Lies of P: Overture is a near perfect Soulslike concoction of soaring phenomenal highs, marred by frustrating lows. Stealth released last June to minimal fanfare, I bounced off it very early on as the difficulty spiked drastically even beyond the most challenging fights from the base game. Swallowing my pride and dropping the difficulty to the middle option, I found Overture returned to the more balanced experience I had with Lies of P, and I confess even now four playthroughs in, any time I return Overture to the hardest difficulty I find myself unable to get through it without copious sweating and swearing ensuing.

Now I have played through Overture as much as I have, fully exploring each chapter and unlocking all added combat options, I can finally report on whether I think it is worth playing. YES is the short answer, and there’s no better place to start this review than talking about where the expansion shines brightest: the new weapons. Both standard arms as well as those received for defeating bosses are as varied and well designed as they are deeply satisfying to use.

I was delighted to pick up a bow in the first area of the game, and despite it not meshing well with my play style to the point I didn’t use it much, I’ve read that others who stuck with it highly enjoyed doing so. The welcome addition of a hefty gunblade reminiscent of Squall’s from Final Fantasy VIII was a very welcome surprise around the three quarter mark, with plenty of other great discoveries scattered generously throughout Overture. The only additions to the weapon roster that I didn’t like might very well be other players favourite new options, as while all combat preferences are accommodated I quickly determined which were better than others for me.

There are two new Legion Arms as well, and for my first two playthroughs I leaned heavily on Icarus, which fires up to four spinning blades that return to you after dealing heavy slash damage to targets. I thought I could comfortably call Icarus my favourite of the two until I used the other Legion Arm, Cataclysm, on my most recent runs of Overture and new game plus. A dramatic mix between a shotgun and a grenade launcher is the amalgamation of all weapon design found throughout Lies of P. Stylish, beautiful, dependable, but most importantly: absolutely lethal.

I found Overture took me roughly half the time to beat as the base game, and I hesitate to put a number of hours on that as each run could last a significantly different period of time. The new environments traversed and explored in Overture are even more diverse and desperately stunning at times than the main game, with particularly attention paid to the opening and closing chapters of the expansion.

Exploring a frozen ship graveyard was as much of an enjoyable treat as it was a tense war of attrition to progress, with minimal Stargazers (checkpoints) around the most active zones. The Aurora Borealis overhead kept the scene beautifully lit, as of course did the relentless cannon fire which caught me either pre-occupied or off-guard almost every time. At least when I could finally reach and destroy the cannon, it does not respawn with other enemies upon resting.

If I have one major gripe with Overture, it’s the bosses. I didn’t find one of them as fun to fight as even the lesser opponents of the base game, and while that doesn’t make them all bad necessarily, you’re sure to find the most frustrating and loathsome encounters from all of Lies of P nestled somewhere in Overture.

The clear worst fight in the game is the first boss, Tyrannical Predator, a gigantic alligator infused with the Petrification Disease which plagues all the animals found in Krat Zoo. This fight completely ruined the balance and understanding I had established playing the base game; that Lies of P will be challenging though ultimately fair. Tyrannical Predator is anything but. Its hit box is a total mess, and the deliberately small arena makes this fight feel as claustrophobic as it is frustrating. Their relentless attacks and ever so slightly too long ‘boss run back’ for this fight made me seriously question whether I wanted to continue playing Overture at all.

I also take umbrage with the final boss of the expansion when it comes to fighting them. The Blood Artist has some of the most exemplary build-up scattered both throughout the base game and Overture, as well as easily the best mid-fight cutscene in all of gaming, but the fight itself is an overly aggravating experience which goes some way to souring my closing moments with this otherwise tight and immensely well designed expansion. For more detail on this, please see Luke’s dedicated article on the fight which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Despite these noteworthy shortcomings I absolutely recommend Lies of P: Overture. Despite being out for nearly ten months at time of writing it is yet to be included in any sales I am aware of, rigidly sticking to its £25 / $30 price point, for which I can confidently confirm it is easily worth. The replay value is as sky-high as that of the base game, and when you venture into new game plus with Overture’s weapons added to your arsenal, you will truly know godhood.

My best piece of advice to any prospective players who do not wish to opt in to being brutally punished is don’t hesitate to drop the difficulty if you need to, as I would never have been able to experience this exemplary expansion if I’d stubbornly kept refusing to.

My original review of Lies of P from 2023 was written before I had finished the game, and now that I have completed it over ten times, I am pleased to report I can update my score of it from an 8 out of 10 to a perfect 10! Lies of P is now my most played PlayStation 5 game ever. My frustration at Overture’s bosses might not be enough to dissuade me from recommending it to anyone who enjoyed the base game and wants more of it, but I cannot extend the same perfect score to this expansion, and so I score it

9 / 10

Written, edited and images captured by Alexx.

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