no pain, no gain.
when I grabbed Dark Souls for the first time, I was quite unconvinced of what I would find in this game. The reviews were great so I gave it a shot but form the previews, nothing seemed really appealing to me.
But a few minutes down the track, I understood that DaS was a UFO of a game and here is why:
1) the physics, the weight and the poise...
it took me quite some time to realize the importance of this game mechanics names poise that no other game that I am aware of ever had implemented: THE POISE. That is the weighty aspect of your armor, its ability to soak up some of the energy of the blow delivered by an enemy's weapon so that it does not stagger you...I reckon the whole game revolves around that simple concept: if you are clad in a heavy plate armor, the guy holding a small knife will not manage to hurt you bad enough to interrupt the swing of your weapon. if your almost naked, the bite of the blade of this same knife will make you writhe in pain and interrupt your action (swinging your weapon, casting a spell or anything else for that matter). Now take a Zweihander or a greataxe, and the guys that could take 2-3 hits of your knife without being interrupted will...
this includes a massive trade-off between the movement speed of your character, the speed with witch you can swing your weapon and his ability to absorb and inflict these deadly staggers when the poise is broken. The general rule being the heavier the armor, the better the poise....the heavier the weapon, the better its ability to break the poise of the opponent....but then the heavier the weapon, the slower the swing and the heavier the armor, the slower your movement...
Most if not all of the physics of the swings of the different weapons feel right in this context. and this gives DaS this uncomparable "realistic" feel....getting this massive blade that is a Zweihander in someone's frame is quite a result and a joy....it feels weighty and right.
2) Movement, control and responsiveness
nothing plays like DaS because its control is near perfect...you did not fall off this cliff because of a broken game mechanic...but because with one foot in thin air, you fall. you do not turn 180 degrees without this little dead time....the slightiest imput in your stick is immediately and accurately transcribed in the game. The game is accurate all the time and this is why....
3) it is hard...yes...but it is fair!
the community of the souls serie, and especially DaS are not retarded masochistic sad creatures. They like challenge and reward for overcoming it. if you die in DaS, it is never a fatality...it is because you did not do something right. and once you learn your lesson (after painfully crawling back to were you last died to retrieve your precious souls and even more precious humanities) , it is such a joy to overcome the obstacle by just outsmarting, outmaneuvering it....that is just before you stumble across a new sort of trap / ennemy that brings you once more to your death...and so on.
the simple demonstration of the fact that this game is fair is that you can perfectly beat it at lvl 1...once you know the drill, it is a question of skill and attention.
4) the most cruel and brilliant PvP system ever
now, the reintroduction of the really innovative system of PvP invasion from Demon's souls, the spiritual precursor of DaS, topped off with the covenant system is a blast....ok, some covenants are near broken but still....the big part of the genius of DaS is that once again, to get an advantage you need to sacrifice something...its all about balance. So to summon a player to help you in coop to defeat a boss, you open your world to invasion by nasty little monsters of players belonging to the Dark Wraith or the blade of the dark moon...these guys will take an immense pleasure to spoil your cooperative fun by trying to rip you and your patiently summoned friends apart....this adds so much tension to the experience...you know that if you assume your human form to invoke some friends, you will almost certainly have some players that will rock up to the party uninvited to spoil it...
5) now...the bad points.
DaS is a brilliant game. But its not perfect. The famous frame drops are a reality that feels even more painful in a game that otherwise is very fluid...but only in certain areas (read the blightown swamps and the Azalith).
some spells are unbalanced, almost game breaking...I am speaking of the sad Wrath of Gods (aka WoG), the newly introduced Dark beads and pursuers...all those are avoidable with a lot of practice but clearly not balanced compared to a slow soul arrow...I am talking about PvP here but actually not only since Dark Bead is allowing you to destroy pretty much any boss in 2 seconds once you have it...so yeah...meh on the balance here guys.
but otherwise?...well I think that's it...
TAKE HOME MESSAGE
DARK SOULS IS A MASTER PIECE OF BALANCE; YOU ALWAYS NEED TO SACRIFICE SOMETHING TO GAIN SOMETHING, THE SAME WAY YOU NEED TO LOWER YOUR GUARD IN ORDER TO HIT...
IF YOU DO NOT OWN DARK SOULS, YOU SHOULD BE ORDERING IT NOW. BECAUSE THE SECOND IS ON ITS WAY...YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THAT DO YOU?
