Demon’s Souls will, unfortunately, reside in the shadow of Dark Souls for many people, including myself. It’s unfortunate as it’s a very innovative, creative game which sadly due to its follow up’s success and refinement of many features explored in Demon’s Souls, makes it hard to view Demon’s Souls on its own merits. Dark Souls is one of my favourite games, and Demon’s Souls is the second From Software game that I’ve played outside of half-hearted attempts at friends’ houses, and I feel like it’s only fair if I establish this context so that if you read this you’ll understand where I’m coming from.
There is a lot I like about this game. The combat is flashy, fun, the stamina comes back mercifully quickly, and while I still hadn’t quite got used to the delay on dodges when this game allows for it you can be pretty damn agile, which makes it really fun. Many of the enemies are very enjoyable to fight, such as the red eyed knights or the guards in 3-1, and the environments have a real beauty to them, from the Valley of Defilement’s grotesque, decaying wasteland to the haunting majesty of Latria. World Tendency, as neutered as it is with the absence of multiplayer, is a very cool concept and it feels really interesting to see it work. When I accidentally lowered the Boletarian Palace’s world tendency by killing an NPC and only realised afterwards what I had done, I felt both dread and excitement at how a simple mistake had made the game that much harder for me. With multiplayer no longer working I sadly felt like I couldn’t really explore world tendency’s full potential, but it’s a really interesting idea I’d like to see more games try, albeit with better explanation to the player.
Many consider Demon’s Souls the easiest game in the series due to the power of magic and how easy it is to cheese many of the enemies. I went with a dex build, as that’s the playstyle I enjoy the most from these games, and overall found the game to be pretty hard, but rarely excruciatingly so. If I were to compare the game with Dark Souls, the bosses tended to be easier while the levels were generally at least as hard if not more so. Every enemy had a weakness I could exploit, or could be avoided entirely, so very little of the game ever feels truly unbeatable. Most levels are gauntlets of varying difficulties, with 1-1 training you in the basics of the game, to 4-2 testing the player’s perception, reaction time and skills like few games I’ve played. One downside to the levels being this hard, along with a lack of shortcuts for many levels (looking at you 5-1) mean that, by the time the player reaches the boss, they’re exhausted and unwilling to be creative with their approach (unless of course, unlike me, they’re actually good at the game).
Granted, few bosses in this game are really that hard, I took down nearly half of them on my first try, but I think it speaks to how hard the game is (and how long the levels actually are) that I felt it necessary to play many boss fights as safely as I could. I’m very split on how it feels, on the one hand I hated having to push myself through gauntlets over and over to reach a boss that killed me because of one mistake or a slightly mistimed roll. Dark Souls had its long rushes to bosses but comparatively most runs were easier and/or shorter than most here. On the other hand it helps give the boss fights a real sense of tension, and made them more satisfying to overcome. So ultimately, I’m very torn on the relationship between the levels and bosses. I’ll say I definitely felt a sense of dread and excitement for most of my 17 hour playthrough, the sickening feeling in your stomach that challenging games can make super, super addicting, but it was released with whoops of joy as often as screams of frustration. Is this a good thing? Probably.
I must admit that I found the story to be serviceable, but nothing that really stood out to me. Very few characters were particularly memorable (unfortunately some were very clearly inspirations for certain NPCs in Dark Souls, most of whom handled the caricatures explored better) with the exception of Patches, who’s amazing as always. I know these games are rarely clear with their lore but I kinda wish there was some more insight given for the pros and cons of fighting for each side. That said the story fits well with the game, and there are some great narrative moments helping sell the desolate world of Boletaria.
I don’t own a PS5, so can’t comment on whether this version or that one is the superior game. What I will say is that this is a janky, messy, inconsistent experience held up by some great combat, a cool aesthetic and the addictive rush of adrenaline after overcoming the game’s many challenges. It feels like a disservice to this game to play Dark Souls first, so if you’ve never played a From Software title but want to get your teeth into this challenging series, it might be best to experience this title first simply so you don’t run into the issue I did where I compared everything with its follow up.

