Lies of P Preview @LiesofP #LiesofP
In recent years, many game developers were inspired by various aspects of Souldborne game designs. Lies of P are among those that are heavily inspired not only in design but also by gameplay mechanics from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro as well. While it may seem a straight-up clone of those games, the game manages to escape from that by the neck with some new mechanics in the game.
Firstly, the story of Lies of P is inspired by Pinocchio. Not the cute one that Disney made, but the dark and twisted one that was originally written in Italian. In the demo at least, we don’t learn much about which country we live in, but it is safe to assume it is Italy. On the other, we don’t get to control Pinocchio as well, and he is actually the villain of this game.
Geppetto has created many many puppets and you are controlling his latest creation. Due to unknown reasons for now at least, we don’t exactly know but all the other puppets that Geppetto created as gone frenzy and started killing and attacking the people instead of entertaining them. Somehow all this chaos is related to Pinocchio, but we don’t know much and have to wait for the full game to come out.
In general, I can say this was one of the best and most comprehensive demos I’ve played in recent years. Once you play and you manage to beat it, you can solidly decide whether you want to play this game or not. The game shows you everything you should know and learn about a game before buying it.
The most important thing that was bold in all the trailers as well, was the combat. In Lies of P, you have a mechanical left hand which is obviously from Sekiro, and a sword in the right hand. The combat itself however is inspired mostly by Bloodborne which had the concept of aggressively attacking most of the time than blocking or dodging. Matter of fact the game is designed in a way to encourage you into attacking.
When you attack an enemy, a portion of their health is decreased, but a little more is greyed out. Now depending on where you get to attack or your enemy, that greyed area of health will be decreased or restored. The same goes for you. If you block an attack, a portion of your health will be greyed and you have to attack the enemy in order to restore that portion. This will make the stamina management a bit harder though.
In the beginning, the game tells you whether you want to have a build on Dexterity or Strength, or maybe a balanced one. There isn’t a lot of option but I think that is the best. There is a good chance a lot of players coming to Lies of P not having prior knowledge of Souls games and if they included a bunch of different builds, it would only confuse players. I tested out both strength and dexterity. I can assure you that they have significant differences and make sure to take the one that suits you best.
The surprising part of the game was the customization of weapons. Each game in Lies of P has two unique attacks. One is based on the blade and the other is based on the handle. In the game, you have the freedom of mixing the handle and blade from two different swords you bought or found in the game to make an entirely new weapon. In the demo, you have around 5 weapons that if you mix them up will become 25 weapons. Your left mechanical hand can also be changed into different prosthetics as you progress through the game.
I was happy to see three different boss fights in the game as well. Each of them had its unique movesets which is necessary for a Soulslike game. I hope they manage to keep the freshness of enemies and boss fights until the very end. The only issue that I noticed in the demo was in the third boss fight. It seems the main character has a slight delay before dodging. It is like a half of second, but it caused me to die many times. I hope it will be fixed in the final game.
Conclusion
Lies of P has a lot of potentials to become of the best action adventure games of this year. The game genius borrows ideas from Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro and adds a little bit of its own season to make a solid and engaging experience. It is one of my most anticipated games of this year and I hope they manage to keep the quality of the final product as high as the demo.
About the Author
S. Masoud Kazemi An admirer of art that doesn't stop talking about films and games.
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