Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition PC
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 853 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 573 out of 853
  2. Mixed: 49 out of 853
  3. Negative: 231 out of 853

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  1. Noolah
    Aug 24, 2012
    3
    I'm wishing I'd spent my money on Darksiders II instead. This game is just dire. The story is let down by graphics that wouldn't have looked out of place on my original Xbox. Yes, I can set the resolution to 1920 x 1080, but it's obviously still intended to be played on a big screen. Don't get me started on the control system; if I'd wanted to use a gamepad to play a game, I'd have bought it for my 360 instead. You can customize the keyboard controls and even use a mouse (mouse support is just terrible), but all of the on-screen prompts assume you're using a game pad. So you're left either mashing keys until you get the right one, or having to look it up on the cheat-sheet you've probably had to print out to stand any chance of even being able to press the correct button. The camera controls are also extremely annoying. TL;DR - If you want this game, get the console version.… Expand
  2. voathun
    Aug 25, 2012
    3
    I don't mind that there are no PC exclusive high res texture options. Dark Souls isn't about graphics. I don't mind GFWL. Annoying, but whatever. I don't mind the 30 fps frame lock. The gameplay experience is smooth enough. I don't mind the limited resolution. On the first day someone already provided a fix for that. .. but what I do mind is the fact how insulting the implementation of the controls are. Wake up. This PC version isn't a love-letter from the developer to the PC community. No, the management looked at the 100'000+ petition and thought... wow, easy money. Lets do a port with the least effort possible!

    The result is, that they didn't even bother do remove the windows mouse cursor from the screen while in game! The ingame hints are based on the xbox controller layout and cannot be changed. The keyboard / mouse control method is next to useless. You need to play it in order to see how abysmal the controls actually are.

    "So what? Get a gamepad!" some may cry. The default PC peripherals are mouse and keyboard last time I checked and if you own a gamepad then the chances are pretty decent, that you also own a console. So whats the point of a PC version in the first place? The Dark Souls DLC is coming to consoles later this year anyway.

    But if you already own a gamepad or you're willing to invest into one, then ignore the user ratings, because with a gamepad the gameplay experience is as it should be. Read the official critic reviews, hype yourself up and enjoy one of the best mature RPG experiences that there is out there.    … Expand
  3. JMILTON
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    This has got to be the worst PC port I ever had a displeasure to endure. The graphics are horrible, combat controls are clunky at best, non responsive at worst, there is no real story attached to this game and the game difficulty that has been heralded as the savior of the challenging gaming is nothing but an over inflated trial and error garbage. To make things even worse it's not even that difficult. I killed the first boss by dying once, and the whole "combat" experience could be described as just being tedious. Avoid at all costs, watching plants grow is more fun than this overhyped trash of a game.… Expand
  4. Stormcrow666
    Aug 24, 2012
    4
    This easily could have been made into one of the better computer games this year, instead it is a terrible port that need a lot of work. The graphics are just plain terrible. 30fps limiter with dips to 20fps is just atrocious. This game uses approximately 10% of my gpu power. The camera is shaky and annoying. The controls are obviously ported. I was smashing buttons trying to figure out how to do simple things like access my inventory. It is a real shame since this game could have been something so much better than this poor port. I understand that the console version is great but sometimes ports are not meant to be ported unless there is additional work done to make it a better experience for the PC user.… Expand
  5. TSB
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    Terrible port this game should be out in 2005 or something the graphics is so bad with no PC setting 720p native resolution and with 30 FPS locked . The gameplay is not smooth at all and starting with broken sword is so idiot thing to have in game the difficulty of this game is u having some **** weapon in close tight area it is not about skill when ever u rest u will have the same enemies you already killed this game is really one of the worst games I ever played there is nothing fun about it .… Expand
  6. Donkaban
    Aug 24, 2012
    2
    Bad port. No bindings for mouse, bugs and graphics flickers. From console developers to console boys.
    Resolution is capped, FPS are capped, keyboard and mouse controls are a nightmare, video options are inexistant ... I think is damn timemachine from Skyrim to dark 2005 ages
  7. Dimuscul
    Aug 24, 2012
    2
    Worst port ever. Resolution is capped, FPS are capped, keyboard and mouse controls are a nightmare, video options are inexistant ... in general it make me feel like I'm playing on a PS2 emulator.
  8. Buhehe
    Aug 25, 2012
    0
    I tried this game today and all I can say is: I AM GLAD I PIRATED IT! It's probably the worst console porting I've ever seen. Resolution blocked at 1280x720 is plain ridicolous (there's a non-official fix for it, by the way, which I used). Almost non existent video / audio options, the commands are just HORRIBLE, mouse thumb buttons / wheel are not recognized. In all the menus and during gameplay, suggestions about commands are showed for CONSOLES: yep, you'll keep seeing "Press A to do this, Press B to do that", where A & B are for Xbox controllers.

    As if all of this wasn't enough, the windows mouse cursor (yes, the white arrow) is ALWAYS present while playing, which is extremely annoying to me. There are ways to remove it but they are a bit complicated for the average user and involves installing of third party software.

    I've uninstalled the game after playing for 10 minutes, I was just frustrated about everything.

    My vote is 0 ZERO because every positive aspect of this game are simply drowned by the absurd amount of **** concerning bugs, crappy interface and command management.

    I can't believe how a software house can ship such a BAD product which, to me, seems like in early beta stage. Whoever shipped this product should feel ashamed.

    My advice: PIRATE THIS GAME BEFORE BUYING IT!    … Expand
  9. Kriv
    Sep 7, 2012
    0
    I can believe that last week this game has a total of 400 hundred negative reviews and now there are only 145. The user score was in 3.0 or something like that. Come on be honest about this game. The game was not ready to be deliver to PC. Lack of graphics , terrible controls from mouse and keyboard and also using a controller. The story is not a big deal and the character classes look more like super Nes type. Most of the positive comments are from the developer… Expand
  10. drwebs
    Aug 25, 2012
    0
    This is the worst port ever, talk about a crap game that stacks on hype and a steaming pile of nasty ports. This game was supposed to kill diablo 3, what a joke. The developers failed at their life
  11. Chapa9dj
    Aug 24, 2012
    4
    Overrated, uninspiring and boring. So this is the game that my friends pictured to me as the ''Panacea of Gaming'' and turned out to be completely wrong. The gameplay is clunky as hell, especially when you engage in a boss fight.. The map design feels bland and very empty, not to mention that the graphics are downright terrible. Is this 2012 or 2004? Ok, continuing with this, its not open world as some people told me, its completely linear and boring and the character lacks personality and charisma. Also, it has GFWL. That is enough for anyone to stay away. I don't even know why companies still use this. I'm glad i got it as a birthday gift, but sometimes i wish my friend didn't have to spend that amount of money. I'm not ungrateful, on the contrary, but this game is definitely not my cup of tea. Definitely one of the most disappointing games of 2012.… Expand
  12. seuche
    Aug 25, 2012
    0
    im playing games since years and sometimes portations from the consoles to the pc are cheap and annoying, but this game.... this is the most terrible portation i have ever seen in my life! everything is just so cheap portated and without concideration of the requirements of the pc plattform, that it kills the whole game experience. everything there fails - the ui, the controlls, the graphics, the settings, everything. its so poorly done, that even a random guy from the street was needed to improve the graphics a bit. tl;dr
    ITS A PURE RIP-OFF!    … Expand
  13. fickett
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    This has to be the worst pc port ever. The only reason they shelled this out is because pc gamers petitioned for it and they gave us a bad quality product. This is going to lead them to believe that if you make a pc port then pc gamers won't buy it but in reality pc gamers won't buy bad quality products.
  14. Figomor
    Aug 25, 2012
    1
    And I thought that Resident evil 4 console port was horrible.This is much much worse. By far the worst port I have ever played, and I play videogames almost twenty years. Please do your self a favor and do not buy this game, which is possibly great on consoles, but horrible on PCs. Do not support lazyness of its developers.
  15. raidet
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    Disgracefully blatant score-bumping from the developer/publisher here. As every other legitimate customer is saying - this port is dire. Given the enormous control issues, It's not in a playable state. I am not happy.
  16. Getterac7
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    Dark Souls has been one of the worst PC game experiences I've had in years.

