I was going to post this in the Dark Souls thread, but I figured why clog it up with a long discussion about my experience with it.
So I've finally summed up my entire experience with Dark Souls. It's long but hang with me. Let me preface this wall of text by saying I am not a fan of the original Demon's Souls. I could go into detail, but suffice to say it was not an enjoyable experience. Now I know some of you may think my negative viewpoint may taint my judgment of Dark Souls. First of all, never use the word taint in my presence. Second I can promise you I played the game with an open mind. I simply wanted to give Dark Souls its' day in court.
This is not a full on review. More of my impressions of the game. Since I played only a few hours, I cannot give an exhaustive review of every aspect nor do I intend to. This is just my thoughts on my time with the game. I am not the type of person to simply rely on reviews or even suggestions of friends. While these are both excellent sources of information, they cannot substitute playing the actual game. With that in mind I rented a copy of Dark Souls from my local RedBox for a paltry two dollars. A minimum investment for an informed opinion I figured.
Starting the game up, I was greeted with the typical character customization screen we're all familiar with. I tinkered around with a few of the options. Some of them seemed very clear in how the affect they would have on gameplay and/or my character. Other options were more vague while still others were downright misleading or false. After a bit of tinkering around I settled on the Hunter.
The game opened with a cut scene telling of an ancient evil bent on doing bad things and yadda yadda. Ya know your typical end of ages plot. While certainly not a new idea, it didn't really affect my judgment of the game. I don't get hung up on story so it really wasn't an issue. Hey, I'll fight the endless legions of evil for nothing more than a slice of pecan pie.
The environments were nice. A normal high fantasy type of setting. I did like a lot of the enemy designs. Some were just plain screwy. I gotta believe the art team at From Software were taking a hit off the old magic pipe when coming up with some of these ideas. The graphics did a good job interpenetrating the overall art direction. Areas felt varied and expansive without a lot of repeating elements. You can tell a lot of time and dedication went into this world.
Starting the game out I reacquainted myself with the controls. For the most part they did the job. Though game developers is it too much to ask for custom button mapping? Seriously, it doesn't take that much effort. In fact it takes less effort to allow me to assign any button to any action than to program it. Plus it allows disabled and handicapped gamers a chance to play the game as well. Anyway targeting was performed by clicking in R3, something I still don't understand. Why would you use the same stick for targeting and target switching that you use for camera control? Also roll was assigned to the 'O' button when for me it would have been much more convenient assigned to the 'X' button. Again button mapping would solve this little issue. Other than that the controls worked well.
On a side note, why is there no pause button? Even when I'm not connected to the online world I can't pause the game. Look I realize this is supposed to be some grand connected online experience, but what if I need to pee mid game? What if I need to get a drink, get the door, take the dog outside, or any of a dozen different things normal human being do? Must I be tethered to my screen until I find a save point? I'm forced to sit the controller down and hope there's not some enemy who'll pull my innards out from my eye socket while I'm taking a leak.
The battle system certainly harkened back to the days of Demon's Souls. Slow and deliberate. I understand many people enjoy this kind of battle system. For me, it's way too lethargic. You can't really take on more than about two enemies at once. That and they must be in front of you at all times. Trying to attack/defend an enemy in front and in back does not work. This lead me to draw out enemies so I could finish them off one at a time. It was too risky to engage multiple enemies at once. Again, that is the way they designed the battle system, but I felt it only hampered the experience for me.
Though the worst offender of the combat system is the almighty stamina gauge. This is represented by a green bar underneath your constantly-abused health gauge. Swing your sword, and some stamina is used up. Follow through with a combo attack, and some more is expended. Defend an enemy attack, and more of that sweet green bar is depleted. Any action other than walking will most likely require stamina. Of course it refills over time when not in use. The speed of the stamina gauge depends on your stats and certain other factors. If it runs out, you're left open for and attack. This system was most likely implemented to bring more of an active RPG element into the game. Personally I'm more of an attack as fast and as much as you can kind of guy. I don't like a bar dictating when I can attack, defend, parry, run, or roll. Just let me play. Though this aspect also affirms the methodical pace the game requires. That being said the battle system does work. Maybe not to my liking, but it's certainly serviceable.
I have a very love/hate relationship with how Dark Souls's world is setup compared to Demon's Souls. On one hand I love the idea of an open world. No longer are areas segmented by endless loading screens. It flows to make the experience more organic. On the other hand I really hate the fact the game doesn't do a better job pointing you in the right direction. I understand you are supposed to find out for yourself by searching around. That's the whole point. Though there are not many if any clues as to where you should go in relation to your current level/quest.
For instance I went into an area with a ton of skeleton enemies near the beginning of the game. As I was told later by other more experienced players, I was not supposed to go there until later in the game. So why is it open? Why allow me to wander aimlessly for the better part of an hour if this isn't the way to go? The argument could be made you should look at the clues on the ground or talk to the various NPCs, but even those don't give you too many specifics as to your next destination. I feel the game should have done a better job providing clues or leading you in some sort of logical progression.
Then there's the music, or lack thereof. Where is it? I've heard many people say, "Oh it builds ambience" or "It accentuates your footsteps and the clang of your sword in battle." I could certainly understand that line of thinking. That is if the game truly did a magnificent job of building said ambience. For me it felt very empty and hollow without music. Granted certain areas and boss battles had music, but most of the game is merely sound effects. Even a simple light background track would have greatly enhanced the game. I later got a chance to listen to the full soundtrack and really enjoyed it which makes this even more disappointing it wasn't included in the entire game. I would have loved it if they included these songs throughout the whole game as you triumphantly charged to your own impending death!
