I’ve spent a lot of time playing video games in my lifetime, but nothing quite like this game.
Dark Souls is an RPG action game that will certainly capture your imagination with its amazing graphics. This game definitely doesn’t lack action. Around every corner there is something new to be discovered and plenty of enemy’s souls to be stolen.
This sequel to Demon Souls is certainly a very interesting game. Although I was impressed with the audio and graphics, part of the game the gameplay was lacking. The gameplay is what really made the game difficult to enjoy.
Every time you would hit an enemy with your weapon your body seemed to move out of range too far to the left or the right, allowing your enemies to strike you with their own weapons. This problem was increasingly difficult to deal with when you encountered multiple enemies at the same time. I was very disappointed in that as it seemed next to impossible to advance any further in what was an already a difficult fight to begin with.
Dark Souls is excellent when it comes to exploring. It has a huge seamless world to go exploring in. There seems to be so many enemies to fight that most gamers will ask themselves if the enemies ever be completely killed and defeated?
Dark Souls does have another interesting aspect added to the game. That aspect is at the bon fires you rest and it revives your health meter, but what you don’t expect to happen is your enemies are also revived. The first time I played this and died, I certainly didn’t know that. Boy I sure was surprised when I found the enemy I just killed to be alive and trying to kill me again.
Another intriguing feature I encountered in this game was that you could leave messages at any part of the world, either helping or deceiving others. The choice to do this was clearly up to you as a player. Beware though, you can easily be deceived by other players throughout the game trying to cause nothing more than your impending doom. This feature I actually found pretty cool, but didn’t discover this until I actually went back and played the game over a second time. If you love to deceive or help others, this is a perfect feature.
Also, when players fall in battle they leave a bloodstain. This bloodstain leaves a record of their last few moments before death, which is transported to your game through the network. If you touch these bloodstains, you can witness their final moments. It’s important to watch and respect them because they can actually help you. What I mean by help you is they can give you vital clues on how to live in a land of the dead. Don’t do what the dead guy did.
Leveling up is one feature that is pretty neat. In order to do that you must collect enough souls.
It’s sad because if it wasn’t for the gameplay flaws, this game could certainly have gotten four or five GiN Gems, but overall, I really wasn’t a huge fan of Dark Souls and that has a lot to do with the poor combat interface. It was one of those games that had its good moments, but certainly had its bad moments. I think unfortunately, the bad moments outweighed the good ones. It’s hard to overcome gameplay flaws.
If you are into a game where there are no levels and a big world to explore, then this is a game you might be interested in, especially if you can deal with the controls.
I must warn you however, that Dark Souls difficulty is very high. Even for a gamer who likes action titles, it can be very frustrating with all the continuous deaths.
All in all I give this game 2.5 GiN Gems. It has some fun moments, but also can be terribly frustrating, and the whole point of playing any game is to have fun.