Is Dark Souls really that good?

[lapan]

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.

Dark souls is actually less punishing than most games, it just masks it well.

If you die in most other checkpoint based games you lose everything you collected since then.
If you die in Dark souls you can keep any items you found AND have a chance to regain even your souls

 

[Beretta]

Best way I can describe what makes Dark Souls worthwhile is the very large number of time you will in your playthroughs go, "holy shit, that's...amazing." First time seeing Gaping Dragon. First time Anor Lando sprawls out beneath you. First time you get what's going in the Duke's Archives. First time you descend into the Kiln of the First Flame. And far more.
The game is atmospheric and enveloping in a truly rare way. For all the comparisons it and The Elder Scrolls are totally different experiences. TES is a sandbox. Dark Souls is a haunted house with no exits.

 

[monkey_man]

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.

Dark souls is actually less punishing than most games, it just masks it well.

If you die in most other checkpoint based games you lose everything you collected since then.
If you die in Dark souls you can keep any items you found AND have a chance to regain even your souls

It's a shame then, the one thing they advertise and they dont even do it properly. "prepare to die, a lot". A checkpoint death does mean you get to do over, dark souls means backtracking, or losing your xp

 

[Qvar]

Sure but how many times can you expect to die at Dark Souls and how many at any other game?

 

[Dijarida]

What I want to know is if I would enjoy it.

Don't ask someone who plays a large amount of Dark Souls if they /enjoy/ Dark Souls. Not a single person /enjoys/ Dark Souls. To quote Yahtzee, "Frustration get's shit done", and simply put at that, people play Dark Souls not because of it's fun, but rather in the mindset of someone climbing a mountain, or trying to arm wrestle a bear-gorilla crossbreed. They don't enjoy playing it, they enjoy the fulfillment of knowing that they beat it, they rose to the challenge and prospered.

To again quote someone from The Escapist, specifically Gavin's song "YOU DIED", "You must learn to take the torture in your stride".

Enjoy~

 

[MerlinCross]

Loaded question. Anyone that plays a lot of it will like Dark Souls for the most part while those that play for a few/dozen hours won't like it.

It's a challenging game if you try to rush through. You will die if you try to bumrush everything(at least early, get some upgrades and the basic dudes shouldn't be an issue). And that's part of the appeal of this game, along with all the different builds. To me it feels like playing a 3rd person dungeon crawling game from the NES era.

Are there cheap parts, yes. I don't even need to explain to vets about; Sen's Fortress, Anor Londo's Archer, Blight Town, and a personal favorite Crystal Cave. And Ghosts, forgot about like the one enemy that breaks the rules that every other character(you, players and monsters) seem to follow. Other players also kinda ruin the game from time to time. Might be a feature, but having Giant Dads halt my progress kinda isn't fun.

End of the day it's a niche title that does it's job pretty well.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

What I want to know is if I would enjoy it.

Don't ask someone who plays a large amount of Dark Souls if they /enjoy/ Dark Souls. Not a single person /enjoys/ Dark Souls. To quote Yahtzee, "Frustration get's shit done", and simply put at that, people play Dark Souls not because of it's fun, but rather in the mindset of someone climbing a mountain, or trying to arm wrestle a bear-gorilla crossbreed. They don't enjoy playing it, they enjoy the fulfillment of knowing that they beat it, they rose to the challenge and prospered.

To again quote someone from The Escapist, specifically Gavin's song "YOU DIED", "You must learn to take the torture in your stride".

Enjoy~

That's true for the first playthrough but as someone who's played through the game several times I'd say once you know the game well enough that it's not frustrating it is a lot of fun. For example, first time through Dark Souls, whenever I died usually my blood pressure would go up, now when I die I have a laugh (usually at my own stupidity or impatience).

I do feel like that first frustrating playthrough is required to fully enjoy and appreciate the game though.

captcha: pay the ferryman
How morbid.

 

[In Search of Username]

It's a difficult game, but it's one that if you dedicate yourself to it, you WILL be able to learn it. I'm really, really bad at games too, but I managed to persevere and now I can beat Dark Souls pretty reliably without dying too much. And it's a fucking great feeling.

Dark Souls is an unfriendly game but it's one that rewards practice and understanding, and that I think anyone can become good at if they try.

Also, it's just a really beautiful game, and worth experiencing for that reason alone. Like seriously aesthetically it's probably one of the best games I've ever played. Don't miss it.

Off topic and I know there was a thread about it a week or so ago but...

