It’s been said a thousand times, but I’ll say it again: if you’re worried that we’ll never get a remaster of FromSoftware’s best game, Bloodborne, and you aren’t that interested in the online-only experience that Miyazaki is developing💟 with 🐠The Duskbloods, there’s a solution: play Lies of P.

It represents the best parts of the Hunter’s Dream, with better combat (there, I said it) and an equally intriguing story about the soul, what makes us humans, and how greed can change you even if you have the best intentions at hearᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚt. Plus, this has a stable framerate ♓and 4K resolution.

If you’ve already explored the dark alleys of Krat, there’s good news: the expansion Overture is on the way, and it seems to have retained all the killer of Lies ♑of P without any of the filler.

TheGamer was invited to a private event in LA, where I got to play two hour-long demos. The first one started at the beginning of the DLꦓC, introducing a snowy area with a zoo that has seen better days. The other introduced a new mode where you can replay boss battles as much as you want, which gave me the opportunity to try three fights from the 🐓new content.

The Weapons In Lies Of P Are Looking Better Than Ever

The story section was brilliant. You start in a snowy forest as you make your way to a manor. Along your pa🐈th, you meet regular enemies, as well as a completely new bear-shaped 💃enemy with a bear trap on its head. Its moveset combines charges, a devastating grab, and rhythmic head attacks, perfect to practice your parry skills with if it’s been a while.

This was also a great opportunity to try out P’s new equi✅pment optionℱs: a bow, a sword, and two arms.

If you prefer to keep your distance during fights, you're in luck: Overture finally introduces a bow, and it’s pretty good. Your light attack shoots several consecutive arrows (as long as you have the stamina), and the charged move shoots a stronger shot that can interrupt e꧃nemies’ actions.

At first, I was a little concerned about the bow’s balance, considering it has infinite ammo. However, it turns out it takes 🥀a couple of charged shots to defeat even regular enemies. Plus, when you have your Fable Slots ready, you can charge an even deadlier shot or shoot three arrows at once, which is pretty useful when trying to get away from groups of small creatures.

The sword reminds me of Final Fantasy 8’s Squall’s Gunblade or Devil May Cry 4’s Nero’s Red Queen bec🍎ause it has a similar design and concept. If you hold the charge attack, you’ll perform a powerful blow in front of you. Hold it again, and your character will move back, evading any upcoming melee attacks, and then charge forward, attacking in a spin motion. It’s a fantastic move that lets you play with the distance between you and your enemies while still giving you the opportunity to deal a good chunk of damage.

The sword’s Fable Arts lets 🐟you buff the weapon to do more damage 🔯for a limited time and also create a short-range explosion.

As for the arms, one was basically a shotgun, and it worked as you would expect. I didn’t find it especially useful for my predetermined character, but the second arm was another story. It lets you throw moving saws that deal continuous damage to one enemy at a time. You can activate it multiple times an💫d retrieve the saws to throw them again, but stronger. However, you need to watc﷽h out for overheating, which can happen pretty fast.

Note: You likely won’t start Overture wit🉐h these weapons and arms equipped already. My P must have had them for demo purposes. However, I found many open chests throughout my walkthrough, so 💫it might not take you too long to find them.

If You Were Tired Of Robots And Mutated Humans, Here Are Animals

As much as I loved m🐠ost of the new gear in Overture, it was the level design that really sold it for me. Lies of P already had intricate and beautiful semi-open l🅰evels that showed Round 8 learned the best lessons from FromSoftware. These areas aren’t just combat arenas, but places that told tragic and ambitious stories.

I don’t want to spoil too much, but I’m glad to say that the level is a master class in design and progression. Both the mansion and its exterior present multiple paths with secrets, and many small areas try to surprise you with a variety of enco𝔉unters that ask you to change your strategy on the fly.

You have moments to breathe, and then you find a mutated elephant for the second time. You know from past experience that this creature has tons of health and slow attacks, so you feel ready to beat it again. That ♊is, until it transforms iꩲnto another completely different and horrifying beast with new tools. I tried to defeat it thrice, until my time was running out, and I decided to skip it.

My last moments in the demo were against a boss, a huge alligator that knew how to use its mouth and tail violently and unexpectedly. I couldn’t defeat it, and my time was out, but it left me really e🗹xcit💙ed about what was next.

Boss Rematch Is The Best Feature

Finally, I’m glad to say that the fans' voices have been heard. When Overture releases, Lies of P will receive two different modes where you can repeat your battles aga🐎inst bosses you’ve already defeated.

One is a special boss rush mode, 𝓀called Death March, where you can set custom challenges with at least three bosses in a row and limited resources. I didn’t get an opportunity to try this, but I was told that it will be a great challenge for experienced players.

The other mode is a feature that you can find in the Hotel’s Stargazer, called Battle Memories. Here you can find a new menu that lets you face any of the big enemies you’ve already encountered. There’s a difficulty selector for eaꦉch of these battles, and you have five different levels. Level 3 seems to be the standard difficulty, and you have to beat the boss once at🐼 that level to unlock 4, and so on.

The three new bosses were pretty different from each other: a puppeteer who attacks with magic and controls a puppet that can fly; a muscular, mutated human who can attack multiple times in a row with its big melee weapon; and a huge and terrifying🦹 beast that reminded me of Ludwig, from Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC.

Each fight presented an exciting challenge that required a specific skill from me. The puppeteer battle is a duo fight (each enemyꦫ has its own HP bar), so yo🧸u need to keep an eye on both foes at all times. Plus, most of their moves cover a good chunk of the arena.

Fortunately, the puppet’s string changes color when it’⛄s about to attack.

The second battle is a more intimate one, where parrying is your best tool. However, this boss loves delayed attacks, so it might take a while to learn its pattern. If that wasn’t enough, it enters berserk mode when you’ve dealt it enough damage, attacking you with a ridiculous combo of eight or more hits. Nailing every parry of that combo gives you the kind of satisfaction that only these types of gam💟es can offer.

The last boss changes the scope of the battle. Now you need to be careful of melee attacks with huge AoEs or beams coming out of the creature’s mouth. When you reach half of its HP bar, there’s a cutscene. While the creatur🥀e doesn’t get a Moonlight Greatsword (boomer), something similar happens, and it left me with a big smile on m꧒y face.

Something I found interesting in all of these fights was that they would be pretty manageable for veter꧑an Souls players. I hadn’t played Lies of P in over a year, but it didn’t take me more than a few tries to beat the three bosses. However, this changed when I tried difficulty 4. I had over half an hour left of playtime, and I couldn’t beat any of them a single time. The s💖pike in difficulty is punishing: only a couple of hits and you’re out. I can’t wait to see how this scales for the highest level.

Also, higher difficulties add a fantastic feature: new moves for the bosses🐠.

Overture Can’t Come Soon Enough

Lies of P is one of my favorite games in recent memory. It excels in combat, story, and level design like no other non-FromSoftware t💯itles in this genre have achieved.

I only played a couple of hours of an expansion that will last about 20, but if Lies of P: Overture somehow maintains the quality through its run time, I’m pretty sure we will get the Souls𝓀like of the year and one of the best action games of the decade.

This DLC still doesn’t have a release date, so we will have to🎃 return to the base game one more time while we wait.