Lies of P: Overture

A victory lap from a developer who knew they had released one of the greatest games ever made.

Overture is by far the best DLC I have ever played. During my play-through, it was clear the devs poured their hearts and souls into the making of Overture. It expands on the already expansive and story rich world of the base game in ways that I never expected. Whether by the boss fights or the lore drops, Overture had my heart pounding the entire time. 9.9/10 (This truly reads like a proper game review wouldn't you say?)

Please dont nerf the bosses. Ive been on the final boss for well over 2 hours now and its the most fun Ive had since Laxasia

Lies of P: Overture is a brutally emotional and unforgiving continuation that fills in key story gaps from the base game. The new bosses are vicious, the weapons are badass, and the lore especially around the Legendary Stalker is heart wrenching. It hits hard in both difficulty and emotion, all while keeping that signature sad, haunting tone. A must play for fans who want more pain, more answers, and more perfection.

As if the base game wasn’t already bleak, the devs cranked the depression dial up to 11 with this expansion, and I mean that in the best way possible. Overture elevates every key component from the base game, the boss battles are more intense, the story and characters hit harder, and the new gear add exciting variety. Every major aspect of the game gets a noticeable upgrade, which bodes well for any future sequel. Neowiz shows that they can step up their game. While I think $20 would’ve been a more ideal price point, I still consider Overture one of the best Souls-like DLCs out there, just a step or two below Shadows of the Erdtree and The Old Hunters. Well worth the purchase.

[h1] A concentrated dose of pain and beauty. [/h1] Where do I even begin? Lies of P needs no introduction, and The Overture DLC builds on its legacy with new weapons, a few gameplay tweaks, and deeper story revelations. I do wish those improvements were more significant, but they’re still a welcome touch. The DLC felt noticeably harder than the base game- especially because most enemies inflict Decay, which remains one of the most frustrating status effects in the game. We get eight new bosses, most of them beautifully designed. It’s truly a case of quality over quantity. Despite the short playtime and punishing difficulty, I genuinely enjoyed the experience. If you loved Lies of P, I highly recommend playing The Overture. It’s tough, it’s short, but it’s worth it.

Literally died more times in the DLC than in the base game, the bosses are extremely well designed even though it made me feel like i was playing sekiro. Some of the hardest souls content i have ever experienced and a great DLC.

Final boss is prob one of the best bossfights you will ever witness in any video game ever

This is such a fitting conclusion to the already amazing basegame. It feels like a loveletter to Fromsoft and I enjoyed every minute spent in this DLC. I would go as far as to say this is one of the best DLCs i've played so far. The story is amazingly crafted and perfectly complements the basegame. The finishing touch is one of the best bosses ive ever fought in any game period. This is a masterclass DLC because you feel the Devs poured their hearts into it. Definitely a must buy if you already enjoyed the basegame.

A great DLC for a great game. The lore and plot additions are very welcome, the bosses are cool, and the new weapons are fun to play with. The final boss is kinda unexpected (at least it was for me), but still a welcome one. I sincerely hate the monsters from Act 1, though, with all their beastly, rage-inducing movesets.

[b]Lies of P: Overture[/b] is an excellent wrap-up to base-game that pushes your honed skills to the absolute limit. One small mark against it is that its opening stage (The Zoo) is, in my opinion, very overtuned compared to the rest of the experience. I found that enemy health was exceptionally high and damage-received was clocked a few notches too extreme. I was concerned that the rest of the DLC would play out like this, but after the Zoo’s mini-boss, the numbers become noticeably less severe and the experience feels more fun as a result. Speaking of bosses, the quality of the boss-fights will test your ability to react more than base-game. Mastering P’s parry-system is a necessity for the final boss, especially. It’s going to likely excite the hardcore parry-fans while simultaneously annoying those who want more caution-driven approaches and I can sympathize. I’ve seen discourse over the difficulty increase of Overture, and while it’s easy for people to throw out the always-classy skill-issue retorts, it’s hard to deny that the player-frustration isn’t valid, because it absolutely is a jump some might not be ready for. Fortunate for those players, there is the difficulty options added. I don’t want to go far into the difficulty-option controversy, but I do have to wonder whether the difficulty sliders were added because of the shift in difficulty of Overture. If that’s the case, I think I would have just preferred to see Overture’s difficulty reduced to match the same expectations of base-game. I ran a fresh NG+0 save on Legendary Stalker to marathon base-game before jumping into Overture, which only made the jarring jump in difficulty that much more noticeable. I pushed myself out of perseverance to stay on Legendary Stalker mode in Overture, but I wasn’t surprised to read comments about folks dropping down the difficulty once they got to Overture, especially with the Zoo. I think that’s an overall shame, because now I feel like if they start to nerf Overture, the consensus will just become “Why didn’t bad players just shift to easy mode!?” when the real statement should be “Why wasn’t Overture balanced so that it didn’t require a difficulty slider in the first place?” It is what it is, a little stain on an otherwise solid foundation. [b]Update:[/b] As of the 6/20 update, a patch has reduced the difficulty as was predicted, and unfortunately I was right to see that players are now frustrated that this was done when they added a difficulty slider. I don't have an issue with the difficulty slider existing for players who need it, and I'm glad that they seemed to cut down the issues we saw in the DLC's early game. Overall, I liked the story a lot in Overture, possibly more-so than base game. It felt more like a personal dive into Carlo as a character more than the original, and the moment I saw the poster of Romeo in the opening section, I knew we were in for something that was going to end with high emotions (Spoiler: It did). A lot of the mysteries set up in base-game felt paid-off, here, and the final boss’s surprise reveal was such an awesome moment if you experienced all the content in base-game. Soundtrack, as always, kicked the ergo out of my ears, and I now need to get my hands on it to add to my collection. The new weapons are fun, and I’ll likely run NG+ a time or two just to enjoy them. NEOWIZ absolutely know what they’re doing with this expanding genre, and while there were some stumbles in Overture, I absolutely hope that they will continue to make quality games. Looking forward to the future of this developer’s growing catalogue.

