With Lies of P (Xbox, PS5, PC), a new Soulslike has been released, which many players are already celebrating as “Bloodborne for the PC”. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus played the action RPG… but only got any further with breaks for his pulse.
Despair and contempt. These are the two things I feel when I start Lies of P. Desperation because I know I’m going to get hit hard again. Contempt for myself because I know I kind of enjoy it too.
I’m not sure why, but I’m a sucker for games that just make me suffer. This ranges from roguelites that I can’t win to extremely difficult games like Vermintide to soulslikes – like Lies of P.
Actually, I didn’t necessarily plan on playing the game at all. But it’s on Xbox Game Pass and, according to How Long to Beat, should only last about 30 hours. I’m at 10 hours after 4 bosses and don’t feel like I’m coming to the end any time soon.
Lies of P attracts with a truly fantastic setting: a Victorian town with a story that follows the example of the famous fairy tale Pinocchio. Just brutal. Dolls slaughter people and I as “P” am supposed to save the survivors.
And yes, the game is really fun. But why does it have to? So. Unbelievable. Being heavy?
The trailer makes you pretty excited for Lies of P. But it’s a lot harder than it looks…
For everyone who misses Bloodborne, Lies of P is released today – also check out the launch trailer
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Elite opponents are more unfair than any boss in the game
Like any good Soulslike, there are roughly four types of enemies in Lies of P:
Normal enemies die if you hit them once with a heavy weapon. And like in Dark Souls and Co., they can be fatal if you make really serious mistakes. Nothing new so far.
But everything about that is simply unfair. Elite opponents hit me so hard that I have to be really careful. Minibosses are even worse: They can sometimes delete the entire life bar with one combo, even though I’m playing a build with a relatively high amount of defense and life. Which sadist came up with that?!
I’ve now died more often from mini-bosses and elite enemies than from bosses – with one exception. My absolute nemesis is a flame tin bucket. No other opponent has sent me back to the Bonfire so often.
The exception is the game’s third boss, a discarded security guard doll. The boss pestered me so hard that I ended the game with Alt+F4 and went to the gym to relieve my frustration. Middle of the night.
You can see my ordeal against ONE of these misguided candlesticks here:
Lies of P: A Simple Opponent Breaks Our Editor – Multiple Times
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The game’s greatest strength is also a major weakness
The visuals and setting of Lies of P are what make the game stand out from the Soulslike genre. The tests from GameStar and GamePro already praise exactly that: living puppets as opponents and Krat’s city simply look fantastic.
However, the topic harbors a major problem. While the enemy design is really cool, the automatons’ halting movements make it difficult to read their attacks properly, as is important for Soulslikes.
The result is that the announcements look similar, sometimes identical – especially when it is still dark and raining. Lies of P already relies on a parade system. That means: I have to block at the perfect moment.
A lot of the game’s mechanics are based on this and yes, it’s cool that blocks and parries also work on bosses. This doesn’t work to this extent in the Soulsborne games. But the exact timing is sometimes almost impossible.
Every RPG player’s nightmare: I have to use items!
The really bad thing is that Lies of P only gets harder the more I fail. Because simply “brute forcing”, i.e. hammering through with blunt force, is simply not possible. I have to concentrate and play really well. With every attempt.
More precisely: in certain fights, certain items are almost mandatory. Do you remember the alchemy system from The Witcher 1? Just as. If I know an opponent uses certain attacks or is weak against certain elements, I have to use them. There’s no other way unless I play perfectly. And that… just doesn’t always work.
While all of these powders and resins from Dark Souls were still somehow only intended for minmaxers and speedrunners, but were rarely really necessary, in Lies of P my supplies are running low even with elite opponents and mini-bosses.
“Digga, played for 2 hours and I’m still at the first boss, digga, I don’t mind at all”
Curious as I am, I read a few reviews. In the Xbox app, the game only gets a rating of 2.9 stars. Very unfair, in my opinion, especially since almost all of the negative reviews with one or two stars simply complain about how difficult the game is.
Guys, that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. I found Dark Souls 3 to be tough and Bloodborne perhaps a bit harder. Lies of P really wipes the floor with me. And honestly? That’s okay. Not every game has to take me by the hand.
There are also really cool features like combining weapons and grips for more builds, special “legion weapons” and an expanded skill tree. Much more than with Dark Souls, I can play how I want here.
And I like to play. Because I want to suffer, and because the feeling of reward with Lies of P just hits really hard. Defeating a tough boss or even just getting past a miniboss releases dopamine like getting the first kill on a raid boss.
And as a pleasant side effect, the game might even drive me to the gym more often if I get stuck and start to rage again…
By the way, I’m not imagining that Lies of P is so hard. Even people who should know better are pushed to their limits:
Twitch streamer gets terribly upset about new game, but then he remembers he’s getting paid for it