Lies of P: Overture (2025): The Review

Overview

Lies of P: Overture is a fantastic yet brief expansion that builds beautifully on the already stellar base game. Lasting around six to eight hours, it’s a tightly crafted experience that deepens the lore of Krat while introducing stunning new environments, fresh weapons, and powerful Legion Arms to experiment with. With its challenging boss fights and impeccable design, Overture stands as a must-play addition for anyone eager to return to Lies of P’s dark, elegant world.

Score: 8.5 out of 10

The Positives ✅

Lies of P: Overture is everything a great DLC should be: tight, challenging, lore-rich, and stylishly brutal. NEOWIZ and Round8 Studios clearly didn’t treat this as a side mission; it’s presented as the “missing half” of the original game, and that ambition shows. Over roughly six to eight hours, Overture expands the mythos of Krat with chilling precision, taking players to a wintry, dying version of the city filled with snow, decay, and monstrous beauty. The new areas, from the haunting Krat Zoo to the eerie shipwrecked seas, are gorgeously crafted and layered with environmental storytelling that deepens the tragedy of this world.

Lore enthusiasts will eat this up. Overture digs into long-standing mysteries while giving long-overdue attention to underused characters like Lea the Legendary Stalker and the real Alidoro. The way it ties into the main game’s mythology feels both essential and emotionally charged, especially during the final act, which crescendos into one of the most creative and demanding boss fights NEOWIZ has ever made. This expansion doesn’t just add content, it recontextualizes the base game’s events, letting you see Krat before it collapsed, still clinging to a hint of life and sanity.

Combat-wise, Overture is a dream for those who crave experimentation. The introduction of new weapon types and Legion Arms, like the Gunblade, Claws, and the Royal Horn Bow, makes every encounter feel fresh again. The Gunblade, in particular, is a standout: part greatsword, part gun, part dance of controlled aggression. Its dual-direction firing mechanic encourages stylish repositioning, rewarding players who like to live on the edge. Meanwhile, the Royal Horn Bow opens up an entirely new combat rhythm, offering tactical range without breaking balance. Add in new hybrid weapon crafting options, and the sandbox for creative play becomes even richer. The soundtrack remains sublime, with haunting new arrangements that remix motifs from the base game’s records. proof that even Lies of P’s music knows how to tell a story.

The Negatives ⚠️

There’s no denying Overture’s brilliance, but it’s not without its occasional frustrations. For starters, while most enemies are grotesque delights, some of the larger bosses suffer from long-standing Soulslike camera syndrome. When you’re toe-to-toe with titans like the Anguished Guardian of the Ruins, the camera becomes your worst enemy, swinging wildly, clipping through walls, or just losing the plot mid-fight. It’s not constant, but when it happens, it’s enough to break the tension and make deaths feel messy instead of meaningful.

The new difficulty settings, Legendary Stalker, Butterfly’s Guidance, and Awakened Puppet, are a thoughtful addition, but the balance isn’t perfect. Even on the easiest mode, newer players will still find themselves punished harshly. That’s fine for Souls veterans, but it does make the “accessibility” of those options feel more symbolic than practical. On the opposite end, the new challenge modes, Battle Memories and Death March, are so unforgiving at higher tiers that they border on masochistic. Getting one-shot by bosses can make these modes feel more like experiments in endurance than skill refinement.

Finally, while Overture’s world is beautifully realized, it’s undeniably short. Six to eight hours of gameplay is generous for DLC, but when the quality is this high, it leaves you wanting more. It’s not a flaw so much as a compliment that feels like a complaint, the expansion ends right when it feels like it’s truly hitting its stride.

The Experience 🎮

Playing Lies of P: Overture feels like returning to Krat after a long, feverish dream: familiar yet different, colder, crueler. It’s a compact dose of everything that made the base game special, distilled into a few brutal, breathtaking hours. From the opening Stargazer portal to the snow-covered ruins and grotesque new horrors, the DLC wastes no time reestablishing its tone: a mix of elegance and menace, hope and decay.

The challenge hits like a sledgehammer, even NG++++ players find themselves humbled, but the beauty is in the learning curve. Every defeat teaches, every victory feels earned. It’s that FromSoftware DNA filtered through Lies of P’s mechanical precision and twisted fairy-tale melancholy. Between the new weapons, bosses, and music, the combat loop achieves a kind of hypnotic rhythm where style and survival blend seamlessly.

More than anything, though, Overture succeeds in what DLC rarely does: it deepens the emotional and narrative identity of the main game. It adds tragedy to familiar faces, answers questions without killing the mystery, and reminds you why Lies of P’s world is worth bleeding for. Short? Sure. Imperfect? Occasionally. But when the credits roll, and that haunting final boss theme fades, it’s clear, Lies of P: Overture isn’t just a great expansion. It’s a powerful encore to one of the best Soulslikes in recent memory.