Alright, let’s talk about Dark Souls:

At the time of this writing, I have over 35 hours into Dark Souls. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to pick it up immediately, since I didn’t preorder it, but when I called a GameStop, they happened to have an extra Collector’s Edition lying around. Apparently the collector’s editions were having some stocking problems, so I went ahead and bought it.

The best thing that can be said about Dark Souls is that it can instill a number of different emotions that few games can. There is a sense of dread whenever I am near death, and when I manage to beat of boss or find a new bonfire (which is essentially a checkpoint), I feel rather accomplished. That being said, there are times when dying repeatedly just infuriated me, and I felt that the only way to progress would be to set it aside for a while and resume my progress when I have a clear head. Even when the game is off, I find myself looking up information about how to fight certain bosses, how to use items to forge new gear, and discuss my progress with other people on the internet. I’ve heard many people compare it to the first Legend of Zelda, in the sense you’re placed in a huge world with very little sense of direction. Dark Souls functions similarly.

To give some specific examples in the fluctuations between joy and fury I feel while playing the game, I was having a fair amount of trouble with the twin gargoyle bosses. When I talked about this with other Giantbomb users, I was told to get the Drake Sword, and when I did, I beat the bosses in my first try. I found myself in a similar situation when I reached Anor Londo, because the Drake Sword didn’t feel all that effective at that time. This led to me farming some souls, increasing my stats, getting a new sword, and learning pyromancy spells. Even with all of these new abilities and equipment, I still died a fair amount, but I did make more progress. Ultimately, I think that’s the appeal of the game – you will die many times in Dark Souls, but in those failures, you will learn from the mistakes, and thus progress in areas a little more because of it.

With that said, I can understand why others will hate Dark Souls. It is certainly more demanding than most titles, and not everyone will want to research item locations, and such. On that note, I’m just going to leave this catchy song by Justin McElroy.