Updates for Lords of the Fallen are being rolled out at a swift pace, with the latest being version 1.1.224, bringing substantial modifications to Hexworks’ Soulslike game. The most significant shift comes in the form of changes to New Game Plus. As Hexworks detailed on Steam, starting from this update, after finishing the initial gameplay, players will now be given a choice before their next run. They can either proceed to the next level (for instance, from NG+1 to NG+2), or redo their current level with the same difficulty level while keeping their character, items, and progression. The world, including NPCs and quests, gets reset. This provides a respite to trophy hunters and completionists, allowing them to complete any remaining tasks without dealing with an increase in difficulty level.
Furthermore, another update is scheduled for Thursday, October 26 that will introduce additional changes to the New Game Plus mode. Instead of entirely erasing all vestiges, only several will vanish in NG+1 while crucial locations remain. In NG+2, more will disappear, and in NG+3, everything except the main HUB (Skyrest Bridge) and Adyr’s Shrine vestige will vanish, thus maintaining a slow transition towards our initial vision and presenting increasing levels of challenge.
Lastly, Hexworks announced its commencement of the “NG+ modifier system” design, promising players flexibility in customizing their NG+ experience. This includes options like retaining all vestiges, keeping a few, or having none at all. Other enjoyable modifiers like ‘hardcore’ mode (permanent death after one death), item randomizers, enemy randomizers, and more are planned. While the final feature set is still in the works, Hexworks aims to launch the modifier system by the year’s end.
In other news, Hexworks is addressing the issue of enemy saturation in their recent patch. The revised ‘leashing system’ will limit the pursuit range of enemies, making it less likely for players to be relentlessly chased by hordes of enemies when dashing through a level. Further modifications are expected in Thursday’s update, with a reduction in enemy count in challenging areas. In the first playthrough, these enemies will be absent, but will reappear in NG+ to maintain a higher level of difficulty. Also, some adjustments will ensure that enemies will not swarm the players frequently, and group attacks will be less synchronized and aggressive.
An update regarding crossplay is anticipated to be available on consoles starting today, October 23, and on all platforms by Thursday.
Players have critiqued Lords of the Fallen’s performance since its release, and Hexworks has made significant progress with this patch. The persistent efforts to enhance GPU stability have yielded results, decreasing the crash rates to less than a third of what they were during launch. Collaborations with Nvidia, AMD, and Epic are ongoing to solve all remaining issues reported by the players via Sentry. Major enhancements are expected to roll out this Thursday.
Lastly, Hexworks has addressed the problem of lost progression. They are actively working on a solution for affected players, setting up a team to handle corrupted saves/downgraded characters and restore them to their original level before the issue.
Revised Lords of the Fallen 1.1.224 Patch Notes:
NG+
- A fresh NG+ option has been included that resets the game world, letting you restart with your existing character level in the same world.
Enemy Density
- The revised leashing system ensures enemies stop chasing you after a certain range, preventing overwhelming enemy mobs from forming when you rush through a map area.
Visuals
- Resolved fog card artifacts in places like the Manse of the Hallowed Brothers chapterhouse when Frame Generation was activated.
IGN’s review of Lords of the Fallen describes it as a commendable soulslike, praising its innovative idea of toggling between two world versions to unravel puzzles and defeat enemies. However, the concept’s potential is undermined by various technical glitches and disappointing boss battles. Nonetheless, the game’s superbly explorable areas and exceptional buildcrafting more than compensate for these drawbacks.