    First off: all help messages are given for the Xbox360 controller, even though I don't have a controller plugged in. I spent 5 minutes mashing every key on the keyboard trying to figure out how to get to the options menu before finally hitting "End" to open the options. What the hell? End? Really? Couldn't     use the Escape key like EVERY OTHER GAME?

    So I find out the D-pad corresponds to the arrow keys, then when I pick up my sword and shield, it tells me to use the left and right on the D-pad to switch to my sword, so I hit left and right arrow keys a few times and nothing happens. I have to dig through some inventory menus to equip my sword first I guess. Why not tell me that?

    While we are on the topic of controls: I use a non-QWERTY keyboard, so where the W key should be, is actually a comma. I tried to remap the move forward key and it would not let me set the W key (which is the comma character). Why on Earth would it not accept the comma character is beyond me. This is the first game I have EVER encountered (of the hundreds and hundreds I have played) that wouldn't let me do that.

    Let's get to the menus. They are absolutely not friendly to a mouse pointer at all. Some widgets you can click, some you can't; you never know what's going to happen when you try to click on something. The only reliable way to use the menus are with the arrow keys.

    Playing through the first area I noticed the camera felt pretty difficult to control and then it hit me: the camera is not moving based on how far I move my mouse! Moving the mouse simply makes the camera move at a fixed speed. Excuse me? I feel like I'm trying to play Doom 1 over here. While we're talking about the mouse: I constantly see my Windows mouse cursor over top of the game and it is incredibly distracting.

    Sound: I have a 5.1 sound system, but I play using headphones at night out of respect for my neighbors and roommates. There are no audio options to switch to stereo mode, so with headphones I could not hear any voices in the game, even while subtitles were playing.

    Graphics: I can accept the 30 fps cap and I can accept the 720p upscaling, but come on, this is 2012. At least try.

    So all in all I rate this 0/10 because, although it may have a cool story and fun gameplay, I couldn't experience it because of the shoddy nature of the port.    … Expand
  17. necropsie
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    This is the holy grail of all console ports to the PC: The worst of it all. Trust me, it is that bad. Default key mapping is a joke. Graphics are **** even 5-6 year old games look much nice. Sound effects are so simple and bad. And controls.. Oh, controls. They are.. stupid. Yep. Dont waste your time even with a pirated version, i think this gives an idea of how bad this game is. It isn't even worth of pirated download..… Expand
  18. Carrot556
    Aug 24, 2012
    2
    There is no excuse for this port. Not a one. At first glance it seems like something someone at Namco ported this during a lunch break. There are bad PC ports where the game menus are keyboard only and are rough around the edges, and then there is this. In my first minutes of playing the game I ran into several problems. Right off the bat there is the FPS lock, the 720p resolution, the lack of options in to "options" menu. The options menu has a grand total of five options. Resolution, refresh rate, full screen, AA, and motion blur. What about texture quality or MXAA or particle effects? Jumping into the game there is a prompt to "press 'a' to pick up dungeon key". Now unless the use key is actually bound to the "a" key there is no reason to have the xbox key prompts instead of actual keys. "Press 'Start' to open menu and arms icon". After impotently face rolling my keyboard, I discovered "end" was the start key. Not escape. End. People claiming that this was meant for a game pad are delusional plain and simple. The majority of people who play on PCs use a keyboard and mouse and expect to have indicators that can be easily understood. That isn't entitlement, that is a fundamental right for a gamer. It would be just as surprising to me if an imported game was still in the native language and considering this port I'm surprised it isn't , in fact, in Japanese. There was no excuse to pay for a port as poor as this. After seeing how well crafted and great Dark souls was, I patiently waited for this port. It is such a shame such a beautiful gem was weighed down by such abysmal work in a port rendered this game frustratingly bad.… Expand
  19. dopehat
    Aug 25, 2012
    0
    This is the worst port I have ever played in my entire life - Yeah, I am not kidding. They didn't even bother changing the ingame hints from keybinds from the Xbox controller to PC keyboard, so every time the game asks you to press a key to loot, open a door or whatever, its showed as if you were using an Xbox controller, and lets you sit and guess which botton that was again. - Camera swings around horribly annoying when using the mouse. I cant believe this game was ever, and I mean ever released for the PC, I would feel ashamed as a developer here. I can't believe people are poking this to a anywhere near positive rating, it's unacceptable to release a game that cant run with decent controls unless gamers invest in an xbox or playstation controller, - if players wants to use that, they would have gotten the game for their consoles. Wake up people, this is not acceptable. - I was stuck at some point trying to figure out how to open the main menu to check my controls, but I never found it after pressing every damn key on my keyboard. - Don't support this - Don't buy this game...… Expand
  20. roboticsun
    Sep 2, 2012
    3
    Overall this game is just a quick xbox360 build with optional key binds and additional content (they do not bother changing the on-screen key markers). To be frank, I played Demon's Souls as well as Dark Souls on PS3 and they both played and looked much better than this sloppy PC version. I know a lot of reviews here are biased because it is an amazing game, but it's really unfair to new comers. If you are a new player who do not own a console then you need to buy a gamepad first to make the game playable and enjoyable, then hassle for a while with the third party fan-made patch to make it look as nice as console version. I do not think those hassles should be placed on an average gamer. If you want to try this beautiful game on pc then I'd say wait it on sale for $10.… Expand
  21. xXMETALxGEARXx
    Aug 25, 2012
    1
    Despite the provided community fix in a mere >23 minutes, Dark Souls on PC doesn't really add anything to the already successful console version of the game. The developers didn't bother to remap the k+m keybinds, no graphics options and on top of all it uses GFWL for the online play that consists of people invading you and leaving meaningless messages at key points. A certain waste of money for me.… Expand
  22. johndoe0
    Aug 26, 2012
    3
    First of all why all these bad review with a 10 score??? Btw I had a really high expectations for this game. I love play games on hardnightmare, so this sounded like a good challenge for me. After few minutes bad graphic (late ps2 like), choppy frame rate(cheap console port style), bad pad mapping, made an hard game an impossible one! So im really disappointed. I don't suggest this even on sale, too much frustration!… Expand
  23. alien5
    Aug 25, 2012
    2
    Worst port I've seen this gen by far. You don't release a game on a new system without supporting the controller. This is bonkers, and more insulting given From KNEW they had a market before doing the port. Ugly, entirely unoptimized, and terribly KB&M controls. Going to have to wait for people who actually care about quality to fix this mess.
  24. Elsje
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    Do not buy this game.

