Lies of P review – inventive Pinocchio RPG has a fiendish heart

PC, Xbox, PS5
This hack-and-slasher clings to its Soulsborne heritage too tightly, but does creative things that no other Soulslike until now has managed to pull off

The Soulslike subgenre of games, named after the Dark Souls series of obtuse hack-and-slashers by From Software, are always punishingly difficult. It's their whole raison d'etre - or at least that's the accepted wisdom. Fiendish traps, deadly ambushes, terrifying bosses; what many titles in the field seem to overlook is that Fromsoft's difficulty is almost always in service of lending an atmosphere of dread, wonder and coherence. It's a fine line. Hear whispers of a mad fallen monarch only to beat them on your first try, and all that careful myth-making reveals itself as artifice. But if you sense the hand of an overly sadistic designer weaving in artificial difficulty, the world suddenly feels lifeless.

Enter Lies of P, a lengthy, moody action RPG that can't always resist difficulty, but with style, inventiveness, and an undeniable passion for the Soulsborne legacy. This is a far more difficult game than both Bloodborne and most of Elden Ring, but it's also far more faithful to the soul of its inspirations than nearly all of its subgenre mates. Wooden? Occasionally, but it's got real heart.