Dark Souls: Prepare To Die...Again and Again
Posted: September 16th, 2012
I bought Dark Souls: PTD on the day of release and it's the game I've been waiting for....for ages. It's keeping me up at night....just have to defeat this boss, find out what's in the new area I just found, upgrade my gear...etc, etc and next thing I know it's almost daylight.
It's not for everyone and you'll see very mixed views from users due to the difficulty and the fact you have to explore and find out things for yourself. The game has a rich Lore but many would never know that if they didn't read item descriptions, listen to NPC's and follow their quests. It's a hard game, very hard, but extremely rewarding and satisfying. I have the retail version which came with a beautiful artbook, poster, mouse and mouse pad, soundtrack and extras DVD. It can now be added to your Steam library if desired, but the game can be downloaded from Steam as well.
One thing to note is this was a console only game and PC community petitioned FROM Software to port it so it's a direct port with no bells and whistles, but it works straight out of the box. No bugs, no glitches. However, there have been complaints about the graphics and that the game is locked at 30fps (which in my opinion is fine) so there is a fix for the graphics and a number of other things that might annoy some. I haven't yet used the fix because I don't feel the need at the moment, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. Some things don't bother me as much as they do other people.
Another thing is it has keyboard support, but in game the prompts are for the Xbox 360 which is due to the straight porting. many people use the keyboard with little trouble but I already had a 360 controller I bought last year so I use that and it works beautifully.
The game is also moddable, but obviously in the early stages as it's only been out for a short time. Here's a current list with links to the above mentioned fix.
http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSoulsMods/
This is an IGN review. Normally I don't put much stock into professional reviews of games, I usually look for player opinions, and in this case they match for the most part.
http://au.ign.com/articles/2012/08/31/d ... ion-review
This video explains some of the story and the Lore. ENB also has a number of other videos explaining other parts of the Lore and history. There's no map, no journal, no hand holding of any kind, one difficulty level, realistic and tactical combat, a HUGE interconnected world, and a lot of deaths. When you die it's usually (99% of the time) your fault, meaning you have to be alert and on your toes at all times unless you know you're in a safe zone. You can't pause the game in combat to take a potion or change gear, you cannot save manually so if you mess up and aggro or kill an NPC or merchant you're stuck with it until you seek absolution, which is expensive and only available after a certain point. The game auto-saves frequently though, so all progress is not lost, but consequences are permanent. If you exit the game and restart you will be in the exact spot you left and not back at a checkpoint or losing progress.
Speaking of checkpoints...throughout the world you find bonfires that are checkpoints. Here you can also level up, repair and modify your gear, attune magic, manage inventory and a few other things as long as you have the requirements...ie purchased repair kits etc. Later in the game you can warp between selected bonfires, but early game you can use a consumable object to warp back to your last visited bonfire if you need to. In this game souls are the currency for everything, including leveling up, so you don't want to be caught out carrying a large amount in a dangerous area if you may not be able to get back to it to retrieve them without dying again.
The combat is fantastic but you cannot just rush in and mash buttons hoping to win. You have to plan every battle and watch the enemies carefully, which by the way have very good AI, and in many cases will chase you down if you run. Each weapon has it's own animations, you can feel the weight in your swing if you're a heavy weapon player or the speed for Dexterity based fast characters, which is my build. Weapons all have stat requirements and can't be used otherwise, they degrade and need to be repaired and can be modified to elemental, divine, chaos and other levels. Armour is in four pieces (head, hands, body and feet) which can be mixed and matched and comes in heavy, medium and light and the variation is enormous. Encumbrance also factors in to how you play, whether you want to be a heavy tanking type or fast and agile.
The multi-player component of the game is awesome and works on a P2P basis. You can summon people to your world to help with bosses or just to play co-op, you can invade other players worlds in PvP and more. I summoned someone to help me kill a boss last night and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, there are cheats who have started to move in and spoil things for people, like any MP game, but there are ways to spoil it for them and not give them the satisfaction of killing you. One thing, among others I forgot to mention is that you are undead in this game and look it.... However you can reverse your "hollowing" at bonfires if you have "humanity" and is required for online co-op. Humanity is a pickup from enemies and can also be purchased, albeit it at a high cost.
This post is probably a bit confusing as there's so much to this game I can't write it all here and I can only go by what I've discovered myself. I have watched a lot of Let's Plays and read the Wikis, but that is no substitute for experiencing it yourself and getting those desirable armours, weapons and rings etc aren't so easy when you do it yourself The only thing I wasn't thrilled about is it uses GFWL but other than a slight hiccup with registering I haven't has any issues.