    The game starts out with a terrible intro which reminds me of games from the 90's and from there everything gets progressively worse. The menu interface is bad and lacks mouse settings. Even on the lowest dpi-setting, my mouse moves too fast. When you start the game you get cues for which games to press.. on a gamepad. No idea what to press on my keyboard. The grap    hics are really ugly and worst of all.. the game runs jittery on my core i7 980X w/ Geforce GTX 570. When I encountered the first enemy, I died because apparently the character hitbox extends beyond the visible body.… Expand
  25. MrImmoli
    Aug 24, 2012
    0
    Wow. This game. FPS is locked at 30 (same as on console), which by itself isn't a HUGE problem, but throw in FPS drops due to the engine and suddenly you're looking at much lower framerate in two areas (maybe more if the new content adds any). Naitively the game does not support resolutions higher than 1024X720 (though that was somewhat fixed by some random guy in about...23 minutes. Apparently 23 minutes is just too much time for From to put into the game. Keep in mind he had no experience with the game nore a source code). And the controls. The windows mouse arrow is in the middle of the game screen. That is just pathetic. Oh and instead of the mouse controlling the camera (like, ya know, practically all other PC games with a moveable camera) the mouse only acts to control a virtual joystick, and this virtual joystick move the camera slower than it is moved on the PS3 or 360 version. Mouse accerlation (which is a bad thing already) was reveresed and as a result if you move the mouse quicker it actually slows down the camera. And then the game uses GFWL...

    This port is just horrible. It is **** Do NOT buy it you would be wasting your money on a pile of **** and telling developers and publishers "Hey, I'm cool if you release broken **** I'll still eat it up nom nom nom!" The people giving it 10 stars or anything higher than a **** 5 are either fanboys or marketers being paid to do so. Hell, the two "professional reviewers" gave this **** an 92 and 89. I bet you almost anything they happened to get a little gift from Namco or FromSoft, that are the reviewers themselves are fanboys. Now, port aside. This game really is great, it is unfortunate that the port is such utter **** If you have a PS3 or 360 or if the PC version gets fixed then I do highly recommend you buy the game, but do not buy this port so long as it is a steaming pile of ****    … Expand
  26. SleepingDog
    Aug 30, 2012
    0
    Just uninstalled it, this game is the worst port I've ever played. The controls are terribly clunky, and cause of that you will die many times, hence the name 'Prepare to Die'. Difficulty in any game should be caused by mechanics, not lousy and broken gameplay.
  27. Scrove
    Aug 30, 2012
    4
    This is an excellent game that is screwed over by a horribly executed console port. With the Resolution fix that was provide the same day as release by a user the game is playable and gets bumped up to a 6 or 7, but due to the massive amounts of technical problems, low fps, graphical issues and the sticking point of them not putting any effort at all into controlling the game with key board and mouse I can't rate it any higher than this, especially since they haven't bothered to announce fixes for anything.… Expand
  28. ozorxoron
    Dec 30, 2012
    0
    Awful port, it's like you're punished for trying to play with mouse and keyboard. Unless you have or are willing to buy a controller, avoid this. I had this on the 360 and it was a favourite of mine, was hoping to get some joy out of it on the PC too, but I'm not buying a controller just to play this mess of a port. Glad I got this in a sale and didn't waste too much money on it.
  29. ayman03
    Aug 29, 2012
    3
    the worst pc port i have ever seen in my life
    locked resolution at 768?really
    stupid key mapping for keyboard and mouse
    tutorial with xbox controller keys
    frame rate issues
    menu is unfriendly unplayable
  30. Galnospoke
    Aug 28, 2012
    0
    100% mistake. Terrible port. We have AD 2012 and max 30 FPS?! No resolution?! Lags on fast computer?! What the f*ck! And bad camera, only MS Pad supported, Windows Live system. Piece of junk!
  31. cryocore
    Aug 26, 2012
    3
    Game is great, brilliant in fact. Port is appalling. Crashes, stutters, drop frame rate, no control options outside of a controller (that may or may not work), no graphics settings, and a locked frame rate make it impossible for me to enjoy this. No one should support a developer who releases sub par dross like this.
  32. Serious00
    Aug 26, 2012
    0
    This review is about the port, not the game itself. This game is genuinely inferior on PC. If you want to play this game, buy it used for a few bucks and play it on your console. The developer should *not* be compensated for doing D grade porting. If you're interested in the special PC content, wait a few months for a new console edition to come out with that said content. You've been warned.
  33. Blackcompany
    Aug 26, 2012
    0
    Automatic Zero. Why? It uses Games for Windows Live. That's reason enough to rate any game Zero. Avoid it or get it in some other way. Preferably a way that allows you to play it without the aggravation suffered by paying customers at the hands of this awful DRM scheme from Microsoft.
  34. Azurim
    Aug 28, 2012
    1
    The game is simply not playable on the PC. 1. Did not launch. To launch had to reinstall windows live, reinstall the game, run in XP compatibility mode. Took me several hours to find out what needs to be done. 2. Outdated graphics (and I did not find a way to improve it any way through settings or by forcing)
    3. Terrible interface.
    4. Awful controls. I was unable to figure out how to use     spells. Still don't know how to do it. These are the cons, I can't figure out any pros. Results: was really looking forward to play, but un-installed after 15 minutes of torture. The game was actually so bad I even decided to make an account here to write about it to save some people their money. Don't buy the game on PC. If you want to play the game, get it on PS3, maybe it doesn't suck there.… Expand
  35. xree
    Aug 28, 2012
    1
    The controls are awful. They ruin the pleasure of story by doing such "GREAT" job with the controls. Either they do it over for PC, or this is just some total waste of time this game. DO NOT BUY IT.
  36. DrVarsims
    Aug 31, 2012
    0
    If you like incredibly difficult games that make you redo the same crap 100 times because you aren't "hardcore" enough then this game is for you; seriously, why can't I just make the game easier it is so frustrating. Graphics are terrible, game runs slowly, combat is slow and boring, controls are meh, and in general nothing is very exciting or intuitive about this game.
  37. SwoopTrust
    Aug 31, 2012
    4
    For this review I'm going to split it in three parts. Technical aspects, controls and the game itself.

    Technical aspects:

    I expected more of this port on the technical side. First off, I want to say that the art direction is amazing. Now, 30fps are fine, I don't mind, but 60 would have been awesome. What I do mind, however, is the **** 1024x720 internal resolution which gets upscaled    , making it look like a blurry goddamn mess at 1080p. A fix corrects this and lets you see the surprisingly high-res textures.
    Another thing I absolutely hate was that the on-screen buttons are 360 buttons and not PC keys, which just screams "LAZY". What in the **** were you thinking, From? do you think all of us own Xbox 360 controllers? I do, but still, that's some goddamn **** On the PvP part things aren't happy either. Items are client-side, which is a problem due to the game being easily broken with Cheat Engine and trainers, and also the online play uses P2P.
    P2P in a game like this is absolutely unacceptable. Also, this uses that GFWL mess, so pray to the sun that your saves don't get ****ed up.
    To resume online play, you're better off playing offline unless you like australian lagstabs. Controls.

