Criteria 2+4 game review

Dark Souls Review



PRAISE THE SUN!!!! Dark souls a dark, mysterious and a wondrous game in terms of beauty where you traverse the land known called lordran as you must full fill an undead prophecy to light the bonfire and bring the light back to lordran before the darkness consumes all. 

Then this game first came out the developers said that you will prepare to die when facing the horrors that lie in store for you within the game and those who got this game before the UK release drowned in their horror as those who had online on their Xbox or PS3 had to face a level 711 NPC phantom that invades your world every so often until the release date of dark souls was finally upon them.

Dark souls has many lores and quests and even questions that this game would like you to find out for yourself except for part of the mission such as ring the bells, get the lord vessel and eventually defeat the lord of the sun. The problem which some players may get annoyed about is that the game doesn't tell you where to go or who to kill such as after ringing the first bell people don't know where to go to ring the second bell. The game prefers it to be like this as it gives you more freedom to explore and learn all on your own and come across new ways to get to certain areas. There is a bigger story to this game however as you come across certain people who give you very useful information to the story and even the layout of a lot of envirements tells a story of what happened to a certain god or how this person may have died.

As you come across certain characters such as Solaire of astora (who is the most important NPC who some people would say) you will be able to find their summon mark in a certain area near a boss battle. What these summon marks do is allow you to bring an NPC to your side to help defeat a boss. Even this online feature has allowed the player to put down their own summon sign for other players to see in their world and to summon you to help in their dilemma  When you have online and you just want to play around in lordran you may come across a blood stain or 2 and this blood stain will allow you to see how a player died in that spot and I have got to tell you there has been some really funny deaths and even suicides. As solaire would say

• "We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land.
• The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out.
• The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure.
• There's no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact.
• But, use this, to summon one another as spirits, cross the gaps between the worlds, and engage in jolly co-operation!"

• "Of course, we are not the only ones engaged in this.
• But I am a warrior of the sun! Spot my summon signature easily by its brilliant aura.
• If you miss it, you must be blind!"

The game mechanics such as swinging your, using a bow and using your magic is very intriguing as you put the characters weight into how he strikes such as a heavy and light attack to deal with certain enemies and how you you need to think on your toes whilst doing these attacks as the enemies tend to follow on with their long range, heavy attacks with even greater force especially if you are out numbered. 

The magic system has 3 types of magic users pyromancers (who wield all kinds of fires with their gloves), Sorcerers (who wields staffs to cast their sorceries)  and those that still have faith in the gods (who wield the magic of the gods in a.... doll made for children....).

The weapons in the game come in all kinds of varieties such as Daggers, Straight swords, Great swords, Ultra Great swords,  Curved swords, Katanas, Curved great swords, Piercing Swords, Axes, Great axes, hammers, Great Hammers, Fist weapons,  Spears, Halberds, Whips, Bows, Great bows and Crossbows. 

During gameplay you can make a type of role play character from different games, anime/manga or any other such character you may know and because you can make your own character to maybe even resemble him in character creation you have tons of weapons to choose from and what manner of spell caster you wish to be. You can even if you so choose to make the story as you go along such as you could become the furtive pygmy and play as him through out the game simply by dressing as him and using his type of magic set thanks to the Artorias DLC which adds in more magic for you to use in both pyromancy and Sorceries.

The character designs even though a lot of them are actually in armour, or a cloak are very well done as a lot of thought has gone into a lot of them such as the elite knight armour as it shows a lot of colours and shows a lot of detail and especially the ornstein armour with its marvellous lion helmet to the theme of the colour to resemble a lion.  

 Some people who first play this game sometimes give up on the game because it is either stupidly difficult with the bosses (I would know because I was stuck on the first boss for a month till the patch came out), some don't like the storyline as it seems to know have one layed out for you and that just leads to random roaming without knowing what to do. After the patch 1.02 came out for dark souls everything got a bit more easier for players even though it is still a game for you to prepare to die in as most bosses, enemies will still surprise you in certain areas even if you have played the game over and over again. 

The graphics of the game is absolutely spectacular especially when you aquire the binoculars as you can see the beauty of the city of anor londo or other areas that have awe inspiring beauty. The graphics of the game really brings it to life either you are in a dark cave or in the suns brilliant gaze as this game in on both the xbox 360 and pS3 graphics card (also the Ps3 Blue-ray feature) really boosts the quality and allows the makers of the game to add more detail as they have done for this game. 

The music track of Dark souls such as the nameless song( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvvFnR0kJFw ) really makes this game worthwhile to play as nameless song really works in certain areas   and the rhythm of the song makes you want to listen for as long as it is played. the ornstein and smough battle music( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsps0I58yUM ) is especially thrilling as you fight this boss battle as it works in synch on how this boss battle is played such as this song is rather fast past and quite edgy as is the fight against these two bosses.

My entire thoughts on dark souls from the graphics, the soundtracks, gameplay, animations and storyline is pretty good as it has shown to make people think more on their toes and not have people give them the answer such as the quests, storyline and your main objective objective which also means that the developer wanted the players to be more free to do as they please within the game. The animations I believe may need some work as for one their arn't many animations in the game except to walk and run and also attack (which is understandable as everyone in the game is either a hollow or a monster). The storyline I rather enjoy as I like to both re-enact a dark souls character role as I play and find the hidden stories such as the broken pendant and the true identity of the god of war. 

My verdict of dark souls is a 9/10 as it may have a few flaws it is still a great RPG game to play and to role play in so as they say have fun and join in.....