Dark Souls, unlike the previous games I have reviewed, is an older game. Much older, in fact. Why am I reviewing it? Simple. It is, in my opinion, the perfect RPG experience. That isn't to say it is without its flaws, but as a whole it managed to capture me like no other.
As you might have realised, I am a sucker for deep game experiences. In that regard, Dark Souls pushed every single one of my buttons. Ask anyone to sum up the game in three words and they will likely same roughly the same three words: 'You Have Died'. Dark Souls is a difficult game if you aren't familiar with its combat style, but I do feel the stigma around it being 'the hardest game evurrrr' is vastly blown out of proportion. It is designed to punish those players with no patience to learn how enemies attack, or the patience to explore.
The beginning of the game is as you might expect - a tool to teach players what mechanics they need, letting them practice combat on some fairly harmless hollow enemies, before plunging them into a pretty brutal boss encounter. This would be one of several points where a player might quit the game - the others that I can name off the top of my head would be literally just after arriving at Firelink Shrine after the Asylum Demon, the Capra Demon a short way past that, and Ornstein and Smough at the half way mark. I mean, every boss has that potential, but these parts are places where I think people will have the toughest times.
Either way, after arriving in Firelink Shrine, things get much tougher. The primary reasoning for this is the lack of signposting! This is a double edged sword - on the one hand the game tells you pretty much nothing unless you pay attention to the often cryptic clues the NPCs give you, and on the other it leaves you feeling super satisfied when you go into an area blind and clear it. It can be super frustrating to find yourself in an area with nigh on unkillable enemies (or in the case of a new player venturing to New Londo first, literally unkillable enemies). For example when I started playing, I thought my only options were the previously mentioned New Londo, and the Catacombs - both full of enemies that kicked the shit out me. It wasn't until I complained on facebook a friend hinted at another area I could go to.
You know what threw me off in this game though? PvP. To take part in any online activity in Dark Souls, you need to reverse the hollowfication process at a bonfire - be it co-op or pvp, as well as summoning NPCs and such. Anyway, my first invasion was just before the Bell Gargoyles atop the Undead Parish while venturing forth to summon Solaire. At that point, I had no idea what an invasion was so naturally I just dropped everything and ran to try and go into the fog gate - only to be greeted by a glowing red player dropping on my head and cursing me before my screen flashed up with 'You Died'. Upon spawning anew I was greeted with a nice pulsating egg sac on my bonce and a health bar that wouldn't fill past 50%. Needless to say I stopped playing for a few days. On my return I made a new character and powered through to the Capra Demon with the intention of never reversing my hollowfication again out of fear of another angry red ghosty slapping my shit around.
Essentially though, this double edged sword philosophy is carried throughout the game as a core principle. It teaches the player to be cautious and patient, not only with enemies but treasure - much of the game is filled with traps just waiting for you to place a foot wrong before sending you packing to the last bonfire you stopped at. Mimics really left me kicking myself for being so stupid too, so often I would blindly open it only to be swallowed like a bitch.
So, Marc, why haven't you talked about the story yet?! Well. Similarly how you are dropped into Firelink Shrine and largely left to your own design, the implementation of plot feels like an after thought. You get vague objectives but not much explanation for them unless you really start digging - NPC conversations and item descriptions are your biggest gateway to plot. Nonetheless, you do learn enough to make the final boss encounter very meaningful.
To wrap up,. I definitely feel that Dark Souls ranks as one of the best video games of all time, because of the combat, memorable boss encounters, deep and interesting lore (I just wish it was more readily available and I didn't feel I had to trawl a wiki to even begin to scratch the surface!) and the rush of excitement and satisfaction you get when you finally kill a boss you were stuck on, only to have that wiped away in half a second when you venture into a new area and get curb stomped by its rather angry residents. The difficulty curve, while somewhat steep, is perfect (assuming you leave the DLC for just before the final boss) and pretty much everything feels like it was designed with love and care. If dictionaries had pictures to describe their words, I think Dark Souls would certainly be the image below the RPG entry. Its a shame that Dark Souls 2 wasn't very good in comparison, eh?
Dark Souls is one of a few games privileged enough to earn a 10/10 from me - after finishing it, no other game has given me the sheer satisfaction that Dark Souls has. No other game has me simultaneously feeling in control while knowing if I make a mistake I will be punished severely for it. No other game has a final boss encounter mean so much to a player. And that soundtrack? Oh my god.
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