It gets more praise than it deserves that is for sure. There seems to be a snooty "dark souls is the best game ever and if you disagree its because you suck at video games" club that gives the game way to much credit. Its extremely rewarding due to the difficulty and its for sure solid. Just not nearly as good as some people say it is. For the price you can get it at now I would say pick it up for sure. So long as you have a lot of patience.
Is Dark Souls really that good?
- Thread starter FlambeNobunaga
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The draw of the game is in part how functionally sound the mechanics are. If you aren't prepared to learn the timing, speed, reach, power behind the game I wouldn't recommend this game. For anyone who is willing to take a deep invested interest in the functionality of the game itself, this game is for them.
dark souls biggest selling point is getting fucked so hard you're have to buy a sketchy creme. If you're not good at games, then no. Don't because honestly? The game isn't any fun. I played it at a friends, but I didn't like it at all. The combat is dull, with 2 or three moves, and the general tactic being to run behind a dude and back-stab him for extra damage. The story is bland and uninteresting, and start way too late in the game to grasp you. Th characters are all undead, or soon to be undead, and the entire world feels depressing, just for the sake of it. There's no light left in the world, it's just one big soppy bleak mess. Everyone's dead or soon to be.
I like bleak games, monster games, zombie games whatever. But usually there's a mild amount of hope. A drive to win. Dark souls is basically only bleak. You die, and find your body again, and get your xp again, or if you fail you lose it. Any unspent xp is lost, your important human-attribute points are gone. It's not a restart, it's gone. Just gone. it's punishing for the sake of punishing. a three hit combo, that's the game. Guitar hero could do that.
It's challenge, for the sake of it. Just punishing and frustrating. It's like being spawn camped at Call of Duty, with 3 helicopters, 5 snipers, and a constant carpet bombing, chances you'll live, are slim, and if you manage to get out you'll get fucked over by some unblockable hit.
2/10 would not recommend. Sadly I'm one of the few
I like bleak games, monster games, zombie games whatever. But usually there's a mild amount of hope. A drive to win. Dark souls is basically only bleak. You die, and find your body again, and get your xp again, or if you fail you lose it. Any unspent xp is lost, your important human-attribute points are gone. It's not a restart, it's gone. Just gone. it's punishing for the sake of punishing. a three hit combo, that's the game. Guitar hero could do that.
It's challenge, for the sake of it. Just punishing and frustrating. It's like being spawn camped at Call of Duty, with 3 helicopters, 5 snipers, and a constant carpet bombing, chances you'll live, are slim, and if you manage to get out you'll get fucked over by some unblockable hit.
2/10 would not recommend. Sadly I'm one of the few
I'm mixed on the game honestly. What it's marketed as: something punishing, it does that very well which can be fun if you can get past the frustration. Every new area or defeated boss feels like an accomplishment without feeling like the game cheats. on the other hand, without said punishment, I'm not sure the game is anything remarkable. It doesn't do anything bad, but there wasn't much keeping me there when another game popped up.
So....you are conflicted about the game because it's fun, but if you take the fun part out it'd suck? I mean that sort of logic can be used on ANY game. Ico was great, but i don'w know...if they took out all of the puzzles it'd be pretty mediocre. I don't know, League of Legends is great, but if they took out all the champions, it'd suck!Redd the Sock said:
It's such a non-argument. Yeah, if you removed all the challenge, you'd have a braindead crap game left, but how does that make the real thing worse? It's still a great experience.
Edit*
Also it's not really true. The "less is more" approach to the combat let's you focus on the enemies rather than learning the most effective combo string (some will like that, others not so much i guess but it's a matter of taste, not quality), the story is great if you have the drive to look for it and the exploration works really, really well. The game does plenty of things very competently.
I didn't think it would be anything great going in but I enjoyed it. Nothing groundbreaking, but a fun game while I played it.
