Dark Souls - Playstation 3

this game is one of the best RPGs I've ever played. although i am probably less than 5% through the game. i've played it for about 10-12 hours and i can't get pass the bosses or the tough normal enemies. they kill you within a hit or two and it takes a lot to kill bosses. also. i was killing weak enemies for 6 hours. to upgrade my stats and i am far away from killing the second boss or kill the stupid guard that kills me in a hit. i should be lvl 6 but i am level 25 in my current stage and its still almost impossible to do anything. there is a boss every level and at least 2 tough enemies(even stronger than a boss) in each map. this game is just too hard and i am a pro gamer. UPDATE\\ 5/26/13 Finally. took me 2 days to kill a mini boss(mini bosses are often stronger than real bosses). and i just encountered 3 more mini bosses. now. i see that this game is a joke. it should be called Kill The Boss game. there is no objectives. no missions. nothing to do but to kill bosses. thats it. i am wasting my time with this UPDATE\\ 5\27\2013 Started the game all over because i defeated The Mini Boss in the wrong way and i didn't get the bonus from that so i restarted and got to the mini boss and defeated him pretty easily this time(got the Ring from Havel). Also i noticed that this game has a really big Error Error #1) this error is pretty common but probably noone notices it. maybe its just me. Sometimes. when you pressed X or any other button and then quickly Pressed Triangle or any other button. the second button performs the same action as the first button. happens a lot in this game. also. if you target an enemy with R3 and you move sideways. sometimes. it will automatically roll and it will cause trouble. Lets get back to the Mini Boss. AKA Havel The Rock(hes in the basement of the tower) if you started the game. you need to know how to defeat him. i used this one and i thing its the best way. First. i started the game with the Pyrotechnic character. he has special fire attack.(Use the Battle Axe) first of all. when you get to Havel. make him follow you and then get all the way where u came from. when you get to the door you came from. stand still there until he comes. when Havel comes. let him try to hit u near the door. when he is about to hit you. roll back. and then before he gets up. hit him with the R2 with the Battle Axe. and then retreat back to the stairway. but not too far away. Havel will go back down but before he does. get into the room and make him follow you again. keep doing the same thing. tho it gets harder after. he will know what your doing and he will start walking by the wall so he doesn't get hit. so you might want to make him follow you to the stairway. also. if you have firebombs, throw knives. use them at him while hes retreating. also use your Fire Bolt(special attack for pyro character). This is the best way to defeat him. don't listen to what the tutorial tells you. don't try to back stab him. you need to do that like 30 times. and i wasn't able to do it 3 times. because he kills me. also. make sure your Health is always full. use Aid even if you have 90%. You might wanna use the Golden Pine Risen(will last for about a minute). makes it faster to kill the basta*d. UPDATE 6/3/2013 i've been playing this game for a while. i have about 20 hours in it and this game is packed. through it was hard at the begining. it gets fairly easy after a while. make sure you search every corner for weapons and special early items. if you don't . its gonna be hard for you. though make sure to repair your weapons. you will encounter the blacksmith and then many blacksmiths. the first blacksmith is the best. but you will have to kill him. don't kill him right away. make sure your done with all the bosses around and play with the game for a cpl of days and sweep the maps. then kill the Blacksmith to get a key which opens the Closed door in Darkroot Garden(I killed him accidentally. but am happy i did). also make sure to use spells. upgrade your weapons and reinforce them. i don't recommend to upgrade a weapon more than 5 times. because then you will get new better weapons and it would be hard to find the upgrading items. also. i got a sword in the begining of the game. its called. Dark Knight sword. its a very good weapon. it has the highest damage for a while. upgrade it. it will have crazy damage rates. you will be able to kill NPCs and Mini Bosses in a hit or two. i killed two Major Bosses without getting a hit "The Gargoyles". don't quit this game. stay playing it. its fun once you get the right equipment. UPDATE 6/10/2013 I've noticed in the past couple of days that in this game you actually miss about 50% of the content and missions. don't kill the characters in the game that are not enemeies. i killed most of them. the game never tells you not to but they give you quests and missions. but even with that. you will not go through the whole game. so be careful playing this game UPDATE. 3/21/14 This game is awesome. first. i was pissed because the beginning was hard. but it is awesome once you get the hang of it. i've played it for about a year. 250 hours and 3 playthroughs. i never spent that much time in an RPG game. thanks for the great game. BTW. i just bought DSII. awesome as well.

