Dark Souls Review (PS3)
The success of Demon's Souls was an unexpected but not unwelcome surprise for hardcore RPG fans such as myself. It was rumored to be one of the most difficult games to ever be made, and in some ways it was. With challenging enemies, an expansive world to explore, and a great deal of character customization, this was arguably one of the best RPG, or even best, games of the year. It is no surprise then, that Demon's Souls would yield a spiritual successor... Dark Souls. But does this new game stack up to its predecessor?
Dark Souls is set in a fantastic and dangerous world, with the protagonist beginning his/her (the PC can pick their gender) adventure in a prison cell of the Undead Asylum. For those of you who are familiar with Demon's Souls, the "starting area" is a place in which there are messages that explain the game controls and mechanics and gives you a taste of what to expect for the rest of the game (i.e., a tutorial level). There is no real difference here, with the boss of this intro level (Asylum Demon) playing the exact same role as Vanguard in the Demon's Souls intro level. In fact, these bosses are so similar in appearance and fighting style that one could say this Dark Souls boss is a rehashing of the Demon's Souls one. This is a problem that is pervasive in the game, and which we will discuss later.
The first difference I noticed upon starting Dark Souls was that my player character (PC) was undead, a rather unattractive version of the decent-looking character I had made in character creation. This was "hollow form", which is like spirit form in Demon's Souls, except you took no penalty to your health and thus there was no reason not to stay in hollow form except if you wanted people to help you (cannot summon phantoms - other PCs - in hollow form). Whereas the health penalty in Demon's Souls made it so one would prefer to be in human form during a level, in Dark Souls being in hollow form prevented black phantoms from invading my game and since there was no health penalty I spent most of the game in hollow form. It did not help that humanity (currency which one could spend to become human again) was scarce to begin with (its primary acquisition is farming it from rats in the Depths), or that, upon dying, you would lose all of it along with your souls... assuming you could not get back to your corpse without dying, that is. I'm not complaining about the difficulty, but rather that it would have behooved the developers to bestow a penalty on "hollow form" so that there would be more people in human form, which would in turn ensure more people could phantom (whether blue or black) into other players' games. As it is, there are great difficulties surrounding this familiar concept.
Not only are there significant amounts of players in hollow form, and thus fewer worlds to phantom into, but the servers are split into multiple ones, rather than on one central server. This was a slap in the face to fans of the series, as in Demon's Souls there was a central server and thus every player could interact with each other. Now it meant that players who were on different servers could never see the messages or summon signs left by players on other servers. This great division of players ensured that the multiplayer aspect of the game was trivial and broken and that many of the impressive additions such as the Gravelord summons were essentially nonexistent. The hollow form debacle was bad enough, but to dilute the players down like this was even worse for those who wanted a greater PvP interaction. In the time I played in human form (hours for levels I needed help with), I was only invaded by one black phantom. Also, the server that the player is sent to is randomized upon signing into the game's network, so if you had friends you wanted to play with it was too bad for you, as they could be - and usually were - put on a different server.
Now, that is not to say that this shoddy multiplayer implementation was a deal-breaker, however. Dark Souls is certainly a good game, it just doesn't quite hold up to the quality of its predecessor. Now that I've gotten my main complaints out of the way, I'd like to talk about what does work. For starters, the graphics are even more detailed than Demon's Souls, something which I did not expect to happen considering the brief period of time between the two games. When you add this factor to the fluid combat techniques that we loved about the first game, you get a pretty impressive visual experience. For the most part melee and ranged combat (i.e., bows and crossbows) is the same, but this really emphasizes the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The magic/miracles system in Dark Souls has been slightly changed, however, with miracles similar to those in Demon's Souls but magic being split into both magic and fire spells, both of which require their specific catalysts in order to cast them. This certainly has improved the customization options for the PC, and would have made PvP much more interesting had it not been destroyed by the developers.