Lies of P is finally complete with this DLC, going back in time and learning more about the history of this amazing game, the duration is 11-15 hours I think, it's short but with a lot of quality and that's the important thing, the level design and exploration are very good, I liked all the bosses, none of them disappointed me, but 2 in particular were my favorites which are: Markiona and Arlecchino, as for the difficulty it's extremely high but I liked the challenge of being able to finish the game like that, it seems that the devs will patch the difficulty due to people's complaints, 1 normal mob can kill you in 2 hits, so they do more damage than in the base game? yes, so those who like the challenge should play it right now. Despite this we now have 3 difficulty modes, this will divide the community of course, I'm not an elitist and I won't criticize those who want to play in the easiest mode, you are free to do so, but I don't like that they add this sincerely, because Souls have always been characterized by having only one difficulty without the option to choose another, thus proposing the challenge of being able to beat the boss and feel that satisfaction for all the effort and training it takes to achieve it, that is the essence and a big part that complements the souls, why did NEOWIZ do this? of course to attract more public and therefore more money, but enjoy the game your way, if Lies of P 2 ever exists, I hope it doesn't have difficulty modes. The new weapons seem amazing and unique to me, my favorite was Lea's sword, the end of the game made me shed a tear, it's very deep and sad, Lea, Romeo and Carlo... ;'( This DLC met my expectations for me it's a 10, in performance it works excellent, I have around 140-160 stable fps in almost all areas in ultra graphics, it's definitely totally worth it, I love this game, Lies of Peak yeees ❤️

The best souls-like DLC out there. So much additional content, story, and gameplay that expands upon the base game tremendously. Rating: 4/5. Some enemies and a certain boss got under my skin but overall, It's the best DLC in all of Krat.

I got all the DLC achievements in ~18 hours, and I'd say I had a blast! Overture is such a fantastic experience. From exploring, combat and story. Especially the story! I appreciated that they answered questions we had at base game, and even provided us with additional lore drops! Combat's still the same, a bad thing I noticed was the horrendous camera at the start of the DLC, but progressively gets better at the end of the game. Oh, the final boss is peak. Voice acting, movesets, stakes, everything. Way better than Reused Asset Radahn. Though I wished we see more of Krat at its pristine, and more Full Moonstones drop to further upgrade my arsenal, but beggars can't be choosers I guess. Overall, 9/10 DLC. Would collect the records again if my memory got wiped.

The fact that a developer other than FromSoft released a Soulslike DLC better than Ringed City is genuinely astounding to me. My one complaint is that it ends, if you enjoy Soulslikes it's a 10/10 must experience

Superb DLC. Story ties in heavily with the main game and gives a lot of interesting context and background to certain characters in the world. Bosses are great, don't think I've seen a better duo enemy boss fight in a soulslike before. Only complaint is the walk to some boss areas, nobody needs 30 seconds of their life wasted everytime they die to a boss - please stop this. The value proposition is good as well, I think I spent anywhere from 12-15+ hours total on this DLC...?

i chose to play it on the hardest setting on ng+ 6 and got molested by monkeys, wolves, kangaroos, and a few other members of the animal kingdom for the first 5h of the game. the balancing feels unfair since most enemies can kill you in about 2 combos and bosses in 3 hits. i got to about mid way thru the dlc before going on the easiest difficulty and which still gave some what of a challenge cause they decided to have elite enemies every 20 meters from each other. the story and music is still very good the drip do be mighty drippy. i recommend this dlc if you play it on a completely new save the first time or if you relay love animals ;)

Lies of Peak delivers once again with peak DLC. Everything from the base game but somehow dialled up to 11. New upgrade mechanics, new legion arms, new weapons, new great characters and lore. Not to mention boss rematches from the hotel stargazer with increasing difficulty options! Overall, an incredible addition to a masterpiece!