Well, these are exaggerations on both counts but... you get the idea. I do not consider myself a hard core gamer but there were a few grand games that I played hard and long on the PS3: Oblivion, Fallout, Grand Turismo, Demon's Souls. Of these, Demon's Souls was the only Platinum I've ever earned and it clocks at over 500 hours of pure fear, strong anxiety and intense frustration punctuated by brief moments of pride and joy brought by the hard earned sweet victories. I started talking about Demon's Souls because to us, PS3 gamers, Dark Souls is NOT the first coming of unspeakable terror onto our consoles. Dark Souls is the SECOND coming. And what a visitation this promises to be :) Okay, here it is, after the first few hours. I am going to post updates (not spoilers) as I progress through the game. THE COMMONS Deomon's Souls has many, never-seen-before, amazing innovations. We hoped and we expected to see most of them again on 'chapter two' and Dark Souls does not disappoint even though Dark's seems to be a Universe unrelated to Demon's. It's not even a parallel Universe (I like to think of parallel Universes as those in which the other fellow Dark Souls players exist - if running around as a hollowed-out soul you can call 'existence'. It's a different world but a lot works in seemingly familiar ways. Here's what I would call the Demon's heritage: - One-save only. And this is a BIG thing because the game saves itself every couple of seconds. Once you get hurt or you hurt someone you didn't mean to you can't go back to the previous save because there's no such thing. Unless you have one hand on the power cord ready to pull it, everything you do has consequences and you can't go back and try again. Be VERY careful when you talk to them merchants or blacksmiths because one unintended slap and they will never deal with you again. - Human vs. Soul form. Can't be invaded by other players while in Soul (Hollow) form. As a Human you can invade other words, help others, seek help. - Classes. You pick yours from 10. Not exactly the same as in Demon's though. - Stats. Again, 10 different categories, some differently named, some totally new like 'humanity' and 'attunement'. - The ability to seek help and to help others. I believe that you can have up to 3 others helping. - The Stones. They are of different colors but they have uses not unlike the Demon's stones, possibly more: to seek help, to leave messages, to invade. - Souls as currency of the land and the price price you must pay to level up. And you lose them all every time you die so... use them (buy, uplevel) before you lose them. - Every time you rest all non-boss enemies respawn. - The ability to play nasty and invade other players' worlds. - Blood stains. You can see how others died. - Second (and ONLY second) chance. You can recover lost souls if you can touch your own blood stain before you die again. - Messages. Can leave messages but don't expect to be able to type away detailed clues. You pick your message from a pre-approved list. - Incredibly precise combat. Each class of weapons acts differently and you can see/feel the difference between hitting flesh, bone or armor. - Uchigatanas!!! Need I say more? These are by far the coolest katanas you'll ever swing in any game and probably the best you can get through this one at least through mid-game. Demon Souls most terrifying black phantoms (invading players) where the 2-Uchigatana dudes. Most, possibly all of the Demon's weapons can be found in Dark: Claymores, Halberds, Clubs, Axes, Estocs and so forth. - Practice makes perfect. Like Demon's Souls, this is a struggle for perfection because in most instances only perfect or near-perfect attacks and defenses will save you from yet another horrific death. - Continues the Deomon's tradition of no difficulty levels. Like its predecessor, there's only one difficulty level on Dark and that's 'very easy', as in 'very easy to get yourself killed'. Seriously, for anyone who played Demon's, Dark feels like the second or third playthrough only you start at a low level, have no weapons or armor and find yourself in completely unfamiliar territory now so it takes a little bit of dying, observing and experimenting before your learn the ropes. THE DELTAS (new and never seen before) This, I'm sure, is going to be a growing list and I'm going to update it as I progress into the game. If what's going on in this game can be called 'progress'. - One-world design. This appear to be a huge world but gates, bridges and passes are all well guarded so be prepared to shed a lot of blood and die a lot to earn your right of passage. Unlike Demon's which had a hub that was the only connection between the several separate 'worlds', Dark's world regrions are very much interconnected and much of the fun and mystery is your gradually discovering and unlocking sometimes secret doors and passages. - The healing system. The role of 'grasses' is drastically reduced (there are some mosses that you can still use to cure ailments) but Dark doesn't make it as easy when it comes to your ability to recover health. It's no longer near-unlimited. - The Covenants. Each of the 9 will open new play modes and, as always, every action brings about consequences. Joining may appear an easy decision but separation can be painful and costly. - Pyromancy as a THIRD class of magic, joining sorcery and miracles. For anyone who likes fire and explosions... it's awesome. - The Gifts. Interestingly some seem to have no effect while others such as the Magic Key you get if you pick the class of Thief is quite useful. - Danger times 2. It may be just because I'm a little rusty playing Souls or because I know Demon's so well now it's like a walk in the park but Dark appears to be a lot harder. But... we play, we learn. We shall see :) - More color. Can't imagine Demon's with colors but in this world the occasional bright splashes blend well and don't subtract from the feeling of danger. - No Luck. You COULD get lucky in Deomon's Souls but that's no longer the case. That particular stat has disappeared, replaced by your ability to hold 'humanities' which you lose every time you die. - Sweet revenge. One of the covenants mission is to hunt down and kill those nasty dark phantom bullies. - And, of course, Dark Souls does away with all the gentleness and hand-holding occasionally found in Demon's. It really does. Remember that nice Russian lady in the Nexus that