Dark Souls Review

It's been a few years since Demon's Souls came in as the unanticipated hit of the season with its imposing difficulty, which brought gaming back to the philosophy of 'what you don't know will kill you' found in NES games. Dark Souls looks to continue that tradition of pain and suffering, dying and learning by keeping the same basic formula from Demon's Souls.

The biggest change from Demon's Souls is the world. Demon's Souls had a hub based world with the Nexus connecting all the different levels together, and each level segmented out into stretches ending with a boss fight. Dark Souls uses a much larger over world and ditches the hub for an open-exploration game progression, which means all levels are interconnected in an impressive fashion. It's not uncommon to reach the edge of a level and see parts or terrain from another level off in the distance; this makes the world more believable and the game more easy to get immersed into by the player.

The programmers were smart enough to create several vantage points through out the game to aid the player in overlooking the land below or showcasing the sky filtering through the architecture. Some of the best moments of the game are standing high atop a ledge and glancing peacefully out to distant lands. These scenes are further enhanced by the contrast of all the mayhem that occurs when you're closer to lands which you're gazing over, amiss all the enemies. FromSoftware definitely knew they had built some fantastic levels to showcase, no two areas look the same and the game pace them out nicely. You start out with the pretty standard dungeon and dilapidated city and graduate to lava pits, crystalline caves and surreal wastelands.

The best part about this open world, there are no load times; everything is perfectly seamless much like Wind Waker. Unless you're dying, warping or starting up the game, the action never stops. With all the good the new world brings, there is some bad which infects the game on a fundamental level. Because you can essentially go anywhere right from the beginning, so there's a severe lack of direction in the game. Difficulty progression is still linear just like Demon's Souls, but if you don't know where you're going, you run the risk of fighting bosses either before or after you're supposed to according to their level of challenge. There were a few bosses I had to muscle my way through and then there were some I just over-powered. It doesn't help that some key moments of progression that open up a new area or lead to the next boss are obscured. Many times I overlooked the next part of the game because it was tucked away in some corner or was connected by a well-hidden ladder. The feeling of accomplishment is diminished because it's often unclear why certain bosses need to be defeated in Dark Souls. In Demon's Souls, it was easy: beat the boss, complete the level. In Dark Souls, bosses are spread out and don't necessary unlock new areas, which feels like nothing was gained.

Bosses are just as challenging as ever. Dark Souls throws just about every wicked boss type at you imaginable: relentless powerhouses, 4 on 1 matches, towering knights, you'll feel like you've slain everything possible by the end of the game; all of which require different strategies. There are a few bosses that are just overly simple, most of which was Gravelord Nito. Nito's level, the Tomb of the Giants, is one of the most challenging levels, but his boss fight is a walk in the park. Nito is also apart of the last gauntlet of bosses to get to the final area, so having him be a push over is disappointing for as menacing as he looks. Speaking of the final stretch of bosses, 3 of the 5 are much easier than all the bosses that lead up to them. At the very least, the final boss is one of the most challenging bosses in the game, which is a great way to finish the game. The ending is a little anti-climactic, but I don't see how it really could've been embellished.

Widely praised, Dark Soul's is completely built around the tight battle system much like Demon's Souls, but there are some blemishes on the combat. Every now and then during a fight, button commands will be delayed by 5 - 7 seconds. Meaning, you'll push a button to attack but the attack won't register with the game until much later when you don't want it to, and can lead to devastating openings during a fight. Most notable, I was fighting the final boss and my attacks were delayed 3 times in a row. In a game like Dark Souls, that is unacceptable. Your character will still take their sweet time using a recovery item, making sure they savor every last bit.

*** Update: the control delays have supposedly been fixed in a recent patch.

Targeting hasn't improved at all from Demon's Souls. You'll still be trying to target enemies that are directly in front of you in vain. The worst situations come when you're trying to dodge an enemy but have to lock onto them first, but the targeting system goes blind and you just end up resetting your camera position which leaves you open for attacks. Or you'll be fighting and enemy and they're particularly well-placed behind a single blade of grass which throws the targeting system off as if they're not there. Unless the enemy is in your face and not obstructed by anything, I wouldn't count on locking onto them. More problems arise when you're already locked onto an enemy but get thrown around or move away from them enough to disengage the target. Why can't it be that: if I see the enemy, I should be able to target the enemy. Not: if I see the enemy, and the stars are aligned, and there's nothing between us, and they're 5 inches from my face, and I'm wearing green, and it's the first Sunday of the month, then I now target them.

*** Update: the targeting has supposedly been fixed in a recent patch.

Forget about being able to switch between targets when you have multiple enemies coming at you, which is almost all the time. You'd have an easier time telling a dog to go fetch something blue. The best method I came up with is disengaging one enemy and lock onto the nearest one, and continue that.

There are a bit more weapon and armor types in Dark Souls versus Demon's Souls, but don't really add too much to the game. You'll generally find one weapon you like and build that up throughout the game. Arrows will still curve to hit you, which I find confusing. How in the world do arrows shot only by my enemies manage to follow me to some extent. Yet I have to use a poorly designed mark each time I shoot in first-person mode because my all arrows will shoot from my left side and move across the mark and eventually end up somewhere off to the right. Apparently the enemies in this game are using a technology of wooden arrow yet unseen in the real world: one with homing capabilities that trace paths straight to my face.

Furthering the advancement of wooden arrows, they also have the ability to get stuck in mid-air much like they did in Demon's Souls. You'll shoot an arrow at a barely visible enemy but see that the arrow stops short as it floats motionless next to a pillar or corner.


