CI Games has revealed a selection of female armour designs for the upcoming Lords of the Fallen 2, and what it has to offer looks like it’s stuck 100 years in the past.
The armour sets look like they’ve been ripped from the most generic of mobile game adverts, and they’ve all come from the following mantra, apparently inspired by the developer’s community: “You wanted fierce. You wanted beautiful. You wanted provocative.”
This is what you get:
The designs have been shown off by a YouTuber called TheBackgroundNPC, who pitches the work as “clearly designed by a studio that actually listens to the people playing their games”. This comes from the same corner of the Internet that believes “Western AAA keep failing with their female character designs”.
Much less actual armour and more so titillating clothing, the protection these armour sets would give a person is minimal. Chests and bellies are on full show, and so too are thighs and most of the legs. Isn’t armour supposed to protect your entire body from attacks?
A lot of this change in direction and marketing tactics stems from CI Games itself, with its founder and CEO, Marek Tyminski, leaning into the incorrect idea of DEI elements ruining gaming. Executives at the studio have made all the typical statements:
“While some videogames have recently taken the opportunity to embed social or political agendas within their experiences, it is clear that many players do not appreciate this, and as a result, we have seen a number of high profile releases underperforming commercially during the last year alone,” said global marketing director Ryan Hill last year.
“Our games will always be developed to maximise player enjoyment and commercial success, and as such, we will not be integrating any social or political agencies into these experiences going forward having observed the high risk this can present.”
Instead, you get dated female armour design usually reserved to advertise the most low-effort mobile phone games.
The 2023 game Lords of the Fallen wasn’t affected by these ideas when it released, but has since been updated in post-launch patches to lean into the ideas the “DEI is bad” crowd barks. One example is the decision to remove the “Body Type A or B” option from the game’s character creator to replace it with a strict “Male” or “Female” toggle.