you must kill if you want your Platinum? Gone! My first impressions: don't trust anyone because everybody seems to be either evil or insane. THE STORY Not quite sure what's expected of me yet and I don't think I should spoil anyone's fun anyway. There is a prologue, of course and, clearly, terrible things happened that caused this not to be a happy world. Need to investigate some more but I'm not sure who's to be trusted, who should be used, who can be a friend. MY RATING If Amazon's 5 stars stands for 'I love it', what would be the star count for "I love it, I fear it and, 80 hours into the game I'm obsessed by it"? Well... 5's the limit :). I expect to spend hundreds of hours playing this game and, hopefully, with a little or maybe a lot of help from my friends and a lot of priceless advice from some of the game-focused sites - I will name my favorites on a comment to this review. __________________________________________ July 2012 Update: Several months and several hundreds hours of gameplay later, I'm still playing Dark Souls. Sure, I 'beat' the game so many times already but finishing the game the first time is only the beginning. Then you play 'new game plus' (NG+), then NG++, NG+++ and so on where everything gets harder and harder. Can't get the platinum trophy unless you go through the game at least twice. And there's the PvP (player vs. player) which is where, with your most deadly or your most fun character built to much your skills you can face other players in everything ranging from helping out a fellow player beat a boss or a fair 1v1 fight where players bow to each other in the beginning and pay their respects to the defeated one once the fight is over to no-rules melees where magic and poison knives fly, buffed greatswords or halberds hit hard and you may face up to 3 players plus whatever the game may be throwing at you at the same time. The fun never ends, the variety is almost endless and it's addictive. -- >> Brush your teeth, it's the law! <<

WARNING: This review may contain spoilers for those who have not played this title What can be said about the games of FromSoftware that hasn't already been said? They have become famous for the Souls series of games, starting with Demon's Souls. When the title hit the market, it exploded with success and notoriety. It was a very challenging game that didn't hold the player's hand. Players were expected to die very regularly, with the risk of losing all their experience/currency. But, the more time that is put into the game, the more the player gets out of it. It was just as rewarding as it was punishing. 2011 saw the release of Dark Souls, a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. Where does it stand in comparison to its older brother? Let's find out! Dark Souls continues FromSoft's tradition of combining crushing challenge with sweet rewards. This is not a game for the faint of heart, as you WILL die repeatedly throughout your playtime. The story for this game appears a bit thin, but has a lot to explore. Basically, the deities of the world have fallen from grace and roaming around past their primes, as hollows. The game consists of the player character going from area to area finding items and performing tasks to progress, tackling down major bosses along the way, all culminating in a second half where they take down the Lord Souls and keep the last flame from dying out. Or is it... ? The story appears simple but has many layers and many bits of lore backing it up. You learn more about the back stories by reading item descriptions and talking to NPCs. Along the way, you will uncover interesting bits of information and many players have drawn their own conclusions that link all these different characters and their home areas together. But let's talk about the biggest asset to Dark Souls, the game play. You have you usual swords, axes, hammers, etc. And you have your shields, all of these pieces of equipment have their own uses and effects that vary from build to build. One of Dark Souls' strongest points is the MASSIVE amount of ways to play the game. Do you want to ninja flip while slashing down your foes with a katana? Or do you want to play the reaper, and strike them down with a might scythe? Or do you want to build up your armor and punish your enemies by smashing them with massive hammers? Or even more in-depth, do you have a favorite anime or video game character you want to cosplay as? Or maybe even any and all of the above? Yes, yes, and yes! All these possibilities are viable, and so much more. The boss fights deserve their own section. Dark Souls has some of THE greatest boss fights I have EVER played against. They come in a massive variety and in all shapes a sizes. A massive wolf wielding his fallen master's greatsword? Check! A one-eyed dragon who can blast you with an AoE move that doubles the damage you take? Check! The infamous duo, Biggie and Smalls? Check, check, check! The bosses of this game are massive obstacles, and will push you to the limit of your skills and then some. You will inevitably die while facing them, but the satisfaction of finally taking down a massive fiend who killed you a dozen times is a feeling that cannot be replicated. Let's say you get the game and after trial and error and many hours, you finally beat the game. You watch the credits, and it takes you into a New Game+. "Sweet, time to steamroll everything," you might think. Think again. One thing that makes Dark Souls, and the rest of the Souls titles, stand out is that the enemies get more powerful with each play through, up until the 7th. You can play this game many times, get everything down, and STILL have some details catch you off guard. This game punishes mistakes. But rewards great playing. Now the replay value. Oh my goodness, this game was so much replayability. In my time with this game, I have created dozens of characters and amassed hundreds upon hundreds of hours engrossed in it. To say this game has infinite replay value is underselling it. You can even start off with super strong weapons early on if you know how to get them. Putting time into Dark Souls will reward you with an even better gaming experience. As I have said earlier, I genuinely believe Dark Souls to be one of the greatest video games of all time. I know in ten years time I will look back at this game and say, "oh yeah, this is still one of my favorite games ever." The challenge, the replay value, the variety, the boss fights, the EVERYTHING. It doesn't get much better than this. As a final note, if you are intending on buying this game, buy the Artorias of the Abyss DLC pack. It has the 3 best boss fights in the game, and is one of the few times where I can truly say the DLC was worth every cent. I do hope you will engage in jolly cooperation, and as always, prepare to die. 10/10

