Well, in this post I figured I would do yet another revisitation of a previous one but this time it will be of a game review I did for the original Dark Souls game and the reason for re-doing it is so I can expand on any areas I might have missed having played the game many times over since my original review! ;-)
So, with that all said let's take another look at the classic action role play game that is Dark Souls.
And the usual 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
So having played this game over and over many times (no kidding!) I cna safely say that Dark Souls remains a true classic as it is a gripping, intense and enjoyable experience. It is also a pretty difficult game aswell and on first coming to the Souls series, it was a real eye opener for me having played so many games where there is an "easy" mode or tutorials onscreen to guide your hand, well not here! No, Dark Souls doesn't so much hold your hand through the game it kind of more chops it off and throws you in at the deep end!
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
The gameplay section will be split into sub-sections below just so you know as there is quite alot to cover!
GAME FORMAT
As for the actual gameplay, it takes on a very non-linear open world format with the playable character being one of the cursed undead (not a zombie however!) who does not have a name and you can basically traverse from area to area without any loading screens (well until later on that is!). The character you play is also shown in a third person perspective so you can see them and before you begin the game you can customise how your character will look and what class of character they will be.
HUMANITY, HOLLOW AND NPCs
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. There are also certain NPC's throughout the game that will turn hollow themselves and lose their minds and attack you on sight.
There are also other NPCs that will trade with you for different items such as weapons, armour, consumables or accessories as well as two blacksmiths that will upgrade your armour and weapons for you. In addition to this there is another NPC, Oswald of Carim, who can absolve you of your sins (by paying a large number of souls to him) should you kill off any NPC characters or intentionally or unintentionally aggro NPCs that you have met and would like to later trade or deal with.
SOULS, SOUL FARMING & BONFIRES
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 stats such as 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. However if you are unable to retrieve your souls a second time and are killed again then you lose those souls forever (unless you have a special ring that will negate this).
And this brings me onto one of the most important aspects of the game, which are the bonfires that you use throughout as checkpoints to save your progress but they allow you to do much more than just that alone. The bonfires also allow a player to rest, level up their stats by using the amount of souls they have gained from fallen enemies and even also repair and reinforce their weapons and armour if they have the proper tools aswell as store items. Resting at the bonfire will also allow you to replenish your estus flask amount, your health and cure any poison or toxic effects you may encounter. The one big caveat however about the bonfires is that they also respawn all the enemies in any area you are at when you rest at one, so that's the only downside to using them.
WEAPONS & COMBAT
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 via the use of materials known as titanite shards, which you can get in different varieties and will upgrade your items up to different levels starting with +1 all the way up to +15. However different weapons and armour will have their own set limit on the upgrade level they can reach so only some weapons, sheilds and armour can go to +5 and +10 whereas there are specific weapons that can be full upgraded all the way to +15. These weapons can also infused with different elements such as magic, fire and lightning, which can all have varying effectiveness on different enemies.
The character can carry out a number of moves such as typical forward attacks or backstabs aswell as dodge manoeveurs to avoid enemy attacks. There is also another special attack, a parry which requires careful timing where your character will deflect an enemy's weapon with their shield and follow it up with a riposte (or stab attack) to finish them off or deal out heavy damage.
CHARACTER CLASSES AND STATS
In the game you will also have the choice of choosing between different starting classes of characters that include a warrior, sorcerer, pyromancer and a cleric and all these classes will have varying attributes and different strengths aswell as abilities.
As an example if you are a playing as a warrior you will play through the game primarily by using weapons such as swords, clubs, spears or axes and take on primarily a melee approach to the game. If you are playing as a sorcerer then you may use a mixture of magic spells and melee weapons to help you fight through the game and you can also buff your weapons with certain spells to add on magic damage. Or if you are playing as a pyromancer you will have access to some powerful pyromancy spells that can do considerable fire damage but also using melee weapons for this class is recommended. And if you are a cleric again you will require a mixture of elemental spells known as miracles that can offer healing abilities aswell as perform attacks that involve lightning. These are just some of the options available of course as there are more playable characters to choose from.
As for your characters stats there are set number of attributes that can be upgraded throughout and each class with start with different levels for each stat and these stats include vitality, strength, endurance, intelligence, dexterity and faith. However I would say overall that vitality and endurance are important to every class as vitality boosts your character's health and endurance their stamina.
So as an example of the other stats, intelligence may apply primarily to sorcerers as it is a stat that can be upgraded throughout the game so they can perform more powerful spells. As for other examples, a cleric will want to upgrade their faith, which is used to perform miracles and the powerful miracles will require higher faith that can either offer healing or offensive capabilities. And lastly, a warrior may focus more primarily on their strength and endurance as strength will allow them to hold more powerful weapons and endurance will also help them to boost their equipment load and what they can carry aswell their stamina when running and during combat.
