Though Lords of the Fallen certainly borrows a lot from its genre peers, its biggest original idea is also its best: the dual realms you can swap between at any time. There’s some interesting characters here and there and some cool lore and worldbuilding to enjoy as you meet various factions that you can side with or work against, even if that stuff sometimes feels buried under a mountain of generic dark fantasy gobbledegook (like the super original concept of using “Charred Fingers” when invading other players’ world). The good news is that this fresh story it’s telling using some refurbished, dusty bits is much better than its predecessor, and the world feels much more fleshed out. Those who played the original will definitely hear NPCs talk about some familiar (and sometimes nonsensical) setting terms like “The Rhogar” and “Adyr,” or see really cool and recognizable sights like the giant outstretched hand of a fallen god in the distance, but new developer Hexworks only used the most basic elements from the previous version. If “Lords of the Fallen” sounds familiar to you as well, that’s because it shares its name with the 2014 game from developer Deck13 – but as the lack of a “2” or something similar might suggest, this Lords of the Fallen isn’t a sequel so much as a full on reboot.

If those names all ring a bell, expect plenty more deja vu here.

At this point I’ve started to lose track of which game’s healing items are called Estus Flasks vs.

It’s very weird, for example, that I can see a pile of boxes in the distance and think, “Ah, can’t wait for a monster to leap out from behind those and attack me,” or reach a swamp area and know, without question, that I’m going to be jumped by creatures who try to poison me. While more of a genre I enjoy isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it has become a tad disheartening to crack open a brand new game and feel like I already know exactly how 90% of it’s going to go because everyone’s using the same bag of tricks and tropes. And look, I know every time I review another one of these things, I always gripe about how absolutely flooded with new entries this genre is, but it really does bear repeating.

For mac download Lords of the Fallen