Well I just reached Anor Londo, am at level 44 and think I can safely give a review for this game. First of all let me say that Demon's Souls was one of my favorite games of all times. I spent 80 hours on it. And that with a full time job, 4 classes and a relationship. So sleep got sacrificed. But that game was so addictive I had to loan it to a friend to get it out of my house so I could sleep. LOL That being said, part of the reason I'm rated this game so high is because I loved the first one so much. Here are the PROS and CONS of this game so far: PROS: 1. LONG: This game is basically Demon's Souls with like 2 times the content. I'm only almost at halfway I think in this game and I've already spent 30+ hours. So content wise, you have enough here to get more than your money's worth. 2. Graphics: Very nice. The environments are beautifulT and the game has no loading screens other than after you die. Considering how big this game's map is, that's an accomplishment in and of it's self. 3. Music: Just like Demon's Souls, it plays only in boss fights or in in the particularly safe area. The soundtrack to this is really good in my opinion. The music can really get your blood boiling in a hard battle. 4. Character Design: The enemies are vary a lot and the models look great. The AI is done in a way to make to keep you on your toes a lot and very slow to approach and enemy you haven't met before. 5. Weapons: Wow, there are so many to choose from. And this time they added a feature that explains the little icons for the stats. 6. Multiplayer: You can still summon people into your game like before to help. You can also invade other ppls games. They also added a new feature called covenants that make things even more interesting. You can also report an invader if he kills you. 7. Bosses: So far they have been all really cool and tough. 8. Hard: I love a challenge and wanted this game to be hard. It delivers this VERY WELL. But what makes it really a good thing is because it adds to the dangerous feel of the atmosphere and the world. It's easy to get lost in the world and feel a fear of dying and progressing due to this relentless difficulty. 9. You can see the areas you need to reach in a distance. CONS: 1. Cheap: In my 30+ hours of play I only met a couple of bosses that were a bit cheap. The main problem is that the game doesn't give you much time to assess whats going on and.. you are dead. This is taken to the highest degree with the Stray Demon. But they made him and "optional" boss so i can forgive that. The Capra Demon was another one that was ridiculous. Also, the treasure chests that eat you and kill you with no warning. That is cheap. But it did scare the crap out of me so again, I forgive that. 2. Lag: The frame rate will drop really low in some areas and also the controls will have a big lag in the middle of a fight sometimes. It doesn't happen enough to piss you off and make it unplayable. It just happens every now and then... Its annoying cause that can get you killed, but it is rare. Still they should fix that. I didn't have that problem in Demons Souls ever. 3. Hard: Yeah, I know i say this in the pros section. It's here as a CON because some times it feels a bit too much. It's almost like they are skirting a thin line between healthy very hard, and unfair. For example, you can get cursed in this game and it takes half your health. That is fine but they don't tell you much on how to cure it and also, there are some areas, The Hollows, where it can happen in a VERY inopportune spot where getting a cure would be almost impossible. Nothing is impossible in this game, but sometimes it can seem that way. 4. Lack of explanation of weapons and items like the Fire Keeper Soul or how to equip magic or how humanity works, etc. I don't want them to hold our hands but a little more basic explanation through NPC's would be nice so we don't have to guess or look on line. 5. Can't meet up with someone you know to play with. I know that breaks the atmosphere but lets face, we are sharing notes with each other and summoning anyway, why not let us invite people we know to play too? I don't think it would hurt anything. Over all this game is very solid and addictive to play. In a way Demon's Souls was a bit better as it wasn't as hard as this game. But it offers WAY more content and that is really all i wanted from Dark Souls.. and they more than delivered. The areas and the design is so good and the combat is so addictive that you will wannna keep playing it. Also, though I said it was a CON, in a way it is nice that you are not told EVERYTHING cause it makes you surprised when you accidentally find something. :)

Honestly, I love this game soooooo much. I bought it like a year and a half ago and I still play it all the time. I'd say I'm on my 9th playthrough and I STILL love the hell out of it. I legitimately think that it is so well-made and so well-developed that it is a true piece of art. I'll try and explain in some detail what makes Dark Souls such a great and unique experience. Yeah so this one's gonna be long because I have a lot stuff to gush about haha. First of all one of the most impressive things about Dark Souls is how unbelievably balanced the game is. Every weapon in this game can essentially be used effectively. No weapon is overtly better than any other. Sure heavier weapons maybe more powerful but they are also much slower. Spears allow you to attack with your shield up but they also have generally lower damage output. This makes the game incredibly fun and unique for each player because you really get to test out and choose which weapons you like depending on your playstyle without any inherent disadvantages. Your skill in combat depends primarily on your skill as a player, its not what weapon you use but how you use it. I Personally like using Katanas like the Uchigitana (my favorite weapon) and causing my enemies to bleed but other guys like using big weapons like the Zweihander and just pounding enemies with well-timed slow strikes (some of the best players