A moderately enjoyable addition to the base game. The release of additional easier difficulties alongside the DLC almost seems like a justification for how much of a difficulty wall there is between the base game and the DLC - enemies hit stupidly hard, and have stupidly high HP. If you're into that, great, but I found the DLC far more enjoyable when i went down a difficulty, and it felt like a far more natural progression on the base game. As bosses go, the last one felt like [spoiler]a nod to Melania[/spoiler], and I loathe it accordingly; but aside from that I think the bosses range from just fine to great. The second boss in particular was fun enough I didn't mind spending a good few hours across 2 days fighting it. All in all, despite some mixed feelings, I'd say its worth getting if you want more Lies of P.

Playing on a Razer Blade 18 Gaming Notebook (2024) Lies of P: Overture shows how to make a great expansion worth the main game. Pro's: - emotional - soundtrack - lore & background - character & boss design - story which is even better than the main campaign Con's: - enemy damage balancing

This was well worth the wait. As someone who's played all of the Fromsoft souls games and their DLC, this stands with and even above them. The ending also, holy shit nothing in any souls game has ever gotten me as close to crying as the ending. This is well worth the 30 dollars. 10 TRILLION DOLLARS TO NEOWIZ!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

First of all — F* that crocodile boss**. I honestly don’t know if they even playtested that fight. The whole battle, I wasn’t fighting the monster — I was fighting the camera. That big, beautiful beast kept pushing me into the wall every time I tried to deflect, forcing me to constantly move and deflect at the same time. The boss itself and its moves? Super fun. But the camera? HUHUHUHU… Okay, rant over. I played the DLC on Legendary Stalker difficulty and in New Game+ — it was hard. Random dogs were annihilating me. But overall, it was manageable. Now listen: if you fought just the croc boss and are rating the entire DLC based on that — please don’t. He’s the only bad one. The other bosses were a blast — especially the second one. I really liked how they handled that fight. Bit gimmicky, sure, but a well-done gimmick. The fourth boss was also fantastic. I was worried about the camera again, but the fight turned out great — except for one red attack where his hand swings off-screen, making it hard to see and time a perfect guard. That said, it’s easily manageable if you equip the amulet that grants i-frames for red attacks. And then… the final boss. BRO. Not just the fight, but the character — oh my god, he’s amazing. Easily my favorite boss in the entire game. I did have one tiny issue — and I won’t spoil anything — but one of his normal attacks was hard to follow because his hands and body kind of blended together visually, which made it tough to perfect guard. I ended up just spamming block. But honestly? That’s a me problem, so whatever. Oh, and the music? Banger after banger. 🔥 The story is really good too — make sure to read the letters and listen to the recordings. And after beating the final boss, check the Stargazer for some new stuff, and revisit the boss arena for a little surprise. Overall: I loved the DLC just as much as the base game. One bad boss doesn’t ruin the whole experience. If you're a fan of Lies of P, this is 100% worth playing.

Overture shares basically all the pros and cons of the base game. The boss fights here are somehow even better than in the original (and they were already some of the best in the genre). The last boss in particular is the best I’ve seen in any Soulslike — combining a rich and diverse moveset, great visuals (something the Nameless Puppet lacked), and some nice music. The story is an upgrade too — it was alright in the base game, but here it's even better. If the devs didn’t feel the urge to add another arche abbey like gray area (at least it’s in the middle and the design gets better again in the second half of the DLC), it would probably be a 10 out of 10 for me. But no. Fuck labs, fuck mines, fuck piranhas, fuck those machine gun abominations. Also camera issues on large enemies bring back warm memories of Bloodborne. I can understand criticisms toward the things I mentioned in above. What I can’t understand is the difficulty and length rant. I completed the DLC on an NG++ save, and the boss fights all felt completely fair. Exploration sometimes sucked (I HATE piranhas), but overall, I get the feeling that ever since the Elden Ring DLC incident and the waves of affirmation from unskilled streamers, people have started again blaming games for their own incompetence and inability to learn. On the topic of length — this also seems like an Elden Ring effect to me. People expect every game to be a 100+ hour slop with a 50+ hour DLC or something. Why are they not playing Ubisoft games, I wonder? There is a lot of content here. It’s not Ashes of Ariandel ffs

Good DLC which improves on the base game experience. Story is really good, level design is definitely improved and the new weapons, albeit a bit scarce, are very interesting and fun. I felt like bosses were hit or miss here but I've noticed it's highly dependent on the player so you might like most of them (if you also like the alligator though we need to talk). I hope the developers stay on the soulslike genre and improve of their own formula even more, because I feel they can distance themselves even more from the other one developer and make something truly unique.

