Dark Souls is my favourite game of all time. There is no other game (or other piece of art) I talk about as much and as profusely as Dark Souls. I've annoyed my friends with how good this game is for years. Despite that, I've kinda dreaded writing this review.

Is there another game in history as much talked and ruminated about in the modern era as Dark Souls? What can you even say about a game this massively influential and polarising? I feel like even that this very phrase itself has become cliché in the discourse surrounding it.

Instead of regurgitating that which more knowledgeable and eloquent critics than I have already talked about at length, I'll simply just talk about what I love (and don't love) about the game and I explain how learning to love it wasn't all that easy at first.

I love the world of Lordran. I love its intricacies, its characters, its lore and its structure.

The world of Lordran is beautiful and bleak. It is horrifying and reassuring. From the top of the highest mountain, where the very gods reside, to the fiery chasm of the underworld, all areas of this world are connected with each other, making the world seem almost like a colossal anthill. This gives Dark Souls its distinctive "3rd Person Metroidvania" feeling. And as per usual with that genre of games, this world is filled with secrets that only those with the keenest of eyes will spot.

Lordran is mired in histories long forgotten, lost to the inhabitants of today. In this land, humans are victims of a past they'll never fully understand, as as such, are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Like a cancer, the Undead Curse seeps into the very being of unfortunate souls, each death stripping them from a bit of their humanity, hollowing them out from the inside until nothing but a witless husk remains. They are doomed to keep reviving at the various Bonfires speckled throughout the lands, which explains their function as checkpoints for the player character in a diegetic manner. This is only one of many examples of FromSoft constructing a deeply immersive and authentic experience through their skilful interweaving of world building and gameplay, not only in this game, but their entire Soulsborne catalogue.

Despite a world so gruel and punishing, so obscure and indifferent, the various NPCs you encounter are very much the opposite. Be they good or evil, charmers or intimidating, friend or foe alike; they are unabashedly human. They laugh, they cry, they want and they yearn. Some will attempt to kill you for your humanity, while others will assist you on your travels just out of the goodness of their heart.

I love the atmosphere, so thick that you could slice it with a knife.

The soft, cloudy lighting of Firelink Shrine, the piercing fiery reds of Izalith, the noxious green of Blighttown... the sheer grandeur of Anor Londo in the false evening sun, the reverential and deeply mystical Ash Lake, the sheer terror of the pitch black Tomb of the Giants... each part of Lordran has its own character.

I love how uncompromisingly melancholic and depressing this game is. Where other fantasy games will usually try and instil a sense of heroism in the player, Dark Souls consistently asks the player what it even is they're fighting for. Do they even know? Are they even the hero in this story?

Dark Souls masterfully subverts Campbell's archetype of the Hero's Journey in almost every aspect. You are NOT the chosen one. You are NOT someone special. There are many just like you, and they all failed. What makes you different?

I love the incredibly mystical and byzantine lore. This game's lore and world building are perhaps my favourite in all of fiction. Miyazaki and his team evidently drew from a lot of existing mythology and real life history, as well as many other inspirations, most notoriously among them, the late Kentaro Miura's Berserk. It is masterfully crafted, and the proof can be found in various forums, Reddit threads and YouTube videos, still speculating about the minutiae of the most obscure lore references almost a decade after the game first released.

I love the story of Gwyn, Izalith and Nito, of the Ancient Dragons and the Furtive Pygmy. I love the tale of Artorias and his tragic battle against the Abyss itself. I love the occult hushes and whispers spoken about the plots of Velka, the Goddess of Sin. None of these characters ever speak a word to the protagonist, and yet are more memorable to me than any character in any AAA game with 3 hours worth of dialogue.

I love the fittingly brutal and punishing gameplay. I love the slow and deliberate combat. Every decision is a micro puzzle, a question of "do you really want to do this?". Mistakes are brutally punished, but they make you learn. You get into the flow of the slow and steady dance of dodging enemy attacks and punishing them for not being able to kill you. When I first played these games, I had never felt anything nearly as exhilarating as killing a boss in them.

Apropos bosses; Dark Souls (as in DS1), may not have the best bosses in the Souls series but it sure as hell has some of the best and most memorable bosses in all of gaming regardless. Ornstein and Smough, Manus, Artorias, Kalameet, Quelaag, Gwyn, the Iron Golem, the Gaping Dragon.. those are just a few from the immensely creative and fantastically designed boss roster.

And that's kind of the whole beauty of it too; the combat system itself isn't anything amazing, it's very simple. It's the fantastic variety in enemy design and the absolutely incredible levels these encounters even take place in.

Dark Souls has some of the best levels in video game history.
From the impeccably designed pseudo-tutorial area the Undead Burg, to the murky Darkroot Garden, the delightfully devilish Sen's Fortress, the cold and scary but also beautiful Painted World of Ariamis, the awe inspiring Anor Londo, the terrifying gutters of Blighttown, etc. all of these levels feature fantastic and challenging encounters and are unbelievably well designed. As mentioned, the game lifts a lot of techniques from the Metroidvania genre, utilising one-way locked doors, elevators, kick-down ladders etc. to get you back to the checkpoint, and letting you skip huge sections of any map as a reward for making it this far and staying perceptive.

All of this is to say that I think that Dark Souls is an ALMOST perfect game. Why almost? Well, for the same reason that I ended up giving this game 4,5/5 instead of 5/5. The reason for that is Dark Souls notorious and often maligned second half.

While I personally always found the criticisms towards that second half to be quite overblown and disproportionate, I can't deny that it drags the whole game down a bit because of it.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the entire second half of Dark Souls is outright bad, but the levels and bosses post-Anor Londo definitely drop in quality quite a bit in certain places.