Crafting is back and is what I consider to be the model of excellent design. Each item can be upgraded via items either purchased or found to 10 levels. From there, depending on your smithy and items, you can branch off into other upgrade paths like: more magic damage, elemental damage, raw power, etc. The great thing about this upgrade system is: 1) the materials aren't that scarce until you get higher up and 2) at any point, you can downgrade your weapon/armor back to its +10 status before the enhancements. None of this, re-find the item and start over bull crap. Upgrading is easily one of the best things about the game and should be imitated.

A new addition to the game is the Humanity system. In Demon's Souls, you had two different states to play the game in: dead and alive. Dead characters would have their HP chopped off but would receive other benefits, while alive would give you your full HP bar but take away some things. You could only restore you life by beating a boss, meaning you'll probably play through much of the game with your HP bar limited. Now in Dark Souls, you're either in Hallow or Human form. Hallowed players are essentially those who've died, but receive no stat penalty and cannot Kindle bonfires. Players that restore their humanity can kindle bonfires and have an item drop increase or lose their humanity by dying. The way to restore your humanity is use an item called Humanity, genius. These items can be farmed or obtained almost randomly throughout the game. Most boss battles didn't give me a humanity back, but running around sometimes would. I think it has to do with other online players and what they're doing, but I can't be sure. I've never found a noticeable pattern. You'll be playing much of this game as a hallow and aren't missing much of anything outside kindling.

Kindling bonfires is a way to increase you flask amount. Instead of having multiple types of healing items to sift through, FromSoftware just condensed it all into one item that's refilled every time you rest at a bonfire. You start off with 5 but can kindle a bonfire up to 20. Bonfires themselves allow you to restore your health, warp around the world, repair items, augments weapons and armor, and level up. All these functions are unlocked during the course of the game. You can think of bonfires as check points in the game, safe zones that can only be activated once there are no enemies around. Resting at a bonfire also resets the enemies layout, returning all non-boss and non-unique enemies to life. It's an interesting trade off that keeps things balanced.

What isn't so balanced is where these bonfires are placed. More than a few of them are behind invisible walls or placed in some hidden spot in the level that most people would just skip over. It'd be nice if they were all easily found, but I guess this game didn't want anything to be easy about it, so often times you'll go over an area a lot, only to come back later and find a bonfire that you missed which could've saved you a lot of trouble and frustration.

Players can unlock a warp option later in the game which allows characters to warp around the giant world, but only to specific bonfires that have a keeper or were at the end of certain bosses. The problem is, these bonfires aren't exactly evenly placed throughout the world, so there's still some backtracking that has to be done despite a fast-travel system which kinda defeats the point.

If you are humane and are roaming around, odds are you'll be invaded by another player. These little moments are met either as nice breaks from the game, or are just out-right annoying depending on what you're doing. There's still no option to play the game in offline mode without just ripping out your internet connect or turning it off in the PS3 / 360. Because, believe it or not, there are some moments I want to use humanity's boost in drop rates to farm stuff without being blown off an edge but some jackass's combustion spell or skewered on their lightning-augmented katana. Maybe that's just the old fashion part of me talking.

Again from Demon's Souls, dying means losing all your souls but keeping all your items, but in Dark Souls you'll lose your humanity status and any humanity you've accumulated as a number which appears in the upper left corner of the screen, you'll still have the items though.

The narration of the game is very minimal, you're given the premise of the game and nothing more afterwards. You're a hallow or undead or whatever terminology the game uses and you're charged with the duty to ring two bells on opposite ends of the earth and bring the light back to the land. The rest of the story is either told by the various characters spread around the land or the lore. The world is an interesting place, and the characters feel authentic so you won't feel short-changed on the story.

The score compliments the feeling of oppression very well. The serene moments are met with a very soothing yet dire melody to express both the comfort of non-combat but the despair of the world, the battles have a chorus joined with dramatic themes which gives each fight some added weight to them; every instance of the game has a score to match. Even when there's no music playing, the various ambiance adds to the environment, whether is the sounds of distance waterfalls or the faint sounds of approaching enemies. The feeling of foreboding despair is constantly imposing upon you as you traverse the land.

Dark Souls, with all the good, commits plenty of deadly sins of gaming. The first of which is the classic infinitely re-spawning enemy sin. Small, flying bugs in the depths of the poison swamp of Blightown will infinitely spawn upon you. They'll come at you 2 at a time and are obnoxious to hit.

Gaming sin number two is a big one for completionists. There is at least 1 item in the entire game that is 100% missable. Before the actual game starts, during the character creation process, you are allowed to pick a job class and a gift to get at the beginning. Most of the gifts can be found in the normal game, except one. The Master Keys can either be obtained by picking the thief job class or picking them as a gift. Deciding to do neither will not allow you to obtain them forever with that character. This may not seen like a big deal, but me as a completionist and this game with a new game+ function, this is inexcusable. You do not have missable items in a game that allows you to start over after you've beaten it. I know the game likes to punish lack of knowledge, but this goes too far.

All the same online functions that were in Demon's Souls are still present in Dark Souls: you can write messages in hopes of aiding other players, or just be a douche bag and write "shortcut drop" next to a bottomless edge. You can also join other players game and assist them directly, but only if you aren't a hallow.

All in all, the game play is still addictive and the online component is two-of-a-kind now. As the credits scrolled up on my screen after battling my way through hordes of enemies, ruthless fiends and towering bosses, I couldn't help but look passed all the names and reflect upon my journey that lead there and the broken controllers that had been sacrificed along the way.