I don't leave reviews often, in fact my last review was a year ago saying about how great Elden Ring's DLC was and here we have a DLC that may be even better. This DLC is a decent length, taking people between 12 and 20 hours to complete and it was great all the way through, topped off with what may be my favourite boss in any game. The story is a great addition to Lies of P and the emotional moments hit really hard. This DLC is essential if you enjoyed Lies of P and helps cements Lies of P as one of, if not the best Souls-Like out there. Amazing.

Absolute banger of a DLC, I cried a few times during it, gameplay and difficulty is there, the soundtracks are amazing, the new weapons, enemies and bosses are absolutely PHENOMENAL and don't get me started on the story, OH THE STORY! Obv no spoils but the DLC is easily a 10/10 for me, absolutely worth the price, I recommend it!

Amazing DLC for a great game that goes above and beyond. Its no secret where Lies of P gets its inspiration from and as a massive fromsoft fanboy I find it hard not to compare their design choices but I have to say that this DLC absolutely blows them out of the water. This isn't just a new region that'll you visit once maybe twice and forget on later playthroughs (Looking at you Ariandel and Ringed City) It's a complete map extension with an inter-connected story and lore that beautifully sets up the scenario of the base game and provides the answers to remaining lore you might've been left out on. There is absolutely a spike in difficulty, I think the level they give you access to the DLC is completely out of balance from where you are in the base game. You will likely be frustrated a lot if you enter the DLC as soon as possible but if you're able to push past or come back later, the difficulty will be worth exploring the best areas in this game. My only personal critique I will give it is a lot of the bosses you will fight are physically massive which leads to the fights becoming extremely messy with the camera and attacks that cover the entire screen as you try to figure out where you even are. Its not that I consider it bad boss design, it's just the amount of them that are in the DLC that I didn't enjoy fighting for that reason. The developers clearly put a lot of passion and effort into making this an expansion on par and at times better than the original game in quality. It's well worth the price and very rewarding to play

Before I dive into this review, I beat Lies of P: Overture on NG+6, level 268, Legendary Stalker difficulty (hardest one). I don't recommend doing this because almost everything will 2 shot you, I did it because I like the challenge. I recommend playing this on a save file with no new game + cycles to ease the experience. Overture was a fantastic expansion to this outstanding game, with great bosses generally, although some of them dragged my rating down slightly. The Anguished Guardian: I generally dislike bosses that are huge. The Tyrannical Predator's design was lazy, the move set was lackluster, and the arena should have been improved. Let's look at the positive elements of Overture, Markiona, Two-faced Overseer, Lumacchio, and my new favorite souls-like boss, Arlecchino. These bosses were a lot of fun to fight; amazing design, music, and cinematics. Overall, they were extremely well done. The new weapons, and legion arms were fun to use. Even though I didn't understand everything about the story, it seemed interesting and intriguing. I very much liked the Legendary Stalker, also known as Lea Florence, and I wish she had been included in more parts of the game; maybe she will in another expansion in the future? hopefully. 9/10.

If you enjoyed the base game, the DLC does it even more justice. I have some minor gripes with a few bosses, but other than that, it's fantastic. The levels, the stories, the characters--it's all SUPER cool.

The DLC is pretty solid though I recommend playing it at a save slot with less than 3 plays because it turns out that the enemies can kill you in two hits due to the new scaling they added. I learned out the hard way. Update: The DLC in NG+ is more manageable now but still challenging. It seems that mobs were toned down in damage which is fair because it was annoying to get two-shot by a trash mob zombie. I'm glad the developers were responsive to how overtuned DLC mobs were in repeated playthrough slots. The amount of weapons in the DLC feels like a quarter of the amount in the main game but the weapon gimmicks make up for it. For example, you can get a bow to shoot rapidly at enemies with arrows from afar or you can get a flamethrower welding blade to burn enemies quickly. My personal favorites are the pinwheel greatsword, which increases in damage the more you run with it, and the gun sword that can shoot a quick shotgun burst with your heavy attacks. There are even more costumes and accessory varieties that you can wear. The most notable ones are the Black Rabbit Brotherhood costumes. The bosses are a step up in difficulty. For the most part, they are enjoyable and challenging to fight against. My main grip with some of them are the amount of special effects that can blind you. This is mainly an issue in the final boss fight which is still super cool. Anyway the story is pretty good for a prequel as it follows the story of the Legendary Stalker. We get to see Krat during the rise of the Petrification Disease. The new areas are much more diverse in aesthetics such as the Krat Zoo or the Carnival. Even your adventures in the DLC can influence some things in the present time after completion which I found to be really cool. I highly recommend getting it if you want more of a challenge in Lies of P.

