Will Dark Souls be worth checking out?

[Dansen]

I have an Xbox 360, and I'm looking for a game with amazing boss fights, that are really fun and challenging. Shadow of the Colossus is out of the question, and it seems that the only 360 game that is going to offer this type of experience is Dark Souls. However I am a bit hesitant about getting it because of the things I have heard about Darks Souls and its predecessor Demon Souls. Both games are supposed to be very hard, and tell you little about how you are supposed to deal with an enemy, you die a lot and potentially lose a lot of progress with each death. It especially the last part that makes me nervous. I don't want a game that will constantly punish me to the point that I will end up hatting the game. I won't mind if I have to play parts over again as long as I find them fun though.

Am I better off looking somewhere else, or should I get Dark Souls?

 

[GundamSentinel]

Personally, I always hated frustratingly punishing games, but eventually Demon's Souls got me hooked and now it's my favorite PS3 game.

Demon's Souls was indeed hard and yes, Dark Souls will probably be just as hard. Dying is part of the learning experience; every time you die, you (hopefully) learn something about your enemy and how to tackle him. This will mean that you might have to replay some sections many times to finally beat them and they will probably get harder the more often you do (Demon's Souls did that).

That will mean frustration, particularly losing progress up until that point, but in the end it's really satisfying to finish a particularly difficult part. I'm not going to lie, Demon's Souls was sometimes cruel and usually unforgiving, but always fair.

 

[jpoon]

The best part about the game is finally beating that one boss or the group of enemies that has been kicking your ass for the past hour. Trust me, this will be a frustrating game but if it's anything like Demon's Souls then the feeling you experience when you finally break through that impossible battle you just won is fucking amazing!

Demon's Souls was probably the most rewarding game I've ever played. I suspect Dark Souls is going to be the exact same, I will find out Tuesday!

 

[Itsthefuzz]

Oh god yes. I never owned a PS3 but I had a friend with one and he owned Demon souls. I WAS SO ENVIOUS OF THAT. Now that it's successor is on the Xbox I will be picking that up ASAP.

 

[DustyDrB]

Eventually, I'll probably get it. I played Demon's Souls not long ago though, and don't think I'll be in the mood for that kind of game again for a while. It wasn't the difficulty (the only parts that game me trouble: King Allant, Flamelurker, and the swamp), as I didn't find the game hard. It was the atmosphere, which was kind of a drag.

 

[krazykidd]

I've been playing Darksiders and its bosses are pretty fun. Not amazing, but they're alright.

Resident Evil 4 is also available on the Marketplace and it has some good bosses. Its successor has some really good, really huge bosses as well.

Dark Souls? I'll pass.

I saw the Quick Look on Giantbomb. I understand that sometimes this isn't representative of the entire game, but what I saw left me particularly unimpressed. And then there's the games mantra - die to learn. I don't want a game that punishes me because it didn't give me any clues as to how to go about it. I thought we were past the Nintendo Hard types of games where you constantly die at every turn because you can't possibly know the solution without dying. It sounds unfair, frustrating, annoying, and just plain not worth it. I have enough of that frustration and stress in my actual life, I really don't need it in a video game.

This isn't to say that you won't enjoy it, but keep in mind how the game works. You have to die, over and over again, just to progress every little bit. I would recommend finding a way to give it a shot, or at least get a good look at the gameplay on Youtube before picking it up.

Someone has never played/finished iwbtg ... /snicker

OT: i didn't get the chance to play demons's souls , but unless dark souls is as hard ( hopefully harder ) than it's predesessor , i wont get it . I like my games with challenge ( yes i beat iwbtg on normal ) and if they promise ball busting difficulty and don't deliver i will be pissed! That's actually the main selling point of the game. So you know what you are getting into beforehand . that being said the game is not for everyone. But please don't complain on the difficulty ( even of it's trial and error ) because the game warned you in advance. One of the reasons i love catherine was because it was deadly difficult.

 

[Smackybear]

Dark Souls? I'll pass.

I saw the Quick Look on Giantbomb. I understand that sometimes this isn't representative of the entire game, but what I saw left me particularly unimpressed.

Dark Souls doesn't LOOK fun. Will it be a good game? Probably. But it doesn't look fun, that's for sure.

Most games spend too much time trying to "look" fun with flash and not enough time actually being fun. Demon's/Dark Souls is a very good example of good gameplay design that doesn't translate in videos.

Should you check it out? I took two days off of work to play this game. I loved Demon's Souls.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Someone has never played/ finished iwbtg /snicker

OT: i didn't get the chance to play demons's souls , but unless dark souls is as hard ( hopefully harder ) than it's predesessor , i wont get it . I like my games with challenge ( yes i beat iwbtg on normal ) and if they promise ball busting difdiculty and don't deliver i will be pissed! That's actually the main selling point of the game . So you know what you are getting into beforehand . that being said the game is not for everyone . But please don't complain on the difficulty ( even of it's trial and error ) because the game warned you in advance . One of the reasons i love catherine was because it was deadly difficult.

I like a good challenge as well, but not a horribly frustrating one.

And yes, I steer very clear of I Wanna Be The Guy. From what I've heard, that is insanely difficult.

IWTBTG will induce heavy amounts of rage. If you wish to avoid that then your choice is most wise. I know, I've played it. It's not fun after so long.

