A ruined Belle Epoque city, puppets that cut you down, and a Pinocchio learning how to lie.

Start with the gut choice: when the community picks on instinct, with no criterion at all, Lies of P lands ahead of 87% of games. And the detail confirms rather than contradicts. Controller feel is the standout line, ahead of 95% of titles, exactly what you would expect from a game built on parries and timing. Fun sits very high too, so does desert island, so does art direction. Two lines fall back: connection lands just above average, and sound environment sits right in the middle. That is the nuance of the profile: people love holding it, they bond with it a little less. On samples this thin, two or three votes per criterion, those gaps are still to be confirmed.

Among the souls-likes born after FromSoftware, it is one of the few that does more than imitate. It swaps dark fantasy for decadent elegance, and the community pays it back on both looks and combat feel.

So, who is it for? For you if you like demanding fights, millimetre-perfect parries, a city rotting with style. Much less so if you want a game that grips your heart, or a soundtrack you keep replaying once the controller is down.