Really then where is the Role Playing? Where are my choices? When do I get to do something different than killing mooks?

That isn't the only thing to role-playing games and you know it. There's a levelling system, a focus on the freedom to build your character in whatever way you want (by levelling up your favourite attributes, using and upgrading your favourite weapons and armour, etc.), and also the ability to join (or attack) different covenants, and to interact with NPCs in various ways involving choices (even if those choices aren't extensive as in, say, Dragon Age, they're still there in the game); all common aspects of RPGs, along with the EXTENSIVE lore of the game, another common RPG theme.

 

[Milanezi]

If I'm to consider your gaming "experience"... Stay away from Dark Souls, or pick it up for a very low price, if only to taste the whole thing.

Dark Souls, however, is not as hard as everyone says. Or it is, depends on your point of view. Actually it boils down to: it does not forgive the player, but when you die it's almost certainly your fault; you either tried to fight something you shouldn't yet, or you went somewhere unprepared, you might also have underestimated a threat (even low level enemies remain menacing if you don't get the "hang of it"), either way, this game punishes you fairly, you will never die because the game messed up. Plus, you're always learning from your mistakes.

In most other games you learn nothing from dying, you get shot in Battlefield you just try it and try it again until you shoot the enemy first or something, and I'm not talking BF down here, it's just that it's one of those games where your death comes with no advantages, sometimes it's not even your fault, the game is simply being unfair by say, sticking you with an infinite spawn of enemies while just saving your checkpoint in a moment you were short on ammo, making progress frustrating.

Dark Souls punishes the player and does so fiercely, but the gambit here is that you'll hardly leave a point where you died and not learn something new... I'm on my second gameplay, same character, and as many have said before, it takes a while for difficulty to show the second time around, so I sorta got used to easy killing the enemies again, I'm at the Depths and there's this place with two "Casters" (they're sorta like mages) and a bunch of rats, well, I decided to rush on them, seeing how strong I am... I got attack from so many sides that it was simply humiliating. But you see, it was ME, I underestimated the situation and was punished for it. Now, I dunno if you know the death mechanics here, but when you die you lose all your souls and any humanity already on the counter (and if in human form you get back to hollow form), you don't lose it for good though, the game goats you into going again at the spot where you died, if you get there and touch your bloodstain you regain everything. That makes you think: is it worth trying that part again? How can I go at it differently?

The only infuriating thing about Dark Souls are the invasions of other players. But... I must admit it has its own charm... Every time you're in human form (advantage being you can summon other players to help you) you become a potential victim of Black Phantom invasion, the ones that are NPC are usually very easy to defeat, but the players themselves? That's PvP in it's cruelest form. Still, that's part of the game, it's a risk you take because you just made things easier by being able to "call for help", also the invader is considered a sinner, the game allows it by being part of the gameplay but also makes it possible for the victim to "punish" the invader by means of the "Letter of Indictment", you use them to send that player to a sort of "black list" if one has enough of those complaints it seems some sort of punishment befalls them (unless they honorably left a sign for you to summon them for battle, in this case, since you allowed them in, you can't indict them, because it was sorta like a duel), there are other mechanics in game that even I, having finished the game once, am only now beginning to grasp, such as "disasters" (yep, "Disasters are gone with the Gravelord Servant vanquished) and stuff.

One thing is for sure, it has it's learning curve, it's honest in terms of difficulty, it will require patience no matter how good you are and it usually doesn't allow gamers who wants to "rush into battle" (maybe after your 7th gameplay when it stops getting harder), but if get through the first moments of pain this game will certainly addict you.

It's so cheap in most places now though that I recommend you buy it anyway for a taste, even if you don't plan on finishing it, if you enjoy it then you can buy and dedicate yourself for the second one, as far as I know you won't need to play one to understand the other. Oh, as far as story goes, the main story is very weak, but fable-like in an almost charming way, the lore, however is immense and very interesting and it's where the bigger scope of story is (including the true plot some say...). It somehow reminds me of Attack on Titan hahaha

 

[DaViller]

I basically recommend dark souls to everyone and their mum since I'm a massive fanboy, so take the following with a grain (na fuck it take a full spoon) of salt.

You should definitly try it out it's great. I consider dark souls to be the best game of the last generation, would put it right up there with games like half life, ocarina of time or shadow of the collossus. The atmosphere in dark souls just sells the game so damn well, it's the only game that ever had me scared in broad daylight, in wich I realy cared for almost every character I met even though dialogue is minimal and that made me want to find out if there is more to it's story(or lore) then what i figured from my first playtrough. It's the overall package that makes the game for me, from the weighty feeling of the combat to the multiplayer elements just comes together to form a realy awesome whole.