RINGS
The game also makes use of various different rings that will enable the player to gain different abilities aswell as offer levels of protection and resistance to physical or elemental damage. As an example there are rings such as the Cloranthy Ring, which will allow your player's endurance bar to regenerate quicker. Other rings also include the Havel's Ring, which boosts your equipment load to allow you to carry a heavier items such as weapons or armour. Then there are rings that boost your resistance to elemental damage such as lightning, fire (the lightning and red stoneplate rings) aswell as reducing bleed and poison damage and even resistance to curse effects. The player however can only wear two rings at one time and there are certain rings that will break and become unusable if they are removed, so you do need to be careful about which rings you select to use.
ENEMIES
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!
BOSSES
And of the key aspects of the game is of course the bosses as they themselves can tend to provide a big challenge for players to overcome although they can vary in difficulty throughout the game and believe me there are some pretty tough bosses to be found here! And this game has some of the most memorable boss fights in gaming history that include the legendary duo of Ornstein (a knight in dragon slayer armour) and Smough (an exceutioner who is a big fat guy with a small head and also carries a huge hammer!).
Most of the bosses for the most part are actually quite manageable but O&S are definitely one of the hardest battles however the game's DLC does provide three pretty hard bosses such as Knight Artorius, a tortured knight corrupted by the abyss, a brutal demon named Manus and a ferocious dragon named Kalameet. These guys are pretty much the main challenge of the game and will take some effort to overcome but they are also pretty rewarding to defeat. So the games's bosses are definitely the game's main highlights.
GRAPHICS
As for the graphics, the game looks stunning in its remastered version on the PS4, as the environments are rich and detailed, not to mention very varied in their design as your character can traverse to castles, fortresses, sewers, aswell as open lands. The character models however remain a weakness in the visuals here as they do look dated by today's standards and the models features actually look a bit too soft and undefined. However that aside, 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. And the game's score has quite a few highlights that include the theme for Artorius, Ornstein & Smough. However the main highlight here is the theme for the final boss, Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, which is a very poignant beautiful piece played solely on piano that has got to rank as one of the most memorable themes in video game history that also really packs an emotional punch.
So overall the music score is pretty impressive here however its a testament to the quality of the music in the Souls series that the music in the sequels would be even better.
FLAWS
As for flaws...yes...Dark Souls does have some worth mentioning.
And to kick off there is the whole thing with the bonfires, which are a pretty good concept and act as a decent checkpoint, but at the same time they often are few and far between different areas and it can be frustrating that you can't save your progress as you go. This is especially a real pain 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 can become a pain in the ass real quick!
Another is to do with alot of big enemies in the game having 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. However this is something is pretty rife throughout the Souls series, so in the end you just have to accept it and to be fair as you progress, you will have access to some bigger weapons too.
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 their 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 sell these items aswell to any of the traders in the game for souls although you can later "feed" items to the serpent, Frampt who will give you a small number of souls for each one. 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 but hey that's how it is in Dark Souls!
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.
Another gripe I have with the game is the action of the player drinking from their Estus flasks, which is a bit on the slow side. 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 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!!!
However, further to this point and on re-playing the game to be entirely fair to the original Dark Souls, the Estus flask drinking speed in this game really isn't that bad and is fairly quick in comparison to Dark Souls II where the action speed is just RIDICULOUSLY SLOW!!! So, I have to be a bit fairer here to the original game as its really not too bad in comparison to the piss poor speed of the Estus flask drinking in Dark Souls II.
I also found the upgrading process for your weapons and armour in this game to be a bit complicated in comparison to the sequels as you had to keep getting different types of shards to do this which you still had to do of course in the sequels but they did a better job to simplify the process in Dark Souls II and III. Also if you wanted to infuse your weapons with different elements such as fire, lightning or magic you would need special titanite shards, which would mean downgrading a weapon to a specific level (usually its +5 I think!) before you can infuse and upgrade it again. However in the sequels all you needed was the proper stone or gem to infuse with the weapon and that weapon could keep its current upgrade level whether it be +2 or +8 but in the original Dark Souls this whole process is a real pain.
And last of all is the issue to do with having to rekindle every new bonfire you go to take max out your Estus Flask amount whether it be to 10 (or later 15 or 20) and this is done by using humanities and you have to be in human form to kindle the flame in the first place. Now, this really does become quite time consuming and tiresome after a while especially considering in the sequels you had to locate Estus Shards to maximise the usage of your flask but once you got them, you're flask was at a consistent number for the rest of the game and this is something I much prefered in the sequels.
And further to this point I think the amount of bonfires you can travel to once you have the ability warp between them is also a bit too limited as there is usually more than just one bonfire to be found in certain areas but you tend to just warp to a single one in a bigger area, which can be a pain. Again in the sequels they afforded players more freedom by allowing you to travel between every available bonfire in the game rather than just selective ones like you do here.
Anyway that's it for the flaws (for now!).
SUM UP
So to sum it all up, Dark Souls is without a doubt one of the greatest action role play video games of all time, 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.
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, so that's it for now and I will be back sometime with another post.
Till then once again its bye fer now!
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