Lies of P: Overture Review Summary

With an engaging emotional story and fun, challenging bosses, this exceptional game is surpassed by its DLC, though that expansion's harsh difficulty and poor boss quality draw wide criticism.

DLC surpasses base game: Many reviewers consider the DLC superior to the base game in multiple aspects, including challenge, story, and map design. It is often described as the definitive way to experience the game.

Exceptional overall quality: The DLC is frequently praised as one of the best ever played, with sensational, phenomenal, and brilliant quality. It is a must-play for fans of the base game.

Challenging and fun bosses: Boss fights, especially the final boss, are highlighted as excellent, challenging, and satisfying. They provide a real test of skill and are memorable highlights.

Engaging and emotional story: The DLC's story is often described as interesting, touching, and emotional, with many finding it even better than the base game's narrative. It effectively expands the lore and resolves loose threads.

New weapons are fun: The addition of new weapons is highly appreciated, with many noting they are cool, unique, and fun to use. This adds significant variety and excitement to combat.

DLC Difficulty Widely Criticized: Many players report the DLC is excessively difficult, featuring artificial difficulty and unfair scaling compared to the base game. The challenge often feels forced rather than well-designed, frustrating a large portion of the player base.

Boss Quality Considered Poor: A significant number of reviewers find the bosses lackluster, with mediocre design, unremarkable mechanics, and sometimes outright bad encounters. This detracts from the overall experience and is a common complaint.

DLC Too Short and Mediocre: Many players feel the DLC is too short and mediocre, especially when compared to the base game. It is often not recommended on its own due to lack of substantial content.

Overpriced for Content: The DLC is widely considered overpriced, with players feeling it offers insufficient content for the cost. Some even label it a cash grab, especially at full price.

Enemies Overly Tanky and Damaging: Enemies and bosses are criticized for having excessive health pools and dealing extremely high damage, making combat feel unfair and tedious. This contributes to the perception of artificial difficulty.

New Weapons and Bosses: The DLC introduces a variety of new weapons with unique movesets, inspired by base game bosses, alongside new boss fights. This is a core content addition frequently praised by players.

Expansive Story and World: The DLC expands the base game's narrative, lore, and world with new areas, equipment, and characters. It continues and complements the main story, resolving teases and adding substantial content.

Final Boss and Multiple Phases: The DLC features a final boss with multiple phases and combos, serving as a climactic challenge. It has extensive buildup and is a highlight for many players.

Soulslike Action RPG: The DLC is for a soulslike action RPG, featuring parry mechanics, enemy attack patterns, and boss fights. It retains the core genre elements loved by fans.

Increased Difficulty and Challenging Bosses: The DLC is significantly harder than the base game, with bosses that are hyper-aggressive, require learning mechanics, and can cause frustration. The final boss is especially tough but fair and polished.

Mixed PC performance reports: Some players report solid optimization and stable framerates, while others describe stutters and FPS drops. The overall technical experience appears inconsistent across different hardware and sections of the game.

Stability praised by some players: A portion of feedback highlights a lack of technical issues, with no bugs, crashes, or freezes experienced even on average hardware at ultra settings. These users consider the PC version well-optimised.

Crashes and errors reported: Several users encountered crashes, freezes, or frequent errors during play, with one describing the issues as catastrophic. This contrasts with others who experienced no crashes at all.

Late-game performance degradation: Near the end of the game, specifically around Rose Estate, performance reportedly deteriorates significantly with stutters. This suggests optimization may vary by area rather than being uniformly good or bad.

Must-buy for base game fans: The overwhelming majority of reviewers state that anyone who enjoyed the base game should purchase this DLC without hesitation. It is repeatedly described as mandatory, essential, or a no-brainer for fans of the original.

Outstanding value and quality: Many reviewers consider the DLC to be an exceptional purchase, calling it one of the best DLCs ever and worth every cent. It is frequently described as completing the game and being an absolute steal even at full price.

Essential for Lies of P fans: Reviewers specifically recommend the DLC for those who enjoyed Lies of P, stating it offers more of what made the base game work. It is considered an easy recommendation for fans of that title.

Play timing and difficulty advice: Several reviewers advise on when to start the DLC, suggesting it be played before the final boss or after clearing the main story for the best narrative fit. Others warn about difficulty spikes, recommending a first playthrough or NG rather than later cycles.

Early boss difficulty warning: Some reviewers caution that the first boss fight, particularly due to camera issues, can be frustrating, but urge players not to let it ruin the overall experience. The rest of the DLC is still considered good.

Community fair range: $50.00 - $60.00.

Game completion: 18.0h.

Endgame: 5.5h.

Early hours are widely described as hard, frustrating, and slowed by caves and reused enemies, but several players say the DLC becomes excellent once they get past the initial difficulty curve and one particularly bad boss fight.

Friction: First few hours are very hard and frustrating; Initial difficulty curve of learning boss patterns; Boring caves and cliffside areas; Reused enemy types and boring enemy designs; Stun-locking group gank enemies.

Unlock drivers: Getting past the initial boss-pattern learning curve; Getting past the single bad boss fight; Distinct identities of DLC areas.

Soulslike Veteran Challenge Seeker: Solo boss attempts with heavy parry timing, pattern learning, and repeated playthroughs. Motivation: Mastering brutally hard, well-balanced boss fights and re-experiencing the soulslike sense of achievement. Stance: buy.

Story and Lore Devotee: Exploration- and narrative-driven, soaking in atmosphere, locations, and callbacks rather than chasing difficulty. Motivation: Continuing the base game's story and uncovering the lore and characters behind Krat's origins. Stance: buy.

Accessibility-Minded Newcomer: Uses the added difficulty settings and may lean on NPC or coop help instead of pure solo challenge. Motivation: Experiencing the game's world and story without being blocked by a punishing difficulty barrier. Stance: buy.

For the Windows 12-15GB VRAM cohort, the available performance reports are positive, with no technical issues described. The one negative snippet addresses gameplay rather than performance or stability.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. The available performance feedback reports no issues with bugs or performance, and the negative comment focuses on gameplay rather than technical problems.

Monetization: The reviews discuss a paid DLC expansion with substantial lore, challenging bosses, and post-update technical problems. The only monetization-related feedback concerns DLC pricing relative to the base game. There is no evidence of in-game purchases, gacha, loot boxes, currency obfuscation, battle passes, paid convenience, or pay-to-win mechanics. Under the rubric, traditional DLC pricing complaints do not count as predatory monetization, so the score remains in the fair range.

Substantial Expansion Content: The DLC is widely described as a full expansion with new lore, outfits, voice acting, and weapons. Many reviewers feel it could stand as a separate game and surpasses the base game in scope and quality.

Story Surpasses Base Game: Multiple reviewers consider the DLC's narrative better than the base game's, with more intriguing exploration and storytelling. It is described as amazing and way better than the main plot.

Lore and Story Integration: The DLC complements the base game's story, fills gaps in lore, and connects to vanilla events. Reviewers appreciate how it expands the narrative and adds missing details.

Pricing Divides Players: Opinions on pricing are mixed: some find it worth the money or well-priced, while others consider it expensive or overpriced relative to content. The DLC is often sold at half the base game's price.

Playtime Rivals Base Game: Reported completion times range from 10 to 20 hours, with many reviewers noting the DLC offers roughly one-third to half the length of the main game. This substantial runtime is frequently praised.