Games are more than one part of them. Sometimes something can excel at one area and be meh or bad at others. After about 15 hours I personally didn't find much in the story to make me keep playing, nor a lot in the game mechanics or graphics or setting that I hadn't seen elsewhere. As I said, it's nothing bad, but if it had been stripped of the difficulty I'm not sure it would have any notoriety as anything but another medevil dungeon crawler.Rutabaga_swe said:
So yeah, I'm mixed on it as it does something I like very much, but in a setting and with mechanics I'm kind of burnt out on.
Legion said:
That's the point. You have to accept that you will die. You will die often and especially if you're new to the souls series, it often feels cheap. But there is always a clue when danger's up ahead. There's nothing in this game that can kill you and won't tell you beforehand to be cautious. But you have to get into it to see many of the clues. Dying is a core mechanic and you have to accept that and roll with it. Spend your souls before exploring new territory, so you don't lose everything if you die. At first you will think: man, I got a bucketload of souls and now they're gone. This will feel frustrating at first. But if you stick with it, you'll discover: It doesn't matter. You will get enough souls to beat the game and you really can't build your character the wrong way. Be patient, accept dying because it is a core mechanic and deeply intertwined with the lore and all the other game mechanics and if you get the feeling you cannot beat the enemies ahead of you, go somewhere else first. From there it's all patience, observation and learning from your mistakes.
The good news is: The Dark Souls community is very friendly and welcoming to everyone playing the game. We all have been through this learning curve with Dark or Demon's Souls. We all know how brutal and unforgiving it can be and everyone in the community will offer you help and advice if you ask for it. Doesn't matter if it's here, in some other forums or friends who played the game. The Souls community is generally the most friendly and helpful I ever witnessed in a game. It's cheap now. Get it, try it for yourself. If you're stuck, ask for help. That's what we all did.
Oh, and watch out for these guys:
and these guys:
Yeah, I personally really enjoy it.
I find the combat fun and satisfying, requiring precise timing and forward thinking as well as twitch reflexes. The more obscure elements of the game, though, I am totally guilty of looking up the answers/solutions to online. I personally appreciate why other people like that sort of thing, but I prefer my games to actually explain the majority of the mechanics and story (I know, such a filthy casual amirite?) but I can get over that. I think the dark, foreboding atmosphere and sort of discordant music adds a feeling of dread to the game, like you're moving through a dead world that fell long ago.
I find the combat fun and satisfying, requiring precise timing and forward thinking as well as twitch reflexes. The more obscure elements of the game, though, I am totally guilty of looking up the answers/solutions to online. I personally appreciate why other people like that sort of thing, but I prefer my games to actually explain the majority of the mechanics and story (I know, such a filthy casual amirite?) but I can get over that. I think the dark, foreboding atmosphere and sort of discordant music adds a feeling of dread to the game, like you're moving through a dead world that fell long ago.
ther is no best weapon as such, the moveset of the weapon is almost more important than the damage, I,for example, love spears because they allow you to dart in and out of combat range and be very safe but other people prefer the kind of big hammers that only leave red stains behind. you first look for a weapon you like the moves off, then you try to get the best weapon with that moveset.FlambeNobunaga said:
the Uchigatana is popular because it is quite good, it is a Katana and you can get it early on if you are willing to kill a merchant for it.
and i wouldn't recommend looking up stuff unless you really get stuck(you don't know where to go/ there is no way to beat a boss with your current stats/eq, a large part of the fun is figuring things out.
and as always: fuck blighttown.
Sorry for kinda bumping this out of the dead but I kinda feel the need for someone to make a remark on one of the biggest myths in recent gaming history.
Dark Souls is NOT a HARD game. The only thing that makes it hard is that it handles itself differently from most action rpgs, things you take for granted in other games are not things that will necessarily be involved at all.
In fact someone completely new to video games might have an easier time with something like Dark Souls rather than someone who's been playing video games more or less all their lives, just because of all the deep rooted conventions of games you'd normally rely on. This is why people say it's hard, while it is nothing more than something you just don't know how to play yet.
The point I'm getting at is that everyone has their point in Dark Souls where it stops being hard and they just kinda wreck 2-3 bosses in a row without dying. For me it was after Blight Town, for most of my friends it was after Capra. The fact that you don't "get" or manage to "get into" other games might actually be a slight bonus for you.
