I’m a huge Soulsborne fan, but few other Soulslikes aside from FromSoftware’s premium catalogue have ever really “done it” for me. Some come close, but they’ve all lacked some ethereal element that makes them truly stand out. FromSoft’s quality isn’t just the unforgiving mechanics and cool boss designs, but it’s also an enigmatic and at times unsettling tone that makes their settings so compelling. Based on the recently released demo,Lies of Pseems to understand the assignment perfectly, striking a key balance between punishing combat, creepy enemy design, and a haunted setting filled to the brim with mystery and intrigue. The demo, released during Summer Game Fest opening night live, has kindled a thought: at last, this is a non-FromSoftware Soulslike to get really excited over.
Steampunk Fairytale Meets Bloodborne
Lies of P wears its inspirations proudly on its chest. The game is a mix ofBloodborne’s gothic horror fused with a Steampunk aesthetic, and all used to convey a twisted retelling of the Pinocchio fairytale. It’s always been a bizarre pitch, and one that raised my eyebrow back at its initial reveal in May 2021. I generally know better than to gettooexcited about a game tease, especially when I know it’ll likely be years away until it comes out — if it releases at all. It wasn’t until its gameplay trailer in December 2022 that I really took notice; it was promising everything I crave in a Soulslike.
Other such contenders have disappointed me in the past, though. While I can enjoy evenokSoulslikes, they all left me a bit disappointed for one reason or another. The balance of those key elements is crucial to what I’m looking for. TheNiohseries has excellent combat and boss design, but the setting never really grabbed me. Mortal Shell’s setting and tone reminded me so strongly of Dark Souls, but the combat felt a bit rough — each other Soulslike I’ve tackled was missing some piece of what makes the FromSoftware games great — incredible combat, cool/creepy enemies, complex level design, and engrossing setting and lore.
Once the demo dropped, I jumped at a chance to try Lies of P for myself. The demo covered the first several hours of the game, and I’m thrilled to say: Ilovedwhat I played.
The setting reminded me a bit of something like aBioshockgame meets Bloodborne; you “wake up” in a city undergoing a mechanical revolt. The very thing that made the city exceptional (the mechanical puppets) have turned against the city’s inhabitants. Everywhere you look, you see the carnage and devastation left in their wake. You see notes revealing the panic of survivors. You find scattered items, each sporting a small enigmatic detail about the world — each one piece of the larger narrative puzzle. Oh, and a mysterious plague is also sweeping through the city, causing many inhabitants to flee or hole up in select locations — sounds familiar, right? The city of Krat evokes Bloodborne’s Yharnam, but only in part; it feels much more advanced, with more of a clockwork Paris vibe compared to Yharnam’s gothic London.
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The level design I experienced in those first few hours was fairly linear but suitably maze-like, with a familiar rhythm of exploring winding paths that cut through the city, dealing with multi-enemy encounters, and eventually unlocking a shortcut or new route to bypass the previous longer one. Even with the linear paths, the level design felt clever, rewarding a curious mind (like finding ambushes from another angle and thwarting them). The environments felt varied enough for traveling through similar sections of the city, going from abandoned city squares to a run-down carnival and a posh hotel, traversing across rooftops and beyond. The locations all felt cohesive and well-suited to the setting, but I am hoping for a bit more distinct location variety in the full release.
The Combat Shows Promise
The clockwork enemies you encounter are unsettling. They don’t move like living things, but rather like malfunctioning mechanical beings. What were once policemen, helpers, servants, and entertainment were now stained with blood and twitching unnaturally as they shambled toward you. These unnatural movements, so perfectly showcasing the malfunctioning mechanical monstrosities in the setting, do a fantastic job of forcing you to learn their movements. The game values and encourages aggression (like Bloodborne). The basic enemies were easily staggered, but they also could land some devastating blows if left unchecked, and getting swarmed could quickly send you back to the last Stargazer (bonfire).