    Game is unplayable with Mouse & Keyboard. I'm dead serious. If you don't get a pad, you're ****ed.
    Now, to top that off, the mouse camera control is basically emulating an inferior input option such as the analog. Using a 360 pad makes this point go from **** to gold, but I'm judging the port itself and not the mumbo jumbo I have to go trough to actually play.

    Gameplay.

    After you get past the absolutely abysmal Keyboard + Mouse controls replacing them with a 360 controller, and after you can actually see what the hell is going on on the screen using DSFix 0.6, the gameplay is nearly perfect. The difficulty is just right and you really feel progression and power building up in your character with every level up or weapon upgrade. Seeing bosses fall is very satisfying, and every time you die you feel like it's your fault.
    It's a complex game, you can make lots of builds and try a lot of combinations. It's fun to try some new things or make already existing things better. AI is pretty smart and WILL **** you up if you're careless.
    Backstabs are a bit weird to perform.

    Technical aspects: 2/10 - Good art direction, surprisingly high-res textures, **** default internal resolution, horrid online, GFWL is always a minus, Xbox 360 on-screen buttons.

    Controls: 1/10 - Unplayable without a gamepad, which is unacceptable for PC. But hey, at least it gives you the "option" to use a 360 pad.

    Gameplay: 9/10 - Satisfying all around. Backstabs could use better hit detection, tough.

    Overall: 4/10. Get it on a sale, use those fixes and a gamepad, and you've got yourself a pretty good game.    … Expand
  38. Makaveli
    Oct 24, 2012
    4
    This game originally is one of my favorite games of all time. The PC version is crap though. I wanted to also comment about those sissy "gamers" giving this a bad score because there is no story or that if you get killed you lose all your souls. First off you are the type of people that make gaming worse. First off, they do not hand the story to you, you have to read item description etc to get the story.. Besides that whocares, you are playing a game. You do realise that early games didn't have stories either but they still were great games. This game has a unique way of telling a story and you idiots complain about it. You guys **** and complain and that is why most games today have no creativity or anything unique about them. How about you shut your mouth and stop playing video games all together, we don't need only 1 type of game to play. Yes I gave this PC port a bad review, that is because the PC port sucks. The console versions are masterpieces. You people complaining about the difficulty and making excuses are just sissies. You are the reason why games today hold our hands. Quit being a pansy ,grow some balls. You want a story? Have your mother read you one before you go to sleep at night. This game has a story but retards that don't no how to read or have A.D.D will not understand it. This is an REAL RPG that requires you to read, and has difficulty. Next time read the back of the box, somewhere on there it will say you will die a lot. Oh I forgot that you guys don't know how to read...my bad..This review will get a bad score but atleast it's the truth. And whocares if it runs at 30 FPS and 720 RES, that should of been expected from a company that said clearly that they are not good with PC games... Next time do some research on the game before buying it.....Opps my mistake again, you don't know how to read.. So have your mom read you Snow White, quit your whining,go buy a console ( there cheap now) buy Dark Souls and shut the **** up and be a man. I'm aware of the grammar mistakes and spelling but I'm writing really fast, and I figured since you guys do not know how to read that it shouldn't matter anyway.. Oh and for you people complaining about the difficulty and making excuses, how about you have your little sister play the game for you or perhaps your grandma, I'm sure they would **** less than you guys do. From Software gave the PC gamers what they wanted, the petitioned and From said they were not good with PC games but you guys still asked for it, and you guys got an inferior version of it. That's all.… Expand
  39. Un0va
    Sep 3, 2012
    4
    Dark Souls is definitely an incredible game, but it had the misfortune of getting one of the worst PC ports of this generation. If you want it, play it on PS3 or 360.
  40. camoe
    Aug 27, 2012
    3
    the euro gamers says its not the worst port in the world yes it is truly horrible pc port if you don't have a xbox controller don't bother buying it you can not play this game with keyboard and mouse their are no graphics option fps cap resolution cap.Also its so slow everything in the game is just plain slow.The is non existent all in all a sloppy and lazy port why support a company that dishes out this rubbish they don't deserve it.… Expand
  41. Diswin
    Oct 3, 2012
    0
    It seems FromSoftware really hates PC users. There are a few good ports from modern consoles, but DS:PtDE definitely is worst of the worst. I want my money back. I'll buy PS3-version.
  42. RoweShamboe
    Aug 28, 2012
    0
    Completely unusable as a PC they do not even try. The tutorial is written for the Xbox controller and it took forever to find out how to bring up the Menu (it is End not Esc). Do not buy, more frustration than fun.
  43. bigbradford
    Sep 7, 2012
    1
    This game is **** garbage. The controls are awful and the camera is all over the place, very frustrating to play on a KB & mouse. Namco should be ashamed of themselves for this horrible "port" I should of just bought the xbox 360 version.
  44. 0and0is00
    Sep 3, 2012
    0
    The lack of the possibility to use the PC-controls (mouse/keyboard) correctly, makes this game basically unplayable on the PC.
    Rather spend the money on another PC game.
  45. Lako
    Sep 8, 2012
    3
    How can people complain about the controls and graphics and then give it a 10? I bet half the people here are console gamers defending their title. Notice how short the reviews are on the reviews with a score of 10. Pros... Costs less than the console version and comes with a DLC. A challenging game with an interesting story. Cons... Internal resolution locked at 720p. Almost complete lack of graphical settings.
    Having to sign into Windows Live. I'm already signed into Steam.
    The game still displays 360 controls on the screen when there is no controller plugged in.
    The KB&M controls are very hard to use.
    The default controller/keyboard mapping is terrible.
    The game play is really slow and clunky.
    The graphics are really cheap, like flat lo-res images being used as backgrounds(not talking about sky).    … Expand
  46. lisac2k
    Sep 4, 2012
    3
    While eagerly expecting something as a new Severance: Blade of Darkness, this game did its best to burst my bubbles. Aside from being a terrible console port, it tries to break the record in un-inventive and scarce moves. The graphics seem to be locked to a certain resolution and stretched to higher resolutions with obvious edge-pixelation and blur, with next to none sharpness. While this can be overridden, you may ask yourself if an expensive AAA title should be published with such "features" and sold for petty 40 EUR (boxed version will cost you 45 EUR). In order to check the simplest stat one will need dozen of keys to be pressed, altogether with one of the worst mouse supports ever (no, you can't do anything with your mouse except moving camera in 4 directions and swing around with right hand weapon). While using the mouse, the cursor will be visible on the screen and fly around, helping you to de-immerse yourself from somewhat interestingly created world. It could have been much better... Better luck (or should I say "better corporate development decisions") next time. Console freaks with gamepads will enjoy this (I suppose), everyone else could save money and look for something else.… Expand
  47. umad
    Aug 29, 2012
    3
    What makes this game hard are the god awful controls. Mind you I'm using an xbox controller, dont even think of playing this game with a keyboard & mouse. Just pressing the attack button slightly will make your character attack leaving you vulnerable. if you press any button while swinging, even just a tap the character will execute that action after the swing, so if you make just one wrong tap you're probably dead. I don't know who designed the menu system but it is horrendous , at first you'll have no clue what you're doing, after getting used to it dropping weapons , sorting, everything is just tedious. Exiting the menu is a pain, you have to exit the main window, then press B to exit it completely, if you forget to turn it off PREPARE TO DIE in battle cause you can't attack if the menu wasn't exited completely. The upgrade system is just confusing, they probably wanted to look complicated to make it seem it has depth, but really all it is, is just get the required items, and use souls to upgrade a weapon. It could of been done much more simpler.
    The developers were right to name the game "prepare to die", cause you'll be seeing the words "YOU DIED" 70% of the time while playing. Found a new area to explore? well PREPARE TO DIE cause most likely the stronger enemies there will kill you instantly. Finally the english is awful, it reminds you of the badly translated games from the NES days. Every NPC in the game you meet are ... weirdos... they all do a creepy laugh after everything they say WTF? it all adds to the frusturation. The only thing good about this game are the graphics (Only if you tweak it with an unofficial patch), the weapons/armor look pretty, and the scenery is nice, but the rest is just a pain, and the only reason you'll be playing this game is to beat it and get done with.    … Expand
  48. Pirate_Who
    Sep 1, 2012
    3
    I heard using the keyboard for this port was nearly impossible, so I used my X360 gamepad. I still found the controls to be to clunky and very poor for combat. I found the graphics to be terrible even with the resolution fix. The item menu was also terrible to navigate though even with a gamepad. I feel this game has a lot of potential that was wasted due to a lack of refinement of the game mechanics and controls. Not to mention there is no way to pause even when navigating menus. Also let me emphasize "Prepare to Die Edition" really means just that. The poor controls and game mechanics make this a real grind fest that takes extreme patience.… Expand
  49. entar256
    Sep 4, 2012
    1
    TL:DR Do not buy to PC, get it to a console. The console version must have been great, however for the PC it is a train wreck. Resolution, FPS-lock and controls this bad does not belong in a PC-game. The game felt like it really hated me and tried to make me stop playing it at every corner. Using the mouse to look around is nauseating at best as the camera is really jerky, you can forget any attempt at making smooth sweeping camera pans. I read a lot of review that tells of the rewarding controls and difficulty, that when you die it was because you made an error. I have yet to feel that way as the jerky controls have sent me over cliffs, made me attack twice and leaving me open to counterattacks, made me do some weird jump attack into a bunch of enemies that promptly ended my characters life. Not once I have felt that "Oh, if I used attack *A* on enemy *B* wouldnt have used attack *C* on me and I would have survived" it has been more of "A**!" or "Why the **** did he do that?!". Frankly, this is really a hardcore game now when I think about it; pattern recognition, trial and error, cheap deaths, bad controls. All in an attempt to prolong a short game, which was a common practice in the NES days, and I dont even think the game actually needs to artificially increase its length. So, if you want a hardcore NES experience today, by all means: buy Dark Souls. You will have many an hour filled with frustration and cursing. But if you rather stay sane: buy Dark Souls to a console and forget about the PC-port. Final thoughts: Graphics: artistically bland, grey and brown. Technically bad, looks blurry and messy. Controls: Keyboard and mouse: dont even try, and if you need to get a gamepad to play a PC-game its not worth your time (imagine if an FPS to a console required you to get keyboard/mouse to be able to play properly...) Gameplay: Hardcore NES experience. If that is your thing: get this game to a console. Sound: irritating, and where is the music? I really wanted this series ever since I saw Demon souls for console, and I almost got a PS3 only for this series, however after this atrocious port and blatant attempt at milking money I lost all desire to play it. I also created an account here on Metacritic only to review this "game". This review only regards the PC-port of the game, I have not played the original, but I hope/guess it is 1000% better than this... thing.… Expand
  50. wandervon
    Sep 9, 2012
    1
    Fanboys are all over this game, and you may be wondering how people can be so divided, but let me give you a rundown of an average Dark Souls gaming session, minus all the talk about the technical problems with this (very poor) port of a console game.

