What is the Lords of the Fallen release date? Having initially been announced as ‘Lords of the Fallen 2’, CI Games’ action-RPG souls-like has morphed from a sequel into a fully-fledged reboot that simply goes by ‘Lords of the Fallen’. Lords of the Fallen will see you traverse through the two parallel worlds of Axiom and Umbral, slaying all manner of enemies and bosses as you go. And after a long and messy development cycle, the Lords of the Fallen release date is rapidly approaching
While this isn’t going to be the Lords of the Fallen you know from 2014, it could, in fact, be a lot better thanks largely to the dynamism between Axiom and Umbral. And if that makes you excited to take on the Lords of the Fallen bosses, here’s when you can expect to play what could be one of the best RPG games of 2023.
Lords of the Fallen release date
The Lords of the Fallen release date is Friday, October 13, 2023, with the game releasing on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam PC. This was announced in a new gameplay trailer that arrived in May 2023.
The game won’t come to last-gen consoles or Nintendo Switch as it is a current-gen exclusive title. While this is unfortunate news for those hoping to play on last-gen console, hopefully, it will result in a more polished and impressive title.
Having originally been announced all the way back in December 2014 as ‘Lords of the Fallen 2’, Lords of the Fallen has had quite the development cycle. In 2015 publisher CI Games confirmed that the original game’s developer, Deck13 Interactive, would not be at the helm this time around.
After a few years stuck in the concept stage, CI handed off development to Defiant Studios, with the scope to scrap the pre-existing groundwork in favor of starting from scratch. A year later, things had already gone south, and Defiant was dropped for the “inadequate” handling of the game.
In 2020, CI founded Hexworks, bringing development in-house once more under the fledgling studio. Though the 2023 game was briefly named ‘Lords of the Fallen The Dark Crusade’, this was condensed to what we have now as it didn’t quite match up with the game’s nature as a full reboot. While The Dark Crusade does make for a cool moniker, it makes perfect sense that Hexworks would want to go with a completely blank slate seeing as Lords of the Fallen will undoubtedly be a very different experience to the original game.
Lords of the Fallen story
After an age of the cruelest tyranny, Adyr has been defeated and, eons later, his resurrection draws near. As one of the fabled Dark Crusaders, you will journey through both the realms of the living and the dead, challenging colossal threats along the way.
In the Official Story Trailer, which aired at Gamescom 2023, we are introduced to a Dark Crusader losing a 1v1 against the breathy Lightreaper, resulting in his head flying across the screen.
As the trailer progresses, we’re introduced to numerous denizens of Axiom and Umbral, including the pious Tancred – someone who looks to be a major boss encounter – and the head cage-toting Sophesia. What role the latter will have in the story remains to be seen, though judging from traditional souls-like cadence we’re sure it can’t be good.
Lords of the Fallen gameplay
The Lords of the Fallen will feature the familiar souls-like experience, with seamless Lords of the Fallen co-op multiplayer for the first time in the series. There are more than 100 brutal weapons to choose, from metal to arcane attacks, and a total of nine character classes with full customization options for your character. As creative director Cezar Virtosu confirms to us as part of a recent interview, Lords of the Fallen will also feature “more than 30 bosses, [and] around half have multiple phases”.
In addition to regular combat, your lantern possesses the ability to cross between the overworld of Axiom and the cloaked parallel world of Umbral. Virtosu also explains to us that the lantern offers a sort of “detective mode” which allows you to see that which cannot typically be seen with your eyes alone. We can imagine it’ll manifest in a similar way to Eagle Vision in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, or Elemental Sight in Genshin Impact.
Umbral will not only be used as a traversal and puzzle-solving mechanic, but will also act as a purgatory for your character. If your health bar drops to zero, you will be given a chance at resurrection if you can find an anchor point in the Umbral realm before it’s too late. If you do die in Umbral though, you will suffer a true souls-like death and will lose any earned progress. The gameplay from the Future Games Showcase Summer 2023 gives us a better idea of how this works.
If you’re after something more concrete than teasers and trailers, then be sure to check out our extensive Lords of the Fallen preview coverage. Echo says that “combat feels on par with the Dark Souls games, and the world design, creature design, and lore are incredibly strong and striking”. Sam, meanwhile, praises its “enriched” combat, “deep character creation suite, and two gorgeous worlds”.
As the Lords of the Fallen release date nears, you can expect even more gameplay from the game to be shown off. Will this be one of the best PS5 RPG games or the best Xbox RPG games when it drops? We hope that CI Games gives the series the redemption arc it deserves after the first game didn’t quite hit the mark for many.