I can’t say this quite feels on par with the combat fluidity I’ve come to expect from FromSoftware’s installments. It takes heavy inspiration from Bloodborne (and a bit fromSekiro), but the dodge has a clunky edge to it. At the end of the demo, there’s an opportunity to begin upgrading it, which seemed promising — I’d love to see it fleshed out more the deeper into the game you get. The perfect parry system definitely seems like the intended main method of avoiding damage, much like Sekiro, but the parry window was razor-thin, making for a frustrating learning curve. When I finally got a good feel for it, it felt good, but never quite as satisfying as rapidly parrying attacks in Sekiro. The muddy dodge and perfect parry left me somewhat wary on those elements, but the overall package still seriously impressed me. The possibility of upgrading some of these core abilities also excites me quite a bit; I wish the dodge was better from the jump, sure, but if I can tweak and customize to suit my personal play style as the game winds on, I’m very on board with that.
The first boss in the demo forced me a bit back on my heels, eyeing his strange movements, dodging delayed and lightning-fast attacks, sneaking in attacks when I could, all while managing my stamina meter. You’ll still need to be aggressive, though; the game utilizes a kind of health recovery mechanic that restores some lost health after not being attacked for a short time — this is quickened by repeated attacks (Bloodborne fans should be familiar with this, though it’s got some unique aspects). I consider myself pretty good at these games, and this boss sent me through the usual spiral:
Until I did. I’m not good at Soulslikes because I’ve got superhuman finger reflexes. I’m “good” at them because I’m persistent. I love the process of keeping at it, dying over and over again, gaining the necessary muscle memory over time to eventually finish the fight filled with that grim satisfaction of having defeated something that gave me so much grief. This unique euphoria I get from FromSoftware’s games…Lies of P gave me that same frustration into satisfaction pipeline that I love, and it’s dressed up in a beautifully surreal and creepy setting that I absolutely must immerse myself in.
What It Brings To The Table
While quite a bit of the game feels ripped straight out of Bloodborne — right down to regaining health with repeat attacks, the stat screen, and the item descriptions — the game also provided some innovations that felt exciting and unique to the setting. The game has a pretty fun weapon durability system (it’s cool, I promise). Your weapon wears down pretty quickly in combat, to the point that it could become an issue if you’re not careful. But, you’re able to sharpen your weapon in the crook of your mechanical arm, sending sparks as you use it like a grinder. It’s a quick process, looks freaking awesome, adds an interesting complication during fights when I forget to ‘top off’ beforehand, and it offers a cool visual flourish in between encounters.
Speaking of your mechanical arm, known as the Legion Arm in the game, it can also be customized to sport various abilities, from issuing an electrical charge to a grapple that will pull enemies in close for a quick kill. While on its face, this feels ripped right out of Sekiro (or let’s face it, any number of games with a cool arm weapon), the system feels extremely fitting to the setting; it’s not something to spam in combat, but a super-powerful ability to be used a handful of times before requiring rest.
The weapons themselves also have some very fun customization options. Each one is divided into two parts: the blade and the handle. Each of these came with their own unique abilities, and the hilt actually changed the weapon’s moveset. While the demo offered a slim set of weapons, the game at release will boast30 basic weapons and more than 100 combinations, allowing for some varied customization options that the Dark Souls fan in me adores.
You also have an interesting hip companion, Gemini (Jiminy Cricket) — who seems to be a kind of program/AI housed in a hip lantern. He doubles both as a light source in dark places as well as a bit of a narrative guide at times. He gave me vibes of Navi fromOcarina of Time, but he wasn’t quite as disruptive as she could be.
Beyond the combat mechanics, the tone of the game is just… charming — in a wonderfully creepy sort of way. The loading bar is a silhouette of Pinocchio’s nose growing across the screen. The inability for puppets to lie is a major element in the narrative, being one of several rules binding the programming of mechanical puppets (kind of like Asimov’s Laws of Robotics). Your character is unique, both in your extremely human appearance and your unique ability to lie. A main conceit of the game is these choice-based moments wherein you must choose whether to tell the truth or tell a lie; these will range from smaller, immediate repercussions to major story shifts (that’s my impression based on the demo, at least).
So much of this demo is quite simply a taste of what the game offers — a promise toward further depth and complexity as the game winds on — and I know not to fully board the hype-train just yet, but I can’t help but feel giddy with excitement over what I experienced playing. If the game manages to deliver the promises it’s set up in the early hours of the game, this very well could be the first non-FromSoftware Soulslike to earn a place among my favorites. I think this game has a very real chance of surprising a number of fans of the genre, and with a release only a few months away (September 19), we won’t have terribly long to wait to find out.