Beautifully broken. I'd like to rewrite my review for this DLC because it wasn't really fair to the whole product. And now, after finding enough endurance, I've beat it (day one version, without any patches and nerfs like I did with the original game on release, yo), and saw the whole picture, and I'd LOVE to add that the designers, composers, artists, animators, voice actors, and writers did a really wonderful job. This is actually a reason why I bought the game and DLC. At the same time, all the others who were balancing this piece of code f**ked everything up and ruined a lot of impressions by that. Which is even more disappointing. Probably in a few weeks or months it will be pleasantly playable, easy to enter (not after almost completing the main game), less buggy and well-balanced. But f**k this. Finish and test your games before you release them.

The scaling is just bad right now. Wait for patches, everything in the DLC is overtuned, enemies hit way too hard and are HP sponges. Bosses just basically spam non stop attacks. This is exactly the same problem Shadow of the Erdtree has.

Finally got around beating this DLC... and to keep it short, it is fantastic. Most of my criticism about the field mobs being way overtuned and accessing the DLC only at the end of chapter 9 was addressed in the most recent patch. Now you get it in chapter 5, which is where I initially thought the DLC would be available and the mobs were nerfed.. Other then that, honestly, it is more Lies of P. Much more lore, weapons and amulets you get from this are great and so are the costumes. Weapons especially. That bow? Game changing in its utility, but also super satisfying to use. Bosses are amazing, tho I have a bit mixed feelings about the last one. Spectacular, yes - no doubt about that. they've nailed the design.. and that build up to that boss is amazing. But other then that, they've kinda gone full late-fromsoft. Just a mess of delayed attacks, visual mess where you can't clearly tell what on earth is going on, homing projectiles and and no shortage of AOE attacks.. just trying to learn the timings of attacks was a massive pain and I didn't really have much fun for most of it quite frankly. Call it a skill issue for all I care.. this kinda felt like dealing with waterfowl dance again. Ridiculously long combos which can easily erase you entire health bar while being at 30+ vitality (I was playing on NG0). At least it kinda fits in this game with the combat system and having perfect guard/parry, unlike ER. Thankfully the closing cutscene at least made up for the pain... if you are sucker for the lore of LoP you will love it. Also super cool idea to implement 'summons' in this game and intertwine them with the games' narrative.

The DLC for Dark Souls with writing and voice acting feels like it has even more than the original game at times in terms of writing and voice acting. Also learning about who the final boss was made me buy the thing. Idk about 30 dollars but at any discount its worth and even then 30 dollars would be more reasonable for me IF the last two levels had more interesting level design, as there is a dip in level design quality after about the third main area.

