Lords of the Fallen

First and foremost do not expect a finely polished gem akin to the pioneers of the genre. Set the game's shortcomings aside and it will reward you with a captivating atmosphere and in overall an enjoyable experience.
You will meet a lot of broad shouldered, muscular people (BRUTALITY ENSUES!) armed to the teeth and armored like a tank put in a dark toned, beautifully crafted setting with lots of options for weapons and equipment.
Since the dialogues and the story won't send shivers down your spine you have to settle down with combat, lots of it. There are some problems here and there with the animations. Plus the bosses act like trainees in a martial arts expo, meaning they perform their katas or rituals while you standing aside and thinking whether some equipment suddenly made you invisible. Meaning they are lacking intelligence sometimes. Well they might be harmless, but look nice overall. Compared to general monsters most of the bosses are like benevolent rabid dogs. So the average joes around the corner will bring you the tough moments that will spice up your life during exploration.
The story exists, but the shallow dialogues doesn't help the already bleeding plot elements, so don't expect ooh-ahh moments that will send shivers down your spine and result in irrevocable shirt tearing and blood pressure fluctuations.
Nonetheless the game's unique setting and visuals compensate for the above mentioned imperfections, so if you can stomach all the drama you will enjoy the ride.
After finishing:
if you like a good scifi setting and much better overall experience, go next for The Surge 2!

First of all this game is pretty FREAKIN GOOD For a "Less then 10$" Base game.
I got the entire collection on sale for 4.99$
Saying that the i will go into the pros and cons of the game.
Pros
1. The game has an amazing art style (if you like 15th century Gothic style fantasy)
2. The character development is quite interesting. With your classic three class system, but then they add a kind of perk system.
3. The armors in my opinion look just strait up brutal.
4. IMO the combat system seem pretty balanced if not a little unpredictable. ( which keeps it from getting boring)
5. The story seems linear yet more open then your typical hack and slash level design
6. Not to much mystery so you do not get confused, But there are some good jaw dropping moments
7. The general feel of the game is pretty smooth.
8. There is a simplistic choice system great for novice gamer's.
9. The game is not demanding at all (I've played to the end on an HP Pavilion Laptop with R5 Graphics 512 MB VRAM)
Cons
1. If you are a Veteran Souls-Like player this might bore you.
2. If you are used to Hyper fast game play this will seem sluggish
3. This can be pretty unpredictable if your not careful
4. If you prefer super challenging games DO NOT BUY
5. There is a pretty choppy tutorial stage.
6. You can feel stuck sometimes
IN CONCLUSION
The game seem like an introductory Souls-like. The game is not to hard, but might be for casual players.
If you want to transition to hard Souls-Likes this is perfect. The game its self is overall satisfying and quite fun.
I 100% recommend this game to all casual players looking to get serious.
I 0% recommend this game to players that are level 9999/NG+9999 on Dark Souls 3 ( If you catch my drift)
Lets just say i wouldn't waste 45.5 Hours of my life on something that shouldn't be played

Lords Of The Fallen is a competent Souls-like for the most part. Great world, plenty of side quests to do and things to murder, and the story is actually decent for a game like this (and you don't have to read cryptic item descriptions to figure it out).

