I have yet to hear any mention of the terrible rag doll corpses in this game, but it was one of the first things that stood out to me. Is it something to do with Havok? It just feels so unnatural to kill a tough enemy and find yourself able to punt it by just walking. Plus there's all those times when a bigger corpse gets stuck on your feet and gets dragged with you. But really, how hard would it be to make the character models immovable after death?

Havick Physics OF THE DEAD.

It kinda makes you wish all the enemies would dissolve when they die. It's straight up disturbing and gross having a slimy and scaly pair of lizardmen flopping all unaturally while stuck to your legs while you're walking around

Because its hilarious.

It does look silly, but it never bothered me. In fact, I had a lot of fun messing with the dead bodies. My favorite thing was to roll over them, which would sometimes get them "hooked" on you for a bit, or even fling them through the air.

It really is ridiculous. Especially when it happens with some of the bigger enemies. I mean enemies bigger than you that flop around when you walk past them, as the disturbance you cause in the air is enough to lift twice your own mass.
But I mean at the end of the day it doesn't change the gameplay. Still looks fucking dumb, though.

Because rolling through a dead body and making it fly 20 feet in the air is fun.

I like my zombie boots, sure they flop around a lot, but they keep my feet warm!

Didn't Dead Space have the same problem?

@rebgav said:

@Vadis said:

Is it something to do with Havok?

Obviously.

It could just be limitations of the game engine, or more likely over-reliance on the baked-in support templates.

Exactly. It seems like they must've put zero effort into actually fine-tuning the basic ragdoll provided by Havok (or whatever physics middleware they used), because I haven't seen ragdoll this lazily implemented since about 2003. The enemies suddenly have almost zero mass the second they die, and their friction values seem far too low, thus they move WAY too much from even the smallest of touches. And the collision detection on the coprses is terrible, so they get stuck on your character model sometimes. It sorta breaks what is otherwise a pretty visually impressive world, until you just train yourself to ignore it.

Why hate on the awesome rag-doll physics? The game needs something to smile about when you die constantly :D It is not something that is really broken in the game and has no effect against gameplay so there is no reason to fix it as it does just add to the game that is Dark Souls. Also, there are many other games with physics like this but yet there is no problem about it with them.

Its not a big deal.

Dark Souls has awesome rag doll,l it's fun and it sucks in other games where you can't interact with them. Gears of war was also more awesome due to this rag doll.

I think this game is the pinnacle of stupid rag-doll physics, and you can take that however way you want.

However, going up into the belltower, killing that mob of skeletons before the gargoyles, running through their corpses and then rolling down the stairs with them still attached to my feet was probably the funniest unintentional moment in any game I've ever played.

I always interpreted the corpse physics as a touch of comic relief in an otherwise bleak and joyless world.

@biggiedubs: Yeah that corpse pile was awesome. I had them roll down the stairs once in a big tangled ball of dead bodies - sooo good.

im guessing its maybe harder to accurately model the dead than you 'imagine' it is.

Serves them right for always fucking up my day. Now their nothing but silly dolls!

Japan just discovered Havok 
 
And I think it's great honestly. So much fun to be had by rolling over corpses and launching them into the stratosphere.

well it was just as bad in Demon's Souls...maybe people have just coped? Not like it effects gameplay or anything.

I always thought it was done intentionally. If you give them actual weight you will get stuck on them, and there is no easy jump button to jump over them. They don't want the corpses to be a liability during combat by obstructing your movement.

Maybe I am totally wrong, but I think that is the reason. I do wish they had "realistic" weight and actually make the them a part of the strategy/challenge, but that might be hard to code. And I hate games that make them disappear, I rather have floaty corpses.

Because it's awesome.

It's one of the things keeping me sane when playing it. That game is just so oppressive with it's grim atmosphere. And then you walk into a corpse and VIDEOGAMES happen. I hope they keep that silly feature forever.

I always felt the sticky rag doll was one of the defining characteristics of this game.

I think you mean, awfully great? It's a shame some of the bigger demons dissolve into thin air as opposed to rag dolling. I'd love to swagger my way around Anor Londo with two giants sticking to my calves.

As ppl. have noted, this problem isn't unique to Dark Souls. And I have no clue why they can give a body the weight it should have by the mass you see.

Of all the things you could question about this game, you choose the corpse physics...I'd say if that's your biggest issue, the game's doing alright =P

It never affected my opinion of the game, but it does look silly. I would loved all the enemies just dissolving as they died. However, kicking corpses is quite fun.