    You enter the game, you fight enemies that lob off 1/3 of your HP with a single light attack even when you are wearing heavy armor, you c    an't dodge worth a crap because your character is slow clumsy and slow, your attacks have terrible response times because its so loldifficult, you get to a boss, you die, lose all your exp, and have to run back.

    You do this over and over, gaining no levels because you lose all your EXP on bosses, until you finally get so fed up you look up a youtube video of the boss fight/read a guide. You then feel a sense of accomplishment because you beat a boss that you shouldn't have been able to beat because the game does not ask that you be intelligent, all it asks is that you have a TON of free time to die 257 per boss until you beat it.

    This game's difficulty is completely artificial. Instead of actually challenging you, it consistently wins using cheap stun locks to keep you unable to attack, you get chain combo'd to the same unable to attack effect, you get pushed off a cliff (this game is filled with cliffs everywhere by the way), or in your attempt to explore you are not rewarded, but penalized by being confronted with an enemy 10000x stronger than you who 1 shots you and you lose all your exp and have to spend 30 minutes running back trying to get it, only to aggro that enemy again and die once more.

    And that's before the poorly designed boss encounters, which consist soley of dying, running back, and frantically trying new things until you figure out the single zelda-ish trick to actually beating the stupid thing. The farther you get into the game, the more ludicrous damage bosses do until it gets to the point where you are simply 1-hit-killed by anything on the screen, as well as bosses themselves, regardless of what armor you are wearing.

    After the 47593475938479 run back from a boss, through the same group of heavily placed enemies, you will finally realize that this game is only out to challenge your patience, and nothing else.    … Expand
  51. ChrisPD
    Nov 25, 2012
    0
    Reading the critical reviews of this game you're led to believe that you're in for a challenging and rewarding game experience. However the only real challenge in this title comes from resisting the urge to turn it off when you're forced to repeat the journey to the 'Bosses' for the 20th time, wading through constantly respawning enemies that just stand there until being activated. That's the challenge. Not the ingenious game design or the (non existent) AI. Avoiding mistakes because you've repetitively completed this very journey 20 times before. Killing the exact same enemy exactly the same way for an hour.

    I could ignore the terrible repetitive gameplay if it there was a semblance of storyline propelling you through the game. Which is where we come to the second part of the 'appeal' of the game, how rewarding it is. Rewarding is seeing a story develop, overcoming a challenge and being rewarded with more exposition, more areas to explore and a change in challenge. The first 4 bosses require you to cycle around the same general area over and over killing the same enemies over and over, and the reward? Getting to do it again for the next boss, as everytime you save, all the enemies re spawn. Great idea, shall we spend time on story, enemy AI, environment design? Nah just respawn them all in the same place and get 'em to do it again. And again. And again, after all we've got their money right?