Another thing that I found refreshing was the new open-world environment that Dark Souls had implemented, which is in stark contrast to Demon's Souls, in which the PC would instantly travel to different worlds from warp stones (the only exception in Dark Souls being the Painted World of Ariamis, in which you, in fact, warp to). Saving progress and leveling up now takes place at various landmarks around this open-ended world, in the form of bonfires. This is essentially the replacement of Demon's Souls's Maiden in Black. I personally find this system to be more challenging for players and thus more desirable, as this is certainly not a game that should cater to noobs. And it really doesn't, with challenging enemies and boss fights throughout the entire game. There are unofficial difficulty levels for each section of this expansive world, but each section can, for the most part, be completed in any order. To complete any specific section in Dark Souls, you need to kill the boss of said section (just like in Demon's Souls). These bosses, while challenging and artistically creative, are, for the most part, essentially copies of those in Demon's Souls. The Asylum Demon = Vanguard, the Belfry Gargoyles = Maneater, Dark Sun Gwyndolin = Fool's Idol, the Moonlight Butterfly = Fool's Idol, Pinwheel = Fool's Idol, The Bed of Chaos = the Dragon God (and it's core = King Allant), and Gwyn Lord of Cinder = The Old King Allant. As one can see, there are many reproductions of the Demon's Souls bosses, but to be fair there are also some great and innovative bosses such as Chaos Witch Quelaag, Crossbreed Priscilla, Great Gray Wolf Sif, The Four Kings, and Ceaseless Discharge (terrible name though). Enemies and NPCs are more diverse in Dark Souls, and the latter can even help the PC fight bosses if he/she is in human form. Also, there are NPC black phantoms now as well, who appear to thwart the PC's progress if he/she is human as well.
Another cool implementation was covenants, which are different factions that the PC can join. Each has its own benefits (weapons/armor, spells, etc.), and each serves its own purpose in this game world (i.e., Darkmoon Covenant is a group that seeks retribution against "bad" players). As you rank up in these covenants, you unlock more of the aforementioned benefits, although you can only be a member of one covenant at a time. However, the third rank in the covenants seems unfinished, with the majority of them yielding no extra benefits (unlike the first two). In terms of weapons and armor, the same sort of upgrade paths is available as in Demon's Souls, although the unique weapons aren't really that unique or worth the effort in upgrading them, other than for the trophy.
The bottom line: Ideas such as the aforementioned ensure that Dark Souls isn't merely Demon's Souls 2.0 and that players would see it as the spiritual successor that it is instead of a sequel. Overall, while the multiplayer isn't as fun as in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls holds up to its predecessor in terms of gameplay, graphics, and even story. However, the game doesn't leave me in awe and wonder as the first one did, and I hope to see more innovation in future installments.
Verdict: 7/10
Dark Souls is set in a fantastic and dangerous world, with the protagonist beginning his/her (the PC can pick their gender) adventure in a prison cell of the Undead Asylum. For those of you who are familiar with Demon's Souls, the "starting area" is a place in which there are messages that explain the game controls and mechanics and gives you a taste of what to expect for the rest of the game (i.e., a tutorial level). There is no real difference here, with the boss of this intro level (Asylum Demon) playing the exact same role as Vanguard in the Demon's Souls intro level. In fact, these bosses are so similar in appearance and fighting style that one could say this Dark Souls boss is a rehashing of the Demon's Souls one. This is a problem that is pervasive in the game, and which we will discuss later.
The first difference I noticed upon starting Dark Souls was that my player character (PC) was undead, a rather unattractive version of the decent-looking character I had made in character creation. This was "hollow form", which is like spirit form in Demon's Souls, except you took no penalty to your health and thus there was no reason not to stay in hollow form except if you wanted people to help you (cannot summon phantoms - other PCs - in hollow form). Whereas the health penalty in Demon's Souls made it so one would prefer to be in human form during a level, in Dark Souls being in hollow form prevented black phantoms from invading my game and since there was no health penalty I spent most of the game in hollow form. It did not help that humanity (currency which one could spend to become human again) was scarce to begin with (its primary acquisition is farming it from rats in the Depths), or that, upon dying, you would lose all of it along with your souls... assuming you could not get back to your corpse without dying, that is. I'm not complaining about the difficulty, but rather that it would have behooved the developers to bestow a penalty on "hollow form" so that there would be more people in human form, which would in turn ensure more people could phantom (whether blue or black) into other players' games. As it is, there are great difficulties surrounding this familiar concept.
