Dark Souls Remastered Review

Right, well its time for another review on this blog as its almost the middle of June, so I have a bit of catch-up to do. So, this review will be on a game for a change and the game in question has recently been released on the PS4, which is Dark Souls Remastered, which has been hailed as a modern classic and was originally released back in 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360. 

So, how does this classic game fair after 7 years from its original release? Well, let's take a look.

And as I will be looking at a bif of the plot, the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

Well, the story itself is fairly minimal and I will for a change quote the plot from Wikipedia (just to save a bit of time!).

"The world was once shrouded by grey fog and ruled by dragons. In this time period, Gwyn happens upon the First Flame and finds a Lord Soul. He and his allies use their power to defeat the dragons, beginning the Age of Fire. Over time, the flames begin to fade with the rise of humans, and Gwyn sacrifices himself and his soul to prolong the Age of Fire. With the flame artificially rekindled, the undead curse begins to plague humanity, causing certain humans to continually resurrect upon death.

The player character is a cursed undead, locked away in an undead asylum. After escaping the asylum, the player travels to Lordran to ring the Bells of Awakening. The bells awaken Kingseeker Frampt, who tells the player to ascend to Anor Londo. In Anor Londo, Gwynevere instructs the player to succeed Lord Gwyn and fulfill the prophecy. To accomplish this, the Lord Souls must be acquired from Gwyn's primordial allies and returned to the flame".

THOUGHTS

Well, even though I am far from having finished the game, I figured I have played enough of it to review it and give my thoughts on how it is so far and it has to be said that the game is definitely worthy of its classic status, as Dark Souls is a gripping, intense and enjoyable experience. It is also however one of the toughest games I've ever played and its difficulty at times can be quite punishing as you face a number of deadly enemies that can swiftly kill your playable character with ease and take quite a bit of strategy and trial and error to defeat them.

However, despite the difficulty level of the game being at times very frustrating, its also part of what makes the game feel quite rewarding as once you pass the tests of one boss, you feel have really accomplished something with the game. And that is certainly one of the things that Dark Souls has going for it, its a challenge but its one that's worth taking on.

GAMEPLAY

As for the actual gameplay, it is fairly linear with the playable character being one of the cursed undead (not a zombie however!) who does not have a name.  The character can take on two different forms, human and hollow and in order to become human, the character has to collect items called "humanity" which will restore them, however if the character is killed, then they will revert to hollow form.

And being human in the game gives the playable character some advantages such as they can receive help form other NPC's (non-playable characters) when taking on boss fights, however it has its downside too as you can encounter other hostile NPC's called invaders, who want to kill you and take your humanity for themselves

And one of the key aspects of the game itself are the souls you collect from foes you have killed, as the smaller enemies give you a smaller amount whereas the bosses will give you a larger amount of souls. The souls can then be used to upgrade your vitality, endurance and strength among other attributes that are key to the game. If however you are killed at any point in the game, your soul count will go back to zero but you can still retrieve your lost souls from the point where you died last, which will be marked by a bloodstain.       

As for the game's combat system is pretty straightforward with the character having access to a large variety of melee weapons such as swords, axes, daggers, spears, halberds aswell as bows and arrows all of which can be upgraded as you progress. The character will also have access to armour and helmets of which these can also be upgraded as the game progresses. The character can carry out a number of moves such as typical forward attacks or backstabs aswell as dodge manoeveurs to avoid enemy attacks.

Moving onto the enemies, this is where Dark Souls is at its most diverse as there are a huge number of enemies for the player to take on all of which vary in terms of their challenge and difficulty. The standard enemies feature hollows, who come with and without armour and can carry a number of weapons such as knives, spears, swords and even use torches and while they are easy to kill, in numbers they can be a threat. There are also other enemies such as numerous skeletons, demons and giants all of which can be made of stone, flesh or indeed bone and have varying levels of difficulty of which plenty of them can leave you chucking your console controller out the window! 

The game also has a very large number of bosses of which quite alot of them provide a very stern challenge and require quite alot of tactics and strategy in defeating them and naturally as the game progresses, the bosses will get tougher and when say tougher I MEAN tougher! Once you have killed the bosses you will usually collect additional items such as keys, swords or other items as well as a larger number of souls than your standard enemies.

And last of all are bonfires, which are essentially the game's checkpoints, which are spread throughout the game and can allow the player to level up their attributes, fill up their health flasks (known as Estus flasks) repair their equipment or restore their humanity. The only snag of course with using a bonfire is that it will respawn all the enemies in the areas that you have just cleared, which is clearly Capcom's way of making sure things are never easy!

GRAPHICS

As for the graphics, the game looks stunning in its remastered version on the PS4, as the game's environments are rich and detailed, not to mention very varied in their design as your character can traverse castles, fortresses, sewers, aswell as open lands.  The character models in the game are also pretty good, too even if they do look a bit dated by today's standards and perhaps a bit comical at times. Overall, however the graphics look mightily impressive in their PS4 remaster and its definitely for the most part a treat to look at.


MUSIC 

And regarding the music, it was composed by Motoi Sakuraba and it is a very good score overall with some very impressive orchestrations and its a rich mixture of drama and suspense. Sakuraba also scored the other games in the Dark Souls series and he has also scored plenty of other games too such as the Mario games, so overall its an impressive score that has a real epic feel that suits the game.