    Also the port is unplayable without an xbox controller.    … Expand
  52. PaulGR
    Dec 19, 2012
    0
    Briefly: maybe the worst game I ever played. Graphics that are worst than a 2000s game; the gameplay itself is the following: dying and then doing the same thing over and over again - I ended up spending 2 hours and 25 minutes killing the same mobs and boss. If you don't have an X-box controller, you are going to have a bad time as it is impossible to play without one. I am on the process of returning the game back and getting a full refund, it is the first time I feel sorry for buying something - I wish I had given the 50 euros I've spend on that cr*ap to a homeless person. DO NOT buy this thing.… Expand
  53. faceless-1
    Dec 26, 2012
    3
    Pros: Boss battles are really good and well done, Difficulty is hard like in old games (dungeon master for exp.).
    Cons: failed port on PC, really bad story, Dated graphics and windows life, game is also a bit boring after a while
    This game dont match RPG standards in many areas if you compare it to Witcher 2 Dark souls got only 1 advantage (its harder).
  54. Lino
    Sep 18, 2012
    0
    DONT BUY THIS GAME!!!!!

    I just created an account to rate this 0 because its an absolute impudence to sell this game on PC like that. I will never buy a game of that company again you cant do that. There are no controlls for PC its all made for consol, and whats worng with the grapic this looks awful, now i have to buy an 360 controller for my Pc Just to play this game. How can ppl even     rate this game with more than 5 its simply lieing to ppl who trust an honest rateing.… Expand
  55. Sevair
    Sep 30, 2012
    2
    Simply put, the game's port was so abysmal that I couldn't play it. Controls make no sense and the camera moves 'wrong'. Anyone who hasn't already formed an affectionate bond with this tittle via some console, stay away from the PC version. Stay far, far, far away.
  56. Orctownorc
    Oct 2, 2012
    4
    A game designed by sadists for masochists. Or masochists who think they are cool because they have so few elements of a 'real life' in place that they can happily give up days replaying obtuse death scenes until they eventually figure out the obscure 'solution'. In many ways Dark Souls is COOL and BEAUTIFUL. In many ways it is a kind of BEATIFUL game or GREAT game or even PERFECT game. Sigh. They could have achieved all that with a little feature that most of us appreciate called 'a DIFFICULTY SETTING. You know the box where you can choose 'Very Easy', or 'Easy, 'Normal, 'Hard', and 'Just Decapitate Me'. But the designers are sadists, so they didn't. They just rolled the dial up to very hard and told us to 'Stick that in your pipe and smoke it'. Well ok. Fair is fair. They design a game that makes me waste my time to appease their sense of 'purity', and I review them with a score so that they can taste my whip of review, and ask them if that's how they want to play. Designers all, let players choose how to play our games. Let those who want 'Easy' to have it and maybe you will get a green score from this reviewer next time.… Expand
  57. Primax
    Mar 3, 2013
    0
    Quite literally the worse console port I have ever encountered. Not only is the port quality terrible, the game forces you to use the god awful Games For Windows Live. I deeply regret buying this on steam and will be refunding it.
  58. not_good
    Feb 24, 2013
    4
    I kept hearing about how much better this game was than Skyrim, but at least you can play that This is the most pathetic port I've played in a long time, the graphics are stretched and look terrible, the controls... oh god the controls.If you need to download 'fixes' to get this game working properly they done up. End of story.
  59. drachehexe
    Feb 12, 2013
    4
    I can't believe the gaming industry took this game seriously. This game is pure garbage. The graphics and models look 10 years old, the textures are among the wort I have seen in current generation game. And no wonder it's the hardest game to play, the controller setup is the worst. It's the most unintuitive controller scheme there ever has been and you can't change the controller settings. The interface is also unintuitive and not very user friendly having to take several steps just to swap gear. Also, you left stick doesn't work in the menus, forcing you to use the dd-pad to navigate menus which is unintuitive as well and just plain stupid. This game is full full of bad design from top to bottom. I regret even buying this game at a discount. It sucks and it it sucks really bad.… Expand
  60. AthanasiosT
    Mar 9, 2013
    1
    I really really tried to play this one. but when I play a PC game, I want to be able to play it as it's meant for PC. Meaning that this is a really bad console conversion. Mouse and keyboard have just decorative roles, even though I downloaded two extra moddings (1 for game and 1 for mouse controls). Framerate is awful and if you insist on using mouse control, the frames just hop like a frog. Too bad, because the game seemed very-very good....… Expand
  61. hwarming
    Nov 10, 2012
    2
    I thought the Sonic Generations port was bad, but wow. I shouldn't have to buy a controller for a PC game, come on man. And if you're going to map the controls to the keyboard, don't tell me on the tool tips the xbox controls, that's just lazy. I don't even care about the resolution stuff, I think this game looks pretty good, but the controls are just broken, why would I press "end" for a menu? What sense does that make? And the cursor shows up in game, outside of the menu, that's just unacceptable in 2012. I wanted to like this game, I really did, I love RPGs with this style, and with some difficulty, but at least put an ounce of effort into the port, don't just take it directly from the Xbox and put it on the PC. Skyrim did it pretty well, even though the UI was clearly designed for the 360, but it followed logical gaming conventions.… Expand
  62. Kerith
    Sep 22, 2012
    1
    Could of been awesome, but it fails at the most basic requirement to be a PC game: controls. Incorrect keyboard shortcuts displayed on menu items, giggle joystick quick-time events, and choppy camera rotations can be experienced within the first 15 minutes of play.

    Second big fail are the graphics, they are even worse then then their console counterparts. As they chose to port the Xbox     360 version (evidence is button displayed in-game), there is no excuse for the reduction of graphic quality seen. Microsoft has gone out of their way to share the API for DirectX 9 and Windows, and even has extensive tutorials on how to port between platforms on XNA. Now my first point can be easily fixed and forgiven with a quick patch. Binary Domain had even worse controls at release and a patch was announced the next day for the next week. They delivered. Nothing out of FROM software, nor the original developers for patches and they are still pushing the 40 dollar.price tag on Steam .

    The graphics issue can be fixed with a third party patch, this is where it gets fun. I had purchased this on Steam, so the third party patch could threaten my entire game library if VAC is configured to work with the Windows Live DRM. The method used could trip cheat detection software and result in the loss of your entire game library. The patch is basically a DLL replacer, sprung into popularity for FXAA support and shader modding in Skyrim. The policy on banning cheaters does vary on the developer and whether the game is multiplayer or not. In the case of Skyrim, the official stance is that they do not ban these types of mods. There has been no comments from FROM Software about anything at this point, so I recommend buying this on separate accounts so you don't get screwed over. Below i have noted some dev statements on the use of these mods in multiplayer.

    Blizzard on Diablo 3 - "All mods are against the TOS and could be banned at any moment"
    Source (the mod read-me is funny too): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5150763717

    ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2 - http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide_to_modifying_in-game_graphics/Texmod#ArenaNet

    EA Games, ME3 rumoured bannings for singleplayer modding and some BF3 bannings (I couldnt find a reliable source sorry)

    You will notice these mods come with source code usually, and it is not because of good will. They can touch your OS and hardware at a lower level then most applications can because they act like a middle man between your game and the graphics card. That is why you get a copy of the source, so you can compile your own version of the DLL and have a complete understanding of what it is doing to your computer.

