Dark Souls is a weird phenomenon, the overall general opinion would seem to be that this game is, incredibly frustrating yet satisfying and rewarding but most people are unable to describe why. Of course the reasons for this are highly subjective but for me it is how the game hands the content to the player. When you explore new locations you go on slowly, watching the environment. You do not rush through it. You take your time unless you want to die over and over again. Here the difficulty of the game forces the player to be aware of his/her surroundings. By not giving the player any direction and by providing this level of general difficulty the creators of Dark Souls give simply more meaning to the content.

This goes on with the items. Every item you find by maneuvering over some weird structures, balancing on beams and looking into every nook and cranny feels valuable even though you'll probably won't use it depending on your character-build. And the weapons are not just different skins with different stats on them. Different weapons feel different and use different move lists and animations.

The combat itself is another thing for me, every new enemy brings the excitement of finding out how much HP it has and what moves it has. And damn ... the bosses. The last game that made me feel this good after defeating a boss was Ninja Gaiden 2 and the original Castlevania before that.

So what do "Dark Souls Addicts Anonymous" say to this? Why are you still playing this schizophrenic mess?