Dark Souls - Limited Edition (PS3)

Lets be honest, we all knew the predecessor to dark souls, Demons Souls, was far too easy. The problem was you simply died too infrequently, the enemies far too easy, and the bosses were a pushover. There are several things that the developer has done for this second instalment to improve things a bit. Firstly, the magic bar is gone, and you can only use spells a limited number of times. After all, if you are in a tight spot and need to heal, or wait to recharge your fire bolt, or whatever your choice of spell is, this simply makes the game too easy. The game is remarkable because despite being a vast world, there are no loading screens. The world is seamless, and this is a remarkable achievement. Also, you can relax when the loading screen is on, and of course, having this 15 second break makes the game far to easy. The central nexus is gone, and instead you recoup your life and spell quote at bonfires scattered sparingly around the world. Like Demons Souls, you upgrade yourself, your armour and abilities using the souls of the enemies you kill. When you die, these souls are lost and you need to reach your previous location alive to get them back. If you die on the way back - say goodbye to your hard earned currency. In the quite likely event that you exhausted your prozac supply and emptied your alcohol stash when playing Demons Souls, you will need to stock up with all the medication you can muster for this second instalment. The game is mentally exhausting - you will lose count within the first hour of how many times you die. You will lose count of the amount of souls you let slip out of your grasp when you fail to reach the last point at which you died. You will, nonetheless be utterly hooked, because no matter how you die, it will always be your fault, which means you always know how and why. And when you know why, you might just have a bit of a chance of getting a few steps further before reaching your next resting place. It's a game that many will hate because, like it's predecessor, is fiendishly difficult even on the first play through, to the point where you lose your will to live, and ironically your soul as well. It's a game that tries desperately hard for you to fail at every second, and has that smug look when yet again, you see the "You Have Died" message. The controls are at times clunky, and not the most responsive. You can blame that when you die, but the fact is, it's just another part of the game you have to get used to. Also, when surrounded by multiple enemies, the target lock on is sometimes temperamental and doesn't select the closest enemy to target. This limited edition has a soundtrack CD which is pretty good (but not the sort of music you'd get your friends round to listen to), and a booklet of artwork that the game was based on. Nice stuff but not essential. This sort of game is a classic. Fiendishly difficult, amazingly challenging, and somewhat repetitive at times, this will be one of the most frustrating games of your gaming life to date. But that satisfaction when you beat a boss, or make it alive to a new part of the world is what makes the game so rewarding. If however, you are prone to depression, anxiety, and get frustrated easily by failure, get something else. For anyone else, attempt Dark Souls if you dare...

My game reviews are like hens teeth. I've been gaming since day one; the Hobbit on the zx, whetted my appetite and then I came Bards Tale on the C64, I was hooked. My first experience was, I suppose a bit odd. A cpm program to analyse production data, nice but no wow factor, but then I had the option to print so I did. I watched the print spit out off the printer, and my jaw dropped, it was printing the second line of data backwards, that just knocked me out, this box of tricks could think backwards, game, set and match to to that little box that would finish second to a 50p calculator in this day and age. There isn't a system that I haven't owned, the only one that knocked me out was the 3DO, I guess it was an odd one, the hardware was wAy ahead of the software. Then came the PS and the Xbox; game on. For me the PS has came out on top, it always seemed to have better games. When developers got the message we seen a slew of great games which set the bar; FF games, Skyrim, Amalur and others. Then a few years ago a small company with backup from the big players came on the scene, a game that had no facility to save, finish the level or die, ridiculous, oh yes, genius oh yes. Demons Souls divided gamers, too hard without saves was the cry, and they were right, this was a game which was survive or die, and players got used to dying. I'm 66 years old, my joypad skills stink, how on earth did I fall head over heels with a game that offered no help to old losers like me? Well it's quite simple you have two choices, learn how to die, and use your death to get better or sell your disc on eBay. Demons Souls and Dark Souls offer the player a chance to play for real. You will die!! Again and again and again, but you will learn, and you WILL complete the level. Dark Souls is insanely hard. They introduced Bonfires for saves, in all zones. But without a doubt they thought, "you want the bonfire Prepare to die", and you will, again and again and again. Bite the Bullet and have a go.

The two stars are for the edition, not the game. The game is one the best I have ever played in my 20 years of gaming. I finished it six times. I love the game so much I bought this limited edition even though I already had the Prepare to die Edition. I bought this limited edition mostly for the making-of. I wanted to know more about the geniuses behing this masterpiece. I was expecting something at the same level as the God Of War 3 making-of: lots of commentary from the developers and the director of the game. But it was a huge disapointement. It's not a making-of, more a series of short promotional, pure marketing videos. You can even find them on youtube. The rest of the package is OK. There is a small artbook and a CD of the sound tracks of the game. For me the only good thing of this edition is the last track of the CD, the beautiful music played at the end of the game. Apart from that it was not worth the money. If you have the choice prefer the Prepare To Die edition.

