"Dark Souls"
I'm not a heavy gamer, but many games hold somewhat special places in my heart. The open-world RPG, 'Dark Souls', which a friend Cx lent me, is one of them.
So Dark Souls is about a world that got taken over by demons, and is thus filled with despair. We control an undead who was chosen to bring hope back into the world. This is about all I know of the story. There are more to it, but we (players) have to dig them up by talking to a lot of NPCs, many times, interpreting certain things, and reading item descriptions. A unique storytelling method.
But in my opinion, the true hook to the game is its no-nonsense and unforgiving nature. It is a difficult game, such that right at the beginning, even normal foes can defeat you in around 3 hits. There is a stamina bar which prevents you from spamming attacks or wasting energy. So I'll say it's close to reality, in which we are not invincible people who gets killed only after the 1 millionth hit from an enemy, and we have to manage our stamina.
We're going to keep dying, and when we die, we risk losing all our experience points / money. They are the same thing in this game.
It's kind of sadistic on the player, but because of that, every step and every progress counts. Every time I got into a new area, I felt relief, satisfaction, and excitement. Every time I got to a checkpoint, the sense of comfort is immeasurable.
But that's not to say that it's the satisfaction and relief that makes the game fun. It's also the journey we take as we explore the world and its dangers. The Dark Souls world is a beautifully-crafted one.
This area, Sen's Fortress, is filled with traps that kill both the players and the enemies
Most areas are unique in their own way and the level-design is really good. It's not just a 'defeat every enemy who stands in the way' kind of game, but more of a 'anything can go wrong, but you'll be fine with a lot of caution, some skills, and some luck' game.
And speaking of caution, I'll have to say that this is anything but a fast-paced game, and I love it this way. This is possibly my favourite thing about Dark Souls. When we see a dangerous foe ahead, it forces us to stop, think through our actions, and think through our stakes. One wrong move and we die and lose our experience/money and we have to go through the trouble of redoing the area from the last checkpoint (which is usually far away). So do we run past the foe or do we find an alternate route or fight? Run left or run right? Use magic or melee? There are countless of questions that go through in our minds.
Let's say we chose to fight, we don't just slash a few times and win. We need to put up shields (because we dies easily), observe the enemy's actions, think of ways to deal with them, find openings to attack, and think of when to regain our stamina. If all these sound troublesome, it's not that bad, because we don't think them consciously. It comes naturally. We just adapt.
But if such slow pace sounds boring, you probably won't find it fun. But I love it so much.
Many a times, Dark Souls like to throw us off guard. Let's say we get into a T-junction and can choose to go left or right, chances are, there may be three melee enemies on our left (which is enough to ambush and kill us). And when you start handling them, you realise that an archer is at the other side, shooting away at you.
But good thing is, Dark Souls doesn't just throw us an impossible situation and expect us to deal with it. Instead, there would be methods to make things easier. Usually that includes separating enemies by luring one away at one time.
Another thing I like about Dark Souls is its boss battles. They are well-designed, aesthetically and experience-wise. Most bosses are different, and thus require different strategies and equipments. I keep finding myself looking up commentary videos of other players fighting these bosses after I defeated them myself, just because it's entertaining.
This boss, Gaping Dragon, has a ribcage thing popping out of its body and can bend its back so much it looks so disgusting
Like any other RPG, we get to upgrade our weapons, level up our stats, learn magic, and search for hidden treasures. The things I like about RPGs. And we can use items gotten from bosses to modify weapons as well.
The thing that annoys me most about this game is the distance between the checkpoints and the bosses. Usually, in other games, it makes sense that they put a checkpoint right before the boss so that if we die, we just try again. Dark Souls chose to put it relatively far away from the bosses, so if we die, we don't just retry the boss, but also some parts of the area. Irritating.
All in all, Dark Souls can be really frustrating but fun. The fun part usually comes when you get the hang of it. It's very different from any other RPGs, and, to me, it's the kind of game that will make you addicted enough to keep playing it but also the kind that will frustrate you so much that you stop playing it. Which happened to me.
Just for the sake of mentioning, I also like its previous series, Demon's Souls, and I feel that the atmosphere and boss-design were better in Demon's Souls. Some places felt creepier, some places felt more disgusting, some places felt more majestic, and the bosses were more unique in the previous one.
