Very very good. For lack of a better word, this game has a lot more soul in it than I expected. When I first attempted to play this game on my Xbox, I was immediately turned off by the high difficulty and sprawling Firelink hub. I ignored the fact that the enemies I fought in the prologue were leading me to the place I needed to go, and the ones I chose to face near the Catacombs kept respawning and dropping very few souls. Looking back on it, I can now recognize this as one of the many examples of Dark Soul's subtly powerful game design. Enemy placement, difficulty, and even some of the platforming sections undoubtedly exist to challenge, but they are not in the game for the sake of difficulty and beating the player down. This is further strengthened through the clever linearity of the many zones and their shortcuts, as well as intertwining with the game's core mechanics of trial and error as well as perseverance.
Giving humanity a desirable and useful physical form is goofy, but works incredibly well within the context of the world and gameplay. This allows for many comments on humanity and the human condition throughout this game, whether it be from slaying insane versions of characters once thought of to be great or saving several imperfect but well-meaning and determined characters such as Siegmeyer and Solaire. Even the less optimistic characters such as Patches and the Crestfallen Warrior have their own unique views on how to live life, often as a ways of dissuading defeat and nihilism. Some of these guys' questlines are shrouded in a mystery that I'm not sure I would've been able to crack on my own, but even still I enjoyed interacting with them any chance I got and didn't mind relying on help to assist them.
These two aspects, the clever game design and thematic exploration, turns this into one of the most uplifting games I've ever played. Of course the atmosphere is grim and the bosses are either tragic or grotesque, but the game doesn't feel the need to stomp these aspects into dust. A focus on exploration, personal betterment, and perseverance in the face of great difficulty is much more prevalent and refined than any of the negative aspects of this game. My favorite parts of this game have to be the online interactions between other players though. Seeing other people's phantoms running around and completing the same trials as you, leaving messages, and even showing you what NOT to do in the form of deaths feels comforting and uplifting in a world full of oppression. Backtracking through multiple areas in order to grind for some souls and advance the game and being serenaded with the victory bells of other players is not short of incredibly inspiring (and dare I say... strandlike?). A game truly full of despair and contempt for it's players would definitely not allow for so much heart and souls to be gained from this aspect if it did not wish to. I'm really glad the reputation this game has garnered in its 10 years of internet cult fame is more a surface level interpretation of difficulty more than anything else. Of course the game is difficult. You know this, I know this, the game knows this. But how difficulty is explored and treated as a surmountable achievement through the eyes of NPCs, bosses, and other players, this game is elevated to a status of true meaningful interaction with little filler and many aspects to admire and truly take a look at from another angle.
Besides a few uninspiring bosses, platforming sections, and a few glitches and moments of "...yeah OK game" this definitely stands among the finest video games ever made. I had an absolute blast playing this with two of my friends, and I look forward to eventually getting the platinum trophy in my subsequent NG+ runs.
I think it's also worth nothing that I accidentally closed this review without it saving multiple times, forcing me to restart, and the thing that killed me the most in the game was the wooden Blighttown elevator. Take this review with a grain of salt. Welcome to Dark Souls.
Giving humanity a desirable and useful physical form is goofy, but works incredibly well within the context of the world and gameplay. This allows for many comments on humanity and the human condition throughout this game, whether it be from slaying insane versions of characters once thought of to be great or saving several imperfect but well-meaning and determined characters such as Siegmeyer and Solaire. Even the less optimistic characters such as Patches and the Crestfallen Warrior have their own unique views on how to live life, often as a ways of dissuading defeat and nihilism. Some of these guys' questlines are shrouded in a mystery that I'm not sure I would've been able to crack on my own, but even still I enjoyed interacting with them any chance I got and didn't mind relying on help to assist them.
These two aspects, the clever game design and thematic exploration, turns this into one of the most uplifting games I've ever played. Of course the atmosphere is grim and the bosses are either tragic or grotesque, but the game doesn't feel the need to stomp these aspects into dust. A focus on exploration, personal betterment, and perseverance in the face of great difficulty is much more prevalent and refined than any of the negative aspects of this game. My favorite parts of this game have to be the online interactions between other players though. Seeing other people's phantoms running around and completing the same trials as you, leaving messages, and even showing you what NOT to do in the form of deaths feels comforting and uplifting in a world full of oppression. Backtracking through multiple areas in order to grind for some souls and advance the game and being serenaded with the victory bells of other players is not short of incredibly inspiring (and dare I say... strandlike?). A game truly full of despair and contempt for it's players would definitely not allow for so much heart and souls to be gained from this aspect if it did not wish to. I'm really glad the reputation this game has garnered in its 10 years of internet cult fame is more a surface level interpretation of difficulty more than anything else. Of course the game is difficult. You know this, I know this, the game knows this. But how difficulty is explored and treated as a surmountable achievement through the eyes of NPCs, bosses, and other players, this game is elevated to a status of true meaningful interaction with little filler and many aspects to admire and truly take a look at from another angle.
Besides a few uninspiring bosses, platforming sections, and a few glitches and moments of "...yeah OK game" this definitely stands among the finest video games ever made. I had an absolute blast playing this with two of my friends, and I look forward to eventually getting the platinum trophy in my subsequent NG+ runs.
I think it's also worth nothing that I accidentally closed this review without it saving multiple times, forcing me to restart, and the thing that killed me the most in the game was the wooden Blighttown elevator. Take this review with a grain of salt. Welcome to Dark Souls.