Speaking of dying, there's a lot of it in Dark Souls. I've been told by many people Demon's Souls is a "hard" game. I've also been told Dark Souls is even harder than Demon's Souls. Truth be told, the actual game itself wasn't difficult, but the way in which it's designed gives the illusion of difficulty. I'd go so far as to say the game is downright unsportsmanlike. Simply put it sucker punches you. Let me give you example of what I mean.
So I'm heading up this straight staircase and about halfway up I spot a flaming barrel. Mind you I'm walking at a normal pace so my first instinct is to run back the other way. Of course as we've covered before, nothing you do in Dark Souls is fast. This includes turning around and running. So of course I'm run over by this barrel and it just so happens it also pushes me off the edge of the staircase causing me to fall to my death.
How was I supposed to know that was going to happen? I had no advance warning or sign of this impending danger until it was too late. Fact of the matter is, the barrel was put there to hurt me. It wasn't a test of skill. I was halfway up the stairs with no way to avoid the attack other than rolling off the side of the cliff and dying (which kind of defeats the purpose of my whole quest). I tried turning and running as fast as I could, but there was no way to avoid it.
You may say, "Well you're just not quick enough." Keep in mind you're talking to a guy who beat Bayonetta on Non-stop Climax mode and is a bullet hell aficionado. I may not be the fastest gaming guns in the West, but I can assure you my reaction skills are quite intact. It's the slow mechanics of the game mixed with its' penchants for sucker punches that caused my death.
I'll give you another example. I go up another flight of stairs, mind you with a bit more caution after my last incident with a barrel to the face, and find before me a long bridge. There's a few enemies scattered about. Nothing serious, only a couple of archers and a few swordsmen. I walk towards them and get to about a third of the way across the bridge when out of nowhere a dragon sweeps in and blazes the entire bridge with fire. Of course this sets me on fire thereby melting my flesh and taking a ton of health. I hobble back the way I came as the red dragon perches itself on the opposite side of the bridge. I imagine it's having a good lulz over the whole thing.
Again, how is that fair? Someone told me I should have known a dragon would reign fire upon me by the black char marks on the bridge. What? Am I Columbo now? I'm supposed to derive, "Hey there's a dragon that will come out of the sky and burn you with hellfire" from a few black spots on the bridge? Still others said I should have looked for the red marks players left as clues. They will give you hints or general ideas of danger, but nothing as specific as "Big red dragon will burn you to a crisp if you step foot on this bridge." That has nothing to do with skill. You will get hit by it. It's not an option and you can't be good enough to avoid it. It's not hard just a sucker punch.
Oh but it doesn't stop there my friends. No I've saved the best sucker punch for last. The nail in the coffin that solidified my disdain for the game. After being steam rolled by a barrel and turned into dragon a shish kabob, I entered a spiral staircase. I slowly climbed the staircase and said to myself, "I bet the game is going to troll me right now." How little I knew. Carefully I progressed upward to see what would greet me at the top. Before I reached the top I saw the golden armored foot of a powerful enemy above. "Ha!" I said to myself as I proceeded to run back down the spiral staircase. Even if he had seen me, I could at least run away and get to better ground.
But the game had other plans because coming up the spiral staircase was another enemy. This then lead to what I liked to call the "Dark Souls Oreo of Infinite Pain". The two enemies were the crunchy chocolate cookies, and I was the creamy white middle. Though unlike a tasty Oreo, there was nothing good about this. My first instinct was to try and run. Well the powers that be designed the game so I could neither jump over or go around the enemies in this staircase. I was stuck. I couldn't defend as I would have to block front and back with perfect precision and pray they didn't both attack me at once. I couldn't attack them as that would leave me open for a counter attack by one or both of the enemies. Even if I could do anything, my stamina gauge would run out and I'd be dead anyway. So there I was, getting gang banged by both enemies. I then resigned myself to death.
And that's where my journey with Dark Souls ended. All the issues up until this point were something I could possibly get used to or understand how others could. Once the sucker punches came, I was officially done.
The best analogy I could use is Mike Tyson's Punchout for the NES. You all remember that game right? Hard as nails. You had to earn every victory and it only got more difficult as you progressed. Even so it was beatable. Remember how you beat Mike Tyson at the end (or Mr. Dream if you had the lame version)? You looked for patterns. He would raise his eyebrows or move in a certain way. It was at that moment you knew you had to take action either by dodging or punching. Sure you'd get wailed on the first few times, but after you understood what those signals meant, you adapted and became better finally beating him. Dark Souls offers none of that. It's like playing Mike Tyson with no signs or patterns of attack. Just a flurry of attacks you can in no way be prepared for until you're knocked out. Sound like fun? Not to me. Not to me my friend.
As Joy Division put it, you're no good for me Dark Souls.
If I have gained anything out of this, it's the affirmed notion you should always try out new and different games for yourself. Sure you'll play some stinkers and games that just aren't for you, but it's about those few hidden gems that rise to the top that make it all worth it. If you don't try them, you might miss out on a unique experience. Why do I feel there should be a rainbow with the words "The More You Know" scrolling by?
P.S. If you've really read through this whole thing, kudos to you. Go get yourself an Oreo.
