Lords of the Fallen couldn’t work without the power of PS5, Xbox Series X/S: “The timing is perfect”
Lords of the Fallen blurs the line between life and death, but its developer did not want to do the same with the lines between console generations.
One of Lords of the Fallen’s biggest and most exciting features is the ability to pass from the land of the living (Axiom) into the land of the dead (Umbral) on a whim. You can’t come back as easily – you need special, sacrosanct places to do that. But when you’re in Axiom, you carry around a lantern that allows you to peer into the world of the undead whenever you want, unpicking the fabric between worlds and seeing what’s different on the other side.
Given there are unique pathways, enemies, characters, treasures and (I hope) bosses on each side of the living/dead divide, you’re going to want to make use of this spectral little lightbox fairly often. Even in my brief hands-on with the game, the developer cajoled me into peering into the abyss multiple times – you need to utilise this lamp if you want to solve puzzles, unlock shortcuts, sniff out the best way through to your next victim. Or maybe you're going to figure out what's different when you die, since you're going to be fighting your way back through the inky realm when you shuffle off the mortal coil.
But of course, rendering two worlds at once and streaming two environmental sets of data is no mean feat. And, if it wasn’t for the unique featureset afforded by the hardware of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, it very likely couldn’t happen at all.
“It was a blessing for us, really, the new generation of consoles,” explains head of studio and executive producer at Hexworks, Saul Gascon. “The mix of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S and Unreal Engine 5… it was just [mimics a holy angel noise]. You know when the stars align? That hardware, and the ease of use with Unreal Engine 5 – we could not have done this without them.”
Gascon explains that it’s, specifically, the interactions between worlds that the team wanted to target with this game – that the Umbral part of Lords of the Fallen is the keystone upon which every other element of the game rests. “Narratively and mechanically, it’s integral. Streaming in both worlds at the same time and being able to interact with both? That’s why we’re only launching on these platforms, right?” he says. “Because if we try and put this on older hardware, it’s not going to work. You’re gonna pop into the Umbral and you’ll see like… black and white, or something. Or nothing! [laughter]”
Cezar Virtosu, creative director at Hexworks, jumps in to add: “We can put Lords of the Fallen on your dishwasher if you want, but it depends how pretty you want it to look! [laughter] It’s all about immersion. In the end, technology (be it hardware or engine) needs to serve immersion. You need to be immersed, and there needs to be no friction with the technology. You die, pop into Umbral, it all needs to be there.”
So, is it worth it? Yes. Myself and other media types at the event chatted in the holding area about how well the game looked. Though there were some performance hiccups and stuttering in the demo, I’m putting that down to the code being unstable – it’s still months away from launch, after all. The actual gameplay is butter smooth, and the visuals (replete with a Medieval cosmic horror aesthetic that’d make even Bloodborne blush) are stunning.
If Lords of the Fallen represents what Unreal Engine 5 is capable of as we head into the latter end of the current console generation, we’ve got a lot to look forward to. Better yet, like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and the upcoming Alan Wake 2, seamless loading and leveraging the power of the SSDs has been a promise we’ve not really seen played with in creative ways, so far (perhaps that’s because so many games have also been weighed down by the albatross of last-gen).
Lords of the Fallen, as well as being a great game in its own right, could soon be held up as an example of what current-gen games can achieve when they leave the baggage of the past behind. As a game taking place 1000 years in the future of its own namesake, for Lords of the Fallen, the concept could not be more apt.
Lords of the Fallen arrives October 13 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.