Lies of P was one of my favorite games of 2023. It had beautiful environments, a compelling story and fun, if somewhat unpolished gameplay. It wasn't without its flaws, particularly towards the end of the game, but overall it was a great package that did a lot of things right, and I was very interested in seeing where Neowiz and Round8 go from there. I was hyped with the sequel-bait towards the end, and news of the DLC being in development filled me with joy. And now this DLC is here. And I must say I am astonished. Astonished at how awful the entire experience felt. I've already had my suspicions that something was wrong when it was announced that the DLC would come with an update that was going to introduce difficulty levels into the game. Having played through the entire DLC, I can confirm that the difficulty levels serve one simple purpose: to free up dev time so they didn't have to balance anything in the DLC itself. Playing up to it I did have a feeling that enemies in the base game were hitting harder than before, however, I remember Lies of P being a rather challenging game overall, so I didn't think much of it, probably just my memory playing tricks on me. Reaching the DLC and beating it, however, confirmed that Neowiz and Round8 have completely lost the plot. Many of the enemy types and bosses in the DLC have incredibly inflated HP pools, deal unreasonable amounts of damage to the point that a well-leveled character entering it in base NG, not even NG+, ends up dropping dead from 2 to 3 hits, and with some enemies outright stunlocking P, really some of them straight-up one-shot you, it just takes a bit longer for the game to actually process it. All this comes to a head with the final boss of the DLC. Elden Ring was a massive success and an important milestone for the genre. One way or another a lot of developers took influence from it. What I did not expect Neowiz to do, however, is to copy arguably the most hated boss in this subgenre's history and bring it into Lies of P. That's right, final boss of this DLC is Malenia, Blade of Miquella. The only difference is that while Malenia at least didn't do unreasonable damage with each of her hits, the final boss not only has combos that last for more than 5 hits, not only are they extremely fast and require nearly pixel-perfect parries to survive, but he also deals enough damage to, once again, kill you in 2 or 3 hits. Developers have already came out with an announcement that a patch is coming to lower the difficulty, since "some areas did not turn out quite as they intended", but frankly, I [b]do. Not. Care.[/b] This is not the first game to get a balance patch and we all know it won't be the last, but my experience with not just Overture, but even with the base game post-patch has been soured so much that I can not recommend this DLC in good conscience, and frankly, I even considered changing the original game's review to negative at multiple points. All that said, not everything is bad. New weapons introduced in the DLC can be fun to use, environments and music are still beautiful, and I did enjoy how DLC expanded on the original game's story and lore. I wasn't a fan of what was done with the last boss in it, but other than that I don't have issues with it in that regard. The DLC also does affect some things in the main campaign, it's not entirely a self-contained story that is completely ignored by everyone outside of it, which is commendable, since even Fromsoft, one of the largest developers on the market, didn't bother to connect its DLC to anything happening in the main game. I understand that the review is overly negative, and I don't want to sound like I think Neowiz / Round8 are lazy or incompetent, however, I do think they ended up focusing on the wrong things and went in a completely wrong direction with the design of this expansion. While I will be following their progress and the next title, I am not nearly as hyped for it as I was in the past.

Overture is absolutely perfect, i love the story and the amazing world that is the City of Krat. Lies of P as a whole is absolutely spectacular.

Amazing addition to the already great story. The new characters and (back)stories really hit the mark. I really enjoyed it. Scaling in NG+ is off here and there and needs some adjustment but it made for a nice challenge.

Overture's design to be set in a different time dimension is just so immaculate. The ability to see firsthand the events hinted at by the base game and get into knowing all those impactful characters was so emotional (both heartwarming and gut-wrenching). [spoiler]And honestly, if you are going to reuse an enemy from the base game as a final boss of the DLC, please, do it like the absolutely insane, emotionally charged and cinematic Arlecchino fight in Lies of P; not like the unwarranted, annoying and anticlimactic Promised Consort Radahn fight in Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree.[/spoiler]

Holy MOLY. Lies of Peak strikes again. An incredible addition to the best non-Fromsoft Soulslike to ever replicate the formula. Overture is just more Lies of P, but even better, albeit shorter. The best music in the game? It's in Overture. The best, (most fun to use) weapons in the game? Overture. The best boss fights in the game? You guessed it. Overture again. Also the voice acting (English, anyway), is surprisingly much better in the DLC. It was never terrible in the base game, but often it came off kinda strange or stilted and goofy. Personally I found it charming either way because it was so earnest, but they actually stepped up massively for Overture. They went berserk on the lore, with a massive amount of letters and notes to read, as well as new audio logs. The cutscenes go absurdly hard as well. Really impressive amount of effort given. It's overwhelmingly obvious that they honed their craft and have a ton of momentum. I desperately desire a full Lies of P 2 or otherwise spiritual sequel by these devs at some point in the future. They are on fire and absolutely killing it. If you loved Lies of P like I did, you absolutely have to get Overture at your soonest convenience. Even if it is shorter than the base game, I personally feel that the content on offer is definitely worth $30 because it is without question even higher quality than the base game, but when it inevitably goes on sale, it'll be a steal.

Lies of P: The Overture is a DLC that meaningfully expands on the base game’s story and world. If you enjoyed the original experience, this continuation is absolutely worth your time. The music, once again, is phenomenal. There are plenty of new records and ambient tracks that are a genuine joy to listen to. It’s a shame that, like in the base game, some records are locked behind NG+, but it's a minor flaw considering the overall quality. Story integration is handled masterfully. Rather than feeling like an afterthought, The Overture weaves itself naturally into the main narrative. Whether through direct storytelling, scattered notes, or excellent environmental storytelling, it dives deeper into the history of Krat, the origins of the puppet frenzy, the family, and the Alchemists. Exploration is rewarding, with plenty of secrets, chests, side quests, and weapons hidden throughout. The level design is impressive, some areas are among my favorites in the entire Soulslike genre. That said, one or two zones felt a bit uninspired and leaned more toward tedious than engaging. The developers also added a few quality of life improvements. While I didn’t find them really necessary, there is really nothing to complain about. More notably, the addition of a Sekiro-like style boss replay feature was a fantastic and welcome surprise. The DLC introduces several new and interesting weapons. One standout for me was the bow, which opened up a new way of clearing locations and was certainly a breath of fresh air. At the start, enemy damage and placement felt overtuned, but either it got better or I simply adapted, as I stopped noticing it after the first couple of areas. In the end, The Overture is a fantastic addition to Lies of P. 9/10 – Absolutely worth playing.

