2025's best soulslike wasn't Nightreign, it was a DLC for a game we all dismissed as a Bloodborne clone back in 2022
Lies of P: Overture is a game no longer held down by its own strings.
(Image credit: Neowiz)
Look, I like Elden Ring: Nightreign—I actually like it quite a bit—but it wouldn't be accurate to call it a soulslike, now would it? Nightreign uses the Dark Souls formula for its combat, but might I call the jury to examine the thing: It's a multiplayer co-op action game based on short, semi-permadeath runs with limited outside progression. That's a roguelike, baby, no matter how many old habits FromSoftware plugged into it.
To me, a soulslike isn't about how chunky the dodge roll is or whether you have a stamina bar—it's about the slow, tense exploration of a dangerous world. It's about deliberate and hard-won mastery over mechanics and, more to the point: It's about the boss fights, baby. Big, satisfying walls to slam your head against, where the only thing between victory is you and your own personal skill, not whether you got Let Me Solo Her in your fireteam or lucked into a busted build.
Which is a funny feeling, given we at PC Gamer—okay, not me, but still—were pretty sceptical about Lies of P. Behold, our hubris: "Lies of P can't fool us: It's literally Bloodborne", written March 2022 by our very own Tyler Colp. "Lies of P is so blatantly Bloodborne that I feel bad for liking it," so sayeth Wes Fenlon.
Here's the awkward part where I break kayfabe to say that I completely understand why my co-workers made these assessments. Lies of P—especially how it starts—has the Bloodborne inspiration so thoroughly kept on its sleeve, it might as well have a PlayStation running the thing taped to its wrist.
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A real joy
I've already said as much in my piece talking about it, but I will happily sing its praises again: Overture fires on all cylinders. Its environments are creative, throwing you into a snowed-in zoo filled with petrification disease-rotted animals to fight a giant crocodile, sending you sprawling through half-frozen asylums and laboratories, doing battle with other hunters in Frankenstein-style shipwrecks broken into the ice: It's a far cry from the copied homework of the base game's opening hours.