Not only are there significant amounts of players in hollow form, and thus fewer worlds to phantom into, but the servers are split into multiple ones, rather than on one central server. This was a slap in the face to fans of the series, as in Demon's Souls there was a central server and thus every player could interact with each other. Now it meant that players who were on different servers could never see the messages or summon signs left by players on other servers. This great division of players ensured that the multiplayer aspect of the game was trivial and broken and that many of the impressive additions such as the Gravelord summons were essentially nonexistent. The hollow form debacle was bad enough, but to dilute the players down like this was even worse for those who wanted a greater PvP interaction. In the time I played in human form (hours for levels I needed help with), I was only invaded by one black phantom. Also, the server that the player is sent to is randomized upon signing into the game's network, so if you had friends you wanted to play with it was too bad for you, as they could be - and usually were - put on a different server.
Now, that is not to say that this shoddy multiplayer implementation was a deal-breaker, however. Dark Souls is certainly a good game, it just doesn't quite hold up to the quality of its predecessor. Now that I've gotten my main complaints out of the way, I'd like to talk about what does work. For starters, the graphics are even more detailed than Demon's Souls, something which I did not expect to happen considering the brief period of time between the two games. When you add this factor to the fluid combat techniques that we loved about the first game, you get a pretty impressive visual experience. For the most part melee and ranged combat (i.e., bows and crossbows) is the same, but this really emphasizes the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The magic/miracles system in Dark Souls has been slightly changed, however, with miracles similar to those in Demon's Souls but magic being split into both magic and fire spells, both of which require their specific catalysts in order to cast them. This certainly has improved the customization options for the PC, and would have made PvP much more interesting had it not been destroyed by the developers.
Another thing that I found refreshing was the new open-world environment that Dark Souls had implemented, which is in stark contrast to Demon's Souls, in which the PC would instantly travel to different worlds from warp stones (the only exception in Dark Souls being the Painted World of Ariamis, in which you, in fact, warp to). Saving progress and leveling up now takes place at various landmarks around this open-ended world, in the form of bonfires. This is essentially the replacement of Demon's Souls's Maiden in Black. I personally find this system to be more challenging for players and thus more desirable, as this is certainly not a game that should cater to noobs. And it really doesn't, with challenging enemies and boss fights throughout the entire game. There are unofficial difficulty levels for each section of this expansive world, but each section can, for the most part, be completed in any order. To complete any specific section in Dark Souls, you need to kill the boss of said section (just like in Demon's Souls). These bosses, while challenging and artistically creative, are, for the most part, essentially copies of those in Demon's Souls. The Asylum Demon = Vanguard, the Belfry Gargoyles = Maneater, Dark Sun Gwyndolin = Fool's Idol, the Moonlight Butterfly = Fool's Idol, Pinwheel = Fool's Idol, The Bed of Chaos = the Dragon God (and it's core = King Allant), and Gwyn Lord of Cinder = The Old King Allant. As one can see, there are many reproductions of the Demon's Souls bosses, but to be fair there are also some great and innovative bosses such as Chaos Witch Quelaag, Crossbreed Priscilla, Great Gray Wolf Sif, The Four Kings, and Ceaseless Discharge (terrible name though). Enemies and NPCs are more diverse in Dark Souls, and the latter can even help the PC fight bosses if he/she is in human form. Also, there are NPC black phantoms now as well, who appear to thwart the PC's progress if he/she is human as well.
Another cool implementation was covenants, which are different factions that the PC can join. Each has its own benefits (weapons/armor, spells, etc.), and each serves its own purpose in this game world (i.e., Darkmoon Covenant is a group that seeks retribution against "bad" players). As you rank up in these covenants, you unlock more of the aforementioned benefits, although you can only be a member of one covenant at a time. However, the third rank in the covenants seems unfinished, with the majority of them yielding no extra benefits (unlike the first two). In terms of weapons and armor, the same sort of upgrade paths is available as in Demon's Souls, although the unique weapons aren't really that unique or worth the effort in upgrading them, other than for the trophy.
The bottom line: Ideas such as the aforementioned ensure that Dark Souls isn't merely Demon's Souls 2.0 and that players would see it as the spiritual successor that it is instead of a sequel. Overall, while the multiplayer isn't as fun as in Demon's Souls, Dark Souls holds up to its predecessor in terms of gameplay, graphics, and even story. However, the game doesn't leave me in awe and wonder as the first one did, and I hope to see more innovation in future installments.
Verdict: 7/10
UPDATE: A Dark Souls: Remastered game has been released, which addresses some of the issues in the original game.
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