Dark Souls

I bought Dark Souls on Steam a while ago, and started writing this article.

And then this happened.

Dark Souls has completely blown me away, and I feel it's important to detail the good and bad parts of this incredible game, because I've learned a lot about certain aspects of game design as I've played.

First, the basics - Dark Souls is an Action RPG which challenges players to triumph over incredible adversity in a hostile and unforgiving world. It has an interesting multiplayer system, impressive customization and a host of different areas and monsters to face. Heaping scoops of action and atmosphere, garnished with a light sprinkling of story and dialogue. Most critically, Dark Souls' triumph is in its incredible challenge and the reward of coming out on top.

You get used to this message after a while

Online play

Throughout the game's world, players are able to see glowing orange streaks in various places on the ground. These marks are left by other players (and the developers, sometimes), often providing useful hints about what's ahead or the weaknesses of a particular foe. In human form (death turns players 'hollow' and can restore their humanity with certain items) they can often see other signs that allow them to summon other players (or particular NPCs) to help them defeat the area's boss monster. One trade-off of remaining human is that it allows hostile players to forcibly invade your world, resulting in a tense fight to the death. Some of the game's various 'covenants' provide specialized PvP styles - the Forest Hunter covenant gives players a ring which allows them to be summoned to defend the host forest from intruding players. Due to excellent player customization, player battles are varied and interesting, despite some laggy encounters. The particular implementation of the online system is a little frustrating if you're trying to summon a particular friend, but the online elements otherwise work extremely well and fit the game's world beautifully.

The Warriors of Sunlight covenant makes you appear as a Gold Phantom in co-op.

Player skill
The balance of power between world elements and the player is an important element in all games, but Dark Souls does a particularly excellent job of emphasising player skill over raw numbers. All enemies are dangerous, even to a powerful player character, which requires players to play intelligently and not let their guard down. Bosses especially tend to be incredibly powerful, and will punish players for sloppy fighting. The result in my experience is that overcoming them becomes extremely satisfying.

That sword is far larger than me, and the monster who swings it is far larger still.

Difficulty
When you hear people talk about Dark Souls, particularly in games media, there's almost always mention of high difficulty, and frequently in a very positive way. What's important to note here is that Dark Souls is not difficult in an unreasonable way, which is one of its greatest successes. In the majority of cases, enemies and bosses will telegraph their attacks with enough clarity for a smart player to identify the type of attack and perform the required action to reduce or evade the damage. If players keep their distance and observe new enemies (they're usually introduced alone) they can figure out what kind of attacks they have and how to beat them.

The snakeman on the right is winding up a horizontal swing.

While there are some exceptions (such as the annoying Wheel Skeletons) to this rule, enemy attacks can most often be predicted and countered. Players are frequently able to 'pull' enemies one at a time if they want to play it safe, and can take their time or even avoid some foes altogether. Dark Souls goes to great lengths to avoid those moments where an enemy attack could not have reasonably been expected or countered, though some levels do contain cheeky 'gotcha' moments with enemy ambushes and the like, to punish those who rush in unprepared. This system reinforces the emphasis on player skill over having a powerful character, as even high level characters are less powerful than most enemies and bosses. Death is handled pretty well, too - When a player dies, they are taken back to the last bonfire (roughly analogous to a checkpoint) used, they leave a bloodstain near the point of death which, when visited, restores souls and extra humanity carried when died. Dying while attempting to recover one's bloodstain results in a loss of those souls and humanities.

Risk and reward
Dark Souls rewards players for playing well, but it also rewards them for taking risks. Risky choices often carry some benefit. Being human allows players to encounter friendly summon signs for co-op, but also opens them up to invasion by hostile players. Carrying extra humanity increases your item find rate and certain resistances, but means that death carries a higher loss of resources if the player can't recover their body before dying again. Most interesting to me is a part of combat. The player can use a shield to block attacks and negate or reduce damage in exchange for stamina, but some shields (and some weapons when held in the left hand) have a 'parry' move, which requires accurate timing to deflect an enemy swing and knock them off balance. If the timing is not quite good enough the damage is reduced and you don't get staggered, but the penalty for failing a parry can be catastrophic. For this reason, the reward for a successful parry is that the enemy is opened up for a devastating critical strike. Players can choose to play it safe and reduce their risks in various aspects of play, or take risks for the chance of greater rewards.

The risk of parrying an enemy attack is rewarded by an opening for a critical attack.

Customization for personal challenge
The first avatar I made in Dark Souls was a fire mage using a shield and spear for close quarters combat. Wearing medium armor, I took my time and was cautious - shield raised high for most of the game. After reaching close to the end of the game, I decided that I'd try another style, this time using light armor and no shields. This avatar carries a dagger in her right hand to parry enemy attacks, switching to a sword in two hands for most battles.There are a number of areas in which players can increase or decrease the challenge they face by modifying the power of the avatar they control or summoning other players and NPCs to assist. In the communities I've read from, it's generally considered 'standard play' to define a theme for the avatar including choice of armor, weapons, etc, and play that way, rather than selecting for optimal armor and attribute distribution. Some players challenge themselves to restricting their level to a particularly small number, meaning that they will effectively play with far lower stats than what they could achieve. My self-imposed limitations were fairly tame, particularly compared to some youtubers who define extreme restrictions and document their progress. On the other hand if a player wants to reduce the difficulty they face they're able to summon help, use powerful weapons and armor and level up for additional health or other attributes. These various tools allow players to choose a style they like to play and set the bar within a fairly wide range of difficulty levels.

Cinematics are rare along with dialogue, but observant players will find a wealth of lore and backstory.

With a sequel announced recently and a dedicated following of which I now count myself a part, Dark Souls is probably the most compelling, rich and excellent game I've played all year. Despite already clocking up a longer playtime than I give to all but my favourite games, I still find myself wanting more. If anything the greatest flaw in Dark Souls is that you only get to experience once the incredible tension in exploring a new area a dozen or so times, and the second time around it's a very different game. Well worth the buy regardless.