Still the best souls game overall. The atmosphere and thematic completeness of the setting, the slow and strategic combat, the varied and interconnected areas, and the restriction of fast travel makes this easily the best game I've ever played at immersing you into the feeling of being on a journey through a dangerous world.

The criticism that Dark Souls has a "bad second half" is incredibly exaggerated and has its root in the misguided ideas that gimmick = bad and the game is all about hard combat. There is one undeniably bad section, but one or two bad hours in a 40ish hour game (for a first playthrough) is hardly enough to make this not a masterpiece.