Turning my inner fanboy switch of now, there are some definite flaws in the game that have to be mentioned.

The camera sometimes freaks the fuck out, especially when going from an open to a rather closed space.
The game gives you no clear information on how exactly stats work, though most of it can be deduced some pretty major stuff is not even indicated (dex for example reduces spell cast times and thats mentioned nowhere).
Multiplayer aspects, especially pvp, have some major lag and hacker issues.
There are a few cheap deaths via very much unavoidable traps (though only 2 or max 3).
Not realy a flaw imo, but the game is not for those easily frustrated or those who want the game to give out rewards for every little thing you do diablo style.

Despite these flaws I definitly recommend dark souls and I stand for everything said in the fanboy paragraph.

 

[lapan]

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.

Dark souls is actually less punishing than most games, it just masks it well.

If you die in most other checkpoint based games you lose everything you collected since then.
If you die in Dark souls you can keep any items you found AND have a chance to regain even your souls

It's a shame then, the one thing they advertise and they dont even do it properly. "prepare to die, a lot". A checkpoint death does mean you get to do over, dark souls means backtracking, or losing your xp

A checkpoint death means you get to do it over and you will have to backtrack to where you died and you lose anything you gained since then. A Dark souls death means you get to do it over and you will have to backtrack to where you died and you keep most of what you lost + you have a chance to recover the rest

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Off topic and I know there was a thread about it a week or so ago but...

Really then where is the Role Playing? Where are my choices? When do I get to do something different than killing mooks?

That isn't the only thing to role-playing games and you know it. There's a levelling system, a focus on the freedom to build your character in whatever way you want (by levelling up your favourite attributes, using and upgrading your favourite weapons and armour, etc.), and also the ability to join (or attack) different covenants, and to interact with NPCs in various ways involving choices (even if those choices aren't extensive as in, say, Dragon Age, they're still there in the game); all common aspects of RPGs, along with the EXTENSIVE lore of the game, another common RPG theme.

The role-playing isn't the focus of the game; thus Dark Souls is not an RPG. Just because you have some role-playing aspects to a game doesn't make it an RPG. Is Bioshock Infinite a platformer because it has some platforming? Hell no. Same thing with Dark Souls, it's a dungeon crawler first and foremost.

Off topic and I know there was a thread about it a week or so ago but...

Really then where is the Role Playing? Where are my choices? When do I get to do something different than killing mooks?

Choices in covenants for a start; Choices with irreversible consequences with every character you meet, whose side stories, quests and progress you can follow and get involved with; At least two murders you can see coming and either watch unfold or prevent ( and become tainted as a result); the fact that nearly a quarter of the world is entirely optional; the possibilities of acting against covenant leaders and be branded by their followers as result; two different endings.

Not to mention the fact that it is a game where stats and stat building matter to a very tight degree, and where you can create very different characters depending on the stats you favour.

All of this means choice and roleplaying even if the choices are not telegraphed through giant "DECISION TIME" dialogue wheels.

And if you want to compare it against it's peers, the Dragon Age series is undoubtedly an RPG, and is much more linear in terms of character progesssion. Diablo has always been considered an RPG and is, again, way more linear in story telling and character progression. Skyrim is a sandbox with loads of inconsequential questing; with all of those falling strong into the RPG genre, there's no reason to brand Dark souls as anything less. And to have missed on all of this, you must not have played it through to the end, and are commenting on something you don't know about.

Dark Souls doesn't focus on choices, it focuses on role-playing. Seriously, there is not that much choice in your character, I can go full rogue (dex and quickness) and the game plays very similarly as if I went full strength with a huge sword and shield. A dex-based character can block just about every attack with a light shield, you still end up playing very similar to a strength-based character. Stats aren't that important either, not nearly like say DnD. All you have to do is choose 4 stats to level (vit, end, dex or str, int or faith), you can choose to level even fewer stats if you want but you'll want more health and stamina, you'll most likely want to use dex or str weapons (you can forgo dex or str as well if you want), and you'll probably want some kind of magic (int or faith). You can cheat on the magic stat and use fire magic instead since it doesn't use a stat, just proves how the game isn't focused on stats "to a very tight degree" along with the fact that resistance is a completely useless stat as well (I don't know how a completely useless stat even made into the final game, Dark Souls is poorly designed at its very core). And Diablo isn't an RPG either.