Synopsis
Nowadays, you can get the GOTY Edition for 30€ on Steam. If you enjoy Souls-like games, give this a try. It's not mind-blowing by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a solid game overall, even with some of the problems it has.
Gameplay
+ Positive
/ Neutral
- Negative
/ A lot of people will say the combat in this game is clunky. While I don't completely disagree with that statement, it's also not as bad as people say it is. One thing you will find really soon is that the combat is extremely heavy. Everything will feel slow at first, attacks take a while to wind-up (unless you are using daggers or other fast weapon types). Because of this, most enemies are not that quick with attacks, and everything is clearly telegraphed. There are some enemies that have some fast attacks, and if you are using heavy weapons, you might have a hard time with them, especially late game, but they are not that common. Hits feel meaty and chunky. They actually look like hits that would be able to split you in half.
+ There is a bit of character customization. When starting the game, the player gets to choose between 3 magic types and 3 sets of gear. Depending on what you choose, you will get 1 of 9 classes. Just like Dark Souls, your starting class only affects your starting stats and equipment. After that, you are free to build your character however you want. In the magic schools you can get Brawling (Warrior), Deception (Rogue) and Solace (Paladin/Knight). All of them have 4 different skills. In the equipment sets, you can choose Heavy Armor, Medium Armor and Light Armor. Harkyn, the playable character, is not customizable in appearance. If you don't know what to pick, I suggest you pick Solace and any set of gear you want. Solace has the most overpowered skill in the game (in my opinion) called Shelter. It regens your HP while active and decreases incoming damage, making it synergize really well with the XP mechanic. There is also Equip Load. With heavy gear comes higher poise, but slower rolls.
+ Everytime you kill an enemy in the game, you get a multiplier to your XP gain. The more enemies you kill, the more XP you will get. This makes farming a lot easier (not that you will need it) if you need to get stronger. If at any moment you use a save point, your XP multiplier resets. When you die, you leave you XP on the ground, but unlike Dark Souls, it's timed now. There is a % counter, and that counter shows the percentage of XP that you will get back. (For example, if you died with 10K XP, and you recover it with 90% left, you will only get 9K XP back). All these mechanics make for a risk vs. reward system. The more enemies you kill, the higher the reward, but also the risk.
+ A rune system exists. Eventually, you will come across equipment that will have empty slots. You can use a Sealed Rune to craft an Unsealed Rune (The rune you craft is always random) and slot it into your equipment, giving it additional stats. You have both small and big runes, the bigger ones providing more stats. These runs (the sealed ones) can also be used to open certain doors and chests.
- The game is a bit buggy. Sometimes enemies disappear in front of you, and pop back in a second later. I even had a boss get stuck inside a wall. Fortunately he was big enough, and I could still hit him.
Difficulty
This game has a set difficulty when you first start it. When you finish it, you can play NG+ and after that NG++ (there is nothing higher than this). The difficulty increases the more cycles you go through. The normal game is pretty easy if you take the time to explore and get gear. If you just rush the story, you might have a bit of trouble. NG+ and NG++ are a bit different. When you get to them, normal enemies will not pose much of a threat, but bosses will hit like trucks and you will start to hit for really low amounts of damage, but they are mostly manageable. The final boss, on NG++ is really unfair. Even with really high defense, you will get 1/2-shot, and he has an attack where he summons enemies, and if you don't kill them fast enough, he will use them to heal himself. Your DPS by that point will be really low, and you might not even have enough time to kill the enemies. The boss will heal, and you pretty much get stuck on a loop. If you intend to play this, I wouldn't go above NG+, and if you decide to, good luck on the final boss.
Graphics
The game looks great. It has a lot more color when compared to Dark Souls, and the world looks incredible. The armor sets in this game look absolutely phenomenal. Whoever designed those, really good job.
Length and Replay Value
I recently played through this game again on GoG. I did all game cycles (NG, NG+ and NG++) in around 20 hours, but I knew where to go. A single blind playthrough, if you decide to explore, will probably take 20 hours alone. There is plenty of side quests to do. Some of them have different outcomes depending on what you do. If you intend to get everything, you will have to go to NG+ and above, since some equipment can only be obtained there. There is also special boss weapons. Everytime you defeat a boss, you get a piece of equipment. That piece can come in 2 different rarities. Every boss has a special challenge (but the game never tells you what it is until you find an NPC later on). If you complete this challenge, you will get an upgraded version of that equipment piece, with slightly better stats. Achievements also exist, and the GOTY already comes with all the DLC, giving you even more content.
Navigation and Level Design
The game really wants you to explore. There are hidden things everywhere. The world is fairly small when compared to Dark Souls, but just like it, it offers some amount of choice. The game doesn't hold your hand, and you can explore as you wish. Right at the start of the game, you can access a mid-game area, and you will get completely obliterated there, but you can do some suicide runs to get some good gear early. Some parts of the game are locked behind story progression, so you will always have to progress to a certain point to unlock the entire map.
Sound and Music
The sounds in the game are pretty good. The folly and everything not related to music or voice acting is really well made. The music is okay for the most part. It's not going to get any awards, but is not bad by any means. The voice acting is absolutely atrocious, it's bad in a funny way. Harkyn speaks like the VA was reading the script for the first time, missing every single delivery. Voice lines feel like they were made in a vacuum and later stitched together, making dialog robotic and emotionless.
Story
Harkyn is released from a prison in order to stop a mysterious demonic attack. He is in search of an ancient god called Adyr. Along the way you will fight the Rhogar Lords, powerful demons of the Rhogar army.
Problems
- Quite buggy, and on rare occasions can crash.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, it's a competent Souls-like. The world is well built, the game looks good, plays well and is a fun. The heavy combat might not appeal to everybody, especially if you like more fast-paced games. For 30€ you get a great amount of content, and since you can only get the GOTY, you get all the DLC. This game goes on sale for as low as 3€ on Steam, so if 30€ does not appeal to you, you can get it almost for free.