I've ever seen do this). This balance also travels over to character development. When you make a character in Dark Souls you can choose 10 basic character classes but these classes only decide your starting level, beginning stats, and starting equipment and after that what you level up or what type of character you choose to play is entirely up to you. So the starting class only means something in the beginning and as the game goes along it starts to lose all its meaning. That means that the amount of character customization open to you is nearly limitless because any character can use sorcery, pyromancy, miracles (holy magic), or just straight up fight physically. This makes for a huge variety of different viable character builds so there is an immense amount character customization. The combat system in this game is just flawless. It controls beautifully well and you always feel like you have complete control over your character. The combat system maybe one of the deepest parts of this game there is just so much variety to the attacks you have with different weapons and the ability to do critical hits by either backstabbing (stabbing a humanoid enemy from behind) or parrying (countering a strike with your shield and leaving them wide open to a powerful attack) make the combat incredibly satisfying and difficult. In Dark Souls your character travels through an open world composed of different areas that you can travel through freely. Every area in this game is unique and different from each other as are the enemies in each area. Not only does this system provide you with a great chance to explore on your own but the different enemies in each area constantly keep you on your toes and make every area fresh and unique. There are no pallet-swapped versions of enemies you encountered previously in Dark Souls (like there are in so many other RPG's). However I know what everyone wants to hear about and that is the difficulty level of Dark Souls. This game is very very hard. At times its almost punishing but one of Dark Souls' greatest strengths is that while it is incredibly difficult, it is never unfair. This is an amazing line that very few games are able to walk successfully. There are no cheap enemies or bosses in this game and when you die it is nearly always your own fault. What Dark Souls however does better than pretty much any other game is emphasize patience, caution, and learning. With all the frantic FPS's like COD and crazy third person shooter-platformers like the Uncharted series (which I love btw) these are aspects of gameplay that have kind of been lost in this generation of video games. In Dark Souls if you run into an area attacking a group of enemies head on without any forethought you are going to get your butt whooped. You're going to die a lot in Dark Souls and as you do you're going to start to learn from your mistakes and you will see results. There are strategies you can use against every enemy and every trap in this area and its up to you to develop them. I am not going to lie to you, the amount you will die will be at points truly frustrating but this is a good thing. Not only that but this game really really punishes you for dying because when you do you lose all your souls (experience points and currency) and in order to get them back you have to go to your bloodstain which is where you died last time. You may be so angry and upset and you'll start to feel like you'll never beat this boss or pass this part and that you never want to play the game again. If you keep going however, you will eventually conquer the obstacle you were facing and you will be rewarded with one of the greatest senses of accomplishment you have ever felt from a video game. When you finally beat a boss or clear an area after hrs of fruitless attempts this euphoric sense of achievement just washes over you and then everything you did, all those deaths, feels completely worth it. Its an unbelievably satisfying and wonderful feeling and its something that very few, if any, other video games have ever been able to deliver so successfully. Dark Souls brings you to the lowest of lows so that it can also bring you to the highest of highs and it really is just a great treat, especially for anyone who enjoys a challenge. If there's one knock against this game it's against its story. Many people complain that Dark Souls has no story or more specifically that its story isn't very clear or accessible. This is an absolutely fair point. The story of Dark Souls isn't really clearly elucidated or told to you, its more up to you to find it on your own and interpret it based on item descriptions, various conversations you have with different characters you have throughout the game, and so on. While I I think that Dark Souls' story is awesome, I will also admit that it isn't as good at telling it. Nobody really tells you what exactly is going on throughout the game and it is true that at points you will be told to do things for no reason known to you. However I think that people who complain about this have really missed the point of Dark Souls. The story isn't the main focus of this game, its the gameplay. You play Dark Souls to beat it because you want to conquer this game and its extraordinarily fun. The story is just there to essentially tie everything like the bosses, the enemies, the areas, and the npc's together and give it a common theme. The game's story is built around the gameplay not the other way around and frankly I think that if there was more direction in Dark Souls it would ruin the whole spirit of adventure and mystery the game has around it. It has this amazing lonesome, dark, mysterious atmosphere which I think is complimented very well by its subdued and esoteric storyline. Think about this way, did anyone really know the story to Contra based on the game??? No but everyone played it and loves it because its fun and you just wanted to beat it because it was really hard. This is similar to what Dark Souls does and a more exposition heavy delivery of its tale would hurt the game more than help it I think. Anyway I've gone on way too long. I hope this review convinced you to buy this game as it is truly an amazing experience that I think everyone should give a shot. Sure its high difficulty level is not for everyone but I still think you should try it because if it is for you, it will be one of your absolute favorite games ever. Seriously just play it...

