Zero Punctuation: Dark Souls

[AgentLampshade]

Okay, I really have to get back to this game. I bought it when it first came out knowing nothing about it and saying "oh hey, this is apparently really good. I'll try it." I very quickly discovered there is no "trying" with Dark Souls. You have to give it your full attention, or do what I did - Say "fuck this" and trade it in. Kept the art book though. Love the art.

Lack of a pause button is fucking stupid though.

 

[Marik2]

Wondering if he will give Demons Souls another chance.

 

[Yeager942]

I've honestly never played Dark Souls, even though I feel like I would enjoy it quite a lot.

Although I did hear there were problems with the Steam version...is this true?

you can get a fan fix called DSfix which pretty much sorts out any and all issue in that version.. might be a bit of a pain in the ass to set up depending on your hardware though, but it's nothing too overwhelming.

Unfortunately, GFWL is still a ***** to deal with. I have continual router issues whenever I want to play the multiplayer.

 

[suitepee7]

I've honestly never played Dark Souls, even though I feel like I would enjoy it quite a lot.

Although I did hear there were problems with the Steam version...is this true?

yes and no. playing the base game is near impossible, it looks awful, the controls suck and it has terrible framerate. use DSfix and it eliminate every single problem and makes it look better than the console versions. now the only remaining problem is that GFWL exists, but you never have to properly use it other than to sign in.

OT: summed up my thoughts exactly, i tried getting into it twice and just, couldn't. third time lucky, sunk in over 80 hours in about 3 weeks, absolutely love it, and it's keeping me entertained until the sequel is released ^^

 

[PsychicTaco115]

So is there still hope for a Hitman: Blood Money retro review?

Otherwise, good review. Never got into Dark Souls but maybe I'll try during this summer...

Then I can go and get my ass kicked with Dark Souls II

 

[00slash00]

So he loved this game for pretty much the exact reason he didn't like Demon's Souls. I'm very confused.

I agree that the difficulty of the game falls steadily once you start upgrading. Unlike Demon's Souls, finding upgrade material is really easy so you can quickly become over powered. When I first played it I thought the first few hours were very hard (mostly because I refused to use the Drake Sword, for some reason) and then after that the game became very manageable until I reached Anor Londo, which was hard because of the boss(es) and that annoying archer section.

I also loved Yahtzee's little smug character

 

[proghead]

What's this? Yahzee doing fan service now? O_O

Anyway, haven't played it. Thought i was gonna get the sequel, but it still looks like ass, and I'm a total graphics whore.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Conisdering I have the same opinion of Demon's Souls as Yahtzee (namely that it can get fucked), I might have to check out Dark Souls now.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! He finally did it, my Zero Punctuation wishlist has been fulfilled!

"Unless you count the one for a giant spider for an ass." - Best description of Quelaag I've heard in awhile.

Although I have taken a liking to the fan nickname: "Chaos ***** Kelloggs"

 

[gigastar]

Well, fully expected a teardown after the review he gave to Demons Souls.

But no, he liked it. Im as surprised as everyone else is.

Now back to hoping that Dark Souls 2 doesnt suck, and has a decent PC port.

So is there still hope for a Hitman: Blood Money retro review?

Now theres a review id pay to see.

 

[Mister Chippy]

I need to get around to actually playing this at some point. Only problem is GFWL has apparently fucked up my steam copy so I can no longer save... :\

 

[Trishbot]

Okay. I have been on the bloody fence about buying this game ever since it came out.

I keep saying "I'm not a fan of brutally difficult games", "I have plenty of other games I could beat in the time it takes me to get through this", "It becomes more of a job than a fun way to unwind after a long day", "I don't want to have a wiki page pulled up at all times or constant Let's Plays for how to enjoy the game", "I want to pause my games", "It's such a dark game and I have a standard def TV", "The penalty for dying is way too high", "I've read up on it and still don't fully understand the game's mechanics and terminology", etc.

... And yet I KEEP feeling this small, gnawing pull to stop thinking about it, take the plunge, and see if I walk away miserable or satisfied.

Who cares to sell me on/off the game?

 

[spplmj]

Conisdering I have the same opinion of Demon's Souls as Yahtzee (namely that it can get fucked), I might have to check out Dark Souls now.

They games play almost exactly the same only that Dark Souls has had the mechanics more refined. The difference here is that Yahtzee actually took the time to properly learn and understand the mechanics rather then just ragequit after the first level like he did in Demon's Souls.

I hope he goes back and plays it again

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Hello Yahtzee. Little slow this month isn´t it?

Spoiler

Anyways, nice to hear a positive review for a change. Wish he'd taken a similar stance towards Demon's Souls since by all appearence it seems to be the same game. I saw that because I've only played Demon's Souls and Dark Souls looks and sounds like it's exactly the same game... yet Yahtzee panned Demon's Souls for the same reasons he forgave Dark Souls...

