As you slowly awaken from the slumber that was beaten into
you, a muttered curse falls from your lips, curse the Way of the White, curse
Allfather Lloyd! You would have gone willingly but the undead hunters had to
beat you into submission, with your sword now broken and the rest of your gear
taken, you slump to the floor in despair. Yet you raise your head to the broken
ceiling, a noise like that of armour on stone can be heard above you, which is
where a knight resides, a fellow Knight of Astora!
Said Knight then pushes a dead body into your cell, where it
hits the floor with a soft squelch of broken bone and rent flesh, but more
importantly you hear the jangle of keys, perhaps to this cell? The Knight
silently leaves, no words of encouragement, nor of explanation, but the thought
of freedom is all the hope you need. Rising to your feet you rush to the body in
anticipation, snatching the keys you then fumble them into the lock, a faint
click echoes along the hall, a sound sweeter than any wine you have tasted.
Having been freed from your rat infested cell by the
friendly knight, you scamper your way past the hollowed undead in the nearby
cells. Reaching out they claw at your boots as you walk past, wailing into
empty space when you pull away from them, the poor souls having been driven
insane by the curse you share.
Climbing up from the dungeon you are blinded as you enter
the ruined asylum, when your eyes have adjusted you find yourself in a room
reclaimed by nature, the dappled sunlight that plays across the grass; making
this place feel almost…peaceful. The rays of light frame the remains of a fire
a fellow adventurer had made, feeling the weight of the undead curse you carry,
you move to kindle it so that you may find respite before you continuing the
journey.
Gathering your strength you look to the giant door in front
of you, the portal dwarfs you in size as though showing how small and weak you
are. Knowing that there are creatures both malevolent and benign, that would
require a door of such a height, you hope it is the latter and not the former.
Gripping the remains of your sword you steel yourself for the possible danger
ahead, as you push the gateway open you mutter a prayer to Gwyn, hoping that
the Lord of Sunlight will grant you favour against the dangers ahead.
Yet the hallway you enter is strangely empty, breathing a
sigh of relief you continue on warily, hoping that whatever required such a
grand portal is long dead. As you reach the other side of the hall, a mighty
crash erupts behind you, cursing Allfather Lloyd once more you spin around to
face your foe, only to see your worst nightmare before you.
A giant chaos demon wielding a hammer bigger than you are,
strides towards you, dagger like teeth gnashing together in anticipation of its
next meal, bat like wings flapping pitifully on its obese body. But while there
may be no hope for you against this monster, cowering will be the least you
will do. Strengthening the grip on your sword you bellow your family’s war cry,
charging at the Demon as it swings its hammer. Hitting you straight on it
crushes the life out of you, as you gasp your last your body vanishes in a
cloud of particles, only to reform at the bonfire.
For the undead cannot truly die, forever cursed to wander
the lands as they slowly become hollow, transforming into yet another danger
for the adventurers that seek a cure for their curse.
Welcome to Lordran, a place of darkness, fire, despair and
yet hope, welcome to Dark Souls.
Hey wait come back! I know it sounds horrible but it
actually isn’t, sure it can be unforgiv- oh no no no you’re not going anywhere!
*Smacks you over the head with a brick and ties you to a
chair*
Right where was I, ah yes Dark Souls. Many games have you
start at the height of the world’s civilisation, upon which the kingdom comes
under threat by some creature or force, which of course only you the chosen
hero can save us. But not here, oh no the time of grandeur has come and gone,
the world having already slipped into ruin, while you are but no one, just a
small human in a land of Dragons, Demons and mad Gods.
And it shows in the world, the Towns and Castles that you
enter are ruined and filled with both beasts and undead. But they are not the
only place you will explore, nor are they the only foes you will find,
enchanted forests and poisonous swamps, beings of god like stature and dragons
of various shapes and sizes.
And Lordran never gets better, even the grandest and
luxurious castle feels hollow, when the only things to walk the halls are soulless
hunks of armour, following the last orders of their masters to repel all
intruders. This feeling of despair haunts you throughout the game, you may be
strolling through this enchanting forest, but there are real dangers out there,
threats that wish your life to reach an untimely end.
But you are not the only explorer to come to this land,
there are other adventurers like yourself who have travelled here once they
became undead, hoping to lift the curse or perhaps to obtain riches and power.
Many will help you, but are you sure you can trust them? Humanity is scarce in
this world and while thanks to your power, you are safe from direct attack, but
are the innocent lives around you safe? Maybe they are, maybe they are not.
Though you are not without guidance, on arrival a helpful
soul will give you a goal, to ring the two bells of awakening. This for the
most part is all the guidance and story you will receive, the rest you will
have to find yourself. The fallen body of an adventurer you summoned earlier
will tell you his fate; the glowing saplings suggest that the forest once
overflowed with magic, the hulking demon guarding this hall might indicate a
demonic interest.