I'm not saying Dark Souls is bad by any means, it is surely one of my favorite games ever. It is just not a hard game, the whole hard part seems to be something that the media brought onto the series.
Dark Souls is NOT a HARD game. The only thing that makes it hard is that it handles itself differently from most action rpgs, things you take for granted in other games are not things that will necessarily be involved at all.
In fact someone completely new to video games might have an easier time with something like Dark Souls rather than someone who's been playing video games more or less all their lives, just because of all the deep rooted conventions of games you'd normally rely on. This is why people say it's hard, while it is nothing more than something you just don't know how to play yet.
The point I'm getting at is that everyone has their point in Dark Souls where it stops being hard and they just kinda wreck 2-3 bosses in a row without dying. For me it was after Blight Town, for most of my friends it was after Capra. The fact that you don't "get" or manage to "get into" other games might actually be a slight bonus for you.
I'm not saying Dark Souls is bad by any means, it is surely one of my favorite games ever. It is just not a hard game, the whole hard part seems to be something that the media brought onto the series.
Dark Souls isn't hard in the traditional meaning of the world. It doesn't require much in the way of reflexes or timing, even if you are running a build based on dodging instead of blocking.FlambeNobunaga said:
The game is one of the most fair games I've ever played. It rewards exploration and cautious play style. There are multiple ways of dealing with any enemy and tons of fun weapons to play with. However, Dark Souls will NOT hold your hand, at least not the way more modern games do. I'd say give it a try, it's one of the best games in recent memory and my favorite game of all time.
I'm gonna have to disagree with you there. While Skyrim's combat certainly isn't technically as difficult as Dark Souls, its so poorly done by comparison that I often find myself raging more at it than Dark Souls. With Skyrim, there are certain technical issues that make combat infinitely more unwieldy and frustrating than Dark Souls', for example the half second delay between the block animation and registering blocks, weapon animations that don't match with the damage (i.e. sweeping attacks with two-handed weapons only hitting a single point rather than damaging in an arc), the random bullshit instakills, random enemy spawning outside of dungeons, no dodge moves for getting out of the way of attacks (an essential for anyone wanting to play a lightly armoured rogue), the lack of balance between the combat classes (mages don't scale anywhere near as well as warriors or rogues to be viable), the inconsistent attack timings that sometimes allow you or enemies to preform a power attack before the recovery animation for the regular attack, etc.. That's not to say Skyrim is a worse game than Dark Souls. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It's just that Skyrim's combat is more of an auxiliary feature to the exploration, which is the game's focus, while Dark Souls is much more focused on the combat and planned encounters. They're pretty much apples and oranges.KevinHe92 said:
Based on this information, I would say you're not going to have a very good time with it.FlambeNobunaga said:
Here's the thing about Dark Souls though; It isn't incredibly difficult, it's incredibly punishing. I'm not trying to brag about skill here either. I'm saying the game is only difficult in that it punished mistakes far more harshly than most. There's some fairly cheap moments, but the key to the game is that ever single individual point of damage you receive could be avoided. Theoretically, you could beat the game without taking a hit. (Aside from the first Seath fight that is)
The game is fantastic in many ways. The mechanics are incredibly solid, the weapons and upgrades are varied and interesting, the environments are gorgeous and the story and lore interesting, if a bit vague. It does however, require a certain level of critical thinking, reflexes and learning ability. It isn't perfect. Some more production time would have done it some good as there quite a few bugs, mostly with the AI, but it's still very good. Give it a shot, but don't feel bad if it isn't for you.
It's monotonous and repetitive. You're just swinging your sword at monsters, that's all you do from start to finish. You're not even given a sense of purpose, just kill them because they are there.
I never understood how some people prefer it over Skyrim, but I suppose it comes down to the individual.
I never understood how some people prefer it over Skyrim, but I suppose it comes down to the individual.
