Lies of P is Developer Spherical 8’s newest motion RPG that has given Bloodborne followers some much-needed reprieve with its many related gameplay components. Like many Soulslikes, the sport provides tough-as-nails issue, epic battles, and an intriguing albeit by-product story. My expertise with the sport was nice, however not with out apparent hurdles.
A Twisted Setting
Lies of P is a darkish and twisted retelling of the basic story of Pinocchio. The sport is ready within the fictional metropolis of Krat, the place puppets have killed the people they serve and now roam town, inflicting chaos. We study early within the sport that that is Gepeto’s fault for some purpose, in order his puppet, it’s as much as you to cease all of the chaos by defeating all of the grasp puppets of mayhem.
Lies of P takes a number of blatant inspirations from the Souls collection, particularly Bloodborne. The sport has an identical gothic Nineteenth-century Victorian aesthetic with outfits and structure to match the period. Fortunately, the developer was in a position to do justice to the theme by way of excellently rendered and modeled environmental objects, crisp fashions and motions, and nice reflections, however the lighting in some areas may have been accomplished higher.
As for the story, whereas the sport does the required exposition to introduce characters to the world, it does the remainder of the world-building and narrative clarification by way of NPC dialogue and environmental storytelling like most Soulslikes. As such, when you’re a fan of the narrative type from Souls Video games and Soulslikes, then you definitely’re in luck, however when you’re a fan of the normal construction, then you definitely’ll be left disenchanted with Lies of P’s narrative. The story is inoffensive, and as a reimagining of the basic story, it does sufficient to tell apart itself with all its enjoyable and weird variations.
Refined Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, Lies of P supplies a number of nice components seen in most soulslike video games. Like Bloodborne, motion is comparatively painless. Dodges are swift, however rolling feels clunky, so for probably the most half, dodging away from shut harm all the time proved extra advantageous than rolling away.
A number of ranges within the sport are intricately layered, enemies are aggressive and have distinctive AI patterns that present new kinds of challenges by way of distinctive eventualities. Sadly, a kind of methods is unfavorable. One facet of Soulslikes that always will get ignored is poise. That is the factor of gameplay that means that you can not get staggered and maintain buying and selling blows with enemies so long as you’ve sufficient stable protection. Whereas it is available in a number of types, in a number of Soulslikes, it sadly doesn’t exist in Lies of P. As such, combating enemies, particularly bosses, had an surprising degree of issue not seen in every other Soulslikes.
One other annoying facet of the sport is the parry mechanic, which is rather a lot lazier than in different Soulslikes, as as a substitute of getting a devoted parry button, gamers should time a block proper in the meanwhile of an assault. Whereas easier than different video games, utilizing the strategy does get complicated throughout boss fights, particularly if you block proper earlier than you have to.
A Totally different Soulslike
Talking of bosses, I need to admit that the bosses in Lies of P are my favourite a part of the sport. A number of bosses provide various kinds of troublesome eventualities and new challenges to overcome. Some bosses are sluggish, methodical, and hard-hitting, whereas some are quicker and extra frantic making them more durable to trace. All of them make taking part in the sport extraordinarily entertaining.
Other than fight, Lies of P has a considerably completely different leveling and ability system than its counterparts. Whereas gamers can grind out mobs to degree up every of their stats and purchase weapons, it additionally supplies Legion Arms; secondary weapons that supply extra versatility with ranged choices and add different components like electrical energy, explosives, and extra. The sport additionally has P Organs; one other factor that permits gamers to unlock expertise round a number of points of the sport by way of its ability tree.
Lastly, Lies of P provides gamers a mechanic that lets them mix a number of weapon sorts to strengthen weapons or weapons with completely different elemental sorts. Nonetheless, whereas the mixture mechanic supplies a recent new factor that’s completely different from different Soulslikes, some mixtures like placing a greatsword on a smaller deal with, are basically ineffective, as they don’t present a lot of a gameplay distinction. Efficiency-wise, Lies of P runs nice on PC, particularly on my RTX 3060 PC. Body charges are secure, with no glitches or crashes.
Closing Ideas
Total, whereas Lies of P is extremely by-product of video games like Bloodborne, and has a story that borrows a number of their components, it nonetheless does justice to each factor it replicates with enjoyable and refreshing gameplay components and impeccable visuals.
The Evaluation
Lies of P
PROS
Nice visuals Enjoyable gameplay Runs rather well
CONS
No poise Some complicated gameplay components Very by-product