And yet while all this darkness may surround you, still you
shall struggle on, slaying all that stands in your way. With each battle won a
sense of elation at having beaten impossible odds, shall nest in your heart,
your skills and equipment improving with every step you take. Yet death is
always near, waiting for you to make a mistake, so that it may claim you time and
time again.
For the land of Lordran is inhabited only by the undead and
the undead never truly die, they just take another step towards becoming one of
the hollowed.
For this is your fate!
Now don’t get scared by all this talk about a grim world
that is out to kill you (and does a very good job at it), this game deals
fairly for most of the dangers out there (die in a fire Anor Londo). Yes they
will knock you on your butt a fair number of times, but there are usually
warning signs that clue you in on whats ahead. The muttering of a chant might
mean a spellcaster is ahead, an area rich in lava may suggest that the foes in
this area are resistant to fire damage.
And there are areas in the game that are havens from the
monsters, bonfires can be found in every area, which act as a stop off point
for you to level up, become human and restock spells and your Estus flask. But
doing so means that all the foes that you killed in the area will respawn, which
creates a dilemma, where you can rest but the foes you just defeated will
spring back, but neither do you have enough swigs left of your Estus flask to
see you to the boss, and this is very important. You’re staying power depends
on how many swigs are left in your Estus flask, as it’s the main way you heal
yourself from the wounds you suffer from.
But the bonfire isn’t just a place of rest oh no, you can
level up here by spending souls acquired from enemies and items. Plus you can
spend a point of humanity to become human, allowing you to summon other players
for help, with the added benefit that you will no longer look like the burnt
burgers your dad makes with the BBQ.
And you will want to spend these resources because at any
time you can lose them, that’s right every time you die you will lose all your
souls and all your humanity. But don’t worry you do have a chance to get it
back, a glowing bloodstain containing all you lost will be where you died,
retrieve it and all that you lost will be yours again, die once more however
and it will be forever lost.
Now just because you are on your own, doesn’t mean you can’t
get help, throughout the world you will find countless glowing sigils on the
ground. These sigils contain messages about the world around you, some may warn
you of traps, others about an enemy’s weakness or maybe to tell you to jump off
a cliff, real comedians they are.
But you’re not going to get far without putting steel to
these creatures, which thankfully is fairly simple and is similar to many other
action games; you can block and parry attacks with your shields, and then
strike your enemy with normal and strong attacks, you also have a roll to dodge
attacks and a kick to break blocks. Simple enough, except there are so many
different weapon types, that have their own move sets, which change when you dual
hand a weapon, some of which have their own unique move sets, so you’ll want to
browse the selection and pick something you’re comfortable with, before going
“this is my sword, there are many like it, but this one is mine”.
But swords, axes and spears are not the only things you have
to push back the darkness, you also have various flavours of magic, blueberry
Sorcery that uses the power of your soul, strawberry Pyromancy which obviously
sets things on fire, along with vanilla Miracles that heal you and your friends,
while you throw bolts of lightning at your foes.
Praise the Sun!
Magic like your Estus flasks have limited uses, once used up
you’re not getting them back till your next bonfire visit, but fear not you can
attune multiple spells of the same type, upping the number of times you can
cast while sacrificing the slot which could hold a different spell.
Unfortunately magic of all types is the side dish of Dark
Souls combat menu, it requires a lot of stats to be effective and give you
enough spell slots, nor do the enemies politely stand still while you cast, so
you won’t want to hang up your sword for good. But it can be very powerful with
the right equipment and stats, and if you have buddies that can keep your target
occupied, it gives you the chance to fire off devastating spells while your friends
stab him in the kidneys, magic is still good even if you’re not with friends, it’s
just a bit more difficult to pull off than a dagger in the jugular.
There’s also archery, but it’s pretty rubbish, you get both
bows and crossbows but in order to use them you have to stand still, not so
good when you have a horde of undead out to use your liver as a hat. At best it
can be used to get a hit in at long range, maybe even making a few more hits as
your target closes in, but there are so few opportunities, bar from a few that
pop up in the game which doesn’t really make archery all that useful.
So you have all these weapons and spells at your disposal to
fight the undead and the demons, but sometimes you will stalked by something
far more dangerous, you will indeed be hunted by the greatest monster to plague
Lordran, that monster is your fellow man.
Yep you read this right, sometimes when running around the
game you will be invaded by another player. This Darkwraith wants to see your
blood pool upon the floor, all so he can steal your precious humanity. But you’re
not alone in the fight for you can also summon your fellow players, whom arrive
as white phantoms.
These friendly Phantoms will act as silent guardians, admittedly
they have a habit of flipping the shield at you, but they are your guardians
none the less. These guys will help you get through a difficult area and defeat
the boss, which will net them some souls and shiny humanity for their troubles.
After which you can do the same for your fellow players, or you can be a
Darkwraith and stab them in the back, I guess it depends on how much you like
your fellow players.
