Demon’s Souls sequel, Dark Souls, coming 2011 to the Xbox 360 and PS3.
GenreRole-Playing
Platforms ps3
DEVELOPER Namco Bandai Games | PUBLISHER Codemasters | RELEASE DATE
Dark Souls Reviews ps3
1up.com review
, putting all the responsibility in your hands — that each player will find a strategy which works best for them. Success in Dark Souls can only be found through experimentation and thoughtful reflection on said experiments, and while this may require a much greater deal of investment on the player’s part, knowing you personally orchestrated every element of your victory brings forth an amazingly rewarding feeling that’s far too rare in video games. It’s tragic that not all of us have the time or temperament to play through Dark Souls, but one truth remains clear: if you’re ready for it, it’s ready for you.
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gamepro.com review
These moment-to-moment duels imbue the world of Dark Souls with a powerful sense of terror; not the "gotcha" type scares of most modern survival horror games, but the kind where it feels like the world is closing in around you. At one point, I was sprinting blindly through a church, completely out of healing potions and near death. I rounded a corner and only narrowly dodged a massive knight with a heavy mace, then sprinted out a door and toward what turned out to be one of the game’s bonfires — the new checkpoints that serve as impromptu hubs in each of the world’s areas. It was an unscripted moment that left me feeling completely exhilarated, which I would argue is the holy grail for any game developer.
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incgamers.com review
Bosses in Dark Souls do not arrive in the usual videogame manner of a flashy, fast-cut, multiple lens filtered FMV. Instead, bosses in Dark Souls either arrive unannounced or are unwittingly stumbled upon. Inevitably, the first time this happens you’re unprepared and quickly succumb to the attack in a manner resembling a fight between Mike Tyson and Elton John; you get torn apart and you look like an idiot throughout.
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telegraph.co.uk review
It’s not the sense of disempowerment, although the feeling as you set out time and again to penetrate a little deeper into the medieval world of Lodran with its cliff tops patrolled by skeletons and dragons and valleys guarded by ice giants and hydra is one of banging a weak fist against overwhelming odds. Games are so often power fantasies that allow us to play superhero in the evening after a day in the office being forced to play underling. Dark Souls is a game that will crush the ego as often as inflate it.
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gamespot.com review
Dark Souls requires intense focus. This isn’t a lighthearted romp in a bright and colorful fantasy world; it’s a methodical journey into the frightening unknown. And that’s what makes it so riveting. Some games try to scare you with bump-in-the-night shocks and far-off howls, but Dark Souls doesn’t require such predictable methods of terror. Its terrors emanate from its very core, each step bringing you closer to another inevitable death. How amazing that such a terrible place could be so inviting. The game’s world is so memorable, and its action so thrilling, that it might invade your thoughts even when you aren’t playing, silently urging you to escape the real world and return to this far more treacherous one. Dark Souls doesn’t just surpass other dungeon crawlers; it skewers them with a razor-sharp halberd and leaves behind their soulless corpses.
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psu.com review
It’s meant to be tough, of course, and fans of Demon’s Souls will revel in the challenge, while those unaware of what they’re about to face will rush into their initial encounters only to be brutally killed by even the weakest of enemies. In truth, no enemies are weak in Dark Souls. Every last one of them has the potential to kill you if you don’t apply those three rules outlined by the developer. Success in combat is about watching enemies’ behavioural patterns, exploiting their weaknesses, equipping the right weapons and using the right spells. It’s about running like hell when you really don’t have to fight and having the balls to try again and learn from your mistakes when you inevitably die. It’s about hundred-and-one different things that you can only possibly learn by death.
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3djuegos.com review
No Synopsis Available
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gameplanet.co.nz review
Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon’s Souls and proves to be a cruel, challenging and demanding third-person action-RPG that throws players into a world full of grotesque and unsettling manifestations that try their hardest to end the players’ lives as quickly and brutally as possible. It is up to the player to crawl, inch by hard fought inch, through this seemingly endless torment in the hopes of making it out alive.
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gameblog.fr review
No Synopsis Available
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eurogamer.net review
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joystiq.com review
Human status increases the rate at which rare items are discovered and, more importantly, allows players to summon phantoms (i.e. other online players) to aid them in battle. Given the very unforgiving nature of Dark Souls, I don’t think I need to explain the benefit an additional player can bring to the table.
