When it arrived in the middle of September 2023, Lies of P turned out to be better than many people had hoped. Turning the classic story of Pinocchio into a darker tale set in the mid-19th century worked well, while the Souls-like mechanics also worked in the game's favor. The fact that the title felt like the closest thing PC players would get to Bloodborne also helped since that game seems destined to be stuck on the PS4 for the foreseeable future. A sequel seems inevitable, but before we get that, Round 8 Studio and Neowiz decided to extend the life of the original game with a DLC campaign in the form of Lies of P: Overture.

The DLC campaign isn't accessible via the main menu. If you haven't completed the campaign yet, you need to be in Chapter 9 and access the content via the Stargazer in the Malum District's Path of the Pilgrim. If you have beaten the game and are doing a New Game+ run, you can reach the DLC content using the Stargazer in Chapter 5 when you encounter that same Stargazer for the first time.

The setup for Lies of P: Overture is less about extending the current story than it is about filling in the game's narrative blanks. Upon reaching the aforementioned Stargazer, you're introduced to a different path that leads to a gate. That gate then transports you back in time, approximately six years prior, so you can witness the city of Krat as it begins its descent into ruin. With the city's fall being inevitable, it is up to you to discover why the Stargazer took you back there.

The story does a good job in fleshing out some of the characters you only read or heard about in the base game. There's the chance to learn more about the backgrounds of Geppetto and Sophia. You get to see the consequences of the cure for the Petrification Disease. There's more fleshing out of other characters like Arlecchino and the Black Rabbit Brotherhood, and you see the city of Krat in a slightly better light. For those who love lore, this is perfect because the DLC spends time to explain things.

Although the fairly long DLC campaign has time travel as its main hook, the game doesn't revisit existing areas in a slightly prettier light. You start things in a zoo, but you eventually visit areas like a frozen ship graveyard, old ruins, an underground lab, and an abandoned carnival ground. There's also a slew of new enemies to face, such as mutated animals, shambling sailors, and a gaggle of fish that aren't afraid to breach the water to fight. The new enemies aren't just different in their appearance; they all sport attack patterns that are much different from other enemies in the game, so there are opportunities to learn new patterns versus just reacting.

The DLC wouldn't feel complete without some new weapons, and the included selection is excellent. When it comes to the Legion Arms, you have two new ones in the set; the first one acts like a shotgun that can stun enemies and interrupt them if you use a charged shot. The ability may have unlimited ammo, but it takes enough shots to kill an enemy that you aren't going to rely on the power to transform the game into a shooter. The other Legion Arm is perhaps more interesting, as you get to unleash spinning blades that embed into an enemy to provide continuous damage. It makes for some good crowd control, so you can still ensure one enemy is getting some damage while you focus on another foe.

As for the main weapons, Death's Talons are claws that allow for some huge damage when you upgrade them, but are still dangerous at their base level because of the speed afforded by their attacks. The Pale Knight is a gunblade that makes great use of its firing ability by letting you do an explosive dash toward or away from danger. This means you can inflict damage when you're forced away from your previous position. Then you have the Royal Horn Bow, the game's first projectile-based primary weapon. The increased range is advantageous, but the large amount of stamina used for the weapon — combined with the fact that firing locks you in place — means that you'll have to play more defensively with it than with other melee weapons. Just about every weapon in the DLC is eligible for crafting in conjunction with weapons from the base game, so you can make some wild combinations if you have the correct parts.

One thing that may throw you off guard about the DLC is its heightened level of difficulty. The normal enemies feel like they belong a step above what you'd find in the game's final level. Add in the freeze element, and the DLC feels like it was meant specifically for those who have mastered all of the game's nuances and can make quick work of any foe. This is a tough mini-campaign, even more so if you're returning to the game after a long absence. You'll be thoroughly destroyed by the first set of enemies.

The DLC happened to be released alongside a free patch that adds a few new things to the base game. The first addition is a boss rematch mode that lets you fight any previously defeated boss. You can use any weapon combinations for the fight, and you have three difficulty levels. You also have a miniboss rush mode, as you can choose any three bosses to fight against consecutively, and there are no refills of your various meters between each fight. You get a badge for beating the bosses at their highest difficulty levels, but this is meant for the masochists.

Another part of the free update is variable difficulty levels. The default difficulty level is considered the hardest, while the others tone down things by letting you deliver more damage while taking in less damage. Despite the restrictions, the game isn't transformed dramatically by the manipulation of these stats. The game will still gleefully punish you for being careless and not being able to read the tells and respond accordingly. Button-mashing your way through any fight will get you killed fairly quickly, so those who aren't willing to learn the nuances of the genre need not apply. Still, it is nice to be given a slightly better fighting chance through the variable difficulty levels.

Lies of P: Overture serves as an excellent return to a game that surprised many players in a good way. The story does a very good job of setting up the events of the main title. The new weapons keep the combat feeling fresh thanks to how dramatically different they are. The game is still tough, especially if it has been a while since you last played the title, but the different difficulty levels help to ease people into a genre that can be notoriously unforgiving. For fans of the game, the Overture DLC feels essential.

Score: 8.5/10