Now I love this game, I’ve
completed it over 6 times, got to NG+ 4, all achievements unlocked and I’ve
seen and put to the sword everything this game can throw at me, but there are
some big problems, mainly to do with accessibility.
But before I move on I’d like to just like to talk about
what accessibility really is, it doesn’t for instance, mean that the game is
pathetically easy like many people think, instead it means that a new player
can pick up the controller, and in the first hour understand all the basic
mechanics. This gives players the pat on the back they need to be enthused to
play the game, otherwise people just throw down the controller and play
something else. Of course once all that is out the way, the game can crank the
difficulty up to 11 if it wishes to,
So why am I talking about accessibility so much? It’s pretty
much because this game isn’t in any way accessible, yes the first area acts
like a tutorial, but it doesn’t do a great job of explaining how the multiplayer
works, or how your stats effect your character and weapons, nor some of the
different moves you can do like a jumping attack or a kick to break a block. I
could honestly go on for quite a while with all the stuff that isn’t explained
in the game, but I’ll just talk about a few important ones.
Starting with the multiplayer issues bar from telling you
that “hey use the white soapstone to be summoned by other players”, it doesn’t
bother telling you anything else. It’s not like the fact that you can’t heal
yourself with Estus as a summon, and can only be healed when the host chugs an
Estus flask isn’t important right? Nope it’s pretty much the biggest thing that
a player needs to know, especially when you’re invading someone, because the
same rules apply to invaders.
Nor does it tell you about the level range, which means that
depending on your level you can summon and be invaded by players of certain
level range. So if you’re trying to be summoned to help people fight a boss (or
join a friend for co-op), or invade people in a certain area. Then you have to
make sure that you’ve kept your level in the right range, otherwise you will be
wasting your time waiting to be summoned or invade.
The next problem is that the game doesn’t present the info
about how your stats works, the most you get is when you go to your stats
screen, hit select and see a basic description of what the stat does. It certainly
doesn’t say that there is a cut-off point for putting points into a stat, nor
the fact that weapons improve depending on which stat bonuses are applied to it
and such.
This sucks for newbies because it gives this game a steep
learning curve, which just frustrates people when they start playing. It’s why
you get so many people gasping when you say “I beat Dark Souls”, because for
them the first hour is so frustratingly hard for them to get to grip with the
game that they just give up. Which is such a shame because this game is so good
once you get past that initial hurdle, it will just suck you in and not let go
until you look at the clock and realise that its 4am and you’ve been playing
for 12 hours.
Am I recommending
this game? Oh hell yes, there is nothing out there that is quite like Dark
Souls (bar Demons Souls obviously), nothing that gives you that bleak
atmosphere, the weird shallow yet deep story and insanely deep gameplay. I have
put in hundreds upon hundreds of hours into Dark Souls, yet I feel that
everyone one of those hours has been well spent.
One thing you should keep in mind is that this game is best
played blind, so no wikies, no gamefaqs, no guides no nothing. This game plays
best when you don’t know what’s around the next corner, the best way to level
your character, enemy locations and moves. So when you go NOPE and run in the
opposite direction after seeing the glowing eyes of a skeleton dog, only to
walk right into another you will know you just got DARK SOUL’ED.
Now I believe a game should be reviewed on its merits, not
on what the paid extras you can bolt onto can do for the game, but for Dark
Souls I honestly recommend you buy the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. This add on gives
you 3 new areas to explore, with bosses that will throw you out of your
established comfort zone, along with various bits of equipment and spells for
you to use, with spells being the most important additions. The spells in the
expansion a god send for those that prefer to use magic over blades or fire, as
it gives you a much needed extra punch and makes the PvP aspect less of a
struggle.
Is it good value for money, weeeeell not exactly, for the
£10 you spend you don’t get as much as I would like, bar from the fact that the
bosses will slap you about like the silly fish you are, you will get through
the environments fairly quickly. And because it’s a magic focused area, there
isn’t a lot of equipment that will entice players that prefer the sword, than throwing
fireballs.
But if you are someone who is deeply entrenched in the lore,
then the DLC will give you bucket loads for you to sort through. You will find
out what happened to some of the big names in the world. You also get some
history on some of the more mysterious locales in the world. But for me I like
it because it’s more Dark Souls!
One last thing I need to do is to give a heads up for people
that are getting a copy on the PC, is that you should instead buy it on one of
the consoles. The online community for the PC version is rife with hackers, to
the point where the online mode is unplayable. There are also some reports where
some players will use hacks that will attack their opponents PC, from what I
know only Dark Soul save files have been target.
But honestly it’s better to stay away just in case, its
sadly due to the peer to peer networking that the game uses, which from the
sounds of things is harder to keep an eye on. From Software do know about this
and have decided that in Dark Souls 2 players will connect to a server, which will
be a lot more secure and less lag for online play.
I should know I got into the playtest, spoilers it was
awesome! So go and buy Dark Souls 2 as well, because no doubt it will have been
released by the time this review is uploaded.
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