Dark Souls

Dark Souls is known as punishing, unforgiving and very challenging game. But it is also very rewarding and satisfying. It is tough, but fair (mostly). The game design, the level design, the inter connectivity of the world, is outstanding in every possible way. The story, yet very vague and cryptic, is more deep and emotional that you would have thought. Hidetaka Miyazaki's masterpiece is an unforgettable, memorable experience that every serious gamer should look for. For example, you pass hours, hours, trying to kill a certain boss, getting more and more frustrated. But the moment you land the final blow on this boss, you'll feel so happy, satisfied, proud of yourself, and the game will reward you for that. It has flaws for sure, but this is a complete, and unique gameplay experience. Try it someday. Or now, if you haven't already. It is a must-have for every gamer looking for a brilliant, unique experience, that you won't find anywhere else.

Dark Souls. Unforgiving. Impossible. Brutal. Hardest video game ever made. Until you learn how to play ...

Before i attempted to play Dark Souls, i first finished its spiritual predecessor Demon's Souls. From this experience i learned not only the mechanics of the combat system but i learned how one should approach and play the game itself. You die. Often. And you cannot load some previously saved state just before you died. You "reincarnate" as do the minor enemies and you have to march back up that hill one more time. The trick is to learn how to gain from dying, and more importantly, how to spend your currency before you do die (and potentially fail to retrieve your blood stain). You literally can make suicide runs and pick up some great booty in the process, although you won't know to do so on your first run with your first character.

Dark Souls is controversial, no doubt about it. You either love it or you hate and i happen to love it (and my Chaos Scythe +5). While playing Dark Souls, i was distinctly reminded of many classic arcade, console and computer games that stood out: Atari 2600's Adventure and Dolphin, NES's Castlevania, Contra and Rygar, the Mario series, the Grand Theft Auto series, the Diablo and Baldur's Gate series and even the Sonic the Hedgehog series (mini speed-runs). Dark Souls is now one of my top games, along with GTA Vice City, Morrowind, Half Life, Thief 2, Might & Magic 5, Ultima 4, Super Mario World, Zelda (Ocarina of Time), Jade Empire, Assassin's Creed, Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. And i haven't even had the time to sign on and participate in online Player VS Player ... just do a Youtube search to see what i mean.

I think what makes Dark Souls so special and deserving of praise is in its replay value and the reward you gain for accomplishing what most would consider impossible. Every adversity is an opportunity to learn new combat styles and to adjust your strategy. If you get stuck in Blighttown and decide to backtrack it out of there for more supplies (because you were too impatient to get down there in the first place), you feel the relief when you see daylight again. You learn from this game. It just doesn't spoon feed you like most games do these days.

Patience is not a virtue in this game, it's a requirement for survival.

(p.s. I think the current speed run is around 55 minutes to solve the game, but you can expect to put in nearly 200 HOURS before triggering the end scene.)

I was not sure that I would like this game very much, because of its reputation for being extremely difficult. But I decided to go ahead and buy it anyway. I am so glad that I did! The game starts by vaguely introducing you to the world of Dark Souls, and does a very good job at setting the mood for the game. As you move your character around, you get a feel that the whole world is gloomy and in despair. The world and the graphics by the way are beautiful. I'll admit that they are not the best I've ever seen in gaming, but they are still stunning. There are many "Wow, that's crazy!" moments in this game. The difficulty: If you are even looking into buying Dark Souls, you probably already know that it is difficult. However I think the difficulty is one of the games strengths. It almost makes the game. At first, you will feel like "Why is this so hard?!! Did they seriously have to put that guy there?!" But after a while, you almost get used to dying. And there is nothing like getting killed by a hidden enemy, then going back after re-spawning and knowing exactly where he and everything else is. The combat is at first a bit hard to grasp, as there is no real tutorial, but as you learn, it becomes pretty routine and comfortable. This game is very fun, brutally difficult, and rewarding if you stick to it. Don't give up!

Without a shadow of a doubt - this is one of the finest video games to ever be produced. Dark Souls is also, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the toughest video games to be made, perhaps excluding it's spiritual predecessor Demon Souls (which I highly recommend also).

When the game begins you will need to choose what type of character you would like to control for this epic adventure. The choice of classes (10 of them) such as a thief, warrior, hunter, cleric, pyromancer - you get the idea. To be perfectly honest it does not really matter which class you choose because you will evolve your character in any way you see fit as you progress through the game. I started as a pyromancer but as I approached the last boss, if anything I was more a knight than a pyromancer.

The main selling point of this game is probably the difficulty level as strange as that sounds. "You will die - a lot!!!" This game will frustrate the hell out of you and at times leave you wondering if it is even possible to beat certain bosses but YOU WILL keep coming back, why? Well because it is such a brilliant game. Some of the weapons you can create in this game are fantastic, but it's the way you get these weapons which makes them even more special because it is not as simple as finding them or just beating a boss. You must have certain things and do certain things to get these weapons.

I don't really want to talk about anything in the game but you need to get this, it will take priority over all your other games (yes I'm talking MW3, BF3, FIFA etc) and you will then probably go back and buy Demon Souls because these games are on a different level to those in the mainstream.

Good luck and prepare to die a lot!

This is a truly inspired game, it brings a breath of fresh air into a stale market and gives us something truly wonderful.

From start to finish it is simply riveting and it's challenging combat has you between fits of rage and despair to an ecstatic state of joy that no video game has done before (even it's predecessor Demon's Souls). The story, although perhaps not the most obvious nor linear is amazing if you can be bothered to look into it, and that is another point about the game, it requires your unwavering attention. If you play this game with the right mindset, it can be truly breathtaking.

And to people who say that it is 'overrated' or has 'artificial difficulty' all I can simply say is, you just went full retard.