REVIEW: Dark Souls (X360)

18 Oct, 2011

Title: Dark Souls
Platform: Xbox 360 / Playstation 3
Developer: From Software
Publisher: Namco Bandai
TL;DR: OH MY GOD I’M GONNA DIE.
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This game doesn’t kid you around, and it doesn’t pull its punches either. From Software really was not kidding when it said this was Demon’s Souls‘ spiritual successor, especially when it came down to the difficulty level. I will not kid you here either — if you have no patience, or if you don’t like strategizing when you want to destroy something, this game is not for you.

Don’t even think that walking into a room full of tiny little henchmen will see you coming out on top. Dark Souls will put you in your place faster than your guilt-tripping grandmother when she catches you with your hand in the cookie jar.

That said, this is also From Software’s love letter to games of old. Do you remember back in the day when RPGs had no save points in hard dungeons, death meant being transported back outside into the scary world and forcing you to go all over again, and even the smallest enemies can prove to be the biggest challenges? Yes, this game has it all and then some. If you grew up on an RPG diet of old 1980s Dragon Quest, 1985 Castlevania, and 8-bit Final Fantasy, you’ll be instantly reminded of how important it is to be vigilant in your surroundings.

What exactly, though, is the point of this game besides being the hardest thing you’ve ever put in your console? You begin the game as a “hollowed” person, a person afflicted with the Curse of the Undead. You awaken inside of the Undead Asylum to be looking at a knight, who tosses you a bottle called an Estus Flask. Thus begins your quest to understand why, exactly, were you saved from rotting away in a dingy cell. The guy could have picked anybody, but he picked you. You’re the lucky winner, and through door number one is your one-way ticket to tossing your controller out the window. Congratulations!

Right off the bat the proverb, “Patience is a virtue” will become your mantra throughout the whole game. If you thought fighting the enemy bosses in this game were going to be hard, you’ll be surprised to know that sometimes it’s the little guys who will take you down in the most spectacularly anti-climatic ways possible. In this game, it’s not cowardly to hide behind a shield all the time, and it’s not a sign of weakness to creep forwards slowly in anticipation. It’s a survival tactic.

You’ll also be reminded that while the world is open to exploration, you’ll be quickly limited in your progression by enemy strengths and your very obvious weaknesses.

This is not a bad thing. Personally, I do appreciate being given a direction to go in. From Software does an excellent job of encouraging exploration without slapping a physical wall in your face, while at the same time guiding players to the places they ought to go through trial and error.

That’s another important theme of this game. While you’re dying a lot, From Software hopes it’s teaching you a lesson as well. This isn’t some mindless game — you do have to think for yourself. Why did you die? Was it because you weren’t cautious enough, or was it because you simply weren’t paying attention to attack patterns? It’s stuff like this that From Software is hoping you’d get out of each restart.

Armed with patience and trial and error, Dark Souls also introduces an interesting online experience. While each player’s quest is a foray of solitude, the online community is able to communicate with each other by leaving messages after acquiring a certain item in the game. Some of these messages will be vital to your survival as well — some aim to trick, but the Dark Souls community, for the most part, is very helpful and players aim to aid each other. If you’re worried about other players invading your world and griefing you, don’t worry. Dark Souls has a system to punish these harmful players. Gamres can complain through a special item, and once everything is said and done, From Software will most likely unleash the most hellish creatures against them, much like they did to street date breakers.

However, the game is not all about its diabolical difficulty level. That’s only a part of it, albeit a large part of the game. Dark Souls itself is a starkly beautiful landscape, if you take enough time to stop and admire the scenery. While it isn’t the most cutting-edge graphical engine out there, Dark Souls does a fantastic job of capturing atmospheres that are both alluring and dangerous at the same time. There’s nothing more darkly gorgeous than having your eyes stray to a sunlit path with trees, and suddenly notice that the movement in the distance is a giant dragon that can easily crush you with one claw.

Another piercing difference to most games is the almost-absence of music. While some may complain about the lack of background music, it serves its purpose in heightening your sense of hearing. Audio cues of footsteps and rustling will save your life, and sometimes it’s the only way to detect a nearby enemy, otherwise you’ll be looking at the words “YOU HAVE DIED” again.

However, Dark Souls is not all good. In fact, it is far from it. The difficulty level can make this game be called “The Thinking Man’s RPG,” but there’s a fine line between making a challenging game and making a downright unfair game. Sometimes, From Software toes that line. Other times, they step across it, crush your balls, and make you eat them, all the while pointing and laughing. There are some enemy bosses that will make you hate the day you picked up this game, and there are other fights where you simply want to pop it out and walk back to the game store.

Technical issues also mar the gameplay. While the environments are gorgeous, it doesn’t help that some fights are made harder by the fact that you can’t see your enemy thanks to a tree blocking your view when locking-on to your target. Low archways, fauna, and spots of lag will make your journey worse than it already is. Several enemy boss fights will have times of lag, which make things choppier and harder to control than they already are.

While some would praise Dark Souls‘ inability to pause the game, I would not be one of them. There comes a time in your life when you absolutely must attend to things more important than getting your nuts kicked inside out, such as a needy cat, the acquiring of food, answering the call of Nature…you get the point. Pressing the start button in Dark Souls brings up an in-game menu, all the while still leaving you open to attack. When you sit at a Bonfire, Dark Souls‘ version of a respawn point, you still can’t pause the game, although you can leave it running while attending to other things. I suppose From Software chose to do this to keep the tension running during gameplay, but ultimately it can become frustrating when you’re needing to deal with outside distractions.

Ultimately, Dark Souls is most certainly a game worth a go if you have the time to spare, love dungeon-crawlers, and are up for a challenge. It’s after every hardcore gamers’ heart, and From Software does an amiable job of providing those of us willing to play a great challenge to our minds. However, if you can’t stand losing to the smallest of things, and don’t have the time to invest in this title, you ultimately should keep on walking past it in the store.

The Good

Dark, gorgeous environments will capture you.

Challenging difficulty is a welcome change of pace from other kinds of games, if this is your thing.

Interesting online interactions make the game fun for those of us who typically don’t like playing online.

Makes you think about the consequences of your actions, be it rash or rational actions.

The Bad

Technical difficulties can lead to your downfall just as much as the hard enemies.

Difficulty level borderlines unfair in many instances.

Inability to pause the game becomes frustrating at certain points.

Certain enemies will cause lag in gameplay, which in turn lead to your death.

Dark Souls is available now for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Family Focus
There’s quite a bit of scary imagery, and there’s also some very deep and dark talk about souls, life, doing the good, and doing the bad thing. If you’re okay with your kids seeing that, then it would be okay. We don’t recommend it though, and neither does PEGI or ESRB.