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Dark Souls
Namco
Bandai's spiritual sequel to Demon's Souls arrives on the XBox
360 and PS3 with Dark Souls, that furthers the hardcore nature of
the RPG genre. This action based RPG transforms the player into one of
the walking dead as you are given a strong prophetic purpose that must
be completed.
Needless to say if you can remember the original game, it was easily one
of the most punishing games ever made if you failed your challenges and
Dark Souls goes even further. However for some unknown reason, this
difficulty is quite addictive as you attempt to ensure that your
mistakes don't hamper your goals.
Fortunately before your thrown into the deep of the pool with all the
monsters, the first level of the game starts as a tutorial as you
attempt to escape the walls of a prison. This level will teach you the
basics of interacting your character with this gorgeously designed 3D
world.
I must
admit that the control system behind Dark Souls is quite simplistic and
works quite well, with the left analog stick used to move and the right
to look. The shoulder buttons are used to attack and defend and when you
do engage your first enemy, you will soon realise how perfect the
control systems are, except when the enemies start to increase in
difficulty which begins quite soon.
Enemies are varied in the game and based on classic RPG archetypes and
generally most will give you a run for your money, especially those damn
bosses like huge dragons and demons. Whether melee or ranged attacks, another arsenal in your kitty
is magical combat. Magic is varied in the game and there's plenty of
different spells that are available to you.
If a wizard is not your
style, there are plenty of other classic Dungeons & Dragons classes at
your disposal such as hunter or warrior. However block and parry are the
two most important aspects of fighting. Block helps you survive a little
longer, while parry if you can manage to pull it off, will allow you to
block and do a devastating attack on your enemies. You can even use the
environment to take down enemies such as fires or at times, stone blocks
where enemies get stuck.
Save
points can sometimes be a pain in Dark Souls, especially when you are
handed your collective undead butt to you, time and time again. The save
points in the game are called Beacon Fires or bonfires in the gaming
environment and pose as a safe haven. These safe havens are also used to
level up your character and help them regenerate their health.
The
frustration with the combat is that when you die and restart at a save
point. Unfortunately your enemies that you may have killed also respawn
which does throw a spanner in your strategies. This game is difficult
and there's no way around that. You'll also see this many times... You
Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You
Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You
Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died You Died...
Even
looting is scarce in the game and you may look at hundred bodies or open
a myriad of chests and you'll only find a few trinkets. However when you
do find that perfect sword or item, it's strangely rewarding.
The
multiplayer aspect of Dark Souls is where the game does work. This is
not to say that single-player is bad but it's just very difficult.
Multiplayer supports up to 4 players and there are sometimes ghost
images of players in your game. You can actually sit back and watch
these ghosts perform certain tasks such as puzzles or boss battles and
these are left as clues for the player.
If
things do become too challenging for you or you want to try something
different, other gamers can join in and assist you in particular areas
of the game in classic Dungeons & Dragons fashion. Just be warned who
you let into your world because they can just as easily get you killed
as well. Once again, that hardcore RPG aspect comes to live.
Graphics/Audio
Graphically, Dark Souls is a very good looking title on the 360 and the
attention to detail in this RPG universe is outstanding, especially the
Gothic inspired buildings ad castles. There's also some great lighting
(e.g. sunshine and torch lights) used in the game that really makes the
game come alive, even though it's quite dark and brooding. Add in
realistic animations from the NPC's and enemies that you face and Dark
Souls is a great looking RPG.
One
issue with the graphics however is the camera angle which sometimes can
be a little fiddle some in key parts of the game but for the majority,
it all comes together well. The second issue is that every now and then
the game shutters in certain places and this seems to be at times where
the developers were trying to cram too much into the gaming environment.
The
soundtrack of the game is little lacklustre and it's your typical
instrumental score that although sets the mood is nothing too memorable.
Add in the diverse sounds of battles, grunts and background ambience and
this is the final touches on the game which does sound decent through
surround sound and helps enhance the gameplay.
Final Level
For those that enjoy a real challenging action RPG, than Dark Souls is
the game for you. However if you believe that over the top challenges
make a game more annoying than rewarding, than I strongly recommend you
that you run for the hills or maybe stick to something like Zelda. I
think in just about every session I played with Dark Souls, I had
controller rage but deep down, I wanted to conquer this game before it
conquered me.
Through endurance, I persisted and as my statistics and skills
increased, I soon had a slightly better advantage. Interestingly enough,
the main gaming mechanics have all been done before but not on this
difficulty level and with 60+ hours of just gameplay itself, not
including countless deaths and restarts, you might be playing this game
for a very... very long time. |