Dark Souls looks to be quit amazing, and in my personal opinion, VERY worth checking out. You will die trying to learn what's what, but that doesn't mean you have to die in EVERY situation to learn how to pass it. You can take strategies from other monsters and apply that to the next, and if it doesn't work, try a different one. You'll learn to become suspicious of certain places and being careful around them could save your life from a trap. And the one thing most people neglect to do is: Keep the damn shield up and move carefully. Many a time I have played with others, trying to help them get through areas I've finished. But the problem is, I can't help them if they won't help themselves. They constantly get their asses beat because they refuse to be careful. If you love a challenge, Dark Souls is definitely for you. I'm most certainly getting it, because I absolutely loved Demon's Souls(so far it's my first PS3 platinum trophy, I got it after getting the platinums in the Sly Cooper Collection, but those trophies are stupid easy to get). But personally I say: DOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOITDOIT.

 

[Stormz]

I don't have a ps3 and have always wanted to try Demons souls and nows a good chance to now that Dark souls will be out for 360. I'm a person that gets REALLY mad at video games and even I want to try it so I'll be getting it for sure on Tuesday. Overall I think it looks like it will be a great rpg and think that yeah, you should give it a try.

 

[chadachada123]

I've thrown many of a friend's controller at the wall playing Demon's Souls.

And I loved every second of it.

It's my favorite game of all time (at least of all games I can think of), and I don't even own the system for it.

It has just about everything I could ask for in a game, and Dark Souls is looking to have just as much and more.

Advice? Don't go charging into places. Go slow, pace yourself, and for Umbasa's sake, keep your shield up when venturing into unknown territory.

 

[chadachada123]

Dark Souls? I'll pass.

I saw the Quick Look on Giantbomb. I understand that sometimes this isn't representative of the entire game, but what I saw left me particularly unimpressed.

Dark Souls doesn't LOOK fun. Will it be a good game? Probably. But it doesn't look fun, that's for sure.

Most games spend too much time trying to "look" fun with flash and not enough time actually being fun. Demon's/Dark Souls is a very good example of good gameplay design that doesn't translate in videos.

Should you check it out? I took two days off of work to play this game. I loved Demon's Souls.

To quote an old review of Demon's Souls (paraphrased): "That's what I love about Demon's Souls. It makes you get better." It doesn't hold your hand, but it rarely does anything that is unfair. If you die, it's either because you didn't know or you made a mistake. It teaches you how to fight and then constantly expands on that.

 

[Chased]

Eventually, I'll probably get it. I played Demon's Souls not long ago though, and don't think I'll be in the mood for that kind of game again for a while. It wasn't the difficulty (the only parts that game me trouble: King Allant, Flamelurker, and the swamp), as I didn't find the game hard. It was the atmosphere, which was kind of a drag.

This is my reason also, the world and storyline felt so dry to me that I felt no need to continue playing.

 

[Syphous]

Due to the nature of the game, this is almost like cheating... but it's only the first 01:24:44 of the game.

Quick Look [http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-dark-souls/17-4966/]

 

[Vivi22]

I like a good challenge as well, but not a horribly frustrating one.

Demon's Souls wasn't frustrating though, and I doubt Dark Souls really will be either. Demon's Souls was hard, but it was fair. It was always obvious why you died. Caution and thoughtfulness were rewarded. And while you may be punished severely when you screw up, failure always armed you with knowledge of how to move forward. And honestly, what you lost in progress on dying wasn't as severe as people would make it out to be. It was a game where you could only advance by actually becoming better at playing the game, not by the game holding your hand in the traditional sense of aim assists and frequent checkpoints, and it was one of the most rewarding titles I've ever played because of it.

In short, to the OP, get Dark Souls. I don't think you'll regret it if you're up for a challenge.

 

[TheDooD]

Demon's souls was only hard when you the player fucked up. It's like the truest D&D experence you can get in a video game this generation imo. Damn near everything in the game but the flamelurker had an AI that you could abuse. Plus you're able to become so powerful after you put some effort into the game its basically laughable how deadly you become. High risk, high reward at its finest you really want to be bad ass you have to earn it and I recommend the game if you're in for the long haul.

 

[Vivi22]

Does the game kill you without giving you a chance is what I'm asking? If so, then that is frustrating. If you're walking down a hallway and suddenly, without warning, get sliced in half, then you'll learn not to walk down that hallway, or to walk slower, but getting chopped is not fun. You'll know why you died, sure, but that doesn't make it any fairer that you died before.

Demon's Souls wasn't just fair because you always knew how you died, but because if you were playing cautiously and intelligently, you could be prepared to react to anything it threw at you. There was never a time in that game where I died because it did something unfair. I may die because I misread an attack, or because I ran recklessly into a room without looking first, or moving in with my shield at the ready, and prepared to block, dodge roll, parry, or even just run away if the situation called for it.

You seem to have this idea that Demon's Souls was just out to get you in impossible to predict ways like something like IWBTG, but it didn't do that at all. If you were paying attention while playing then you would always have a sense of where danger may come from and plan accordingly. And with combat generally having a fairly slow pace, it gave you time to react and to learn enemy patterns without even having to die to them necessarily. It's common for people to die a lot early on while they learn the game, how to fight, etc. But the funny thing that happens as you go on is that you stop dying as much, if at all. There were many areas in the later portions of my playthrough that I got through on the first attempt. Like I said, the game is fair, and one where learning to play it well not only feels rewarding, but is in fact substantially rewarding since dying is a fairly big punishment early on.

I just can't help but get the feeling from your posts that you haven't played that much of the game if you've played it at all. Either that or you just had a really hard time figuring the game out. There are actually some strategies in Demon's Souls that were utterly overpowered and made getting through many areas a breeze.