t happening, but the delivery is scarce and don’t expect extravagant plot related cutscenes. It seems boss intros have received much more attention.
It is kinda funny how every dialogue that is not in a cutscene (which is almost all of them) have the NPC’s mouth just randomly moving their mouths while the speech is played. No attempt of lip-syncing whatsoever. Wait a sec, were all characters in the game puppets, so that’s why they talk like that…? No, I don’t think so.
Still, there were moments that I really wanted to beat someone because they’re cunts.
Gameplay
A souls-like through and through, never attempting to hide it. The only game from FromSoftware what I’ve played is Sekiro, which is rather different from the classics, I’m told, but it seems to match everything one comes to expect from such games.
The weapons all feel very different and many have unique mechanics. Even on a single playthrough with a Technique focused build I played with a rapier, a fire dagger, a critical-hunting dagger, a greatsword and finished with a flashy and dashy sword.
And there was so much that I didn’t explore, like all the weapons suitable for different builds, the cube mechanics and more advanced blade and handle combinations.
Graphics
The game looks really good. Despite not packing anything special like RT, it looks very polished, with a well executed art style that reminds me of Bloodborne (at least the screenshots and videos I saw of it) and Resident Evil 4.
Performance
The game runs buttery smooth. It is so light to run that I strongly recomment installing these mods to push the visuals (specially LoD) even higher than the game allows:
- Ultra Max Graphic: improved overall graphics quality
- Lies of P Fixes: better LoD that the jarring default
But… it does suffer from shader compilation stutters. Even though the game has a shader pre-compilation step. Sad.
Conclusion
If you’re a souls-like fan or are up to finding out what makes these hard and grinding games so appealing, definitely have a go! You’re in for a treat.
I’m afraid to start a second playthrough and getting hooked up for the next 40h.
What a nice surprise this was.