I admit I was late on the Dark Souls bandwagon, but that doesn't skew my judgement what so ever regarding the last Souls installment. First let me say that Dark Souls was the single most challenging game that I have ever played. Luckily websites like Dark Souls Wiki exist, or I would still be attempting to beat this game. Although I admit to using the Wiki websites, I only used them when I desperately needed to ... I SWEAR!
The game does a very poor job with explaining the objectives/quests. The Dark Souls development team obviously omitted sufficient details and direction purposely in order to make the game THAT much more challenging. Nevertheless it was more than a little annoying at first. Gamers are used to being pushed and prodded in the right direction like a herd of cattle. With games nowadays you rarely have any challenge at all finding out where you are supposed to be/go. With maps, radar, objectives, big blinking arrows and lines that lead you directly to the next area gamers have little trouble. The challenge with Dark Souls is one of the aspects that made this game great.
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| Dark Souls combat somewhere in Anor Lando, a beautiful area consisting of castle ramparts among the clouds. |
Other than the missing direction, the other challenging aspect was the combat. The combat to Dark Souls is like no other. Left trigger controls left hand, right trigger controls right hand. Defense is a necessity, and patience is key. This is not a "button mashing, charge at your opponent and hack and slash until they die" type of game. Combat takes a long time to get used to and even longer to perfect. But once you get it, you CANNOT get enough. This game grabbed ahold of me and would not let go. I could not stop playing this game. Whilst Dark Souls was continuously fucking me, I could not bring myself to fuck *ahem* I mean play any other games. Other than the challenge of the game the graphics for the areas and the detail in the settings were just astounding. Some areas were down right gorgeous. I would find myself gawking at the beautiful "castle in the clouds" area of Anor Lando, or the detail that went into the magma cracked ceiling of the Demon Ruins. The game was gorgeous, no doubt. When I began playing Dark Souls, the release date of the second installment, Dark Souls 2, was rapidly approaching.
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| Anor Lando ... Boner. |
It was a race against time, I needed to beat Dark Souls before the second one released! It made the game THAT much more exciting. I was focusing all my free time on progressing through the story. I wasn't joking about the challenge of this game. One boss, or should I say duo of bosses, kept me busy for two weeks. I tried over and over and over again to beat Ornstein and Smaugh. This odd couple of bosses kept raping me continuously until someone finally answered my summon request and came to my aid. I'm proud to say I only summoned help from another player for that one boss. Anyways mere days before the Dark Souls 2 release, I thrust my +15 Uchikatana through Gwyn, Lord of Cinder and with that Dark Souls was finally my bitch.
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| Dark Souls Final Boss, Gwyn Lord of Cinder and all his Badassness |
The next few days were a blur. I was impatiently awaiting the release of Dark Souls 2, trudging my way through work and sleeping as much as possible. Then the glorious day arrived, I purchased Dark Souls 2 and settled in for a long night of gaming. An hour into the game and I'm wondering what is wrong with me. I'm playing the sequel to one of my favorite games and I'm not loving it. Everyone else I've heard from and all the reviews I've read are praising Dark Souls 2. So I continue playing hoping the next area will remind me of what made Dark Souls so addicting. And spoiler alert, it didn't. I found myself trudging reluctantly through these uninteresting areas, and fighting boring enemies. Not to say the game wasn't challenging, because believe me it was. The challenge was still there, and I think that's what kept me playing even when I wanted to stop.
This is what it comes down to. Dark Souls 2 isn't terrible. If I had never played the first Dark Souls I would most likely be just as obsessed with it as I was with the first. But unfortunately that isn't the case. The fact of the matter is the first Dark Souls was so fucking good that the sequel literally had to be the best game ever made to compete with it. And sadly it was not. Now I got about 1/2 through Dark Souls 2 and just started playing Borderlands again because I was so upset. My buddy told me that it get better blah blah so I just started a new game and am giving it one more chance. Now I don't know if its been awhile and I missed the Souls gameplay, but I will say I am having a great time so far with Dark Souls 2 this time around. I'm still chilling in the Forest of Fallen Giants, but I'm loving it.
So I will leave you with this... Dark Souls is THE greatest RPG game of it's kind. It's the most challenging RPG ever made. The areas are gorgeous and the gameplay is one of a kind. Dark Souls 2 is a lesser version of the first. Sure the graphics are a bit better, and the game runs a bit smoother but it's lacking in creative development. If you haven't played Dark Souls, then do it ... NOW. Be warned you will want to throw your controller at the television more than once and quit. I implore you to continue and one day you will have an epiphany. You will finally see what makes the game so great. Have a nice day peeps, and as always Happy Gaming.
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