What I would like to talk about for this post is the game Dark Souls. While I have only completed about 30% of the game, I'd still like to say why I like it so much.
Tidbit of info for the unaware; Dark Souls was released about two years ago as a successor to the game Demon's Souls. The two are similar to each other in style, gameplay and design (the former improving on these aspects) including a few nods in relation to the story. Or so I'm told. Beyond that, the two games are different and distinct.
Now there's no denying that the difficulty of this game is its trademark. However there are plenty of other characteristics that give Dark Souls its charm for me personally. But let's talk about its difficulty first.
Simply put; Dark Souls is hard. There's no getting around that. It's a game that involves a great deal of patience and trial-and-error. The moment you complete its own little form of a tutorial, you become situated in its abstruse world with little direction. There are plenty of paths to take but you can never be sure if it's the right one. That's something that carries on throughout most of the game. To be frank, I couldn't even progress in the beginning without a little guidance from a friend who had finished the game. That is one of the reasons I found the bonfires (checkpoints scattered lightly around the game's world) to be so uplifting to see. The bonfires are synonymous with safety, of which you get very little of while you journey through Lordran.
Another thing about Dark Souls is its terrifyingly punishing design. Firstly, there aren't any sort of re-do's in the game. Meaning any sort of screw-up you end up making will stay with you. A friend who had finished the game had to restart his file at one point because he had mistakenly aggravated an NPC he really needed to help. The boss battles are no exception in which they require you to determine the monster's weakness and manipulate it. It may seem trivial nowadays but the boss battles are near spontaneous with almost no indication of appearance other than your own suspicions which usually sound something like: "I haven't fought a boss monster in a while..better get prepared". Moreover your chances of beating them rely on you being able to find their weak spots since they are usually much stronger than you. At least that's what I figured from the few boss fights I've encountered so far. In the upcoming sequel, Dark Souls 2, this task will be even more challenging with smarter AI that will actively try to deter you from attacking their weak points.
I should also bring up Dark Souls' fighting mechanics which take a moderate amount of time to master. It's a slash and defend sort of game at its core with many interesting mechanics. I'll only mention two of them; Parrying and Backstabbing.
Parrying is rather difficult to master but makes the game a lot easier. It involves deflecting the enemy's attack at just the right moment resulting in leaving them wide open for a direct hit. Without parrying, your combat style is reduced to merely reducing the damage with your shield or somersaulting to dodge the incoming attack.
The other neat little move is called the backstab. It's a lot easier to learn than parrying as it only requires you to attack the enemies back at a certain point. What this does is unleash a critical hit on the enemy and dealing lost of damage. It has a nice cinematic whenever you pull one off as well. There are other mechanics that I've neglected to mention (summoning for example) because I simply haven't played enough to speak much about them.
There's one more thing I really like about Dark Souls and that's its unpredictability. There's no telling what is awaiting you at every twist and turn. There was a point in the game where I had finally cleared a certain area and as I made my way to the exit, I was suddenly greeted by a dragon that stood in my way as demonstrated in the picture above. It's what gives the players this constant feeling of tenseness and even fear while playing. It's that sensation that drives me to conquer the world of Dark Souls.
Dark Souls is a game I have unexpectedly begun to really like in general. It is genuinely unique in both its style and presentation. I may end up taking quite lengthy breaks from it every now and then but I keep returning to give it another shot. With its sequel in the works, I'm glad I got the chance to play this stellar game while I still could.
- Silver
Now there's no denying that the difficulty of this game is its trademark. However there are plenty of other characteristics that give Dark Souls its charm for me personally. But let's talk about its difficulty first.
Simply put; Dark Souls is hard. There's no getting around that. It's a game that involves a great deal of patience and trial-and-error. The moment you complete its own little form of a tutorial, you become situated in its abstruse world with little direction. There are plenty of paths to take but you can never be sure if it's the right one. That's something that carries on throughout most of the game. To be frank, I couldn't even progress in the beginning without a little guidance from a friend who had finished the game. That is one of the reasons I found the bonfires (checkpoints scattered lightly around the game's world) to be so uplifting to see. The bonfires are synonymous with safety, of which you get very little of while you journey through Lordran.
Another thing about Dark Souls is its terrifyingly punishing design. Firstly, there aren't any sort of re-do's in the game. Meaning any sort of screw-up you end up making will stay with you. A friend who had finished the game had to restart his file at one point because he had mistakenly aggravated an NPC he really needed to help. The boss battles are no exception in which they require you to determine the monster's weakness and manipulate it. It may seem trivial nowadays but the boss battles are near spontaneous with almost no indication of appearance other than your own suspicions which usually sound something like: "I haven't fought a boss monster in a while..better get prepared". Moreover your chances of beating them rely on you being able to find their weak spots since they are usually much stronger than you. At least that's what I figured from the few boss fights I've encountered so far. In the upcoming sequel, Dark Souls 2, this task will be even more challenging with smarter AI that will actively try to deter you from attacking their weak points.
I should also bring up Dark Souls' fighting mechanics which take a moderate amount of time to master. It's a slash and defend sort of game at its core with many interesting mechanics. I'll only mention two of them; Parrying and Backstabbing.
Parrying is rather difficult to master but makes the game a lot easier. It involves deflecting the enemy's attack at just the right moment resulting in leaving them wide open for a direct hit. Without parrying, your combat style is reduced to merely reducing the damage with your shield or somersaulting to dodge the incoming attack.
The other neat little move is called the backstab. It's a lot easier to learn than parrying as it only requires you to attack the enemies back at a certain point. What this does is unleash a critical hit on the enemy and dealing lost of damage. It has a nice cinematic whenever you pull one off as well. There are other mechanics that I've neglected to mention (summoning for example) because I simply haven't played enough to speak much about them.
There's one more thing I really like about Dark Souls and that's its unpredictability. There's no telling what is awaiting you at every twist and turn. There was a point in the game where I had finally cleared a certain area and as I made my way to the exit, I was suddenly greeted by a dragon that stood in my way as demonstrated in the picture above. It's what gives the players this constant feeling of tenseness and even fear while playing. It's that sensation that drives me to conquer the world of Dark Souls.
Dark Souls is a game I have unexpectedly begun to really like in general. It is genuinely unique in both its style and presentation. I may end up taking quite lengthy breaks from it every now and then but I keep returning to give it another shot. With its sequel in the works, I'm glad I got the chance to play this stellar game while I still could.
- Silver