Lords of the Fallen (2023)

Lords of the Fallen is a 2023 Soulslike action RPG developed by Hexworks and published by CI Games, released October 13, 2023 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. It launched to a Metacritic score of 76 on PC and 71 on PS5 and an OpenCritic rating of “Fair” — and that launch snapshot is precisely what makes this game worth explaining carefully, because the version sold today, after the sweeping 2.0 and final 2.5 updates, is a substantially different product than the one those scores describe. The recurring reddit thread that ranks alongside it in search — “am I missing something, or is Lords of the Fallen…” — exists because both halves of its reputation are true, depending on when you played.

It’s also a reboot with a naming problem: this 2023 game shares its exact title with the 2014 original by Deck13, which it reboots rather than continues. Its own sequel, Lords of the Fallen II, is due in early 2027.

Technical Specifications

Axiom, Umbral, and the Lamp

The one idea nobody disputes: the game runs two complete overlapping worlds at once. Axiom is the world of the living; Umbral is the decayed, hostile world of the dead occupying the same space — and the player’s lantern peels between them, revealing hidden paths, platforms, and horrors in real time. Dying in Axiom drops you into Umbral for a second chance rather than an instant game-over; lingering there escalates its dangers the longer you stay. Even the harshest launch reviews called the mechanic the genre’s best new idea of 2023 — a genuine structural innovation in a field of FromSoftware homages, and one several critics predicted other Soulslikes would borrow from.

Mournstead and the Dark Crusader

As one of the fabled Dark Crusaders, the player crosses the blighted land of Mournstead to overthrow Adyr, the demon god stirring back toward power — a grimdark quest told with FromSoftware-style obliqueness across both realms, with multiple endings tied to faction-flavored choices. The storytelling drew the familiar genre criticism (obtuse by design), while the interlinked world layout — one of the genre’s most shortcut-dense — earned consistent praise.

The Launch Problem

What sank the launch scores wasn’t design but delivery: severe performance problems, especially on PC and in co-op, plus overtuned enemy density and some widely disliked boss balance. Kotaku’s review-roundup framing — 2023’s most divisive Soulsborne — captured the split between critics praising the Umbral concept and those who couldn’t get past the technical state. Steam reviews settled into a long-running “Mixed” that persists today across some 34,000 reviews, a permanent scar from the first months.

The 2.0 Redemption

Hexworks’ response became the game’s second story: more than 30 substantial patches culminating in the 2024 Version 2.0 update — effectively a relaunch, overhauling performance, enemy density, boss encounters, progression, and co-op — followed by the final Version 2.5, which added a Veteran difficulty mode and deadlier boss battles for returning players. Post-2.0 coverage and community sentiment shifted markedly, with later Metacritic user reviews explicitly urging players to disregard launch-era impressions. The turnaround earned Hexworks enough goodwill that CI Games built its sequel’s entire marketing posture around player feedback — including the delay to 2027.

Reception in Hindsight

The balanced verdict, three years on: a launch-day 71–76 that played worse than that, and a current version most genre fans rate meaningfully higher — one of the most complete post-release turnarounds in the Soulslike space, with the permanent caveats of a divisive dual-world pacing structure and the easier-than-FromSoftware difficulty several reviews noted. It sold a million copies in ten days despite everything, validating the reboot commercially and setting up the sequel.

Where to Play It Today

Lords of the Fallen is on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with full-campaign crossplay co-op, and has become one of the genre’s best bargains — routinely discounted below $10-15 in its Standard and Deluxe editions. Anyone deciding based on its Steam “Mixed” rating should read the dates on those reviews first.