Ever since I started playing it—and then, against both the odds and the way I tend to treat most games of its ilk, kept playing it—back in 2023, I’ve struggled to put my affection for “Pinocchio Meets Bloodborne” action-RPG Lies Of P into words. The premise, after all, borders on almost indefensibly dopey: Take all the elements of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel, apply them to a spooky post-apocalyptic city full of giggling murder puppets, and let the player slash and parry all that public domain fodder into the dirt. But as I ventured, first through the game’s demo, and then through multiple playthroughs of it, I’ve found Lies Of P to be a game that’s undeniably more than the sum of its largely pilfered parts. Backed up by a gorgeous soundtrack and a few genuinely startling visuals, it’s both moodier in its writing, and more inventive in its play, than it has any right to be, with boss fights that express a creativity rarely seen in the ever-growing collection of games kludged together under the awkward nickname “Soulslikes.”
So when I was recently offered the chance to fly to Los Angeles to play the game’s upcoming downloadable content campaign, Overture, I jumped at it. I was rewarded for my efforts with multiple reminders that developers Neowiz and Round8 have made something genuinely special here, as the two hours I got with Overture proved themselves to be a fast-paced, challenging experience that carried forward the surprisingly high quality of the original game while improving on some of its defects, including a fairly tiny roster of original enemies.
Overture pits players against a literal menagerie of new foes, forcing you to face off with a pretty decent chunk of the animal kingdom as you make your way through its tale. The story demo I played through tasked “P” (apparently sent back in time for reasons I can only assume amount to “Plot Shenanigans”) with running through a snow-covered and abandoned zoo, now swarming with animals that have been overtaken by the “carcass” affliction from the base game. One of the easiest critiques of the original Lies Of P was that, despite its thrilling boss battles, its base enemies could often be pretty rote, generally either being zombies or puppets that acted like zombies. By taking various animals as its inspiration, though, Overture’s trip to the zoo presents a whole new collection of fascinating threats; there’s nothing quite like rounding a corner and muttering “Oh fuck, is that… an elephant?!” right before engaging in the fray. (And that’s before hitting at least one big mid-level twist that felt like a combination of some of the more memorable battles of Resident Evil and Dark Souls III.)
Players who found themselves disappointed by the fact that most of Lies Of P took place in a series of familiar, dingy environments (city, village, factory, etc.), meanwhile, will be happy to see the expansion pushes out the game’s color palette; the Krat Zoo is brightly lit and covered in snow, creating a welcome contrast between the peaceful environments and the chaos that breaks out within them. (Players who wish the level design was more complex will be less thrilled; the Zoo looks great, but doesn’t overcome the base game’s sense that you’re running through a series of prettily-dressed hallways.)
Other tweaks include the addition of a frost status effect that saps your puppet’s health and some new items that offer new buffs. More exciting is the addition of numerous new weapons, including a giant pinwheel hammer that builds up speed (and attack power) as you run with it, and a seemingly innocuous sword that can turn you into a flash-stepping, lightning-powered terror on the battlefield. All of these new toys (most of which you can mix-and-match for parts) show that Round8 has doubled down on the base game’s devotion to giving players multiple ways to have fun with their murders; firing rotating buzzsaws out into the environment with my Legion Arm, only to transform myself into lightning to press the advantage on the foe, is some of the most fun I’ve had with a Souls-style game in recent memory.
Which brings me to the other major portion of the demo, and the thing I was most excited about when it was rolled out for press: The announcement that Overture will arrive alongside a free patch adding a highly customizable boss rush mode to the original game. Lies Of P has some best-in-genre boss fights—despite my occasional frustration with its love of cramming multi-phase battles into almost all of its later bouts—and being able to challenge, say, the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, or the shield-slamming Laraxia, from a menu, without having to replay the entire game, is a huge quality of life boost. (The mode, unlocked after beating the base game once, will also come with customizable difficulty levels, as well as the ability to build your own gauntlet of major enemies to fight through.)
The second demo I played gave me an hour to use the boss rush to tackle three of the expansion’s new boss fights, and I’m happy to confirm that Overture put me through my paces. Even the simplest of the bosses on offer (a hulking brute called the “Two-Faced Overseer,” which alternates from calmer strikes to more rage-powered attacks) reminded me of how satisfying the game’s parry-based combat can be, forcing me to learn the rhythms of its varying aggression. And the best, a boss fight against a condescending puppeteer and her high-flying masterpiece, was easily on par with the best fights from the original game: Creative, tactically fascinating, and forcing me to make moment-to-moment choices in my approach. In every case, I found myself trying multiple strategies to try to overcome my opponents’ attacks and defenses, engaging my mind with the twin puzzle of how to respond to the battle in the moment, and then—after the inevitable death—how to alter my character to be best prepared for the next attempt. Coming off of my time with the demo, I’m raring to fight these bosses again in my regular playthrough of Overture, and (maybe even more so) to be able to load them up for a quick battle whenever I feel like getting my blood pumping.
Playing through this preview look of Overture, I was struck by what a confident package it offered: It was easy to see how the team had taken feedback and concerns with the base game and addressed them, without losing the spirit of oddball inventiveness that helped make the original game such an unlikely standout. (At the same time, the commitment to adding QoL features is huge; in addition to the boss rush, Lies Of P will also be getting an easier difficulty level to allow more players to make their way through it.) I’m genuinely excited to see how the level of focus on display here plays out through the whole expansion; at a time when even From itself seems to be stepping back from single-player experiences to chase the allure of multiplayer action, it’s thrilling to see a studio double down on what worked about its unsung gem of a game.
