A beautiful English proverb says that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Or admiration. If someone imitates your work, they probably like it. And when this trend reaches such proportions that it gives birth to its own genre, named after, for example, one of your games, you can be sure that you have written an indelible letter in history.
Soulsborne, Soulslike, or popularly Soulslike, are now synonymous with a range of titles that have taken inspiration from the legendary Dark Souls games from the genre’s creators and consummate masters at Japan’s FromSoftware and attempted to replicate their formula in many different ways (and with many different results). ), including science fiction variations, which, of course, could not help but appear. We’d even find a Czech trace in the form of the lukewarmly received The Last Oricr, although it underwent significant changes during its complex development, and the self-confessed original Czech Dark Souls, also called Lost Hero, eventually evolved into something significantly different that, simply out of habit, can be called a soul girl. Of course, this is not a criticism of that game, but just a statement of what the authors themselves finally admit.
At a certain point, the mania surrounding the Soulsborne games reached such a level that a number of games that were not intended as such ended up in that box against their will, and ended up in it perhaps only on the basis of some superficial similarity or desire. , who is often the father of the idea. And sometimes disappointment. At the same time, however, a number of other games quite deliberately adopted, if not the concept of Soulsborne as such, then at least some of its typical elements, either because it made the game more attractive, or because they were simply good. In short, soul songs are still a living phenomenon, the imprints and inspiration of which can be found to a greater or lesser extent in many places today, and anyone who said that this was not the case would be lying. And those who lie may grow a long nose. Like Pinocchio, for example. And if anyone asks what the long-nosed Pinocchio has to do with this topic, I will answer in three words: Lie P.
Lies of P not only resembles Bloodborne at the beginning. Visually and emotionally. From the very first moments, this is facilitated by various details, including the movements of the thin main character, his clothing or the environment, which perhaps cannot help but resemble the opening location of Joseph’s Clinic. Connoisseurs of the aforementioned Bloodborne will also be pleased with the small lantern hanging from the belt, the very familiar graphical interface, or a close look at the offer of three starting builds (balance, agility and strength) and the accompanying characteristics of your character. But of course there are differences here. For example, there is a pool of blood on the floor, and instead of it there is one mechanical arm. Your. Left. All you have to do is equip your first cool weapon and go in search of more. And this weapon will be useful to you, because, as the mysterious voice of a certain Sophia rather ominously warns you at the very beginning, the streets here are dangerous. How is Yharnam, I ask myself? There’s only one way to find out…
The starting location in the form of a train station will very soon answer any questions and doubts regarding how similar Lies of P is to Bloodborn in terms of gameplay, and not just aesthetics. Here you will find analogies for everything that is so familiar. On the first mobs you can try out basic attacks, movement and cover without much difficulty. But the very first mini-boss you’ll encounter very soon, significantly tougher and grimmer than his counterparts, will likely introduce you to something more important – how death works in this game. You know, when you die, lose the accumulated experience and return to the nearest “bonfire” (and not to some checkpoint), from where you again have to fight your way through revived enemies, it’s probably a little strange to be happy about it. But that’s exactly what happened to me. Why? Because a souls game without challenges is just an empty shell. The best thing about these games is that they want something more from you. That it can force it with its difficulty, that it can turn disappointment into motivation and test your will and determination, but it can also reward your efforts with a sweet feeling of satisfaction. That it’s not enough to just somehow play them, you have to learn them.
It’s a Rubicon whose successful crossing separates the wheat from the chaff in my eyes, and the first few hours of The Lie P give me hope that it has succeeded in this step. The combat system is clearly focused on an aggressive, maneuverable and offensive concept. Although you have cover, it does not provide 100% damage absorption and so the way to survive is through good movement, tricks and good timing. Healing is based on the same principle as in Bloodborne. With timely enemy intervention, you can regain some of your lost health, but beyond that, of course, you also have a limited number of healing bottles or more suitable energy cells for the mechanical puppet, which you can gradually replenish with a successful attack after they are depleted. therefore the game forces you to be most aggressive when it is most dangerous for you. Or maybe it will motivate you to play a little better and prefer not to get into such trouble in the first place.
The demo version of Lies of P offers about 4 hours of exploration of several locations in the city of Krat, the visuals and architecture of which cannot leave anyone in doubt that we are dealing with a completely obvious and recognized clone of Bloodborne, to such an extent that with Pri In the right screenshots, you might not even be able to tell Kratos from Yarkhan apart by squinting. A similar color palette, street lamps, overturned carriages, horse corpses, burning fires or stray dogs (which are really no man’s friend here) all touch the right chords, and the game slowly but surely draws you into its traps. Of course, the overall architecture and many elements are original, and the authors follow their own fairly clear artistic, visual and story path, but so far it seems that they have chosen a very, very similar direction.
However, the combat system itself or your character’s movements, at least at first glance, don’t feel as precise or intuitive as you’d like in a game like this. The jumps have a strange delay, they are slow and… short. Of course, parrying is always practice, but in Lies of P it seems a little inconsistent. Additionally, the type of dodge differs depending on whether you have an enemy blocked or not. The authors also added what they call Fable Arts to the game, which are weapon skills similar to Elden Ring’s Ashes of War or a prosthetic arm, all of which create a combination of options that, especially early on, you’ll have to get used to in the heat of battle. This, coupled with the feeling of having less control over your character, can lead to some frustration with your first boss, but it’s true that, especially in these types of games, practice makes perfect and there’s usually a bug at some point. the critical point is when you get into the gameplay and that’s when the real fun begins. At the same time, this is only a demo version for now and I think that the developers will finalize a number of such nuances based on feedback.
Owners of older builds will be pleased with the very good optimization. After all, the recommended (not minimum) requirements include an eighth-gen Core i7 or RTX 2060 or equivalent in the form of an AMD Radeon RX 6700, which is more than acceptable, even with the relatively impressive graphics. The demo version of Lies of P shows promise, and if the full version maintains the same quality throughout the double length and avoids unnecessary mistakes, this soul song could become one of the best. We’ll see on September 19, when the game releases for PC (Steam), both generations of PlayStation, as well as Xbox, where it will also be included in the Game Pass subscription.
Source :Indian TV
