Sticking 'like' at the end of a genre feels a bit pointless, right? It's a given; the whole point of a genre is to group similar experiences, and not even your metroidvanias and other proper-noun'd categories bother with the redundancy. Of course, I'm as aware as anyone else that it's all just arbitrary semantics and naming conventions (roguelikes, case in point), but despite Demon's Souls launching some sixteen years ago now, I've always seen the soulslike's 'like' almost as a derivation of its infancy—a genre still largely nipping at the heels of the single studio responsible for its beginning.

And sure, every soulslike fan loves to peddle their hidden gems and underrated favourites to a deadpan friend, but broadly speaking, it's a real struggle to find other soulslikes that don't, in some form or another, fall short of From Software's illustrious catalogue. Most drop the ball with boss design, struggling to provide their marquee encounters the appropriate complexity, missing the mark with the difficulty, or, in some cases, just reskinning some random enemy you'll find in the wild, quadrupling its health, and calling it a day. Others shoot for gritty, grotesque worlds and wind up with derivative fluff, and plenty more lack the size and scope to convincingly pull them off. Since 2009, there have been Souls games, and there have been games that are like them.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3633952218

Enter Lies of P. Based loosely on the story of Pinocchio, you awaken as Gepetto's marionette amidst the puppet frenzy, a city-wide catastrophe flooding the once gorgeous Belle-Époque streets of Krat with mechanical monstrosities, all semblance of their past loyalty lost to sudden bloodlust. I can't say I recall quite so much death and decay the last time I watched the Disney version, but this is all good and cosy for a soulslike; what's less expected is how front and centre the narrative is. Side stories are relevant enough to warrant little icons on the fast travel menu alerting you to new developments, ever-present allies and definitive villains shadow each beat of the journey, and even your lamp houses a constant companion happy to comment on all the more personal happenings.

Relative to soulslikes, Lies of P's story is excellent. Relative to most else, however, not so much. Many of the later twists are more head-scratching than revelatory, the true big bad only reveals himself at the beginning of the final act, and while your cogs and springs are the only ones capable of lying, which ending you get is really all these relatively superficial decisions are dictating.

Many of Pinocchio's more iconic themes struggle in the context of a video game, too. It's surprisingly easy to look past the sheer irony of a supposedly self-aware puppet happily swinging a sword every time you hit R1, but as a result of the more front-facing storytelling, there's a lot of 'go here' and 'do that' and 'save this person' and, for the most part, your typically mischievous marionette just kinda does what he's told?

More than any line of dialogue, Krat itself is the allure here. Well-dressed service puppets mindlessly prowl the upper-class district to the crooning of an abandoned record, the place frozen in the very moment it fell. Seedy pubs and shambling, disease-riddled corpses litter the gang-infested slums. The Grand Exhibition revels in the city of tomorrow, while the nearby swamp's decommissioned robotics and polluted sludge wallow in its cost.

Soulslikes can so often venerate the variety of its locations more than their implementation, yet Lies of P effortlessly nails both. From Krat's industry to its entertainment to its faith, every corner tells a different tale that simultaneously feeds into the whole, each element of its structure is meticulous, and while it can leave exploration feeling somewhat linear, it's in service to a city as authentic as it is beautiful, further enhanced by a soulslike narrative that, despite some heavy-handedness, for once lives in more than just item descriptions, cryptic conversations, and the lay of the land.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3633949113

Taking something the genre's known for and bolstering it with something the genre isn't is Lies of P's signature move, and it's everywhere. Hitting and avoiding the thing are still very much the essentials here, but combat is absolutely stuffed with texture. You've got active skills, weapon sharpness (it's not annoying, trust me), unguardable fury attacks, rechargeable healing when you're empty, the chance to shatter your opponent's armament if you parry them enough, a modular mechanical arm capable of all sorts, and so much more I wish I had the space to cover. The level of freedom and variety is just tremendous—the tools you wield are hugely gratifying to employ, whether you opt to or not, and your enemies' curveballs make for the most incredible moments of adrenaline and improvisation.

Your customisation options are similarly innovative. As expected, you can swap out your internal parts for increased resistances, carefully balancing how much it all weighs and how much protection it's offering... and then you can merrily rip all your weapons in two and jam them back together however you please. It's a brilliant system; the handle determines the handling and stat scaling of the completed weapon, while the blade governs its damage and speed. A popular early construction pairs the hilt of a nimble rapier with the business end of a greatsword, striking a satisfying middle ground between the dexterity of the former and the destructive force of the latter, and a personal favourite of mine outfitted the quick, slashing handle of a chef's knife with a massive circular saw that spins faster with each successive slash.

It's impossible not to find something you click with, and even then, you'll go on to acquire special weapons that trade disassembly for unique traits. One is a weaponised umbrella repelling far more than just rain as you stab, while another is a sort of trick weapon that expands and collapses, offering up two distinct movesets in one. Armaments aside, the customisable P-Organ within you offers dozens of passive benefits you can tailor to your specific playstyle, providing this constant feeling of advancement, but never so much that your own power hugely outgrows Krat's most imposing figures.

A fact you'll quickly understand as you face them down in some of the most superb soulslike boss encounters you'll ever play. I'm a real stickler, you see; I have stupid standards few could ever hope to meet, and I'm usually one to dispatch them as flippantly as I feel they deserve. But there I often was, in front of some barely-alive, hulking robot, actually letting it kill me simply because I wasn't happy with how the battle played out—because I couldn't bear offing them in a manner unbefitting the extraordinary calibre of the duel. Nothing's without fault, of course—you'll have to wade through a few too many warmup phase ones before you get a shot at the entirely different and far tougher second phase, and, conversely, certain foes are perhaps a little too susceptible to certain strategies—but these big bads are truly the best of the bunch.


All this to drive home: Lies of P isn't a game that should impress you simply because it's fantastic, but rather because it both matches and, in many ways, surpasses the time-tested, near insurmountable benchmark hundreds upon hundreds of talented game makers have been chasing for over a decade and a half. Wonderfully loyal to the genre yet expanding and advancing it in everything it does, Lies of P is perhaps the first and only soulslike to ever transcend the 'like'.

Follow our Curator, Summit Reviews, to see more quality reviews regularly.

yes yes yesye syesyeses

PEAK