    Ugh way longer then I wanted this, but I had to fight the steam game hub to understand the risks of these mods. I was going for a 3, but its not a 1 after all those words.    … Expand
  63. Saix
    Sep 9, 2012
    0
    Totally wasted my time! First, I learned to use a keyboard, watching this obsolete graphics, then I connected an Xbox controller and it become better. But all was a waste when I was killed by a dragon came from nowhere and lose all XP :( Why do so?
  64. Khornez
    Nov 25, 2012
    2
    Im extremely disappointed to see this horrible port made with no effort that they hope we will somehow love because the original game was awesome. Crappy res, untranslated keys, horrible key mapping... but the worst is a shaky camera even when mouse sensitivity is at 1 that simply makes it unplayable without having a headache, not to mention that if you use window mode, the mouse isn't immediately locked, meaning you can move it out from the window by mistake and click outside, forcing you to make weird moves with that shaky camera just to keep it in the center, as if it was made in flash or something.

    To all those who say "buy the xbox pad": if i wanted to do that, i'd buy an Xbox and forget about PC.    … Expand
  65. IanHeres
    Dec 2, 2012
    1
    So-so idea ruined by awful controls. All the onscreen prompts are for an xbox controller, so if you have something else you're out of luck. Mouse+Keyboard is unplayable, and other gamepads have their keys mapped wrong. Even if you get going with a gamepad, the controls are terrible. You can't back up without turning around, you have to lock on to targets for spells but can't do that from far away, and so on.

    The actual game isn't bad, but isn't great. You'll be forced to repeat content many many times, and that gets frustrating. You can also grind out xp for better stats, which I guess some people like but I think that's bad design. Also the spell system is spells-per-day, which has stunk since D&D introduced it.    … Expand
  66. Xanthor
    Mar 22, 2013
    0
    With most PC console ports I am willing to see past the problems and try to enjoy the game. But this game is horrendous. The resolution is awful (even running 1920x1080). Never heard of camera smoothing? Then, several keys just won't bind. Finally, after painfully setting up the controls, attacking the undead creatures will result in hitting air to the left or right.

    Well, Bandai, enjoy    ing the easy money? How about completely redesigning the PC port and RESPECT one third of your customer base for a change? It could be a great game, but the port makes it a complete waste. By the way, there are more publishers that could (should) set the same example.… Expand
  67. rattlehead
    Oct 1, 2012
    2
    Pro: - Fights are exciting and require skill and good timing. Contra: - No save/load system. At times it feels like a MMORPG, where you run the boss after a wipe, only you have to clear the respawn all over again, everytime. That way it creates the illusion of difficulty, but what it really is just repetitive and lame. - Poor story presentation. Poor identification with hero. - Poor inventory management (console typical)
    - Bad perfomance (due to bad portation)
    - Other players may invade your game and kill you

    Why this game got that much positive reception is completely beyond me.    … Expand
  68. EddyHan
    Dec 30, 2012
    3
    The worst port ever for PC! No advance graphics settings and no way of changing the controller inputs around. I like the punishing and brutal gameplay, but the controls need to be changed.
  69. Vercinger
    Jan 1, 2013
    0
    Obligatory 0 for using Games for Windows Live. An unforgivable offence, as GfWL is Microsoft's attempt to kill PC gaming in favor of the Xbox. There might be something playable under the DRM, but I'd have to pirate it to find out.
  70. truefreestyle
    Dec 26, 2012
    0
    If replaying the same 20 minutes over and for several hours is considered fun then this is the game for you. Dark Souls is a badly designed game that punishes you for making mistakes and the developers literally design this game to piss you off (they even intentionally kill you at times even right before you can save). To be honest I feel that their advertisements for it being an "extremely difficult game" is more like another way of saying "badly designed game."… Expand
  71. Knoxville
    Oct 24, 2012
    0
    This game absolutely ruined my day. Camera work is terrible, character dies from a 1 foot fall, it's just...bad. DO NOT get this game whatsoever. You have been warned.
  72. robben1234
    Jan 16, 2013
    0
    No plot. Bad gameplay. Worse graphic. Many bugs. Need to install fan patch. Actually, one good in game - it's boss', but boss' its 30% of game, of this game - other part, ith piece of ****
  73. iozay
    Nov 1, 2012
    1
    The game is impossible to control. Controles are by default incorrect displayed in the interface(For PC version at least). I would defenitely not recommend this game to anyone. The game defenitely has a lot of potential but is not executed well.
  74. Widden
    Jan 31, 2013
    0
    Rubbish. It's an extremely shoddy console port, nothing else. Steer well clear of it to save your sanity. No proper mouse and keyboard handling, low-resolution textures, un-skippable movies; the lot!

    Does not worth a penny.
  75. Gabcd
    Apr 19, 2013
    4
    Horrible controller integration. Lots of user made fixes (that you have to figure out).

    Once you get to play the game, it doesn't look interesting enough to make you want to play.

    I'm sure this game is a lot of fun to most(some) people, but I am willing to uninstall this game without having played more than the couple minutes it takes to get past the first "boss".