Warhammeresque world.
Seems the main complaint is the game is clunky. Yes it is. at first. Take off that heavy armor or upgrade your strength abilities and you'll be zipping around in no time.
The atmosphere too is some of the best in gaming today.
The audio design is awesome. The haunting halls of the castle that these demons inhabit is so eerie. The sound of your sword or axe hitting the demons is so satisfying, with both a mixture of metal and flesh sound effects. And that music is phenomenal.
Give it a chance, and you just may be sucked right in.

I am fan of souls - like games. so , i tried this game.
- Worst Tutorial. In the beginning of game , you will fight a knight but the game didn't give you a hint the control button. example : R1 to light attack , R2 to heavy attack , L1 to guard.
+ Gameplay. Yes , this game have souls-like game concept such as there are sealed door that you need to open from other side or need key to open it. When you die , you will drop your souls where you died.
+ Graphic. Awesome graphic in this game. i wish there were photo mode in this game.
+ You couldn't create your own character like Dark souls or Code vein but in this game you become a Badass character named Harkyn.
- Difficulty. If souls - like game famous because the difficulty but this game is too easy even i could defeat all of bosses in this game in first attempt and need about 2 - 3 minute for one single boss.
+ Story. Plot Twist. i didn't see that coming.

Considering how cheap the game goes, It's worth playing. Lords isn't a great game. But it was one of the first in the Souls-like trend and it did a lot correctly. The game looks decent even by today's standards and has a lot of cool designs and a few interesting pieces of lore.
However, the lore is hard to want to engage with when the story and characters are all so forgettable. Very little really happens since the game is so short, and there is one cutscene that is over 5 minutes and unskippable. No one says anything interesting and other than maybe a side quest or two no one does anything interesting.
The combat fairs a little better. You get three playstyles at the start and they all have some use. The Warrior one is a tad broken since you can get free hp regen by waiting a minute after fights but the rogue one is stupid. I have literally one shot bosses with it using the stealth crit with a greatsword.
I think the best example of how poorly designed the combat of this game is how you have to fight a Rhogar, a tougher enemy, in the first room. He will attack you within a few seconds of the game starting. When I first opened this game I nearly died to a single enemy because I didn't even know which button was attack yet.
This is all a real shame since the basic fighting mechanics are all reasonable and the sounds are satisfying. Just wandering around the levels and ripping apart basic enemies is definitely the highlight of the gameplay loop.
Bosses are usually the pinnacle of the combat system, making you use all your skills to defeat seemingly unstoppable foes. But not here. Only the first boss and maybe two others were truly quality fights. The others have shitty gimmicks or are no threat at all. The DLC boss especially is horrid, with a one shot move that is poorly explained while everything else the boss does is pathetic in terms of danger.This all really sucks since each boss has a secret kill condition that rewards you with superior versions of the boss's drop item. Which I love.
The best aspect of the game other than its combat against normal enemies is the level design. It has a ton of secrets, shortcuts, and ways to get around to old and new areas. The game is short and only has 3-4 main areas but all of them are decent in size and are a joy to explore for hidden loot. It really was top-notch stuff. The loot also is, some of it is hard to find and requires very specific conditions but much of the armor, weapons, and trickets are useful at some point and finding a potion bottle never hurt either.
I wish this game was bigger and better. Some of what is here is so solid. At times this game rivals some of the best parts of dark souls, but most of the time it's frustrating and gets in it's own way.
For 3 dollars, it's worth visiting. One playthrough can be done in under 10 hours and it took me 35 to do almost everything. Give it the love it deserves, because despite many flaws this game really tried. I just wish it could have turned out better in a sequel.

This game is a lot better than I was led to believe.
Do not pay full price for this game; it regularly goes on sale for $3. At that price I highly recommend it.