It's not as bad in the Duke's Archives and in New Londo. The Duke's Archives are essentially an extension of the Anor Londo map, and as such is designed relatively similar in terms of progression and navigation. I would argue that the actual level design of the place is quite good even! It's the absolute load of very strong and annoying enemies that tend to frustrate a lot of people, myself included. The boss, Seath the Scaleless, is a huge letdown compared to how much he was hyped up in the lore, but somehow not even the worst offender in that regard. He just ends up being disappointingly easy.

New Londo is actually really cool and I never understood the unfortunate amount of hate it received. The (seemingly) invincible ghosts are pretty menacing and a rather frightening sight but can be dealt with quite easily if you know how. The level itself is intensely creepy and dark, and features a harrowing story of the city having been flooded with all the people still in it, by the healers who found themselves forced to do so to contain the terrible evil that had arisen within the depths of the town; the boss of this level, the Four Kings, corrupted by the Abyss. Easily my favourite fight out of the Lord Souls.

I can definitely understand the grievances with Dark Souls' second half a lot more with areas like the unfinished pits of the Demon Ruins and the city of Lost Izalith, the annoying and trollish Tomb of the Giants and the bullshit, broken level geometry of the Crystal Cave.

Tomb of the Giants is easily explained; the place is literally so dark you can't see shit. There are exactly 2 items that can help alleviate the darkness, and one of them is locked in another late game area. What makes this area unforgivable is that this is also the area with the most narrow walkways, the most confusing layout AND the enemies with the highest potential of knocking your ass right off the next cliff. You also can't really see them coming. Neat.

The Crystal Cave looks amazing but clearly hasn't been playtested very much, as numerous sections of the floor are simply broken and will lead to a lot of deaths where you were walking along a crystal beam and suddenly slip off the side without warning. And that's just the VISIBLE ones. There are also invisible walkways, which are just as broken. Also there isn't a single bonfire in the whole area.

Lost Izalith and the Demon Ruins aren't AS bad as the other two, and they even look pretty cool, but are clearly (and afaik even confirmed by the devs to be) unfinished. If the horde of copypasted early game bosses and lack of everything else wasn't indication enough, the fact that the second level consists to 90% of literally only running across a lava lake definitely should be. The sad thing is, this general area features the worst bosses in the whole game, with one of them - the Bed of Chaos - being widely considered to be one of the worst video game bosses of all time. Rightly so, I might add.

But as I mentioned, as a whole these flaws don't weigh heavily enough upon the game to say that the "entire second half is bad" or anything to that effect - especially since the Remastered version comes with the DLC pre-installed.

The DLC truly elevates the entire experience back to the realm of masterpiece.

It introduces 3 new levels and 4 new bosses, all of which range from ok at worst to amazing at its best! Moreover, it actually expands upon the story of Artorias the Abysswalker, of whom we've caught glimpses and whispers of other NPCs but have never seen in the main game, we just meet his wolf, Sif. We only know that he defeated the Darkwraiths of New Londo, and saved the ancient city of Oolacile from the Abyss.

The player is transported back in time after saving Princess Dusk from the inside of a golden golem and finding a mysterious pendant in the Duke's Archives. Upon arriving, and slaying the Sanctuary Guardian in our way, we meet up with a talking mushroom and gradually uncover that the tale of Artorias defeating the Abyss in Oolacile was nothing a fabrication.

Artorias, driven mad by grief and the powers of the Abyss, knows not friend from foe and will attack any living thing near him. After defeating him, in what is likely the best boss fight in this game, we begin to understand that WE are the ones to put an end to the Abyss. And such, we descend down the city of Oolacile, all the way down its pitch black dungeon to confront the host of the Abyss - Manus. He is easily the hardest boss in the entire game, and doubles as the true final fight.

That is, other than the secret boss of the DLC, Black Dragon Kalameet. Though appearing as literally undefeatable at first, with the help of an unlikely friend you manage to pin the beast to the ground and engage in a thrilling fight with him.

After finishing the DLC, there is only one more thing to do: To go toe to toe with the man who started this whole mess: Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight - now the Lord of Cinder. The soundtrack is not bombastic, not loud and terrifying like the others in the game; it is sombre, calm and melancholic.

What is it you're really fighting for? Did you ever find an answer? Or will you end up like him; standing watch at the fire for millennia, until another one as strong as you arrives to link the flame in your stead?

...

I can't believe how close I once was to writing this game off as toxic bullshit. When I first played it in early 2019, I got stuck on Taurus Demon in the first level, and got so frustrated at the run back to it that I simply gave up. I told myself "this isn't fun" and dropped it for a good 6 months.

I still don't know what exactly compelled me to go back and give it a try. Maybe it was a random VaatiVidya lore video I got recommended that revived my interest. Maybe it was the many, many people praising it as one of the best ever that got me thinking I might have missed something. But something in this game called to me and drew me into its spell.

If you were like me, and you bounced off Dark Souls because you found it too frustrating, too demanding or too cryptic; I hope I could show you that most of us felt this way at first, and that it's likely part of the intended experience.

People don't grow without frustration, and people don't learn without making mistakes.

I hope that you can find it in yourself to give this game another chance; you deserve it.

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Wow, so this ended up WAY longer than I anticipated. If you actually read this entire ass thing, thank you so much, I write this stuff because of people like you.

I think I still give the edge to Elden Ring (for various reasons, but admittedly it was my first FromSoft game) but even with Dark Souls being a far older and somewhat less refined game, it’s impressive how much of that core DNA was already present here.

It’s an astoundingly comprehensive work of art, so it’s no surprise that the intricate and purposeful design of Dark Souls has resonated with audiences for so long (not to mention that it has and will continue to influence countless games).

It’s a masterpiece. If only I had listened to everyone on Earth and played through it sooner.