Lords of the Fallen makes some significant changes and additions to the usual Soulslike co-op formula, and the head of developer Hexworks reckons it makes the RPG's multiplayer just plain "better than other Soulslikes."
Executive producer and Hexworks boss Saul Gascon touched on Lords of the Fallen's co-op systems in a recent Q&A stream (around 47 minutes in). Stream host and Soulslike content creator FightinCowboy asked about potential changes to co-op based on player feedback, and while Hexworks is collecting feedback on multiplayer, Gascon says "we're not gonna change the essence of the game."
"We're not gonna make it like Remnant, you know what I mean," he adds. "That's a great game. But we will do some things to improve the experience if they make sense." One immovable design pillar, for instance, is protecting the continuity of a host's world from potential trolling, which limits the potential of co-op campaigns.
"What is important, right now, if you compare this to any other Soulslike, is we are more flexible with our co-op options," Gascon asserts. "You can start playing and we don't disconnect you when you defeat a boss or reach a certain area, we don't block you with fog walls. 'No, you're not gonna go out of here in co-op.' You can explore the whole world together. You can go back to your world with everything you retrieved. Level up, any items the enemies drop, weapons, gear, consumables.
"The reality is that what we have, what we offer, especially in the context of Soulslikes, is probably the best co-op design that is out there, the most flexible of all of them. Can we improve it? Yes, of course. We always try to do that. We went very classic on our original approach and our launch. You have a host and a client, when the client dies the client is gone. But then we have the resurrection, using the Sanguinarix, to give even more flexibility, let's make it even better.
"What is the limit? What can we reach? That's something we will see with time. What is important right now, sorry, I don't want to sound cocky, it's just better than other Soulslikes. That's the bottom line."
Reception to Lords of the Fallen's co-op has been mixed to positive, with some players citing disconnection and performance issues, and others complaining about the reduced XP that partners receive compared to hosts. Many players have drawn comparisons to Remnant 2, which is a true shared-world co-op experience, in the way Lords of the Fallen lets you get normal drops but not story essentials like boss loot in co-op.
However, some folks have been enjoying co-op just fine, often by playing through each other's worlds in alternation. To be fair to Hexworks, this is still more freedom than what most Souls games and Soulslikes offer, and the experience does line up with the description given before launch, though the studio's claims of "seamless co-op" seem to have set some folks up for disappointment.
Our Lords of the Fallen review notes that its "aspirations to be Dark Souls 4 might have been a little ambitious," but our own Joel Franey still found it to be fine Soulslike with a few clever ideas. Another resident Soulslike enthusiast reckons it's not perfect, but its flashes of Dark Souls 2 and Soul Reaver give it some real heart.
Our Lords of the Fallen best class explainer will help you survive the realms of the dead and the living.