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gamestm.co.uk review
There is no central hub – no safe area from which to base your expeditions into the unknown. Instead there are campfires littered throughout, the first of which serves as a kind of launching point, with characters you meet or rescue along the way making their way back there to serve as vendors and trainers. Throughout the rest of the world, campfires are few and far between, and reaching them is the only means of true progress. At each, players can rest, thereby regaining the contents of their Estus Flask – a five-charge health replenishment vessel. Resting will also mean you respawn from that campfire as opposed to, say, the one you’ve just spent half an hour travelling from. But there is a devious penalty; each time you rest, every enemy in the game except its bosses returns to life and will need to be killed again. And again. And again.
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next-gen.biz review
In order to keep a reassuring distance, you hurl a throwing knife before switching hastily back to your primary weapon. The Black Knight hardly flinches as he pivots around to face you, still terrifyingly mute. Then he charges. Just like the moth, your flailing, flapping demise is both grim and comically Chaplin-esque.
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metro.co.uk review
Although there is a strong role-playing element underpinning your upgradeable abilities and statistics this is a third person action game first and foremost. Wielding a variety of medieval melee and ranged weaponry Dark Souls has some of the most rewarding and tactical swordplay ever seen in a video game. And all that despite it relying on only a tiny handful of moves, with no combos in the traditional fighting game sense.
gameinformer.com review
Once you figure out where you’re going, though, Dark Souls can be stunning, rewarding experience. I spent a full day playing through the death-trap-filled Sen’s Fortress level over and over again, but it wasn’t frustrating at all. With each attempt, I discovered a new secret or devised a strategy that would afford me another scrap of progress. By the end of the day, I had the whole of this level – easily one of the most devious ever designed – memorized. Now I can practically run through it blindfolded. It’s a wonderful feeling showing off this sadistic setting to friends and coworkers and having them marvel at my abilities, which are based entirely in perseverance and smart play rather than twitch skills.
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everyeye.it review
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insidegamingdaily.com review
If you played Demon’s Souls, nothing has changed here as it relates to combat or game structure. Souls are still both your monetary and leveling currency, and yes, you still drop all of the souls you’re carrying when you die. Is it hard? Of course it’s hard; it wouldn’t have the word souls at the end of the title if it wasn’t. It might be a little too hard, however, at least in some spots. The difficulty curve, especially at the start of your adventure, is wildly unbalanced. One minute you’re mowing through enemies, the next you’re one-hit killed by a boss that you didn’t expect to be in that next room. Or one-hit killed by a regular enemy that ambushes you. Or mobbed to death by a group of undead warriors. You die a lot, as it turns out.
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videogamer.com review
This isn’t just because of the difficulty level (although mostly it is), the feeling is also derived from the world itself. Dark Souls isn’t much to look at, technically speaking, but it’s rich and beautiful from an artistic perspective. The environments are dank and harrowing, with medieval architecture, gloomy forests and filthy dungeons. After a brief introductory cutscene, there’s nothing to contextualise any of this. You’re left to infer what you will from the world itself – make up your own stories, give your doomed hero his (or indeed her) own quirks and traits. From Software wants you to have your own experience with the game, and to that end it doesn’t offer anything in the way of help, directions or context. This is why the game is such a haunting and lonely experience.
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strategyinformer.com review
There’s nothing different about playing post-death apart from the fact that you’re in a ‘Hallowed’ state – something which apart from having some minor stat decreases doesn’t really affect the game at all. It does have some contextual affects – characters will talk to you differently whilst hallowed, certain bonfire actions aren’t possible whilst hallowed… but nothing terribly important. The fact that the difficulty has been ramped up as well only serves to make this game more frustrating than usual. Don’t get us wrong – we applaud the principle of making a truly challenging game that drove Demon Souls – we just don’t think that’s what’s going on here.
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destructoid.com review
First, allow me to begin with a caveat; I have not completed Dark Souls. I have invested over 90 hours of play into the game, exploring the vast majority of its world and facing off against (if not defeating) many of the boss enemies. I am confident that I am capable of rendering a fair verdict based upon the knowledge I have. If you are not, I respect that and ask that you please enjoy one of the many fine reviews available from players more capable of completing this quest than I have been.
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gamereactor.se review
No Synopsis Available
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