 

[ciancon]

Two hours there too before I realized that oopps, wasn't supposed to be here either. Boy would I like some sort of instruction telling me where I'm supposed to go and why, because at this point I had completely forgotten the entire plot.

There's a general rule that, if the enemies in an area can one-shot shot you, you're not meant to be there yet. I didn't learn this until after I beat the game but I will definitely be applying it to the sequel to save my sanity!

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Huh for once it's a nice review and not one where he rips it to shreds, shame it's for a franchise I have no interest in, if anything I still hope that one day he'll actually review something I've played and liked and hopefully will like it in return but who am I kidding?, that's never ever going to happen on here.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yeah, it really is a game where you have to pull teeth to get into, but once you do get into it, dear god it's worth it.

And this is why I'll never be arsed to bother.

I don't need more homework in my life and I'm not going to take anyone's word that "pulling teeth" will be rewarded.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Two hours there too before I realized that oopps, wasn't supposed to be here either. Boy would I like some sort of instruction telling me where I'm supposed to go and why, because at this point I had completely forgotten the entire plot.

There's a general rule that, if the enemies in an area can one-shot shot you, you're not meant to be there yet. I didn't learn this until after I beat the game but I will definitely be applying it to the sequel to save my sanity!

I agree except that none of the 'don't be here' enemies were one-hitting me. At least, no more so than the enemies in the 'go here' sections. That was a major problem and one of the reasons I kept getting frustrated. The enemies in the places I was supposed to go were just as difficult as the ones in the other places. They never changed so I never knew if I was supposed to be there or not.

And all the bosses one-hit killed me, so that didn't help...

 

[Jonsbax]

Maybe I'm playing like a beta copy of this game. I got Dark Souls ages ago and I put it down after my first weekend play-through. I remember that every monster killed me for hours and hours and hours. I also remember how terrible the level layout was. At first I took an obvious path up a cliff where a bunch of unkillable skeleton knights killed me. I spent a good three hours trying to fight them, but everytime I did kill one (no easy feet mind you) they just re-spawned instantly. Then after reading I wasn't supposed to go there, I went down the second most obvious path - the elevator to the underworld - and boom! More skeletons and more death. Two hours there too before I realized that oopps, wasn't supposed to be here either. Boy would I like some sort of instruction telling me where I'm supposed to go and why, because at this point I had completely forgotten the entire plot.
It wasn't until, like Yatzhee said, I read a f-ing walk-through that I learned there was a third completely hidden path that led to where I was supposed to go. This was maybe...6 hours of gameplay at this point.

See you can either have a game that's incredibly hard OR you can have a game that's incredibly obtuse. You can't do both because you'll get players like me, who know A. Monsters are really hard and B. Hate it when monsters kill you spending 3+ hours trying to kill one or two monsters, convinced the error is on my gameplay, NOT that the game was dumb enough to leave the door to the level 30 zone right next to the starting location.

That's why I can't get back into this game. It was trial and error - no no, it was something way worse. It was just error.
I think I quit after my 135th death, and I was sent back to the first camp fire again.

You're going soft Yatzhee. You from two years ago would have torn this game apart for bad controls, bad design, obtuse writing, insufferable fans, and the general unfinished quality of combat. Nothing in this game flows well. It is an unpleasant experience from start to finish.

I hate to be this person, but in my opinion the error was on your gameplay. You already knew there were 2 alternate routes, maybe try looking around for third when you can hardly damage the enemies you encounter? Somehow the completely hidden path was the first one I took, it was after all the one on the same clearing as the first checkpoint.

I think From Software might have done a bit of a disservice to the game by hyping the difficulty so much, since I know a lot of players who just ended up bashing their head against the first wall they come across because "this game is supposed to be hard right?" instead of doing some thinking within the game. Don't get me wrong, it's a difficult game, but I've seen gameplay videos videos where people spend dozens of tries on the first boss instead of escaping through the door that is clearly highlighted by the torches.

I don't know, maybe I'm just used to playing games where exploration and enviroment are important. Speaking of enviroments, I can't be the only one who ended up kinda disliking the world of Dark Souls since it just felt really lacking in detail and bland compared to Demon's Souls? It's hard for me to believe Tower of Latria was designed by same people who worked on Dark Souls.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Damn it, I thought for sure he was going to hate it as much as I did.

I have a rule I try to follow as closely as I can, and its "Just because you don't like something doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. They could really like it for the same reasons you hate it's very soul for." As such, I ry not to denigrate people for their likes and dislikes, save for when those likes are child porn and animal abuse.

Dark Souls was the one game where I was willing to break this rule, because I thought it was the worst thing I've ever played. An exercise in obscure hair pulling, made by idiots who seemingly forgot the past twenty or so odd years of video game evolution. A slow, tedious, grind (with really nicely designed bosses, mind), that requires you look up online things that should have been explained in game.

With other games I hate that people love, and vice versa, I can usually say, "Okay, I see why you like/don't like it." Dark Souls was the one game that made me say to people who liked it, "Fuck you, you're wrong, die in a chemical fire."

And I don't like that it does.