Story, art, challenenge, gameplay, exploration, game balancing and so forth. Where Skyrim just shoves the food equivalent of McDonalds in your face untill you throw up, Dark Souls is the well cooked and meticulously prepared fine dining that you savor. It's a completely different beast all together, so i don't think it's a very apt comparison, though i do think Dark Souls is probably the better game all in all. Though it is by far more niche and requires a lot more from the player. But hey, the best tastes are the aquired ones.el grandos tabetos said:
You never got to Anor Londo did you?el grandos tabetos said:
After experiencing the pain of being poisoned, the first thing I did when I saw a merchant selling "remove curse" items was buying a couple of them. Just in case I needed them later when I found enemies causing curses. But hey maybe I'm too hardcore.EvilRoy said:
You never said, but guy saying that you have 3 moves must suck, since he's ignoring that you have 2 weapons on each hand, and you can also two hand half of them, and also kick, or jump-attack, making it (3 x 2) x 2 + 2 + 2 + X where X is the number of spells you have on your probable magical catalyst, in other words 16+X possible moves at any given time (if you don't count tactical movement, such as strafing or rolling).monkey_man said:
To original topic, personally i love the game, started my probably 20th character today, Like many have said there isn't really a best weapon, what hasn't been said is that upgrading gear is often more important than upgrading stats, aside from vitality and endurance, which makes the game easier. And the heavier more tanky gear helps more on lower levels.
First time I played i hardly upgraded any weapons and that really made the game difficult, in addition i got cursed on depths, could not find my way back to undead burg and got lost on the swamp for 10 hours because **** blighttown... at least the first time playing.
As for the game itself, there are parts that are difficult, despite some people saying otherwise on the thread so there is a big chance that you won't finish the game unless you summon people to help. I'd like to recommend the game for everyone because of the atmosphere, exploration, design and involvement it requires from player to get most out of it, but the game is not for everyone. It requires patience, some parts are really difficult and feel unfair the first couple of times, mostly speaking of Anor Londo. Death can be difficult mechanic to accept but it's integral to the experience, world and story. Story is also very open for interpretation, there is hardly any exposition. There are about a dozen npc:s that all have a history that is hinted at, actually almost everything in the world is hinted at and given clues, so there is little "definitive" history. This has made wonders for the community.
For some people this has been just about the best game in recent years, part of them because of the alleged difficulty and challenge which you can find and make more if there is not enough, for others because of the atmosphere, open mythos and "bleak" world, because it can be very atmospheric. And for some, it's about the exploration and discovery. For what Dark souls does, it does it pretty damn well.
But it is not that for everyone. It definately has flaws and the nature of the game causes a barrier of entry, The opening areas are not visually the strongest the game has to offer, and the secretive nature of the game while one of its strongest points is also a major turn off for others. There are also some challenge spikes for first timers that can cause rage quitting.
First time I played i hardly upgraded any weapons and that really made the game difficult, in addition i got cursed on depths, could not find my way back to undead burg and got lost on the swamp for 10 hours because **** blighttown... at least the first time playing.
As for the game itself, there are parts that are difficult, despite some people saying otherwise on the thread so there is a big chance that you won't finish the game unless you summon people to help. I'd like to recommend the game for everyone because of the atmosphere, exploration, design and involvement it requires from player to get most out of it, but the game is not for everyone. It requires patience, some parts are really difficult and feel unfair the first couple of times, mostly speaking of Anor Londo. Death can be difficult mechanic to accept but it's integral to the experience, world and story. Story is also very open for interpretation, there is hardly any exposition. There are about a dozen npc:s that all have a history that is hinted at, actually almost everything in the world is hinted at and given clues, so there is little "definitive" history. This has made wonders for the community.
For some people this has been just about the best game in recent years, part of them because of the alleged difficulty and challenge which you can find and make more if there is not enough, for others because of the atmosphere, open mythos and "bleak" world, because it can be very atmospheric. And for some, it's about the exploration and discovery. For what Dark souls does, it does it pretty damn well.
But it is not that for everyone. It definately has flaws and the nature of the game causes a barrier of entry, The opening areas are not visually the strongest the game has to offer, and the secretive nature of the game while one of its strongest points is also a major turn off for others. There are also some challenge spikes for first timers that can cause rage quitting.