![]() ![]() It’s consistently challenging and even nerve-wracking to push into unknown territory and the game has no compunctions about bringing a swift end the moment you let your guard down. Every corner has a new surprise, a new opportunity to meet an untimely end from an ambushing enemy or trap. All of this world is broken and ruined.Įnvironment design and enemy placement are by far the most impressive aspects of Dark Souls. There’s a fantastic breadth of variety in the regions, though all evoke a sense of isolation and fear in their atmosphere. Right from your arrival (following a brief tutorial stage), you are free to begin exploring with three clearly available paths and it only continues to branch out from there. Lordran is an amazing world, a dark honeycomb of twisting paths and chambers. ![]() It makes your achievements deeply satisfying when you earn them and your failures all the more personal as they represent a very real loss of time and energy. It means always learning from every experience that you have and applying that learned knowledge towards, at a minimum, achieving as much success as you have in previous efforts if not more. Success in Dark Souls means always moving forward. They can be recollected, provided you return to this point and grab them before you are killed again, the bloodstain only appearing at the point of your most recent death. When you inevitably die, any souls you were carrying are left a few steps back from where you met your end. So, souls are valuable and the reason why Dark Souls is such an intense challenge that always pushes you to improve your performance. There is a lot of growing you’ll do and you’ll need souls for all of it. And then you have to be able to carry all the crap you’re wearing and still walk. Weapons upgrade with the cost of souls and components and require finding an NPC blacksmith for every five levels you improve them. In the case of leveling up stats, the expense of doing so rapidly rises with each level, starting at a few hundred and in excess of ten thousand by your fiftieth point. Improving your character’s eight basic stats, upgrading and repairing equipment, purchasing items and information from NPC characters all of these things require the expenditure of souls. Souls are accumulated from fallen enemies or by using consumable items found in the world and are spent on everything. Behind everything are souls, the currency of Lordran. The complexity of the mechanics at play is vast. And no matter how big or bad you think you are, there’s always something (or someone) bigger and badder. When you have developed your abilities and mastery of the controls, you will be able to swiftly cut down most common enemies, making the greater threat your own carelessness and over-confidence. At the beginning, you are weak and anything is capable of bringing a swift end. Between you and the fate of the world lies hundreds of mindless beasts intent on killing you, which they will succeed in time and again.ĭark Souls (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)ĭark Souls is vicious and unforgiving in the challenge it presents. The primeval, life-giving power of fire which holds back the darkness threatening to once again consume all existence, has almost flickered out and you are the prophesied last hope, sojourning to the legendary land of Lordran to reignite the flame. You are undead, one of the chosen few tasked with saving a world which has very nearly seen its demise. If you are not, I respect that and ask that you please enjoy one of the many fine reviews available from players more capable of completing this quest than I have been. I am confident that I am capable of rendering a fair verdict based upon the knowledge I have. I have invested over 90 hours of play into the game, exploring the vast majority of its world and facing off against (if not defeating) many of the boss enemies. First, allow me to begin with a caveat I have not completed Dark Souls. ![]()
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