Title: Dark Souls
Developer/Publisher: From Software/Bandai Namco Games
Game Genre: Action RPG
Multi-player: Up to 4 players – Atypical in nature
Age Rating: 16
Length: Long (Over 20 hours for Game Completion)

My Impressions

Being an Xbox 360 owner I have not played the spiritual predecessor to Dark Souls, Demon Souls so came into the game not knowing what to expect aside from the general warning that in game Death was the norm and not the exception to how you play the game and that it was very difficult.

After playing the game I soon found myself agreeing with that assessment, along with thinking that while there is such a thing as not hand holding, there is also such a thing as not giving you the information you need to play the game effectively. This is must evident when it comes to using Bows, since you are not told anywhere how to go into first person view to use them, which I did not know existed as an option until I read about it in a forum.

Then there is the overuse of the B button, the B Button is context specific and unfortunately the default press causes you to jump back. This is normally not an issue, except when you want to use it to sprint and you are on the edge of a narrow ledge and this causes you to jump back to your death, or when you are used to the B button being the cancel button in other games and so instinctively press B with similar results.

I also had the problem that I am not sure what the story of the game was as I completed the game and immediately wondered what I was meant to have accomplished. There can also be a frustrating lack of direction as to where you need to/should go next.

That being said once I got used to the flaws in the game, got used to the game mechanics, and most importantly cheated using the Soul Duplication Dragon Head glitch allowing me to have a high level character, Dark Souls proved to be a very enjoyable and addictive game and also impressive in that the only loading screens you see are when you start the game and between death and rebirth, otherwise the game transitions between areas fairly seamlessly.

In terms of gameplay Dark Souls is a fairly open world Hack and Slash RPG with the traditional choice between magic user, ranged or melee character to start off. While early on in the game it is difficult to get a melee or ranged character to use magic (the reverse is not as much of an issue) with sufficient progression into the game and in character levels the starting level means less and there are a few spells that are worth picking up regardless of how you play the game.

In terms of levelling and buying and upgrading equipment everything revolves around collecting souls, which are normally gained by killing enemies. Souls can then either be spent in shops or used to upgrade your character at a bonfire if you have enough. The game is also designed so that if you die you lose all of the souls you are carrying in “raw” form along with any humanity you have acquired, though these can be reclaimed if you get to the spot where you died without dying again. Souls can also be acquired through use of special “souls” that are consumables and these are best kept until needed (or abused through a glitch).

Your character in Dark Souls is an undead and one of the gameplay mechanics is to acquire humanity which can then be used to turn your character alive. This then opens you up to the multiplayer aspect of Dark Souls which is fairly atypical in nature.

If you are connected to Xbox Live then even as an undead “Hollow” you are frequently exposed to other players who are seen as ghosts in your world and through messages left to help or hinder (typically through suggesting you jump off a ledge…..to your death).

When you decide to become fully human though, you then become open to the more active form of multiplayer. The more active form takes 2 forms, firstly you can answer requests to be summoned to peoples worlds (games) to help them or ask for help yourself, this is often done at bonfires before bosses.

The second form is more nasty and is called invasion and is where people invade your game as Dark Phantoms in order to kill you. The frequency of invasion is influenced by 2 main factors, firstly your actions in game (in your own game and towards other players) and secondly what area of the game you are in.

While you can buy “atonement” from a special NPC that vastly reduces the frequency of invasion if you have committed acts of aggression against NPC’s or other players, this does not help you if you happen to be human in the wrong area. If you stay human for long enough though you are bound to be invaded at some point.

It is this aspect of invasion which can make the multiplayer aspect of Dark Souls incredibly frustrating since aside from staying hollow all the time, there is no way of switching it off aside from playing offline, though people are ejected from your game if you enter a boss fight. The second frustrating part of the invasion system is that there are special NPC invasions and summons that are only available if you stay human and leave yourself vulnerable to invasion.

The other problem with the multiplayer system is that it is designed to be fairly random and it is not possible to invite specific people into your game, and while workarounds are possible it is not guaranteed. There is also no ingame or party chat allowed (a deliberate game play choice by the developers) which to me seems odd.

It is also worth mentioning the save system as everything is frequently autosaved with no option to save a game to a specific slot. While this is understandable given the high penalty for death, a limited number of save slots would have been nice even if they had a penalty for use.

To sum up Dark Souls is a difficult, flawed but enjoyable game. It will not appeal to everyone though and the lack of in game help or direction (in terms of where to go next) will be off putting to some people, if you can get past these flaws though you will get your moneys worth out of the game.

My Recommendation and Rating

CONSIDER

An Enjoyable Game but can be very frustrating at times and probably not to everyones taste.