I must start this review by saying Demon's Souls is one of my favorite games ever. Its online play is ingenious and gives the game immense replay value. I have been eagerly awaiting Dark Souls since it was first advertised and have been counting the days down with my brother and sister. Since I had the game pre-ordered it arrived in a beautiful collectors case with an artbook, online strategy guide, and the soundtrack. But those are nothing compared to this wonderful game. It is certainly Demon's Souls spiritual successor in almost everything except for the overall world and plot, but anyone playing this game, even Demon's Souls players, must be prepared for how extremely hard it is. The game is very similar to Demon's Souls so I will go over some of the differences and similarities instead of giving an in depth description of everything. CONTROLS: The overall game play is very similar to Demon's Souls and all the controls are exactly the same, except now select is your gesture menu and you now get a pick-up item which allows you to rate and leave messages. To leave messages you use the orange soapstone either by equipping it and pressing circle or through your inventory menu. The menu remains relatively the same which allows you to use, compare, and equip items. You can still lock-on but I haven't figured a way to switch targets unless I totally unlock and then re-lock. COMBAT: Combat is also quite similar to Demon's Souls. You get some extra moves that, when done right, can be very helpful. You can do a jumping attack, kick enemies, and a plunging attack. The jumping attack is your most powerful attack, except it can leave you open to attack briefly if not done right. The kick attack is a brilliant move that is done in close quarters and when an enemy is close to en edge, letting you boot them off. I have only used the plunging attack against the 2 bosses I have encountered thus far but it does massive damage. When falling off a ledge you press R1 to plunge your weapon into the enemy. The enemies, unfortunately, seem quite a bit more intelligent then in the previous games. Some of them will leap at you from ungodly distances to give you a painful blow, rush at you from unexpected areas, attack you over and over before you have a chance to roll away, or they will jump away and drink a flask to regenerate their HP. This has certainly added to many deaths for me. GAMEPLAY: The game play is different yet similar in some ways to the previous game. There is no nexus anymore and the world seems more open compared to the 5 different worlds previously. You aren't a soul but in a similar way you are hollowed, or undead. You rest at various bonfires which will replenish your HP, fill your Estus Flasks, Level Up, and regain your humanity(body). However, every time you rest at a bonfire it replenishes normal enemies which adds majorly to the difficulty factor. You also spawn at the last bonfire you rested at when you die. One of the big drawbacks is it doesn't actually tell you how many souls you need to level up until you actually have the correct amount of souls. Similar to Demon's Souls, you level up by killing enemies and collecting their souls. However, if you die you loose those souls until you can pick up your sign again which is located 10 seconds before your death spot. If you die again before you get your souls back, you loose them forever which can get very frustrating. Dark has also fixed the game so no more hard quitting to skip an unpleasant death. When you hard quit it loads right as you are dying. Instead of having grass to consume to regenerate your HP you have something called Estus Flasks. I'm not sure all the ways to gain more of these but some are given to you and others are gained as your vitality increases. You regain your flasks at the bonfires. If the bonfire isn't Kindled (which is done while in body form and by using humanity) then you get 1/2 the amount of flasks filled. If the bonfire is kindled you get the full amount. You can make the flasks more powerful with certain items and upgrades. No more duping tons of grasses that allows you to be nearly immortal. You can start the game with some of the same characters as Demon's but with a couple new ones, such as the pyromancer. The character customization has remained relatively the same. You also get to choose a 'gift' to start with. Some have uses for covenants and others have immediate benefits. As a side note, the gift Tiny Being's Ring description says it lets you recover HP which is actually incorrect, it simply provides a 5% boost to your HP without any regeneration. ONLINE PLAY: Once again this game has it's signature unique online play. You can summon and invade other players, leave messages, and view other players blood splotches. Even though Dark still has these things it takes it even further now. You can join 'covenants' which help align who are on which side and who may be enemies. You also get certain benefits from different covenants. You still use various stones to summon or invade other worlds. Unlike in Demon's it seems like you don't rate other players when they get summoned. This is nice since in Demon's no one seemed to know how to rate fairly. I highly suggest summoning other players to help since it can be really hard going through it alone. I'm not sure if there is more to who can summon who but me and my brother cannot seem to see the other persons soul sign despite being able to still summon other players. We didn't have this problem in Demon's. GRAPHICS/SOUNDS: The graphics are beautiful! The game is very high quality, crisp, and beautifully done. The environments are huge and amazingly done. Movements are smooth and realistic, and there is no transition time and load times are very rare and short. The few speaking NPCs I have encountered thus far have all done a good job and the music is beautifully done and fits with the environment. OVERALL: This game is wonderfully done, but I suspect it is only for the patient and dedicated players. I have died more times then I can count and have barely moved far into the game. It has gotten very frustrating at times and I have lost thousands of souls already from my untimely deaths. This game seems permanently set on the hard or crushing difficulties that can be found on other games. However, if you stick with it and learn what techniques works(I have discovered, unlike in Demon's Souls, that shields are very useful) and which don't, it is very rewarding when you progress to the next section. I suspect once I have figured out the new combat techniques and learn all the differences and little extras it will be even more enjoyable. So if anyone is looking for a challenging and interactive game, I highly suggest this game! (Just a side note. I might have some of the technical stuff wrong since I am still early in the game so I may have come to some of the wrong conclusions.)