The DLC has been great so far. The bosses are more difficult than most fights in the base game to be expected, but not completely insurmountable, and I would say that the bosses and NEOWIZ's incredible environmental design that was also constantly present in the base game are the DLC's strongest points. The damage and health of enemies and bosses have been cranked up to their logical limits within this DLC. You will have to make use of the best armor to stand a chance against even regular enemies which will do insane damage, and ideally be using status effects. Use everything at your disposal, and you'll have a good time. Edit: That final boss might be in my top 3 favorites in a soulslike it's so good it's crazy

# Lies Of P: Overture - 10/10 (6) This will be mostly around the dlc but touch some parts of the base game and remain spoiler free. # background I first played lies of p when it dropped on gamepass, thought it was good but nothing remarkable, DLC shadow drops because devs lied about the date just to release it earlier, sneaky. I had to replay most of the game, bought it on steam but in the back of my head I always wondered if it's worth this effort? It was. This time everything just clicks, combat, story, level design and even the music can hit some really deep emotional notes. Onto the actual DLC. # Story Overture does something most expansions don't, it shatters any doubt in why it should exist, lies of p is a story about humanity, morals and how cruel life can be. Overture deepens these themes to a gut wrenching degree. Going back to the base game knowing what went down in overture as it connects back, it is one of the best stories I've experienced and the best of any soulslike. # combat Overture expands on the already excellent combat, setting itself apart with its unique take on parries, visceral attacks and everything else like your legion arm, the bosses will push you to use everything in your kit till your heart is pounding and you just lock in. The system of mixing blades and handles is still one of the coolest mechanics but boss weapons are so excellent I didn't expirement much this time. # conclusion Most soulslikes, try to replicate fromsoftware, a few manage to break new ground but lies of P dares to ask, what if we did our own thing? This is a game fueled by so much passion and love for the genre, they understand these games and have added so much to the table, I dare say this has become my favorite, it challenges fromsoftware but that's not to imply you have to pick one studio, both make masterpieces of games. With what they've teased for the potential sequel, it will become my most anticipated game, this is a must play.

Overture is the very best of Lies of P. As a DLC, Overture does almost everything right. It improves and builds upon the base game and does not take huge leaps to do so. What has significantly improved: The story. Lies of P as a base game has a very understandable, decent story, with some clunky writing at times. Overture serves as a sort of prequel to explain certain actions, events, and how things came to be between different factions and characters. Quite simply: it answers a lot of questions while providing a much improved storyline of its own with a grand finale. When it comes to combat, Overture adds a handful of weapons, two new Legion Arms, and a bunch of smaller gear like talismans. All of these do their job just fine, and while there could have been two or three more weapons, those that are present are top quality and fun to use. Bosses are strongly improved—pretty much every boss matches the quality of some of the best of the base game’s later bosses. The standout bosses here were a certain duo fight and the final boss. Without spoiling too much, I think the duo fight is perfectly executed and, through smart visual cues, allows you to keep track of both targets. Smart and good design. The final boss, however, is in a whole different league and might just line itself up with Soulslike boss legends such as Isshin, Sword Saint from Sekiro. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing this boss was—from presentation, arena, gameplay elements, story relevance, and moveset. It is an amazing finisher and insanely hard if you choose not to accept an optional way to make it easier (I did this and it made it much more enjoyable—if a lot harder). What leaves to be desired: While not terrible, the level design from the base game is not much improved upon. Every level in Overture is very linear, with few and small side paths that do not go far. There is a hidden boss here and there, some slight lore content, and an NPC or two to meet on the side, but it’s very much still within base game quality. Which isn’t terrible—I just think more elaborate, sprawling side paths would have been better. To conclude: Clocking in at about 25 hours of playtime (doing pretty much all the side stuff), minus maybe 1–2 idle hours, the DLC provides excellent quality that matches and improves Lies of P. If you enjoyed the main game, this is a no-brainer. Enjoy.

The only downside is I wish it was a bit longer. Otherwise it's just as good as the base game so if you enjoyed that you should definitely give this a go.

