Lords of the Fallen faced a bit of a middling reception when it came out in October, 2023. Myself and many others had a lot to criticise about the launch version, and though some major design issues were never truly fixed, developer Hexworks stuck with it far longer than anyone could’ve predicted.
What many thought would surely be its final update, version 1.7, came out last December and delivered significant improvements to many aspects of the game. Hexworks seemingly wasn’t done, because the game just received yet another major one.
The latest Lords of the Fallen patch is so significant, in fact, that the developer is dubbing it the 2.0 version of the Souls-like action RPG. This one doesn’t just adjust core mechanics and overhauls so much of the game, it also introduces a fantastic new features for newcomers that I don’t think I have seen before in a game of this kind.
CI Games is following in the footsteps of Split Fiction and It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios by offering a Friend’s Pass, which does exactly what you think it would. The pass allows any player to invite a friend – on any platform – who doesn’t own the game, to play in online co-op. As a result, anyone can now download the game for free, create a character, and play the full tutorial – which incidentally has also been redone in this patch. Once that’s done, you’re free to be invited to sessions by anyone who owns the full game.
Progression is a little more tricky to explain, but the developer has made several changes with 2.0 to make that experience viable. Character progress and loot is saved between sessions, but only the host will retain world progression. Within the same playthrough, both players will save mainline story progress individually, defeated bosses, and lit Beacons (Bonfires). Vigor and loot drop for each one individually, and both players can revive each other..
That’s not all, 2.0 is also making several major tweaks to gameplay. There’s now a dedicated jump button! Core combat has been overhauled, too, with refined lock-on, more precise weapon handling, smoother movement with faster evasions, and entirely new sounds for all combat moves. There’s even a new mechanic that lets you use the Umbral Lamp to help guide you to where you should go next.
Elsewhere in this massive updates, you’ll also find a cleaner UI, and some upgrades to the general interface. There’s a host of quality of life updates here, too, such as faster (and automated) Vigor collection and a few other changes to the moment-to-moment flow.
To celebrate this monumentous patch, Lords of the Fallen is currently on sale across all platforms for up to 72% off. Sale periods vary by platform, with some ending as early as April 23 while others going all the way to May 1.
If nothing else, you should definitely download the Friend’s Pass on Steam or your preferred platform, play the tutorial and see how it feels. The patch isn’t live everywhere at the moment, but you should expect it to arrive no later than Monday, April 21.