Dark Souls (and its spriritual predecessor, Demon's Souls) is a truly unique and amazing gameplay experience. As a Demon's Souls player, I believe that Dark Souls is an improvement and worthy successor, and is actually one of my favorite games of all time. It is not for everyone, however. In my opinion, assuming a remote baseline interest in RPGs, people who would like Dark Souls fall into two general categories: 1) Those who love punishing, unforgiving difficulty; don't mind dying frequently to learn/memorize levels; or 2) Those who enjoy reading message boards, wikis, and FAQs to learn more about the game I myself fall into the second category. I am not much of a RPG player nowadays, but something about the Souls series really feels nostalgic to me. It reminds me of the countless hours I poured into games like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasies as a kid, reading FAQs on how to obtain that rare item or defeat that optional boss. The unique thing about the Souls series is that almost every encounter, every level, every boss feels like that rare event in other RPGs you need to prepare for. It makes for a very gratifying gameplay experience, if you are willing to put in the time. If you don't fall into one of those two categories above (or a mixture of the two), then I feel as though Dark Souls might not be the right choice for you. The game can be VERY unforgiving if you arent carrying the right equipment for the situation, or if you didn't do things in a certain order, etc. Almost all enemies (save for some "mini-bosses") respawn when you die, so if you don't want to consult a FAQ/wiki, you may find yourself dying 10, 20, or more times in certain sections of the games which understandbly can get very frustrating. Fortunately though, there is usually some trick / item / method to get by almost all difficult sections in the game, so long as you are willing to seek help online. Bottom Line --- the game is indeed difficult, and sometimes very vague in how to accomplish certain tasks. However, if you are willing to play online and summon help, or to consult FAQs/Wikis online, there is NOTHING in the game that is not doable. Let me start with the similiarities between Dark Souls and Demons Souls: - Game saves constantly / Can't undo any actions / Save and Quit anytime, anywhere you want and reload at the exact spot - Combat feels largely the same, aside from some nice changes I will list out later on - Many "nods" to Demons Souls in gameplay (a dragon who breathes fire on a bridge you have to cross, a NPC who kills other NPCs, etc) - Shortcuts are littered throughout the levels - Souls are the currency of the game and are used to level up as well - Souls (and new Humanity) are lost when you die. You have one chance to get back to where you died to reclaim them - Still need to repair equipment. I find this annoying but most equipment lasts a long time before needing to be repaired. - Crystal lizards return (they drop very nice items used to upgrade equipment) -- except this time they are MUCH easier to kill and the way they spawn is MUCH more forgiving than Demons Souls (in Dark Souls, even if the crystal lizard gets away from you, you can just reload your game and he will spawn again. In Demons, each lizard had a respawn counter based on how many bosses you've killed, and if that respawn counter went to zero you would never see that particular lizard again!) - Online invasions and co-op return, largely similar to Demons Souls in practice Some of the new changes are: - "Open" World design. No more central nexus safe zone. The world of Dark souls is one open map with many areas being interconnected to several other areas. I put "Open" in quotes because while you can explore many areas to begin with, there is really one general path of gameplay for new players. If you deviate from this path and explore, you will most likely be slaughtered very quickly by the enemies in areas where you are not "supposed" to be in yet. Still, that shouldn't stop you from making "suicide" runs to obtain nice loot from these areas early on. - Ability to jump. While running, releasing and pressing the run button again will cause your player to jump. There are actually some "platforming" areas where you have to jump across a gap. It is something simple but i feel like it adds a lot to the gameplay. - Bonfires. Strategically placed by the developers throughout the world, these are your new resting points. When you die, you respawn at the last bonfire you rested at. You level up, switch out magic spells, etc at bonfires. When you rest at a bonfire, all enemies respawn. - Infrequent loading screens. Makes farming much, much faster than in Demons Souls. - No more item burden!! Carry as much junk as you want. - You still have equip burden, but now arrows dont count towards your equip burden. So i can finally walk around with 500 arrows and not move like a slug. - In Demon's Souls, your roll/run speed was determined on whether you were above or below 50% of your equip load. In Dark, this is further refined into 25% splits (0-25% of equip, you move fastest, 25-50% you move a little slower, etc) - Healing is done through "Estus Flasks" which are limited in quantity and are only refilled when you rest at a bonfire (sounds tough, but actually works well) - Magic has limited casts and the casts are refilled at a bonfire (also sounds tough, but i actually like this way better - and i play as a melee/mage character. No more needing to interrupt your battle by refilling your MP) There are some issues with the game, most notably a sluggish framerate in certain areas. This is my only complaint. However, the framerate is bearable and is not game-breaking. I play on PS3 and yes, the area "Blighttown" is pretty bad in terms of framerate but I never died because of it and never felt like something bad happened to me because of it. Now is a great time to buy this game, especially since patch 1.05 is out. This patch fixed a lot of things with the game, most notably making it much easier (enemies give more souls, you can buy upgrade materials at blacksmiths instead of