Lords of the Fallen 2 is a grimdark soulslike sequel of biblical proportions

Lords of the Fallen is one of my favorite comeback stories of recent times. After countless bug fixes, iterative updates, and even complete system overhauls, what started life as a middling souslike grew into something greater, and its exquisite 2.0 update was its crowning achievement. Now that the rebooted soulslike has been put to rest, it's time to focus on what comes next. For CI, that's Lords of the Fallen 2, and, wow, its opening gambit at Gamescom Opening Night Live looks incredible.

Channeling the tribulations only the best soulslike games can offer, CI Games took the path of most resistance after Lords of the Fallen launched. While Will commended its "enjoyably grimdark" feel in his Lords of the Fallen review, its over-reliance on FromSoft beats and litany of bugs left it feeling like a hollow reproduction, rather than an entity that could stand proudly among the best of the best.

After hoovering up the feedback with Dyson-esque eagerness, CI published one of the most comprehensive roadmaps I've ever seen, and swiftly got to work. After nearly 18 months of updates, one of which included over 100 bug fixes, Lords of the Fallen was finally complete. Its 2.0 update felt like a completely different game to the one I had dropped out of disappointment over a year before. Judging from what I've seen and read about Lords of the Fallen 2 so far, the studio is understandably keen to avoid replicating the sins of its predecessor.

"After selling over 2 million units and welcoming over 5.5 million Lampbearers into Lords of the Fallen, it's clear our comeback was community-powered," says CI CEO Marek Tyminski. "With Lords of the Fallen 2, we're going further. In 2024 we proudly announced our deep
commitment to be a player-first studio. The 2.0 update was our promise in action: listen, respond, and deliver. This sequel is built on that same foundation."

Set 100 years after the events of Lords of the Fallen, Lords of the Fallen 2 is a standalone experience that we'll be able to delve into without playing the original. The studio says that the game's been developed "in direct response to community feedback," so expect optional PvP, custom game modifiers, and more gore than ever before.

Like Lords of the Fallen, CI's latest is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, so let's collectively pray for a well-optimized experience. While it's unclear if one-copy co-op is back on the menu for LotF 2, it will at least support full shared campaign progression in online co-op from the jump.

In the above trailer, we see a new Lampbearer take to a "deadlier, expanded Umbral" than we've seen before. CI says there'll be two "fully explorable parallel realms," though it remains to be seen if Axiom will return. The visuals are extremely cool, matched only by the heft of its sound design - do you want some squelch with your squelch?

I particularly love the section where the Lampbearer takes on the angelic entity. Not just because of the cutting juxtaposition between darkness and light, but because her wings are made of arms, and that's delightfully fucked up. The biblical imagery of her holding him as a crucifix would is top drawer.

CI hasn't offered any indication of when Lords of the Fallen 2 will drop, so we'll most likely be waiting a while yet. When it does arrive, you'll be able to play it on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Until then, keep yourself busy with more of the best RPGs you can play right now, and peep more of the upcoming PC games you can expect to hear about throughout Gamescom.

If you're as gassed to see Lords of the Fallen 2 materialize at Gamescom as I am, drop into our community Discord server and let us know.