Today, the release of the much-awaited soulslick Lies of P from the Neowiz studio took place, and therefore I propose to look at it from different angles as part of this review and understand whether the game is worthy of purchase. Let’s start, as usual, with appearance and performance.
Sergeant Grafouni and Major Optimizouni
Lies of P was developed on the well-known Unreal Engine 4, new releases on which often suffer greatly from stutters, and therefore many had very reasonable concerns about them in Lies of P. A little later, information about implementation into the game was added to all this Denuvo, which also often causes problems with game performance. So what do we have here?
Everything is surprisingly great. The game looks very good and has no performance issues at all even after adding Denuvo. Comparative testing of two game builds (review and release) showed that my system on AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and Radeon RX 6800 XT in both cases provides a solid 60 frames per second at 4K resolution and 60 lock enabled. Without limitation, the undervolted RX 6800 XT renders about 74 frames per second on average and 67 in 1%. I didn’t notice any stutters during my entire playthrough of the game. I spent very little time with the build of the game with Denuvo and therefore cannot vouch for the total stability of the game, but the first locations also did not show any problems and the experience was generally identical.
As for the picture itself, the developers did not add ray tracing to the project, which would force players to use upscalers, but they made high-quality “baked” lighting and shading, and also tightened high-polygon models into textures with high resolution and detail, which allows the game to look Very good. The locations in the game, of course, are corridors, but the developers did not skimp on the rendering distance, and therefore everything always looks decent even from a distance.
An interesting detail in the picture is that the hero’s clothes get dirty in machine oil from the defeated robots, but are easily “washed” in the rain. Also, in the rain, you can see the gradual wetting of clothes. The details, of course, are not the most necessary, but their presence does not harm anything and even adds a little points to the immersion.
Against the backdrop of poorly optimized releases, Lies of P can be called without a twinge of conscience a game completely ready for release, which is, at least, unusual in 2023.
As for the bonuses for owners of weak video cards, in addition to excellent optimization, the game has DLSS and FSR 2, which will allow you, if necessary, to play on a monitor with a higher resolution or to reach the coveted 60 frames per second in the base resolution. I also note that the implementation of FSR in the game is excellent, the developers did their best.
Plot and world
The game tells the story of how the machines, for a certain reason, went crazy and staged a full-scale uprising with the accompanying extermination of their leather masters. The premise, as you understand, does not bring anything new in itself, but the plot as a whole does not have enough stars in the sky, and therefore I highly recommend not expecting any revelations from it. I’ll also clarify that most of the player’s decisions have almost no impact on the plot outline. At the same time, getting acquainted with the game’s lore, on the contrary, is quite interesting.
In addition to the main plot in the game, of course, there are additional quests that will allow the player to meet characters who otherwise would not be able to be seen, but by skipping these tasks you will not lose anything important.
Game process
Let’s be honest, no one expected Lies of P to be some kind of atypical soulslick, right? Actually, it is not something atypical, and therefore the player receives all the basic mechanics from rolling and parrying to a limit on the number of heals and a local analogue of fires.
To destroy opponents, the player has access to a very good arsenal of weapons, which range from swords and sabers to hammers and electric coils. For the set, the hero has a metal arm, of which there are also several types in the game, and each has its own distinctive features. In general, there is plenty to put together a build to suit your playing style; the scope is huge. Another object of customization, by the way, is the handles, which additionally change the fighting style of the selected weapon.
As for the mechanics that allow you to avoid damage, the developers definitely gave preference to parrying, which allows you not only to avoid getting hit in the neck, but also to stun the enemy, but the window for parrying is very small, and therefore I recommend starting from the very beginning to learn how to perform it correctly the start of your walkthrough. Believe me, this will come in handy on bosses.
Speaking of bosses. Fans of the genre are well aware that to successfully beat a boss, you need to remember the patterns of his attacks and hit in the intervals between them. This scheme has not been changed in any way in Lies of P, but after the second or third boss the game will force you to use not dodging and rolling, but parrying, which is more difficult to execute, but at the same time it will be easier to defeat the boss with it. It is also worth using throwing weapons in battle, which are sometimes quite effective against bosses, and therefore it is recommended to save them until you meet them.
Separately, I will say that the design of these same bosses is simply magnificent. I liked Steelrising for similar things, but this game had a lot of problems, and optimization was not introduced there, and Lies of P does not make the same mistakes.
Sound
Separately, I would like to note the high-quality soundtrack of Lies of P. And now we are talking not only about music, but about sound design in general. Hitting enemies and the hero, as well as the movement of cars and the character – everything sounds just great. I will also say that the voice actors in Lies of P did a very good job.
This is important for many, and therefore I will additionally clarify that the game has been completely translated into Russian in the text, but has not received voice acting in Russian.
conclusions
Lies of P turned out to be a really solid game and a very good representative of its genre. At the same time, we have one of the few modern games that is also perfectly optimized, and, despite the use of UE4, is not susceptible to stutters at all.
As a result, we have a project with excellent visual design, excellent optimization, high-quality sound, and a well-assembled gameplay with an eye on FromSoftware projects.
As for the minuses, the main plot and additional quests can hardly be called interesting. Also, the short parry window can cause an indecent amount of problems for players inexperienced in the genre.
Grade