That's enough for now.... I haven't taken any screenshots as I keep forgetting and in the middle of battle that's something you don't want to be doing.
It's not for everyone and you'll see very mixed views from users due to the difficulty and the fact you have to explore and find out things for yourself. The game has a rich Lore but many would never know that if they didn't read item descriptions, listen to NPC's and follow their quests. It's a hard game, very hard, but extremely rewarding and satisfying. I have the retail version which came with a beautiful artbook, poster, mouse and mouse pad, soundtrack and extras DVD. It can now be added to your Steam library if desired, but the game can be downloaded from Steam as well.
One thing to note is this was a console only game and PC community petitioned FROM Software to port it so it's a direct port with no bells and whistles, but it works straight out of the box. No bugs, no glitches. However, there have been complaints about the graphics and that the game is locked at 30fps (which in my opinion is fine) so there is a fix for the graphics and a number of other things that might annoy some. I haven't yet used the fix because I don't feel the need at the moment, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. Some things don't bother me as much as they do other people.
Another thing is it has keyboard support, but in game the prompts are for the Xbox 360 which is due to the straight porting. many people use the keyboard with little trouble but I already had a 360 controller I bought last year so I use that and it works beautifully.
The game is also moddable, but obviously in the early stages as it's only been out for a short time. Here's a current list with links to the above mentioned fix.
http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSoulsMods/
This is an IGN review. Normally I don't put much stock into professional reviews of games, I usually look for player opinions, and in this case they match for the most part.
http://au.ign.com/articles/2012/08/31/d ... ion-review
This video explains some of the story and the Lore. ENB also has a number of other videos explaining other parts of the Lore and history. There's no map, no journal, no hand holding of any kind, one difficulty level, realistic and tactical combat, a HUGE interconnected world, and a lot of deaths. When you die it's usually (99% of the time) your fault, meaning you have to be alert and on your toes at all times unless you know you're in a safe zone. You can't pause the game in combat to take a potion or change gear, you cannot save manually so if you mess up and aggro or kill an NPC or merchant you're stuck with it until you seek absolution, which is expensive and only available after a certain point. The game auto-saves frequently though, so all progress is not lost, but consequences are permanent. If you exit the game and restart you will be in the exact spot you left and not back at a checkpoint or losing progress.
Speaking of checkpoints...throughout the world you find bonfires that are checkpoints. Here you can also level up, repair and modify your gear, attune magic, manage inventory and a few other things as long as you have the requirements...ie purchased repair kits etc. Later in the game you can warp between selected bonfires, but early game you can use a consumable object to warp back to your last visited bonfire if you need to. In this game souls are the currency for everything, including leveling up, so you don't want to be caught out carrying a large amount in a dangerous area if you may not be able to get back to it to retrieve them without dying again.
The combat is fantastic but you cannot just rush in and mash buttons hoping to win. You have to plan every battle and watch the enemies carefully, which by the way have very good AI, and in many cases will chase you down if you run. Each weapon has it's own animations, you can feel the weight in your swing if you're a heavy weapon player or the speed for Dexterity based fast characters, which is my build. Weapons all have stat requirements and can't be used otherwise, they degrade and need to be repaired and can be modified to elemental, divine, chaos and other levels. Armour is in four pieces (head, hands, body and feet) which can be mixed and matched and comes in heavy, medium and light and the variation is enormous. Encumbrance also factors in to how you play, whether you want to be a heavy tanking type or fast and agile.
The multi-player component of the game is awesome and works on a P2P basis. You can summon people to your world to help with bosses or just to play co-op, you can invade other players worlds in PvP and more. I summoned someone to help me kill a boss last night and it was fantastic. Unfortunately, there are cheats who have started to move in and spoil things for people, like any MP game, but there are ways to spoil it for them and not give them the satisfaction of killing you. One thing, among others I forgot to mention is that you are undead in this game and look it.... However you can reverse your "hollowing" at bonfires if you have "humanity" and is required for online co-op. Humanity is a pickup from enemies and can also be purchased, albeit it at a high cost.
This post is probably a bit confusing as there's so much to this game I can't write it all here and I can only go by what I've discovered myself. I have watched a lot of Let's Plays and read the Wikis, but that is no substitute for experiencing it yourself and getting those desirable armours, weapons and rings etc aren't so easy when you do it yourself The only thing I wasn't thrilled about is it uses GFWL but other than a slight hiccup with registering I haven't has any issues.
That's enough for now.... I haven't taken any screenshots as I keep forgetting and in the middle of battle that's something you don't want to be doing.