This epytomises everything great and terrible about mid 90s FPS's. Downright confusing level design means that, without a walkthrough, you'll be hard pressed to work out how to go from A to B for a lot of this game. Thanks to the design philospohy of each level being a hub world with interconnected levels, it can be very daunting upon first picking this up to guage what you're doing.

That said, there's a phenomenal game in here. I only played as the cleric, and will hopefully try out the other classes another time, but my experience gave me some of the best shooting of the 90s, with great weapons, fun enemies (minus those centaurs) and a gorgeous art style. This is likely the greatest the un-modded Doom engine could look, with fog and particle effects creating a great sense of atmosphere, and the animations and sprites look fantastic. Overall, if you're willing to put up with convoluted level design I'd very much reccomend this to fans of boomer shooters.

This is a really cute and charming game. Its also a frustrating and tedious mess. For every hour of loveable charm this game offers there is another of monotony, with the odd helping of bullshit permeating it. I’d say the charm is worth the frustration, but this is as much a test of patience as skill. I played it on easy mode and I'd still consider it one of the more challenging games I've played. Throughout most of the game one on one enemy encounters feel like a coin toss more than a fair fight. The average fight goes like this:
Does my bullet miss? Ok what move are they doing? Right I'm dead.
Everything kills you quickly in this game, but thankfully virtually everything can be killed in a matter of seconds. This is a great way of making the gameworld feel dangerous while at the same time realistic. You really feel like every enemy has set stats and inventory uses like yourself, which further immerses the player in Brigand’s lo-fi, old school aesthetic.
If unpredictable and arguably unfair combat will stop you from playing this, there’s no shame. It’s hard to recommend this, especially considering that I had to message the developer to fix bugs during my playthrough. That said there’s a lot of freedom of choice considering the small ensemble of cast members and factions, a lot of different builds to play around with, the loveable characters one dimensional to the point of parody, the dated visuals cohesive in their incohesiveness. And the soundtrack is full of songs straight out of Machinimas from the early 2010s. Fans of Deus Ex, System Shock, E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and the early Fallout titles will find something to love here.
If you’re reading this Brian, thanks you, this is a game I won’t soon forget.

Sacrificing it's predessessor's "realistic but epic" feel in return for a totally ridiculous plot was an excellent decision, at least in my opinion. The campaign improves on every aspect, the characters are more memorable, the levels more interestingly designed, the enemies less annoying while not being a total cakewalk. The combat is far more agile and exciting, the guns are overall much more consistently fun to experiment with, and while this is kinda just a "dumb military shooter" it strips the foundations that its predessesor laid to radically improve the formula.

"No Russian" is polarising for good reason, you feel awful during this level regardless of whether you pull the trigger, its a massive contrast with the goofy b-movie tone of the rest of the game but its an excellent exploration of Makarov's character. Its not the peak of videogame storytelling but it gets the job done. Meanwhile "Cliffhanger" or "The Only Easy Way..." feel straight out of a 60s Bond movie, they're fun, fast and while not shy from being corny help sell the over the top world of MW2. The missions in America are definitely the weakest, but they serve their purpose, and felt much less like accidental glorification than the middle east missions in MW1.

Overall this delivers as a genuinely fun, varied and creative military shooter, and while I'm very aware of its flaws I can look past them to acknowlege this is just a damn good time. Even if its only about 4-5 hours long.

The divide in quality between nearly all of the rest of the game and this is astronomical. I took off a point for horsefuck valley, but this DLC is dominated by the best area and two best bosses in the game. It looks gorgeous, every enemy is designed to be a genuine challenge while rarely annoying, the sprawling main level is one of the best designed in the series, and this is overall just some excellent content capped off with a phenomenal final battle. My only critique of the main campaign is that this is in Dark Souls II.

I haven't beaten it, and I might come back to it, but 11 hours in and it just feels like a deliberately taxing experience, putting annoyance over both challenge and entertainment. The art style is kinda eh and makes everything blend together, and most of the bosses are super forgetable (tree of men is kinda cool in all fairness). Hitboxes and telegraphs are horrifically underdeveloped at times with many encounters feeling like dicerolls in a game that shouldn't be based on luck. It's a shame because it is an ambitious game with some solid core mechanics, I just don't think it was designed with fun in mind. I may come back to give this another chance.