PREVIEW | Lies of P at Gamescom 2022

LifeisXbox’s Lies of P preview | For years upon years, Bloodborne fans have been asking for a sequel or even a remaster. And along comes Lies of P, a Pinocchio-inspired version in a similar setting by South-Korean studio Neowiz Games.

Ever since seeing the first trailer for the game, it’s been on my radar as an extremely polished soulslikes that seems to do all the things right that make the genre so appealing. It’s got an interesting setting, plenty of lore to discover, tight gameplay, and a unique twist to keep you guessing about what happens next.

We’ve had about 30 minutes of hands-on experience with the game at Gamescom 2022 and we could have played much, much longer, because the nice developers were too kind to shoo us away, even with a line waiting to get their own shot at the demo, but that wouldn’t have been nice, so we handed over the controller to someone else just after a 2nd failed attempt at beating a miniboss.

If you want to catch some Gameplay footage before digging into this preview, here you go:

ℹ️ Previewed on PC | We played the demo at the Neowiz booth at Gamescom 2022, this preview is the personal opinion from the writer and is based on an unfinished game.

Awesome combat mechanics

Lies of P has the usual Dark Souls controls so players familiar with that series or Elden Ring should feel right at home. I see a lot of comparisons to Bloodborne online, but from my limited experience with both games, it feels like a different beast, having only the similar Belle Epoque / Old-London-like environments in common.

What makes Lies of P extremely satisfying to play are the unique abilities like the grappling hook or the magic spells you can cast. The former especially changes up the gameplay as you can use that “Puppet String” move to pull you into the targeted enemy and even do a huge attack move that damages all the foes around it.

A little later on, I was told about the magic move you can use to finish off bigger enemies (and then promptly forgot to use it afterward) and the fact I could hold B down to run (which is vital if you want to move to the world quicker because the default walking speed is rather slow)

You can also pull off the usual backstab attacks, which are ever so satisfying, and Lies of P will give you plenty of moments to take advantage of this.

Responsive and fair

The most important thing, next to an interesting world to explore, is that the combat in these games needs to feel juuuuust right. Because of the difficult nature of the title, you don’t want the player cursing the systems but rather they should blame their own shortcomings and that was exactly what happened every time I perished in the game. I rushed into a situation and got blindsided or I wasn’t patient enough with my abilities or too quick to use my healing items.

The enemies you face in the game don’t hit as hard as most soulslikes I’ve played, so it felt pretty fair, at least to me. But that’s after playing 180 hours of Elden Ring and quite a few in Dolmen as well. They’re all puppets and as such have a pretty obvious wind-up to their attacks, making them easy to dodge (if you didn’t get too cocky and pay attention to their tells)

Normally though, you’d spend some time leveling up after each failed attempt, but because I was recording my play session and didn’t want to bore the viewers with menus, I never really upgraded anything and still felt like I could get quite far with just the basic loadout.

The level of polish is beyond belief

From the very first moments of the demo, I was deeply impressed with the visual quality of the game. The screenshots or the video may not reflect this, because I had limited recording options available, but the lighting, the models, and the triggered moments like the derailing monorail from the image above really made my eyes that extra bit watery from sheer wonder.

There seemed to be some hidden lore hidden in the world as well, with letters that tell the backstory of the world as well as the reasoning behind this entire setup. You’re playing as Pinocchio after all and defeating an army of puppets while in search of Gepetto. There are even some nice little touches like the loading screen showing your nose growing as a progress bar.

Overall, I walked away from the experience with even more interest in the game than before and now I really can’t wait for it to hit Xbox Game Pass so I can dive deeper into the whale’s belly and discover what secrets (or lies) are to be uncovered at the end. You can look forward to us bringing you the full review when the time is right!

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