having to farm them, etc). Pre-patch 1.05, this game was MUCH more difficult in my opinion. Patch 1.05 gives it a "comfortable" level of difficulty (still hard though). Here are some tips for new players to make your life a little easier (minor spoilers): - Choose the Master Key as your gift when creating a character. If you choose Thief, they automatically get it so choose something different or you'll end up with two keys - Pyromancer is a good class that most recommend to beginners. You start with a fireball spell that is helpful - Check online for a video that shows you a quick 8 minute or so run that you can do right after the tutorial, using the master key, to get some cool armor/weapons/items to help you begin the game - Almost all bosses have some sort of method to defeat them pretty easily. For example, the first real boss, Taurus Demon, you can utilize the tower to do a plunging attack on him over and over. The next boss, Bell Gargoyles, is almost impossible to defeat solo but becomes a cakewalk when you summon help (and don't worry if you play offline --- I believe the devs knew this boss was meant to be beat with help so you can summon NPCs if you are playing offline) - After Taurus demon, get the Drake Sword by shooting the tail of the red dragon on the bridge. Again, check online for videos. It is very easy to do, and gives you a sword that will carry you well many hours into the game and can 1 or 2 shot kill most regular enemies. Do NOT upgrade this sword --- by the time its damage is feeling low to you, you will have access to better weapons. This sword doesnt have any stat bonuses, so even a regular upgraded weapon will do better later on as your stats are higher. - In the beginning, if you see a tall, black knight standing do NOT engage him. He will kill you (unless you are very comfortable dodging & backstabbing, or willing to kill him a cheap way). You can come back later to teach him a lesson. - Once you come to the red dragon on the bridge, take the stairs down on the right hand side. Go across the room and there is another staircase down that leads you to the earlier bonfire. KICK down the ladder before jumping down and that opens up a shortcut between the dragon and the bonfire. Now you can easily farm souls --- run up to the bridge, trigger the dragon, and run back down. The dragon's fire will kill all the enemies on the bridge, netting you ~500 souls (in the beginning, each level up costs 700 - 1000 souls). Rest at the bonfire, and repeat. You can gain 10+ levels pretty quickly doing this, and it will give you some breathing room (plus it will help you equip the drake sword). Hope you guys have fun with this game. It is truly great. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

This game is great. I've been losing the urge to play games lately, maybe because I am getting older and I have other things to do. But this game, I continuously think about and want to get home from work so I can get on my PS3 and start playing. If you recall the predecessor game, Demon Souls, when it came out it was said that it was the hardest game ever made on PS3, and I believe its pretty much true. It was pretty damn hard. First time i played demon souls, i selected knight as my character, and god i had such a difficult time getting past the first stage... i had a speared knight which i can deal like 10 damage each hit that can kill me in one hit that was chasing after me in first level... later i found out about magics, and started a new game (after having not much success of beting it with knight) as a wizzard and wow, the game was so much easier, but still, if you fail to proceed with caution you were dead in 2 seconds. It held your attention because if you dont keep the attention, you would die, no matter how much you level up. Dark Souls, much like demon souls, carry lots of common factors. Some of the difference is now you can chose when to become human form (as long as you have the item humanity, which you will come across a lot), instead of only after killing demons in demon souls. the world does not shift between dark and white world. I think the game is much harder than its predesessor, however. I started out as a wizzard, learning from my mistake in demon souls (but now that I am pretty far into game, i wish i had pick something else so i didn't waste so much status points on magic), the game is a bit confusing as to where you should go, because after the tutorial state, you come to a place where a lot of different map is connected. You can start walking into a dungeon that has demons that you can't even attack. I have no idea how many times i died before i realized there are other paths you can take... So in a sense, the map is kind of complicated and more difficult compared to Demon Souls (demon Souls had pretty set order you have to beat the stages). One thing I feel they could have done better is the camera work. Sometimes the screen turns dark (especially in dark dungeons like blight town) because of the angling of your camera, and you just can't see through whatever is blocking the view (e.g. wooden wall). and of course that few split seconds you struggle to get the camera angle right, you are dead... but that adds to challeng of the game. Also the another thing is you need to reinforce your weapon/armor a lot before you can add special attributes to the weapon, unlike in demon souls, where you already had weapons with special abilities. It requires lots of time to collect the upgrade materials and souls. All this review, I've been comparing this game to Demon Souls. They are both great games. If you have not played neither, you wouldn't really get how good the other is either, because i dont think this game compares to any similar action rpg games. Overall, this game is an amazing game for people who likes intense gaming, and has lots of patience and concentration on games. if you are more casual player, this game is too hard and will take too much time to master it. To me, this game is awesome. I hope this review helps someone make your decision in buying the game. I would most definately buy Demon Souls 2.