LogFAQs > #923569797

#24: Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition

This game is both great and terrible.

It innovated- and, as we saw with Assassin's Creed 1, innovation often comes with a lot of growing pains.

The heavy, thoughtful, consistent combat moves combined with the stamina system and good vertical hitboxes created a blast of fresh air in a decade of furiously quick attack combos (God of War/Devil May Cry,) cinematic, unpredictable, computer-calculated attack animations (Assassin's Creed/Arkham City) and colossal, ponderous pseudo-action RPGs (Mass Effect & company).

The maze-like game world is rewarding to master- finding out you could have gone a different way to reach this place more easily, or that you've made it back to an old, familiar bonfire from above gives everything a sense of place, or that you weren't supposed to go this way until 20 hours later.

And that's the summary- rewarding to master, annoying to learn.

All of the above things are also part of what makes the game so freaking stupid and annoying. The game expects itself to be attacked as part of a collaborative event. It partially enables you through soapstone messages, but mostly expects you to spoil yourself on the internet or be spoiled by friends who already have.

You could spend hours banging yourself against a wall by trying to descend below the graveyard when you're supposed to be progressing through the city, or by plowing through the forest when you're really supposed to be finding a key behind you and going down into the swamp. You could be cursed by a permanent status effect that halves your health with no indication as to how to be cured... or you could look up on the internet where the one random guy that can cure you is. You could start the game with a scimitar and not realize you can kick enemies to knock away their shields, because the scimitar specifically overrides your kick with a useless backflip. You could put points into the Resistance stat, which does nothing. You could mess up your weapon upgrades, which use up very finite resources.

There are all of these things that are rewarding to master that are also terrible for players who don't cheat. Yes, every single one of these things happened to me. But that didn't stop me!

What did stop me was horrible code. I originally played this on the PS3. Maybe there was something wrong with my console or game disc, I don't know. But one area- blighttown- was unplayable. I was getting single digit frames per second in the more vertical entryway. They hadn't correctly coded draw distances for the Y axis, so it tried to render absolutely everything in that area and collapsed under its own weight. Now, apparently there was another entryway that was more horizontal. I did not know that. Again, punishing game to the earnest.

Anyway, I put it down and got the game on sale for $5 or something on PC years later. Armed with knowledge and a capable CPU and Graphics Card, that obstacle wasn't there anymore. But I didn't forgive.

Why was I even trying to play?

Again, the game expects you to spoil yourself on the internet. There are hidden secrets in the form of invisible walls, items you can give to NPCs to motivate them to continue on their quest, special locations where you can meet them to help them survive the entire game, and so on. Even though most are undiscoverable by a solo player, this is really cool!

The story is somewhere between garbage and nonexistent. The backstory, on the other hand, is eerie and evocative. And that is the real magic of dark souls. It's parceled out in a way that screams "i am a video game"- you'll pick up a sword and the text description of the sword will tell you something about the world's history, and if you pay close enough attention to everything you might be able to figure out a plausible explanation for 75% of what is going on.
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You did indeed stab me in the back. However, you are only level one, whilst I am level 50. That means I should remain uninjured.