FLAWS

As for flaws...yes...Dark Souls does have some worth mentioning. Now to start off, I have to say that I am probably only a quarter of a way through the game, so I still have plenty that I could add to this list that I have not come to yet, however I think this will pretty much give an idea of the game's flaws and frustrations worth mentioning.

But to start off, one of the more frustrating things about the game is to do with the need to make things as difficult as possible, such as when you use a bonfire, it respawns all the enemies you have just killed!  Now, depending on the area of the game you are in, this can be a really frustrating thing to deal with but on the other hand, it does let you "farm" more souls by killing the same enemies you have just killed.

And while the bonfires idea is not a bad one for a checkpoint, it is still a bit frustrating that you can't save your progress as you go, so that way if you are nearing a boss fight, you can just save the point before you are about to face them. However, if you are having to trek from one point to another and get killed enroute, you are forced to go back to square one, which becomes frustrating pretty quickly!

Another issue is of course to do with the game's unforgiving level of difficulty, which at times can be quite infuriating, particularly when it comes to some of the boss fights. As an example, in the gargoyles boss fight, the gargoyles have very large axes and they can easily kill you with them if you are not quick to dodge them. And what it makes it more annoying is the fact that these bosses will continue to hit when you, before you can get a chance to get up again, which invariably ends up with you dead!

The same can also be said for the Capra Demon boss who also two large swords that he can easily cut you down with and also it has to be said that the area for this boss to fight in, is very cramped, which can make life very difficult. So, the close quarters combat can also be a real chore to deal with in the game too at times.  However, both the Gargoyles and the Capra Demon are an absolute picnic in comparison to what lies ahead in the game it has to be said.  This is especially the case when you reach the level Anor Londo and take on the bosses from hell, the duo of Ornstein and Smough, who are undoubtedly the toughest bosses in the whole game! And in this boss fight if you try and take them head on, you will instantly get massacred! 

In fact this raises another issue with the game, which is alot of big enemies in the game have MASSIVE weapons that have unreal reach that can cause them to put the smackdown on your character with great ease! This also becomes mega frustrating very quickly, especially as there are times where you try to roll to avoid them but you still end up getting caught in the line of their weapon.  

I also find it quite bizarre the large number of pick-ups that the player can pick up during the game, don't ever overload his inventory, as they end up with a massive amount of items and weapons, that would realistically be impossible to carry! Its also a pity that you can't trade in these items aswell to any of the traders in the game for souls but obviously the whole soul "payment" process doesn't appear to work like that!  However you do get access to an endless box, which let's you store as many items as you like, so you can lighten your inventory, which is a good idea and makes it easier for weapon/armour selection. 

There are also some other aspects of the game that can be annoying to deal with also such as when a player becomes cursed and they lose half of their health in the process and they then need to find a way to break that curse. This can be achieved usually by either purchasing a purging stone, which will break the curse, or by obtaining a cursebite ring, which will provide the player with a stronger resistance to curses. The second method would of course be the most effective one but its one that is not easy to get a hold of, as it involves the player having to go into another area (New Londo Ruins) where you need to fight off some ghosts and to do this you need another item called a transient curse, so you can attack them.  So, basically you have to yet again do one tough thing to resolve another one!

Then there is an issue to do with the Estus flasks where if you accidentally press the square button (on your PS4 or PS3 that is) and you are already at full health, you will still use up another flask, yet in most other games if you are at full health, the game stops you from wasting another health item, but not here!  And this can especially annoying as you might end up doing it with only a couple of flasks left, while at full health and you might be in dire need of what you have left! This could however be a deliberate choice on the game creators behalf as they may want you to use your items carefully and sparingly. 

And last of all is my biggest gripe with the game, which is the action of the player drinking from their Estus flasks, which is TOO DAMN SLOW!!! And this is particularly the case when you are fighting against a standard enemy or boss, as their reactions tend to be pretty fast. So, by the time you have finished swigging from your Estus flask, the boss may already have beat you down and then will close in for the kill, so it would be better if the action of this was much quicker, so it didn't disrupt the flow to the combat of the game, plus you just might not end up getting killed so often!!!   

Anyway that's it for the flaws (for now!).

SUM UP

So to sum it all up, Dark Souls is indeed an excellent action role play game, which is truly epic with its open world environments, which are vast and expansive. The game is also packed with a large variety of enemies, who become MUCH tougher as the game progresses and its certainly one of the toughest and most challenging games I have played. However, its challenge is also part of its reward in that it is great to get a game that does push and challenge your abilities as a gamer, rather than hand hold you like alot of games tend to do in this day and age.

So, overall Dark Souls is a terrific game and it was actually one that never really appealed to me at first but having given it a go (thanks to following the Youtube gamer, Suzy Lu playing it, which is what got me hooked on it) it has plesantly suprised me in how good it is. 

And if you haven't tried Dark Souls yet, then I would certainly recommend giving it a go, as it really is an extremely challenging, engrossing, gripping, tense and at times creepy experience that is well worth any gamer's time.

Right, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another review of sorts (and I will update this review as I go!).

Till the next one, its bye for now!