The industrial city of Krat is your posh Victorian-era steampunk with a scent of chanson. The game looks and performs smoothly, unmuddled by excessive post-effects. That's what I like to see, despite detesting Art Nouveau. I hardly enjoy the look of the gilded decadence, even though, like in Bioshock, here the player is offered a peek into an ongoing catastrophic rebellion. Through the lens of a soulslike. The pomposity of the abandoned expenditure after its fall from grace adds a gloating angle to the luxury porn, portraying its ethical, mechanical, and biological decay. I revelled in its existential implications while admiring horrific spider ladies and evil robot babies. You play as their kin, a puppet named P. Another steel husk brought to life by a magic rock called Ergo. Ergo is a miraculous stone whose power of life mutates humans and brings puppets to life. In this case, it also made them lust for blood en masse.

P himself is set in steel. Apart from the chic robot arm that sticks out no matter the costume, your gear is your mostly linearly upgraded mechanical insides and all things you wear are cosmetic. Dapper, although, I'd prefer armour. But what's with the lies and all? P isn't just retracing Collodi's Pinocchio. It's curious how a simple anecdote that taught kids they'd end up on the gallows if they disobeyed got way deeper with iterations. This iteration is a cautionary tale of what happens when we get ahead of the curve without understanding. That's why P's initial goal is to find his diddy Gepetto, the one who allegedly does. P's interesting moral dilemmas and perfectly voiced characters have some meaty lore on their bones. You'll get to taste it fully since the local quest design isn't obtuse. You're even shown where to go! As for the plot, two emotional beats aside, it left me indifferent due to how boringly it wraps up.A preachy villain I met twice turns a megalomaniac playing God. An obligatory twist ensues.So tired it's barely worth the tag.

But it's the path that matters. On that path, I barely interacted with the environment while invisible walls and unconvincingly insurmountable obstacles kept putting me off my stride. Not to be dramatic, alas, world design isn't P's strongest suit. In fact, it's a set of levels. Light on sidetracking or grandiosity, they're primitive compared to Souls, which doesn't mean they're bad. Each level features some verticality, shortcuts, encounters that would scam the sh#t out of you, and the compelling scenery changes often as you progress. Mostly forward, there's rarely a reason to backtrack. Fun but lacking, the layouts simply aren't that interesting, hiding little to no secrets. I also didn't find it intoxicating to find an unnecessary amount of consumables and the gear isn't that varied, given how armours are almost out of the equation. On the other hand, the weapon assembly system is kinda fresh. You can assemble your own stuff from a plethora of handles and blades.

Handles affect stat scaling, blades affect damage types and elemental afflictions. Quirky, albeit, I was disappointed when my makeshift spear made out of some broken signpost and a knife performed better than a cool-looking boss sword. I'm a slave to numbers. Do I gag alone when I see an oversized club attached to a sabre handle? I found most assembled weapons lame like that, so I don't think that system everyone is raving about is a great incentive for exploration as well. No, half of that cake is taken by the encounter design, which saves the game from losing half of its potential. The other half is on this game's personalities. The toned-down scope delivers an intimate experience, emphasising characters instead of the surroundings. Yes, I said I didn't like the story, but I'm cool with its inhabitants. Fetching stuff for people feels rewarding as you learn about them. This is what turns a setting into a world.

Another reason to explore is to get stronger by levelling up via murder. Like a real boy. Your stats are a classic Souls repertoire with all due pros and cons, just squished. The same goes for the limited ranged and magic in the form of Legion Arms and Fable Arts. There are several routes you can take in terms of builds, of course. Strength, dex, elemental. I tried status effects and... bleh. Elemental DOTs all felt the same to me, raw damage is where it's at. So much for experimentation. I tried! Stats only constitute a part of the system, though. On top of those and gear upgrades, you get a skill tree to invest in by using a rare resource. That tree elevates an otherwise generic system, expanding your options incrementally. Still won't give you many ranged abilities, be that spells or firearms. Make do with a few types of throwables and arm modifications. You'll have to get down and dirty. And you'll love it, for the combat system is what truly shines.

At the base, it's the same Souls game of predictions and commitments, light and heavy attacks. Except P relies on guard counters, i.e. deflections. Landing those perfectly takes a sharp reaction time. On the upside, you heal by hitting your enemy after guarding, which is called guard regain. Perfectly timed counters do poise damage and can destroy enemy weapons. I never did. Your weapon also deteriorates and can be repaired on the fly. I never had to. But I had to deflect. Having a fat roll from the start hammers that in, albeit, eventually you'll get a slightly better roll and a shield arm. Those suck no matter the upgrades, so you won't go far without deflecting. That's not to say the fights lack in complexity, far from it! It all falls together neatly. Say, your last healing flask restores as you attack, hence even during the most gruelling battle there's always the chance for a comeback. I bring this tiny mechanic up since it reinforces P's aggressive character action agenda.

Visceral and dynamic, P does its best to follow your command and reward quick thinking with the spectacle that is the Danse Macabre of its every bossfight. The first few are a breeze. They foreshadow things to come in slow motion. As you get comfortable, P locks the door, swallows the key, and slaps your balls off. Without being an ass about it. Bosses boast readable telegraphs, extremely accurate hitboxes, fair openings, and fun movesets. I did well up until I reached Romeo. Holding the guard button didn't cut it, I couldn't keep up with him. That's when I resorted to summoning. The summon completely trivialised that fight, so I swore off those... before using one 3 more times later. I recognise my skill issues and admit that I lack both speed and rhythm, being 40 and brain-damaged. After coming to terms with my ineptitude, I minmaxed, lowering the amount of precise inputs I'd have to ace each fight. O, Dex. Become my blade, once more.

Then I smashed the remaining bosses with my ugly stick, learning nothing from it. I'm just glad they disallowed summons on the final boss. My victory didn't ring so hollow. If only my c#ck grew as I cope... As you can see, I didn't resonate with the story and wasn't able to master the mechanics. Even though I felt uninvited, not every game must be all-inclusive. The world doesn't revolve around the squealing dogs who can't accept that law of nature. No matter what I say, this little soulslike-that-could joins the others in a Nexus the community carved out to worship them. People call this Lies of Peak for a reason. As for me, I'd rather play Dark Souls. I'm a sucker for knights and castles, not baroque and chanson. I prefer my goofy rolls and deliberation, too. But my affection should be obvious regardless. Ultimately, I'm jealous of people who feel at home here. I admire them as I admire Lies of P. But it's not mine to love. Different strokes.

My curator Big Bad Mutuh

Lies of P is a very important game to me, as this began my journey into souls. I attempted elden ring as my first souls game on console and I got absolutely dusted. As time past, I gave lies of P a shot and wowie, this game was amazing. It was a huge struggle but after beating it, I flew past all the other dark soul games, including sekiro. Due to playing this great game, it helped me become a pretty good souls player. Replaying it on PC has been an absolute blast.

As a game this game is phenomenal, with AMAZING bosses and great setting. This game has taught me that lying IS perfectly okay :). I would recommend this game for experienced or newbie dark souls players, or just any gamer in general. This game was a crazy hurdle for my first souls game, but learning how to fight, be aggressive, punish, and parrying helped so much in the future.

Thank you Lies of P, and I heavily recommend this game

Feels like Sekiro with the parries and Bloodborne with the dodging, but the game actually lets you choose which playstyle you prefer. Smooth combat, sick atmosphere, and great graphics. Also I love the music. 10/10