Lords of the Fallen

I rarely write reviews but I do want to see this developer and 2nd game thats about to come out do a lot better than this has done. I was tempted to buy it when it initially came out but once I heard the sleuth of bugs I held back. Buying it during the summer sale, I learned after nearing the last boss that there are some good but more bad. Pros: - Switch to umbral to traverse landscapes that you may have missed before if you are not careful is a great idea. Hidden enemies that are only accessible by being in umbral is nice, while certain ones that will hit you while you have your lamp up to pull you in umbral is a nice touch. - Weapons and spells/catalysts I do appreciate that there are a variety of weapons that are fun to use, while being able to use boss weapons as well. Feels good to earn it and respec as needed to use appropriately. Cons: - Map design: I think I can see where the developer(s) were going with it. having a maze like map with lots of verticality and backtracking is nice to help link the areas together thus unlocking checkpoints to bypass certain annoyances. BUT at the same time there are 0 indicators to tell you where youre at or where you are supposed to go. Sure I tried to pay attention to dialogue but even that didnt help. How is someone supposed to play this naturally without looking it up out of frustration. Many parts of the map are literally a dead-end after a major boss fight, thus forcing you to have to go BACK to the hub then backtrack a whole area and a half to get to the actual zone youre supposed to go. It is so easy to miss, and Im not saying to paint the ominous bell door is bright colors to indicate where but, if youre gonna have a maze like map design then give us some indicators or a MAP to pull up at least. Another thing with map design is the enemy spam in tight little corridors. I understand souls-like frustration and I can enjoy it at a certain extent, but cheap mimic deaths or edge -guarding mobs that shove you from the shadows or those little white goblins that jump from the sky from a blindspot thus creating a 5 v 1 scenario due to mob spam. There is not much variety of enemies but rather the difficulty is how much of those medium sized mobs can you kill in this new area that is also tight and narrow. Game mechanics: I am good at parrying and if a game has it I am all for it. But what is the point of having heavy set armor if poise seems to be non-existent in this game. I can perfect parry once but I cant tap it twice in a row thus getting staggered to death. It doesnt feel rewarding to parry unless i know the boss is ONLY gonna swing once per 1.5 seconds to hopefully parry. The movement in this game could be better it feels sluggish at times. Overall I would love to support this developer and their future games and the fact that they are still updating to this day is fantastic. PLEASE fix this issues on the second and I would 100% buy it.