Dark Souls

Dark Souls is a game that punishes you severely at the most in the early sections. After the tutorial of Northern Undead Asylum, the most ritual part of training for the upcoming battles seems to be Undead Burg, swarming with the undead.

Being able to play this sequel on my PC was a welcome addition towards accessibility from From Software's part. In this Prepare to Die edition, a few new areas and enemies alongside gear are included.

After I created a warrior class based character and ventured into the world of Lordran, at one point I farmed up until 30000 souls, which serves as the game's main currency for leveling up, as well as reinforcing, buying and modifying gear.

If you die, you lose your amount of humanity and harvested souls. But you are able to retrieve these precious currencies at the same spot you died on. However, if you die again before retrieving this, you will permanently lose it, which happened to me after farming that many souls.

Thus, after the emotional breakdown, I started over, took advice and tried a pyromancer now. Overcoming the difficult early parts finally, Dark Souls began to grow on me. Preparing to die means preparing to learn more and get better at a very difficult game that becomes easier the further you come.

Patience is absolutely required to survive, observe your enemies and defeat overwhelming situations. Even the weakest ones are still able to chain combo you to death at all times, leaving you most likely frustrated.

The graphics are stunning, in particular the foggy backgrounds foreshadowing other areas, and sometimes even large creatures. Not only that, the atmosphere is definitely polished here, as ambient sounds, medieval fantasy scenery and dark locations form together to create it.

Soundwise, next to the ambience, just listening towards the creature sounds, the weapons clashing, large objects and even your own character is subconciously ever present, either during or after playing.

However, there is hardly any soundtrack unless you battle bosses or visit neutral areas. But what little there is, surely makes up with it's quality. As for the story, it largely is implied in the background as fragmented hints as to what is happening in the present, with more interpretations available.

Interconnected areas engulf the experience of exploring the world furthermore, stimulating various routes the player could take and lessening backtracking. Unfortunately, I was unable to play this online. But I understand the nature of the player versus player mode involving invading others.

The methodical combat of Dark Souls feels like a fresh experience from the many current RPG's with either turn based or strategic options. As far as customizing goes, it has quite some details, although not as deep as say, Monster Hunter Tri, a similar game which I also played.

Anor Londo is easily my favorite location from this, with a breathtaking sky, beautiful architecture and some of the toughest enemies around. Including Ornstein and Smough, the most infamous boss battle of the game, pictured above.

There's also another online mechanic, which is being able to leave behind helpful messages for other players. And, you are able to make covenants with factions, boosting you in different ways. Co-op is available in the form of either other players, or given the certain conditions, summonable allies.

If you didn't know yet, Dark Souls is the sequel to Demon's Souls of which I will be able to play luckily very soon. They are definitely an example for other developers to take as far as challenges and difficulty go, combined with gameplay that is intriguing and designed well.

We need more of these kind of games. Less hand in hand linear tutorials. More prepare to die editions. I say, From Software, bring on Dragon or Death Souls.

Rating: 8.5

EDIT: Managed to beat Demon's Souls as well. Since the two titles are rather similar, I have decided not to write about the original. But rest assured, both games are definitely worhy!