As Lords of the Fallen veterans will already know, the world in which this dark fantasy action RPG developed by Hexworks is set contains two realities that can be freely traversed with the help of the Umbral Lamp. The original realm where the action takes place is the Axiom, which has seen centuries of struggle and seen several civilizations pass by, while Umbral is the realm of horror, a «visually grotesque and visceral» mirror world where the laws of physics and death are much more mysterious.
Traversing the Umbral realm can be useful for overcoming obstacles and discovering new areas of the map, but once there players must face new threats in a completely different environment. Lords of the Fallen 2 promises an «increasingly lively and oppressive» Threshold with a greater variety of biomes. In this installment, the world of the dead does not have a linear timer that increases the threat level, but rather it is the player's activity that influences it, «creating a more organic and hostile sense of danger.» These changes aim to give players more reasons to explore Umbral.
«If Umbral was once the realm of the dead, it has now become the realm of the undead; scratching at its scab is now raw, an open wound seething with renewed hunger,» says Ryan Hill, creative director of Lords of the Fallen II.
The campaign of Lords of the Fallen II takes place 1,000 years after the fall of the demon god Adyr narrated in the first installment. Players will encounter a war-torn kingdom that watches helplessly as the world of the dead begins to merge with that of the living. As the Lamp Bearer, players can take on enemies using a combat system that promises to be faster and more fluid. It will also be more spectacular thanks to a new dismemberment function.
Lords of the Fallen II is scheduled for release this year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and PC through the Epic Games Store.