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Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2018
Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2018
Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2018
Dark Souls is another beast entirely. While it is comparable to the coin-ops in that most enemies kill you in 3 hits, the comparisons mostly end there. Unlike other RPGs such as Skyrim, you have to understand multiple systems at work, and button mashing will not help you. There are no magic map markers or fast travel systems (in the first 2/3s of the game at least in the latter's case). The only form of checkpoint is the game's bonfires, bases spread across the map (at max 3 in an area) that allow you to heal, restore your estus (the only way to heal outside of the bonfires besides magic spells), and spend souls in order to level up. There's no regenerating health or magic. This game does not hold your hand. It makes you explore, go slowly through the game, and use trial and error to find out what style of play works for you. The former games don't have this malleability. They have to be played in the exact right way to get from place to place. Dark Souls, however, lets you make your own path. There's no one solution to the many seemingly insurpassable obstacles that the game throws at you and the tried and true solution of most western RPGs, button mashing, is really the only patently wrong answer. The game gifts all the tools one needs right from the start. The parry, riposte, and backstab techniques are a very intuitive way to deal with a majority of the game's mob. The game stresses that enemies should be dealt with 1-on-1 and groups will often split up to help the player out with this. There is no all encompassing class like Skyrim's infamous Stealth Archer, you build your character the way you are comfortable with and it will work for you. The game awards trial and error. That's why the soul recovery system is so fantastic. If you weren't aware, once you die in Dark Souls you leave behind a glowing green pile of the souls that you have collected up to that point. These souls are a dual purpose mechanic that functions as both the game's currency for shops and XP for leveling up. I offer a 3rd function for them though: motivation to learn from your mistakes. You have to embrace the "You Died" screen; you should be learning from each death. If you don't, you lose the souls you worked so hard to get. The game awards endurance and hope. These two tools will be more powerful than any weapon on your way to the end of this game.
It suffers from a third act that was rushed for time constraints. This part of the game doesn't capture the tense feelings and dread of the former part of the game, you are likely way more than powerful enough for each boss. All in all, it keeps aesthetic and requirement for strategy all the way through, so this 3rd act isn't a chore or boring. It just isn't as captivating as the earlier portions. I'd recommend this game if you have patience and a little time on your hands; a normal first time play through takes anywhere between 50 and 70 hours on average.
The multiplayer in this game is really unique. If you have humanity, you can sacrifice some to unhollow yourself. This allows you to summon the help of certain NPCs and other players at various points of the game which can help for particularly tough bosses. On my first play through I had a lot of trouble maintaining humanity though and I didn't get to utilize this feature much, I had to beat Ornstein and Smough all by myself. That tested my will. Some real life assistance will surely be helpful in this game. However, reversing your hollowing also sets you up to be invaded by other players, in line with this game's faction systems. Various factions give you access to benefits such as new weapons or magic as you level up your affinity with that faction. This leveling system is based on items that you can recover from either helping or invading other players, and occasionally found in the world as loot. The invasion system is where a lot of the role playing comes in. There's a certain forest area that is guarded by a certain faction. Joining that faction and murdering incoming players is a great way to mine humanity and souls and faction items and also makes the forest hunters not attack you once you enter that area. While it does add more depth to the experience, it can be frustrating when you're in a bind nowhere near a bonfire with no idea of what to do next just to be invaded and have all your hard work erased. This isn't common but when it does happen, it can be quite the setback. However, you'll be used to setbacks with this game. The matchmaking is based on what your strongest weapon is, so if you're still trying to orient yourself in the game, maybe don't try to level up your weapons early on to avoid highly experienced griefers. That all being said, the multiplayer isn't very active as of right now.
In terms of content, this is a 1:1 port of the Prepare to Die edition that includes the game and DLC. This version fixes frame rate issues that blighted Blightown and various other portions of the game. The textures are updated and are noticeably nicer than the last generation versions of this game. I originally had this on PS3 in 2014 but I "didn't get it" and dropped it after failing to get past a certain early boss that I must have tried upwards of 50 times. Even with that little bit of time spent, the graphics are noticeably nicer. Its nothing amazing; current gen games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 look a lot nicer on their native consoles than this does, but the aesthetic is still here in all its gothic and depressing glory. If you played on PC, however, most of the function updates included in the mod DSFix cover the issues that console gamers had no solution for. This remaster is purely for console gamers who missed their chance last gen or those that want a more consistent and less buggy experience than what they had on PS3 or Xbox360.
Good luck, Chosen Undead.
Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Tough But Fair
By Rypo on December 13, 2018
If you have paid attention to gaming journalism and marketing since Dark Soul's original release in 2011, no doubt you've seen the phrase "X is the Dark Souls of Y. " This serves as a signifier of the game's difficulty. These comparisons, however, end there and are strained at best and reductive at worst. Possibly the most infamous of these flimsy comparisons is GamesRadar's review of the 2017 Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy. The point I'm trying to make here and this review in general, are where these games differ in how they present their difficulty. Crash comes from a time that was still very much informed by the quarter stealing coin-op games of the arcade scene, and thus derives its difficulty from very acute attention to spatial awareness and timing. Playstation 1 era controls and systems, while at their core simple, are not what today's gamers are used to and don't help with the former. The platforms/shooter Cuphead has been called "Cup Souls" for its immense difficulty, despite it being derived from the intense influence of Japanese bullet hell games. These are renowned for their immensely twitchy gameplay that relies on, like Crash, spatial awareness and timing.By Rypo on December 13, 2018
Dark Souls is another beast entirely. While it is comparable to the coin-ops in that most enemies kill you in 3 hits, the comparisons mostly end there. Unlike other RPGs such as Skyrim, you have to understand multiple systems at work, and button mashing will not help you. There are no magic map markers or fast travel systems (in the first 2/3s of the game at least in the latter's case). The only form of checkpoint is the game's bonfires, bases spread across the map (at max 3 in an area) that allow you to heal, restore your estus (the only way to heal outside of the bonfires besides magic spells), and spend souls in order to level up. There's no regenerating health or magic. This game does not hold your hand. It makes you explore, go slowly through the game, and use trial and error to find out what style of play works for you. The former games don't have this malleability. They have to be played in the exact right way to get from place to place. Dark Souls, however, lets you make your own path. There's no one solution to the many seemingly insurpassable obstacles that the game throws at you and the tried and true solution of most western RPGs, button mashing, is really the only patently wrong answer. The game gifts all the tools one needs right from the start. The parry, riposte, and backstab techniques are a very intuitive way to deal with a majority of the game's mob. The game stresses that enemies should be dealt with 1-on-1 and groups will often split up to help the player out with this. There is no all encompassing class like Skyrim's infamous Stealth Archer, you build your character the way you are comfortable with and it will work for you. The game awards trial and error. That's why the soul recovery system is so fantastic. If you weren't aware, once you die in Dark Souls you leave behind a glowing green pile of the souls that you have collected up to that point. These souls are a dual purpose mechanic that functions as both the game's currency for shops and XP for leveling up. I offer a 3rd function for them though: motivation to learn from your mistakes. You have to embrace the "You Died" screen; you should be learning from each death. If you don't, you lose the souls you worked so hard to get. The game awards endurance and hope. These two tools will be more powerful than any weapon on your way to the end of this game.
It suffers from a third act that was rushed for time constraints. This part of the game doesn't capture the tense feelings and dread of the former part of the game, you are likely way more than powerful enough for each boss. All in all, it keeps aesthetic and requirement for strategy all the way through, so this 3rd act isn't a chore or boring. It just isn't as captivating as the earlier portions. I'd recommend this game if you have patience and a little time on your hands; a normal first time play through takes anywhere between 50 and 70 hours on average.
The multiplayer in this game is really unique. If you have humanity, you can sacrifice some to unhollow yourself. This allows you to summon the help of certain NPCs and other players at various points of the game which can help for particularly tough bosses. On my first play through I had a lot of trouble maintaining humanity though and I didn't get to utilize this feature much, I had to beat Ornstein and Smough all by myself. That tested my will. Some real life assistance will surely be helpful in this game. However, reversing your hollowing also sets you up to be invaded by other players, in line with this game's faction systems. Various factions give you access to benefits such as new weapons or magic as you level up your affinity with that faction. This leveling system is based on items that you can recover from either helping or invading other players, and occasionally found in the world as loot. The invasion system is where a lot of the role playing comes in. There's a certain forest area that is guarded by a certain faction. Joining that faction and murdering incoming players is a great way to mine humanity and souls and faction items and also makes the forest hunters not attack you once you enter that area. While it does add more depth to the experience, it can be frustrating when you're in a bind nowhere near a bonfire with no idea of what to do next just to be invaded and have all your hard work erased. This isn't common but when it does happen, it can be quite the setback. However, you'll be used to setbacks with this game. The matchmaking is based on what your strongest weapon is, so if you're still trying to orient yourself in the game, maybe don't try to level up your weapons early on to avoid highly experienced griefers. That all being said, the multiplayer isn't very active as of right now.
In terms of content, this is a 1:1 port of the Prepare to Die edition that includes the game and DLC. This version fixes frame rate issues that blighted Blightown and various other portions of the game. The textures are updated and are noticeably nicer than the last generation versions of this game. I originally had this on PS3 in 2014 but I "didn't get it" and dropped it after failing to get past a certain early boss that I must have tried upwards of 50 times. Even with that little bit of time spent, the graphics are noticeably nicer. Its nothing amazing; current gen games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 look a lot nicer on their native consoles than this does, but the aesthetic is still here in all its gothic and depressing glory. If you played on PC, however, most of the function updates included in the mod DSFix cover the issues that console gamers had no solution for. This remaster is purely for console gamers who missed their chance last gen or those that want a more consistent and less buggy experience than what they had on PS3 or Xbox360.
Good luck, Chosen Undead.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2018
Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2018
Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Sergio Vicencio
Lo mismo pero mucho mejor
Reviewed in Mexico on August 8, 2018Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Papa Steel
This would be a good choice for someone new to video games.
Reviewed in Canada on December 17, 2018Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Uno de los pocos juegos que merecen 5 estrellas
Reviewed in Mexico on July 6, 2020Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
Julio C
Es Dark Souls!...
Reviewed in Mexico on June 1, 2018Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
deepforest
Great game, still relevant in 2021
Reviewed in Canada on February 5, 2021Platform: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
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