Dark Souls: Less is more
Dark Souls by Japanese developer From Software is a idiosyncratic journey into frustration which offers grand sights, engaging combat and enviable bragging rights to those who choose to brave it. After an avatar creation screen and an incredibly measly tutorial, the player is shoved into a world without any concrete idea of where to go or what to do. This, for all of us who have been following a low dangling carrot in 90% of the most popular games today, is exploration. The world is a gigantic maze and one of the brow beaten characters you first meet will tell you nothing more than that there are two bells, one at the top of the world and another at the bottom. With this tidbit of info, into the world you go
While this initially seems like cruelty and laziness on the part of the developers, Dark souls reveals itself to be freeing and empowering. Every minor victory feels like a huge accomplishment and the game doesn't patronise you with constant medals and pats on the back, instead relying on its fantastic art design and compulsive character building to keep you moving forward. The game also scores with an incredibly innovative set of online features. Every player gains the ability to leave messages for other adventurers which can be rated by the community. You'll question whether to believe someone when they tell you to walk over a cliff for treasure, even though all you can see is an bottomless pit. Sometimes the truth is told but will you take the massive risk?
Risk is a huge part of Dark souls. The currency gained for defeating the world's seemingly endless roll call of demons are their souls. Almost everything in the game is purchased with this precious commodity, however, lose to an enemy and you drop them all. You have one chance to return to the scene of your death and retrieve the souls, fail and they are lost to the ether. It's an absolutely punishing mechanic but it plays wonderful mind games with the gambler in all of us. Of course some online ne'er do well can also invade your world and defeat you gaining the currency known as Humanity which determines your ability to partake in online play. Humanity also allows you to invite some other players into your world to help you take on the gargantuan boss monsters, which often makes the difference between life and death.
Everything is out to get you here, but the crucial element is, 9 times out of 10, your death is down to your own shortcomings. There are technical flaws here like some areas having a really awful frame rate which slows the game down to a crawl and the online systems are perhaps a touch too confusing and don't always work that well. That said, few games are as engrossing as this. You will find it impossible to stop devising strategies and looking for the best approach to complex situation. The kid gloves are off. If you want checkpoints and medals and games that play themselves, look elsewhere. Dark souls will eat your face off and you'll come right back for it, patiently ready to die but dreaming of success.