Dark Souls, the spiritual successor to the 2009 PS3 exclusive RPG game, Demon's Souls. After playing through Demon's Souls 3 times, I couldn't resist getting my hands on its sequel (although the only similarity is the 'Souls' name). After having my expectations raised (thankyou Demon's Souls) I really had high hopes for this game before I got it and let me just say it now, this game does not disappoint. Whether it be exploring a lonely, desolate forest to a beautifully structured castle, the environments in Dark Souls have been professionally constructed to the point where the environments can be appreciated thanks to the tremendous amount of detail From Software have incorporated into this magnificent, fictional world. Because of this, Dark Souls has a respectable characteristic other games lack nowadays, this is one of the contributing factors that help Dark Souls shine in comparison to the competition. In addition to this unique world, both the enemy design and the soundtrack aid this game become mind-mindbogglingly immersible which means rather than spending the expected one hour on this game, you will be playing it for about double that time during your first play of the game. This leads me onto the feel of the game. Dark Souls will last you around 50 hours to complete once, thats right, not a 6 hour storyline like some games this generation (Call of Duty in-particular), this game will last you around 50 hours. With a very steep learning-curve thanks to the game's style (it doesn't hold your hand, in the world of Dark Souls you're alone)nothing is greater than success; whether it be beating a boss or traversing a section of the game you've been working on for a while, the gratification Dark Souls offers in success is huge; this will make you want to keep on playing, making you a Dark Souls addict thus; keeping you coming back for more. In addition to this, once completed you enter NG+ (the + symbolizing the amount of times you've completed the game so it can be NG+++++ as an example) the game's difficulty increases to keep the enemy AI at the same level as you're character's ability, making it worth playing a few times rather than completing a single playthrough then leaving the game on the shelf forever more. One thing that really stands out in Dark Souls is the soundtrack's music that accompanies the sometimes chilling boss-battles. Bosses in Dark Souls are classified as a stronger-than-usual enemy of which stands out due to it's characteristics making it unique in comparison to other standard enemies. As I just mentioned, the soundtrack compliments the boss battles perfectly (usually reflecting the setting/mood of the boss you're fighting) helping raise the level of immersion and giving you a better feeling whilst battling these infamous characters. As an example, I recommend you check out this song from the Dark Souls soundtrack:[...] This example reflects the chilling reality of the boss you're battling, all captured perfectly in a musical piece - simply beautiful! The difficulty of Dark Souls has received critical acclaim for being a difficult however; the reality is once you've learned how to play the game, you will be ok. To succeed in Dark Souls the best thing to do is to learn enemy patterns, with this in mind, once you identify enemy attack patterns then the game will ask for your concentration of which leads on to success. If you are at all worried about the difficulty then fear not, at any point in the game you can summon either an AI character or a real player to help you on boss battles or you can battle them. Thanks to this feature, nobody has an excuse to get caught out on boss battles because you can summon up to 2 other people to help you defeat bosses, additionally, the people who hang around waiting to get summoned usually have good weapon sets and skill increasing your chances of success when battling a boss with either a online player or AI character. With this in mind, I wouldn't worry about the difficulty at all when debating a purchase of this game. The controls in Dark Souls offer ease and are well-mapped to work with the Playstation 3 controller. Although not as good as something such as Uncharted 3 (Using the L3 button to sprint rather than what Dark Souls does and uses the O button to sprint), they shine in making the game a more enjoyable experience thanks to a smooth, useful control scheme. Although the graphics in Dark Souls are not as polished as Demon's Souls (It is about twice as big as Demon's Souls so the graphics WOULD take a hit) they still look magnificent and are nicer than some games on the market today. Keep in mind this game has no loading screens so in some areas (Blighttown)the framerate can drop to below-average making the screen choppy; this isn't a surprise though because with the hardware for consoles being so old and the game being so big, there has to be limits. Throughout Dark Souls you will find weapons, armour sets, spells, items, consumables and treasures all of which can be used by your character to enhance your experience within this fictional world. To buy new items you use a currency called 'Souls' which is taken from killed enemies, this helps you level up your stats making the game easier for you to play as well as buy new items. To conclude, Dark Souls takes an incredible world, unique soundtrack, varied multiplayer elements and superb enemy design then mixes it all together to create a package superior to its predecessor, Demon's Souls. Because of this, I would highly recommend this game and if you're debating to geth either Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, go for Demon's then move onto the slightly enhanced Dark Souls for the best playing experience. Thankyou for reading, I give this game a 9.2/10, if interested, please see my Demon's Souls review.

In one hour of playing I've died about 20 times - I've fallen off cliffs, ledges and into water! I've been beaten to death by zombies and other things which I can't describe as I had no time to see them before before being crushed to death by big club. And then I am transported back to where I started to begin the torture again. This game is NOT fun nor is it entertaining, it is just stupid. The graphics are PS2 standard and the soundtrack? Didn't notice it. 58 gamers gave this 5 stars - I don't think I'll be trusting Amazon's star rating again.

Tried this game twice now, but im sorry its just too bloody hard. Reading other peoples hints and tips drove me potty. Each to there own i guess but not for me, graphics and music very good.

Look, this is a HARD game that requires a LOT of time. I bought it, played a lot of it (some of it while I was on vacation) and I'm still at 50% of the game and I don't know if I'm ever going to finish it (since then I bought The Last Of Us and finished it and then GTA V and have been playing it since). The good news is I enjoyed Dark Souls a lot and I really think I'm going back to it once I have finished GTA V and once I have the time. (BTW: I work at a consulting firm so I usually only have time for playing video games on the weekend. And even then I still have other things that I like or have to do).

I am not a hard core game player, but this is simply the most addictive game I have ever played. It reminds me of the old days of Dungeon Master, but with beautifully rendered and constantly changing panoramas. A bit tough, yes. I have had to redo many sections over and over again until I beat the boss, but what a thrill and sense of achievement when you eventually manage it. This is a great game, and I feel truly sorry for anyone who tries it and gives up before getting an idea of the rich attention to detail lavished on this epic adventure.