Kings Of Lorn: The Fall Of Ebris: Video Review Games

Kings of Lorn: The Fall of Ebris, Despite the complex and pretentious name, even before the release attracted attention to its trailers. Judging by them, we expected us Dark Souls from Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Hexen And Heretic – it looked strong. Therefore, I was at least a mind and understood that an independent studio is hardly blinded from this candy, but I was still hoping for the best. And after all it is impossible to say that it is quite disappointed ..

Death immortality

And first of all, it does not disappoint how the authors work with the atmosphere and plot feed. Of all the cracks, the death and decomposition sinks. We fall into the piles of skulls and corpses, we get up, fight under a gray sky and rain with different types of skeletons (there are even horses skeletons), then another boss again throws into the pile of skulls, but in another dimension. And there again – darkness, corpses and full decay, decomposition that felt literally in everything around.

In the atmosphere of gray, rainy despair and darkness, we tell us the appropriate story – about how devoted to his own people, beaten and crumpled King almost crawling in corpses, blood and turtles makes his way through other people’s measurements home to revenge. And everything begins with the fact that it is cruel in detail, with the view from the eye, they demonstrate how the king beat and torture, and his own rector cuts him off his tongue and kicks the king in the portal.

Waking up the king hears a female voice, which then periodically will be to us and say something (although infrequently). The plot is served mainly through rare rollers and dialogues before the battle with another boss da through the records in manuscripts that we sometimes find. And there, in these records, – quite instructive and interesting history, twisted around the idea of immortality and those suffering, a series of murders and betrayals that an attempt turned out to gain him. And they appear in it not individuals, but rather, whole worlds, kingdom and measurements.

Not slashcher and shooter

Such an atmosphere of despair and decomposition and such a campaign to the plot explicitly refer to Dark Souls. Moreover, their infectious and distorted souls fall out of the strongest enemies here, which then can be turned into a very powerful weapon. The souls accumulate, but if after death you will immediately want to revive on Chekpoint, then lose one of them, keeping the progress. If you return to the menu and simply download the last save, then all the enemies will reverse. In this, you see, there is also something from the “spiritual” approach.Typical situation for Hero Kings of Lorn.
Monsters beat very pain – even spiders and some small, similar to the terrible babies of creatures are able to quickly break the hero in the shreds. I have to shy and put blocks in time.

On this similarity with Dark Souls And Dark Messiah of Might and Magic End. IN Kings of Lorn There is no full-fledged role-playing system, there are no diverse techniques (well, except for fading, block and one-sole strike), there is no such thing as endurance. It still does not turn battles into meaningless “creeping” – delays between blows are felt. But also talking about a special depth in slash mechanics.

Here is really honest comparison with Hexen And Heretic. The Fall of Ebris It is similar to the medieval first-person shooter in the setting of Dark Fantasy. The rate is not done on the “skill” of the player, but on the abundance of weapons, among which, in addition to the various epic species of swords, axes and molotov, there are onions with a crossbow, and snoots shooting as an automatic or rocket lacker, and even a local BFG analog that destroysenemies those souls. Yes, in the near battle a little more interactivity, but not so much to talk about a full slash.

Guess yourself

The approach to the game-design here also comes from the end of the 90s – the beginning of zero. Everything comes down to the fact that we are looking for keys from the doors and periodically twitch the levers to open a massive gate or activate something. We also find the statuettes of kings, but why they – for a long time completely incomprehensible.

The game in general really does not explain anything – a lot of energy types falls out of the defeated reptiles, and it is not clear why they are needed (well, except for those that restore health glasses). Have to reach everything experienced by. At the same time, in each vase, it is necessary to find mechilki bottles that immediately fill all the hitpoints, and in the boxes – arrows and arbalt bolts. And nothing else – the whole stimulus for the study of cards rests on the search for manuscripts and figurines for which they do not give anything and which is not clear why.Look for something valuable and insert it in the statue – the usual thing in such games.

Top up balance

However, it’s all nonsense. The gameplay is from the “Beautiful Far” now even in fashion, and there is nothing cramted in the search for keys and pressing on the levers. Moreover, at some levels it is interesting enough.

Much worse that authors Kings of Lorn really do not know how to work with balance and complexity. Enemies beat hard, but when we all in a row, even huge monsters, are able to fill out with one or two shots from the bow or crossbow – it is also abnormal. Moreover, at some point, when my hero got into a new world, the game gave him the whole set of available weapons. I did not understand, it was a bug or “feature”, but in the end the passage is noticeably and somehow disappeared.

Yes, sometimes the difficulty arise anyway – the opponents are a lot, they love to suddenly go from the back, and they are literally a couple of blows enough to send us to the menu or the last reference point (checkpoints, by the way, are not so often found). But still does not leave the feeling of the abnormality of what is happening.Fights brutal, but still rustic.

And again bugs ..

Then, already in another world, all the equipment was taken away and forced to begin again, in fact, with the usual dagger in his hand. Here it is already survived and look for new types of weapons, sometimes punched, it became much more interesting. The level design and the process of searching keys / pushing levers also began to look inventive than before.

But in this case, it is not possible to defeat almost any enemy with the help of a distorted soul to defeat almost any enemy, even the strongest boss, is too powerful weapons, at the level of legalized followed. Yes, and local persecutes are incredibly slaughtered. As a result, a feeling of bewilderment and resentment remain from battles with bosses – somehow uncomfortable in front of them, or ..

Even more obvious trouble The Fall of Ebris – This is how you already understood, bugs and general technical performance. Optimization is lame – with not the most sophisticated (although not deprived of its advantages), the characters, heroes and villains are stuck in the textures, sometimes scripts break and so on.

Something it also looks like Skyrim yes? Only with Hexen mechanics.
***
Kings of Lorn: The Fall of Ebris – game with potential, with an atmosphere, feeling of style and taste and in design, and in the filing of history. But in terms of technical implementation, on study, the deposit of the gameplay and balance is, of course, not yet release, but rather, early version. Pass to the end it can already be – and even get a certain pleasure, but not all of this are caught. The authors, thank God, the game is not thrown, they produce patches, treat bugs and even try to do something with the balance of complexity – for example, introduced different levels. Alas, while this is not enough to realize the full potential of the project.

Pros: In the plot there is intrigue;dense, saturated atmosphere of despair, death and decadence;Gameplay in Spirit Dark Messiah of Might and Magic And Hexen able to cause warm memories from the “old mans”;many steep weapons;memorable moments in location design;Graphics are not outstanding, but quite pretty – especially please the animation of the hands and the study of the parts of the weapon.

Minuses: not all right with optimization and technical performance as a whole;On the release was broken by the balance of complexity;AI enemies sometimes break too;Gameplay from the 90s is often too primitive even by the standards of “Nostalgia Games”.