Absolutely sensational, everything is top notch especially the narrative and main story bosses, the one that stood out to me the most was the final boss. That boss was one of the greatest gaming experiences I have ever had, it was insane. Apart from these, I want to address an issue which I believe could potentially hinder the experience of players from time to time, some of the enemy placement decisions were very questionable and regular enemies hit you for 30-40% of your healthbar, granted it's supposed to be difficult but I just don't think it works well with the offered combat mechanics in the game, particularly when any normal enemy can break your stance with a single attack. This is a very minor issue but it definitely needs addressing. In conclusion, I'd best describe this DLC as "more Lies of P", a must buy for fellow enthusiasts.

thank you for saving my life for the second time in all seriousness, i shed tears at the end. genuinely the best game i ever played i love you neowiz. regardless if you care about soulslike or not, the narrative is amazing and i recommend you to give the game a shot even if youre intimidated.

Enemy damage output is absolutely insane, regular trash mobs will hit you for over half health (my Vitality is at 60 going into the dlc), and that's just one hit of the very quick combo strings most enemies have. This would be fine if Lies of P was a faster game, but it's a game that can feel somewhat sluggish in combat. The dodge is more of a sidestep, and the parry window is very tight with very little feedback. That can be fine if the game is balanced around it, but I don't believe this dlc is. I wonder if the devs think the challenge is acceptable because of the new difficulty options, but it honestly feels lazy. This shouldn't be "standard". The frustration of combat makes it difficult to enjoy what the game does well, mainly art direction and story. It would be a miracle if one of these companies that chase Fromsofts soulslike design could actually manage to figure out what makes the challenge in those games work, because right now it seems like they think all that matters is "difficult=good", and that factors into the design of the entire game.

TL;DR: From music, to story, to lore and more, it is simply a beautifully crafted DLC that summarizes to "More Lies of P" that leans on quality over quantity. Length: It's short but dense in some areas. In terms of content, it's about half the size of the original game but not necessarily half as long. Some bosses can be quite the trouble and extend that length- skill issue technically but it'll be fixed promptly as mentioned in the Director's Letter. Playtime on the DLC: roughly 12 to 18 hrs. Main Story: I won't spoil the plot nor main contents in this portion but if you wish to go fully blind, DO NOT hover the spoiler: [spoiler] You explore Krat's past and mysteries unresolved from the present. Meet both new and old people and learn the truth and more behind certain portions of base game's story. LOTS of lore too. [/spoiler] Gameplay: The addition of new assembly weapons and boss/special weapons is very refreshing, specially with the new legion arms. It's not a lot of weapons but it's substantial considering the length of the DLC and the new enemy types (excluiding the "recycled" ones) allowing you to rock different weapon combinations while enjoying the DLC content and trying new stuff. Sticking to your old-trustworthy weapon is still a good option but it's always good to step out and try something new- specially *dodging* more often. The game tries a lot of new stuff without going out of it's track and losing it's core combat mechanics- hoping they'll add more and refine it for the sequel, this DLC's gameplay experience brings a lot of hope and excitement towards the next game. Difficulty: If you haven't beat the game and access NG+, your experience in the DLC might be smoother. If you're on NG+, the scales are a bit off and enemies will two to three-hit-kill you easily. It gets very difficult, specially if you skip EVERYTHING just to access the DLC. The developers have acknowledged this as I write this review so it might be fixed. If you're still struggling, no worries. The devs added 3 difficulties for you to balance things out yourself: Story mode, Awakened Puppet (Normal mode) and Legendary Stalker (Hard mode). Keep in mind that these difficulties SCALE with NG+ and each subsequent completed run. Exploration: Each area is dense and packed with a few weapons, new and old items and groups of enemies if you want to challenge yourself to the new enemy types. The level design is STILL linear but very well interconnected with lots of shortcuts as you go in deeper- specially with a few more Stargazes than the base game. Rating: If you're new to Lies of P and Souls-like, this is a solid [b]8/10[/b]. if you enjoyed the game and want more to do, more bosses and more weapon that might fit your playstyle or discover something you like that might encourage you to do a NG+ run. Highly recommended if you enjoyed the base game and the bossing experience. If you're an old Lies of P player and waiting for reviews, this DLC is a [b]10/10[/b], simply a must-play. Following the same principle, this DLC is a love letter to the fans of the game. More lore, weapons, interesting bosses, mechanics and LOTS of details. For it's price, it's 100% worth the purchase even outside of sales.

Solid extra content. Fun weapons and bosses.

Whilst the price is a bit steep, as someone who will sing this game's praise every chance he can get I think it was more than worth it. The bosses were stellar, the areas and enemies were top notch, and in general the quality was up to the standard this studio set with the base game. The only complaint I personally really have is the boss weapons were lacking, but even then what is available is amazing. 10/10 Neowiz. Hopefully the sequel/next game set in this universe is as good if not better.