Lies of P (PlayStation 4) review "When puppets obtain (dark) souls. "

The city of Krat has seen better days. I mean, all things considered, an out-of-control epidemic of the Bubonic Plague would lead to better days than everything going down in this place. There’s a petrification disease going on for which there seems to be no cure. Avoid catching that and all those robotic puppets being used for menial labor have all gone insane, so odds are you’ll be beaten, stabbed or crushed to death by some form of out-of-control machinery. And if that’s not enough, there also is a rapidly-growing onslaught of feral beasts known as Carcasses. They might be more organic than the puppets, but they’re no less deadly. And in many cases, more dangerous with their insane howling backed up by animalistic ferocity.

Man, I remember getting into Pinocchio-related stuff when I was a child, but I can’t recall that book or animated film taking quite the same dark and demented turn into the macabre than Neowiz’ Lies of P does with gusto. Much like FROM’s Bloodborne, this game is a horror-themed Souls-like. In fact, it’s about as Souls as a Souls-like gets, residing firmly in the hallowed halls of “Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery”.

You’ll be placed in control of one of the only non-murderous puppets, having been given sentience just after the uprising. Your character, meant to represent Pinocchio, apparently has more free will than the average puppet, which can be manifested whenever you engage in conversation with Krat’s handful of still-living residents. You’ll frequently be able to speak little white lies to them in order to make their dire situation seem a little more palatable and, in return, you’ll get a message hinting at you gaining some degree of humanity. Because, after all, the ability to speak untruths is a human feature; while a true puppet wouldn’t be able to compute things like deception.

Of course, you will have more pressing concerns than showing off your ability to express humanity. It isn’t long after you experience your new-found freedom that various puppets will start shambling up to you with the intention of bashing you into a pile of scrap. And so you’ll take those Dark Souls skills that you (or at least I) have diligently worked to refine over the past few years to whack them with whatever weaponry you can dig up, while also parrying or dodging their blows because Mr. P isn’t exactly remotely durable.

The game’s opening stage is a pretty good place to put those skills into practice. Most of the puppets are slow and weak, with only a couple larger and stronger ones putting up a real fight. Of course, one of those holds the key needed to exit the train station you begin the game in, so you’ll have to start showing competence really damn quickly if you want to actually see the corpse-strewn streets and buildings of Krat.

Get past the opening stage and its boss and you’ll make it to Hotel Krat, your nice and pleasant hub which all the friendly NPCs will wind up calling their home, often after you’ve rescued them from one predicament or another. From there, you’ll venture out into city streets, a giant museum, a mining shanty town and the imposing cathedral looming over it, a swamp (poisonous, of course) and other locations littered with hostile beings, as well as new weapons and various items.

You’ll also notice that the designers really loved playing the hits from their favorite FROM games. The game’s creepy old-time European vibe oftentimes gives the impression that Krat might be the sister city of Yharnam, which often manifests in unexpected ways. That opera house sure is a spacious and well-lit place, but what about those giant singing spider puppets that can both empower their weaker allies and emit screams that build up the meter for this game’s instant death status effect? No…just no.

Parrying also is about as integral an ability as in Sekiro. Sure, you can often fight off foes with attacks and dodges, but proper use of parrying can make tough fights a lot easier. Both attacks and successful parries can raise a foe’s stun meter, leading to them eventually becoming woozy and, as a result, susceptible to a brutal critical hit. As an added bonus, executing enough perfect guards can even break enemy weapons, which also can be quite beneficial to your chances of victory.

And there are many other similarities, ranging from how you use checkpoints to fast travel and (eventually) level up to how the same experience used for obtaining levels also is used to purchase items or improve your weaponry to how the frequently-collected Star Fragments you come across are used on devices outside most boss chambers in order to “wish upon a star” and gain an NPC ally for those battles.

I guess you can say this game isn’t a pure carbon copy, though. Most weapons have both a hilt and a blade and you are allowed to mix-and-match those parts in order to do things like change their special attacks or give them a different swing speed or style. You’ll also gain plenty of Quartz as you explore and those can be used at a machine in the hotel to augment P, improving his performance in a number of ways.

Also, Lies of P is a very linear game where each area you explore is considered one of 11 chapters. In each one, you’ll explore the area, beat its boss and then you’ll advance to the next with no opportunities to break the sequence. Due to the game’s checkpoints, you’ll always be able to backtrack, but there’s no way of advancing anywhere until the game decides it’s time to do so. As opposed to a FROM game, where you often can at least attempt to visit places outside of the encouraged order to do so. Sure, unless you’re really skilled, you’ll likely get sliced up by adversaries too powerful for you to overcome, but you can try! Here, you’re on rails going through a bunch of self-contained levels that, while connected, still feel somewhat isolated from each other. Maybe Dark Souls only had the illusion of freedom for me when I played, but at least there was that illusion. No such thing existed here.

Still, when it comes to giving recommendations to games, making that decision is as easy as it comes with Lies of P. Just ask yourself one question: Do I like FROM’s Souls and Souls-like games? If you don’t, don’t bother even looking this way. If you do, well, you’ll get a very close imitation that may not break much (if any) new ground, but will be providing the video game version of a high-quality cover band that’s playing most of your favorite hits.

And, hell, if you’re interested in this sort of game, but put off by the challenge level, when this game’s DLC was released, Neowiz also added some accessibility features. But that’s a story for a different day. Hopefully. Overture is currently kicking my ass because what else would it do?

Staff review by Rob Hamilton (October 17, 2025) Rob Hamilton is the official drunken master of review writing for Honestgamers.