Lords of the Fallen releases in October and new footage is unashamedly Soulslike

Lords of the Fallen, formerly known as The Lords of the Fallen, will release on October 13. That's according to a new trailer, embedded above, which bears an unashamed whiff of From Soft grandeur. It's all there: opaque and exquisitely accented narration, grim Book of Revelation vibes, a place called "Mournstead" and, of course, a glimpse of the gameplay itself.

It looks pretty good. The environments range from fiery hellscapes through to resplendent green forests through to the obligatory ice area. We all know by now that a Soulslike can look the part and still not be very good, which is kind of what happened with the first Lords of the Fallen game. It's all about how it feels, and how those environments come together.

Tyler had a hands-off session earlier in the year, so while he's seen more of the game than us, the question of how it plays is still an open one. Based on what the trailer shows, it's promising: there's a flash-looking quick dodge, seemingly a jump button, and in addition to polearms, swords and giant hammers, also a fire-spouting staff. The baddies are big and ugly and full of telegraphed attacks. It is unmistakably Soulslike. Not a particularly original-looking take, but whoever decided on the Iron Maiden backing track deserves a raise.

During the aforementioned hands-off session, Tyler was most impressed by Lords of the Fallen's graphics. "Lords of the Fallen was built in Unreal Engine 5, and it's the first game I've seen that genuinely looks like one of the tech demos Epic's been showing off," he wrote. He also learned about the vast interconnected "semi open world" and a child mage who unleashes "horrific crowd control".

Pre-orders are now live on Steam, if you're of a pre-ordering persuasion, and come with some exclusive "armour tincts" as well as free in-game XP, HP and MP items.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.