Lies of P may just be one of the most surprising games of the year. Not for its gameplay, but for its content. Certainly the biggest surprise of Gamescom 2022, scooping a shedload of awards and impressing gamers with its Belle Poque-set interpretation of Pinocchio, the game has managed to build on everything that we saw last year, and we’re now mere days away from a full release.

Over the last week or so I’ve been lucky enough to play a review copy of the final game, and I’m glad to say after a year of hyping it up, the developers Neowiz and Round8 have done a great job in fulfilling the various expectations we have.

Related: Lies of P Hands-on Preview: Clockwork Puppets Pull Your Strings and Cost You Time

Lies of P is not the Pinocchio you Know

For many of us, Pinocchio is the story of the wooden puppet who desperately wants to become human, and thanks to some unfortunate magic, has the unlucky curse that if he lies, his nose grows, no matter the size or content of the lie. This version of the character has been seen in everything from Disney classics, to Shrek and even a couple of recent versions, as well as many, many more. However, for the most part, Lies of P draws its inspiration not from these well-known fables, but from the original story by Carlo Collodi, the writer of the tale back in the late 19th century.

For those who may not be aware, the comparison the the Disney versions are very minimal, with the only similarities being the puppet and some of the supporting characters. The original is far darker, and as such, makes sense why Lies of P favours the original.

Lies of P is a Souls-like video game, but unlike the scores of imitators since Dark Souls first released in 2011, it has crafted a niche for itself, and one that propels it from imitator status, to boundary pusher.

The similarities to Bloodborne cannot be escaped. It is dark. It is bloody. There is the gothic look about everything. Lies of P even has Stargazers, which work on the same basis as Bloodborne’s lanterns, and that’s about where the similarities end, to be truthful. It has taken parts of one of the best Souls-likes, and bettered them in some ways, if not most, but it does both games a dis-service to compare them too much.

Combat and a Gothic Atmosphere Equals Many a Happy Gamer

Lies of P opens without much explanation, with Pinocchio in an empty tram car, in a seat all alone, awakening to a voice summoning him. Exiting the tram car you’re immediately greeted with a visual onslaught of blood and guts, human bodies strewn lifeless across the platform, and clockwork puppets prowling and patrolling for more victims. The onus is immediately on attack, and the game doesn’t really slow down from these opening moments, at least where the combat is concerned.

The combat is fast-paced and frenetic, and you’ll find that the best strategy is to be on the front foot. Find your rhythm. As Souls-likes generally go, you will be rewarded with perseverance and the patient studying of your opponents, as each enemy has a different set of attack animations that can all be exploited and abused to quickly and voraciously dispatch them.

The game does a wonderful job of handing you the tools to remove this latest scourge on the fallen city of Krat, but at no point will you feel safe. Whether you’re taking on a few humanoid puppets, or trying to take on one of the game’s many, impressive bosses, you’ll need to use all the tricks in your locker.

As well as the standard melee weapons – of which there are an INCREDIBLE amount -, you’ll also become acquainted with the Legion Arm, a unique take on Pinocchio’s puppetry; the option to craft new weapons of your own design, as well as a variety of throwables that, along with the weapon grindstones, can be imbue elemental damage.

The Legion Arm itself has a variety of different versions, from ‘Puppet String’, which is a handy, ranged weapon that shoots out a rope and pulls the enemies to you, in a Scorpion-esque “Get over here!” moment, to ‘Pandomonium’, an arm that spews out toxic sludge and poisons anyone, or anything, unlucky enough to be caught in its path. Thanks to the Stargazers, this can be changed regularly, and it is certainly the case that you’ll use multiple throughout your playthrough.

Hotel Krat is the Lies of P equivalent to Bloodborne’s Hunter’s Dream, filled with people to talk to, upgrade your weapons and Legion Arm, and of course level up your stats. Nothing of note is unique with the stats of Pinocchio, just the usual health, strength etc, with relevant and themed names.

However, early on during the story you will come across your ‘father’ Geppetto, who after some discussions, ends up back at the Hotel Krat for you to talk more with, but also to upgrade your P-Organ. Essentially a simple skill tree, it’ll allow you to make the Living Puppet your own, with different abilities offering unique advantages, from extra health to more charge stagger damage and so on.

The Bosses in Lies of P are Certainly… Different

As I mentioned in my preview of the same game, Lies of P sports some fantastic bosses, after all, it’s not really a Souls-Like if you don’t have larger-than-life enemies to try and defeat, is it? Lies of P certainly delivers here. From the King of Puppets to a walking furnace, you’ll encounter countless big bosses, with all of them providing a challenge or two.

Souls-Like games are certainly know for having some hellish monsters as larger-than-life, seemingly unbeatable bosses, but Lies of P really has an eclectic taste. One of the first bosses you’ll meet is a man dressed as a donkey, aptly named The Mad Donkey, and many of you will have encountered him in the game’s demo. There’s a considerable amount of layers to this from a narrative sense, but in the sense of keeping it simple, this is perhaps one of the more normal boss fights in the game, especially compared to some you meet shortly after this, anyway.

For some of the bosses, the game allows you to use a Star Fragment to summon a spectre, an NPC-controlled ally who always turned out to be a worthwhile distraction, if nothing else, but it really is these moments that make you realise how much fun this game would be with a co-operative partner.

During my interview with Game Director Choi Jiwon, he mentioned that the choice to keep the game single player was as much a narrative one as anything else, as it was an individual quest to ‘become a real boy’, but after many hours playing, this may be the only part I’m genuinely disappointed with, as it wouldn’t have taken much to just have a second player be nothing more than a carbon-copy of the host… a spectre, if you will.

In another way though, this is oddly on point with the central theme of Carlo Collodi’s original tale; you can’t always rely on other people to help. Sometimes you just have to buck up and get on with it, because no-one else will do it for you. This is not only a prominent theme in the original book, but part of the game’s underlying message as well.

In a city ravaged by automatons sick of serving their masters, nearly every human has been killed by the puppets, or turned to stone by the mysterious disease taking over the city. The puppets did everything, from manual labour, to cooking, to recycling their own kind. They took it upon themselves to remove their oppressors, and thankfully for us playing the game, they did it in a brutally, gory fashion.

The combat never gets boring, the weapons keep it fresh and allow for multiple approaches. The different Legion Arms available mean you’ll always have another tactic to switch to, and the extra little flourishes in between mean you will not get bored of Lies of P. It is fun, it is frustrating, it is rewarding and it is glorious to behold. If this is the new bar at which Souls-Like games are held to, we’ll all be better off.

9/10

Lies of P was played on PlayStation 5 with a code supplied by IcoPartners.

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