We Support an R18+ game Classification

I’m not a hardcore gamer by my definition of the term. I’ve been playing games since they were invented, but I’ve had more positive experiences in recent years, courtesy of the power fantasies most games provide, than the dignity crushing games of yesteryear. I don’t remember the pre checkpoint and automatic quick save times with nostalgic fondness, I remember them with the dull ache of childhood terror.

So it is with some dread that I started playing Dark Souls a game made to flay your dignity and crush any foolish belief you had that you were ever good at anything.

Here's a nice relaxed screenshot to get you started

The definition of insanity, as you’ve no doubt heard, is to do the same thing over and over but expect a different result. Dark Souls will attempt to drive you insane through this very mechanism, with a tantalising hint that there is another outcome if you just try again. When you are finally successful the feeling of mental relief is physical; Dark Souls makes you shudder with relief. It’s not a warm and fuzzy feeling though, more like a bucket of ice water in the face on a hot day.

By its loosest definition Dark Souls is a fantasy RPG game. The plot is interesting; rather than the detailed and sweeping stories of most RPG games, Dark Souls keeps things very minimalistic. You start of in a dungeon, then some guy lets you out, oh and you’re all ready undead, kind of a smart zombie, but not yet one of the mindless Hollow who you immediately have to fight. Nothing is served to you on a platter in Dark Souls. Not even the plot. Once you actually dig into the story and some of the major players it actually does become quite interesting, above the average evil force and dispossessed king trope fantasy games have been ripping of Tolkien for twenty years. So, there's something to look forward to.

YAAAAH! GIANT HORRIBLE UNKILLABLE MONSTER!!!

If you’re unfamiliar with Dark Souls most notorious element here’s the gist of it. The game landscape is dotted with manual checkpoint locations called bonfires. Here you can restock your health and healing potion, called an Estus Flask. But when you do, every single enemy in the world, excluding boss characters, is resurrected. Likewise when you die you spawn at your last bonfire and all the enemies return, plus you lose your entire purse of Souls, the games currency for buying equipment and for levelling up. If you can make it back to the location where you died you can recover your souls, but often that can represent a pretty big, ugly, scaly ‘if’.

The games controls are the antithesis of the button masher. Attacking and defending are such laboriously focused activities that the game becomes a tactical strategy game. Almost every enemy you face is at least as strong as you; they even have health potions like yours. As you circle an enemy armed with a shield and sword, waiting patiently for him to make a move so you can counter attack, you’re painful aware that every bit of health you lose is less chance you have of surviving the fifty or so similar encounters between this guy and the next bonfire. To succeed in combat in Dark Souls you need wits and patience. And then some more patience. It’s also not uncommon to encounter enemies that are either impossible, or incredibly difficult, to defeat the first time you meet them.

AHHHH NOOO SPEAR GUY AAAHHHHHHH!!!

There’s also an extremely interesting online component to the game. Players can interact with other players in one of three ways. After using the other commodity in Dark Souls, called Humanity, to turn yourself back into a human (you become undead again the next time you die), you can set a beacon and summon people from their games into yours to help you, unfortunately you can also be invaded by other players who try and kill you, so in addition to the world trying to kill you, other players may also be trying to kill you at the same time. I once had the odd situation of two players literally fighting over me, my summoned companion trying to protect me from an invader while I tried to protect myself from enemy knights.

AAAHH GONNA STAB MYSELF IN THE FACE WHEN THAT BIG BOULDER ROLLS INTO ME!!!!

The third and even more bizarre online interaction is through the writing of messages in the world. Once you acquire a piece of chalk from an item vendor you can write messages on the walls and floors of your world which are visible to other players. Naturally this is a great way to point out secrets to people and to suggest tactics for difficult enemies. But several hours into the game you may, as I did, read a few rather ominous messages, such as, “Be careful, people lie”. It's fascinating interactions with players you've not even met in the game that add to the overall mind buggering experience that is Dark Souls.

YAAARGH GIANT EEL BITING MY PENIS!!!! AAAAH PEEEEEENISSSS!

Dark Souls is a pretty stellar game away from it's crushing difficulty, it looks good and has plenty of atmosphere and plays very smoothly. If I had to nitpick it's technical aspects I'd suggest they try a little harder with the english voice actors, who mostly sound like half drunk renaissance faire workers. The inventory system is massively annoying and the stat system could be explained a little more clearly, but overall it's standard RPG aspects. These things are all unimportant though, as soon as you lock weapons with your first enemy and realise what the real content of Dark Souls is all about every thing else fades into the background.

At times Dark Souls just gets to be too much and to prevent you from smashing all your controllers, followed by your TV and PS3 and anything else you can get your hands on until the tears blur your vision, you often need to take a break. Sometimes this break can be a few days. It's up to you if the balance of the reward of success is worth the pain of getting there. For some people I imagine Dark Souls is going to be a quick return to the shop if they're not ready for it. Just as I'm sure others are going to revel in the challenge it presents.