Dark Souls

Review from Barry - Thursday, 15 December 2011 @ 11:49am

Speak to anyone about Dark Souls and there is a good chance they will inevitably wail to you about how the game is too hard and its hard and that the hardness is too hard and that they like their hands held while playing games. Ask enough people and you may be lucky to come across the rare person that actually GETS dark souls.

If you are over the age of 20 you will probably remember ‘the good old days’ when games were hard - games like Battletoads for the NES or even the more recent light / dark switching space shooter Ikaruga. These games were not like the other games around at the time - they were a challenge. Now there is nothing wrong with jumping and skipping your way to Princess Peach if that is how you like your games - but if you are a REAL gamer - you should check out Dark Souls.

We're gunna need a bigger boat!

As you are probably well aware Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon Souls, a game that is also tarred with the same “this game is soo hard you will end up murdering your friends and family out of rage” brush as Dark Souls. The world of Dark Souls is a delicious dark Gothic world seen through the eyes of a Japanese developer. As you can imagine this gives the world a detail rich environment full of high vaulted areas full of things that go bump in the night - that are waiting to jump out and eat your face off.

While I won't agree that Dark Souls is too hard, I will say it is punishing. Brutally punishing - but only to teach you how to play Dark Souls. After about your 15th death in as many minutes you realise that you cannot simply run in and wave your sword about to win, from then on you will soon learn to take a more cautious approach.

Dark Souls will continue to teach you how you are doing it wrong, with each death like a new tip / trick that is carved into your gravestone for you to read. There is no denying the fact that you will die. A lot. But each time you SHOULD be learning from your mistakes. If you are not - go back to Barbie's Horse Adventure, princess - this game is not for you.

There are a handfull of character classes to chose from, but from the conversations I have had with fellow Dark Souls players, you will want to go with solid strength / dexterity build. That is not the only way to play of course, but it seems to be the easiest. Dodge or block the enemies attack, wail on them from behind - rinse repeat. Of course once you get this method of play sorted, Dark Souls will start to teach you how you also need to check what is going above you - this lesson is taught by fire bombs.

I won't even pretend that I have finished Dark Souls, nor even come close to finishing it, but since this review is already long overdue the standard ‘Australian Gamer two month late’ time frame I feel I should probably get something out. There is so much to Dark Souls that I am yet to experience like the crafting system, the multiplayer (both helpful and PVP) and of course some of the many many giant bosses. Simply mentioning them in a throw away paragraph does them a grave injustice but you really should get the game and experience them for yourselves.

If the Idea of a Giant Wolf with a sword in its mouth trying to kill you is a bit much - Then Dark Souls may not be for you

My only tip is to play this with your machine connected to the XBL / PSN network, so that the messages other players write on the ground are displayed in your game - these can be life / TV saver.

The only part of Dark Souls I don't like is the loot system. It seems odd to me that a game dealing out such heavy doses of 'realism' should restrict the player from picking up everything off a corpse - if a downed enemy is 'lootable' at all, you often still can't grab their weapons or armour, even if it is on the ground in front of you.

Why can't we just all get along!

Pros

• Awesome designed and detailed levels
• Fantastic combat system
• Surviving any combat brings a great sense of achievement
• Co-op to help your friends out, or simply invade some dudes game and kill him
• Should be able to pick it up cheap from the ‘pre-owned’ section of your local games shop

Cons

• Its punishing, like really punishing
• Loot system feels limited
• Really should be played with a Internet connection