But anyway, when Dark Souls 2 comes out, I'm not going to borrow it. I want to buy it :)
Image source: darksouls.wikidot.com
So Dark Souls is about a world that got taken over by demons, and is thus filled with despair. We control an undead who was chosen to bring hope back into the world. This is about all I know of the story. There are more to it, but we (players) have to dig them up by talking to a lot of NPCs, many times, interpreting certain things, and reading item descriptions. A unique storytelling method.
But in my opinion, the true hook to the game is its no-nonsense and unforgiving nature. It is a difficult game, such that right at the beginning, even normal foes can defeat you in around 3 hits. There is a stamina bar which prevents you from spamming attacks or wasting energy. So I'll say it's close to reality, in which we are not invincible people who gets killed only after the 1 millionth hit from an enemy, and we have to manage our stamina.
We're going to keep dying, and when we die, we risk losing all our experience points / money. They are the same thing in this game.
It's kind of sadistic on the player, but because of that, every step and every progress counts. Every time I got into a new area, I felt relief, satisfaction, and excitement. Every time I got to a checkpoint, the sense of comfort is immeasurable.
But that's not to say that it's the satisfaction and relief that makes the game fun. It's also the journey we take as we explore the world and its dangers. The Dark Souls world is a beautifully-crafted one.
This area, Sen's Fortress, is filled with traps that kill both the players and the enemies
Most areas are unique in their own way and the level-design is really good. It's not just a 'defeat every enemy who stands in the way' kind of game, but more of a 'anything can go wrong, but you'll be fine with a lot of caution, some skills, and some luck' game.
And speaking of caution, I'll have to say that this is anything but a fast-paced game, and I love it this way. This is possibly my favourite thing about Dark Souls. When we see a dangerous foe ahead, it forces us to stop, think through our actions, and think through our stakes. One wrong move and we die and lose our experience/money and we have to go through the trouble of redoing the area from the last checkpoint (which is usually far away). So do we run past the foe or do we find an alternate route or fight? Run left or run right? Use magic or melee? There are countless of questions that go through in our minds.
Let's say we chose to fight, we don't just slash a few times and win. We need to put up shields (because we dies easily), observe the enemy's actions, think of ways to deal with them, find openings to attack, and think of when to regain our stamina. If all these sound troublesome, it's not that bad, because we don't think them consciously. It comes naturally. We just adapt.
But if such slow pace sounds boring, you probably won't find it fun. But I love it so much.
Many a times, Dark Souls like to throw us off guard. Let's say we get into a T-junction and can choose to go left or right, chances are, there may be three melee enemies on our left (which is enough to ambush and kill us). And when you start handling them, you realise that an archer is at the other side, shooting away at you.
But good thing is, Dark Souls doesn't just throw us an impossible situation and expect us to deal with it. Instead, there would be methods to make things easier. Usually that includes separating enemies by luring one away at one time.
Another thing I like about Dark Souls is its boss battles. They are well-designed, aesthetically and experience-wise. Most bosses are different, and thus require different strategies and equipments. I keep finding myself looking up commentary videos of other players fighting these bosses after I defeated them myself, just because it's entertaining.
This boss, Gaping Dragon, has a ribcage thing popping out of its body and can bend its back so much it looks so disgusting
Like any other RPG, we get to upgrade our weapons, level up our stats, learn magic, and search for hidden treasures. The things I like about RPGs. And we can use items gotten from bosses to modify weapons as well.
The thing that annoys me most about this game is the distance between the checkpoints and the bosses. Usually, in other games, it makes sense that they put a checkpoint right before the boss so that if we die, we just try again. Dark Souls chose to put it relatively far away from the bosses, so if we die, we don't just retry the boss, but also some parts of the area. Irritating.
All in all, Dark Souls can be really frustrating but fun. The fun part usually comes when you get the hang of it. It's very different from any other RPGs, and, to me, it's the kind of game that will make you addicted enough to keep playing it but also the kind that will frustrate you so much that you stop playing it. Which happened to me.
Just for the sake of mentioning, I also like its previous series, Demon's Souls, and I feel that the atmosphere and boss-design were better in Demon's Souls. Some places felt creepier, some places felt more disgusting, some places felt more majestic, and the bosses were more unique in the previous one.
But anyway, when Dark Souls 2 comes out, I'm not going to borrow it. I want to buy it :)
Image source: darksouls.wikidot.com
Labels: games