    A waste of money to me.
  76. ChunkySaurus
    Apr 21, 2013
    3
    This is just a terrible console port. I played with an XBox controller and the controls were still awful. If it had a plot or some interesting characters, I would endure the difficulty. However, there is no plot and the NPCs add nothing. The main character has no back story either. So after dying for the third time on the same common enemies, I started to question why I wanted to play any further. I couldn't find a good reason. It seems like console gamers have some pretty low expectations if they believe this is one of the best games "of this generation".… Expand
  77. macronus
    Oct 5, 2012
    0
    This game is absolutely anti-fun and terrible designed. Checkpoints 3km away from bosses/important spots, minimum information about important things making this game unplayable without reading tons of guides/watching letsplays.
  78. SohailACE
    Nov 21, 2012
    0
    Worst port of the year, worst graphics, gameplay sucks, biggest flop of the year 2012.................................................................
  79. Antiks
    Jan 7, 2013
    2
    Terrible port. Controls can't be reset and the mouse and keyboard stuff is just broken. Do not buy this game if you don't own and xbox 360 controller for your pc. Also you need to make several community fixes to the game to get it looking decent and running decent. Would not recommend anyone purchase this game for PC. Buyer beware.
  80. Paco73
    Nov 20, 2012
    0
    ..........................................................................................................................................................................Crappy port. Not even worth a $2.99 bargain bin purchase.
  81. Spanked_Ur_Mom
    Dec 25, 2012
    0
    Awful game. I bought this game for $15 on Amazon and still feel like I got ripped off. I definitely wish there was a one level demo that I could have tried because then I could have saved my cash. This is a game that I will not play at all. It will just sit in my library and rot. I would not even recommend this game to others if it was a free-to-play game. My complaints are not because it is a console port. I actually like playing games with a 360 controller. If a game does not have controller support, I map out a profile to use with xpadder. My complaints are with the game itself. The controls are terrible. It is hard to make your character stab or throw something in the direction you want him to. The graphics are low quality, even the cutscense look bad. The screenshots on Steam make the game seem like the graphics are okay but they are no where close to being okay. The game is difficult as well. Difficult to the point of being frustrating. There is no way to change the difficulty setting to bring it to a level that I would enjoy. Namco Bandai has officially joined Atari and Sega on my list of Publishers to never purchase games from. EA is getting close to being on that list too. Right now they sit with Ubisoft on my list of Publishers to only buy games at half of retail or less.… Expand
  82. Neardark
    Jan 16, 2013
    0
    I dont mind if this game is hard, This is one of the reason why I got this game. I play all my games at the hardest difficult always. I don't care about GFWL, the low frame and the outdated graphics, there are solutions for it, This game had the potential to be one of the best PC games of 2012, but the company was so lazy to put a little effort to make this playable. I spent about 10 minutes trying to figure the keys, cause the game use xbox layout (the **** menu is on the END key). You die not because you suck, but because the camera keeps you changing your target between enemies. People are rating this with 10 because they are console players or because they played the game before at console and like it, Come on guys you know that this port does not deserve 10, the developers dont even botther to try make this playable with mouse and keyboard. This game should get a 5 score, but with so many people rating with 10 and defending a bad port game for no reason i will rate this with 0 to balance the score. My advice: Pirate this game from torrent sites and try it for yourself, then if you think developers should get your money for doing nothing with a pc port, feel free… Expand
  83. Bryan2013GC
    Jan 22, 2013
    0
    Essentially to begin with game mechanics & principles these days are consistent with real life mechanics; jumping, real time strategy, sneaking, crouching etc etc. Dark Souls on the other hand takes you right back to the dark days of gaming (sluggish controls, slow time ducking and dodging, button squeezing due to frustration) which is a consumer killer. This game is slowed and unresponsive especially to the fact of combat. I have given myself patience to cope with it. Ultimately I decided that having a brain aneurysm is not worth the time dedicated to this game and starting 33 times with the same re spawned enemies doesn't help either (nightmare much?). Another aspect is the system of combat and ammo; For example no arrows for certain classes in early stages of the game, so therefore close encounter combat would have to be necessary for the hunter or any other class that is reliant on distant damage before closing the gap with fast strikes. Its just redundant for that class to even have close combat. I give this game a 0 and would like to question the game developers in what the hell where they thinking? there is no excuse for such bad ports with amazing game engines and technologies we have now (2013 not 1990 anymore guys!!)… Expand
  84. Andrew_Paterson
    May 18, 2013
    2
    Sometimes I wonder why I haven't learned to read meta critic user reviews BEFORE buying a game.

    Dark Souls is probably an awesome game provided you're not playing the shoddy PC port. But I'm getting ahead of myself and before I start ranting about how terrible the game-play is I must walk you through the issues in trying to get to game-play. Firstly there was the wait for the Steam key     it took about a week to acquire which is long in the digital age but livable. Then I had endless issues with Windows Live. I have windows live installed and working for other games but for Dark Souls it crashed and/or battled to sign in. Sadly you need Windows Live to save. I sorted Windows Live out and finally got into the game. Or thought I had: I got bogged down in the awful, awful character creation interface and then got stuck watching a long unskippable cinematic followed immediately by another long unskippable cinematic.

    I finally get to play but have very little good will left after the preceding mess. And then I discover that the controls are broken. A keyboard and mouse are not recommend and can't be used anyway as the mouse sensitivity on it's lowest setting will see a tiny bump swing the character through ninety degrees. An XBox controller (which is recommended) doesn't work because the button configurations are mangled and can't be re-configured. A genuine XBox controller on a genuine windows operating system (Win 7) and somehow the Dark Souls developers got the button mappings wrong.

    This game is broken.

    I finally quit in frustration. Or tried to. Because the controls are mangled there was no way to get back to a menu to save and quit; I had kill the process instead. Now every time I launch the game it chastises me for not closing it correctly.

    After installing various fan patches I got the game to a playable (and decently looking) state and unfortunately discovered that after all the effort I'd gone through the game play is terrible.

    The premise is that Dark Souls is unforgiving and will kill you again and again until you play cautiously which is awesome. I've been looking for a challenging game for years.

    The reality is the game killed me again and again as the camera seldom points anywhere useful and I stepped off ledges I couldn't see. Or the character locks onto an enemy far behind him and stops me from blocking an enemy immediately in-front. A stabbed in the back instant kill.

    Absolutely nothing about Dark Souls is good or even working.    … Expand
  85. BAPACop
    Mar 21, 2013
    0
    A game at the very least needs to be playable with the controller for the system it is created for. Just like it would be incredibly stupid to require a PlayStation controller to play an Xbox game, it is incredibly stupid to require an Xbox controller to play a PC game. The controller for the PC is the keyboard and/or the mouse. This game can not be played with the keyboard and/or the mouse. Since this game therefore does not satisfy even the minimum requirements, I give it a 0/10.… Expand
  86. Kain
    Jan 17, 2013
    0
    This game is offensive to everyone that is not in coma since 2000 , it's rather easy to look for a game made in that time superior to this that they called a "game" , 0 graphics , 0 sound , 0 Gameplay , the one thing that could be interesting is the plot , but i will take my hat to the ones that have the courage to play this more than 10 mins .... 6.8 user score at the moment is very flattering to this "game"… Expand
  87. kbl1983
    Apr 16, 2013
    0
    The Bad 1. Terrible port 2. Stressful for beginners 3. Can get PKed while online 4.Wheres a map?? 5. Poor character creation 6. NEED XBOX CONTROLLER TO EVEN PLAY! 7. Almost unplayable with keyboard and mouse "headache" 8. Tough as hell so cant rush through and will be chased down 9. YOU WILL DIE ALOT or "Prepare To Die" so not a stress free game The Good..... 1. Was able to make it playable with some download fixes… Expand
  88. Maxwanko
    Apr 27, 2013
    0
    This PC Port is a crime. Unplayable. I spent hours trying to get this game to work after purchasing it on Steam. I downloaded mods from the community. It remained a clunky piece of junk, and the partial controller support did nothing to help the play experience. Screen resolution was not modifiable. I'm sure the console versions are great, but if the game is not playable, it is a zero.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 42 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 36 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 42
  3. Negative: 1 out of 42
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Feb 6, 2013
    72
    The irony is that the PC version could have been much better than the PS3/360 ones, with higher resolutions to make the textures look better, a cornucopia of mods and/or an active (in theory at least) community. But FROM ruined it all (with the assistance of Games for Windows Live). It’s a shame really, if we at least had just a decent port (or a better infrastructure for a less appalling multiplayer mode), Dark Souls could have been one of the best RPG for the PC. [November 2012]
  2. GameFocus
    Nov 19, 2012
    80
    Not often do you see a game that is equally rewarding as it is frustrating; and it's not because the game is unfair.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Oct 29, 2012
    80
    Dark Souls returns the hardcore elements back to action RPGs – heavy focus on uncompromising fight mechanics and absolute freedom in hero profiling. The price of this game is not for everyone. [Oct 2012]
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