1. DeckardPain

   10

   This was pretty much the best game to come out of 2011 all together, and let's be honest this is NOT a game for everyone. The fact that the game does not tell you where to go from the beginning gives you a sense of feeling lost or confused, but that also sparks an adventurous side of the player inspiring exploration of the game world. The boss fights were phenomenal, and the experience this game leaves you with upon completion is unmatched. Overall Dark Souls is uncompromising in its challenges and yet fair in its approach.… Expand

   • Helpful? 4 of 4 users said Yes.
2. lionalio

   8

   A very good game, actually in this year, you can hardly find such a game like this with an awesome gameplay, epic boss fights, tough enemies, and more over, just one mistake and you are dead man! If you don't care much about the storyline (which is ambiguity), only care about fighting and wander around, this game is your type. But another thing: If you are seeking for a casual game, this is definitely NOT for you.… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 2 users said Yes.
3. Avadon

   7

   Having solo'd my way through Demon's Souls and NG+ several times in the past, I find the experience presented by Dark Souls rather disappointing. The game seems to be much more co-op dependent this time around, and I wouldn't recommend going through it alone to those who don't like ruining a game's atmosphere by facerolling through it with 4 people or don't like facing the danger of disconnecting or lagging. Unfortunately, you will be pretty much forced to do that.
   
   There also seems to be much more emphasis on what is known as "bullshit deaths" in Dark Souls, which wasn't so in Demon's Souls. Stuff that you can't possibly notice on your first go will instakill you many, many times and cause you a lot of frustration. The solution again is to be online and read help notes. If you don't do that, expect to take 3 times as long to finish the game. There are also fundamental design faults early in the game. For example, if you get poisoned by the first pack of rats after Taurus (and they pretty much instapoison you unless you get really lucky), you might as well reload, you are practically dead and have not yet had access to anything that cures poison with most of the classes.
   
   They also have done absolutely nothing to improve the cryptic nature of the first game, in fact they made it even worse. Reading hours and hours of wiki articles just so I can understand the basics of the new things they introduced is not something that is fun for anyone. Not explaining your mechanics to the player is not challenge, it's laziness. Having to start 3 new characters before reading up that you absolutely must get the Master Key gift if you are a sane person, and then having to delete them all and start over is not good.
   
   The game is also really glitchy, especially the pathfinding is pathetic, and people who claim this is a "feature" to be abused to increase your odds are just being idiotic fanboys. Enemies teleport everywhere, leap up winding flights of stairs in one animation and backstab you, and even bosses may leap to their own deaths and leave you standing there and facepalming. As for the new combat mechanics, kick doesn't break enemy shielding so it's kinda pointless and the leap attack is too stamina intensive and 99% of the time will hit the air and leave you open to an instakill.
   
   I also really hate the new magic system with limited charges, magic is now to be used only in extreme emergencies and making a pure intelligence character is pretty much suicide. Why not have the option to play as a magic user normally, I don't understand. They limited their own game because clearly they thought that magic users are homos. Ridiculous.
   
   The level and monster design is much better than Demon's Souls, well done there.
   
   In the end, I feel that Dark Souls is unpolished and approaches challenge in the wrong ways sometimes. You also pretty much need to co-op it or you will go insane, but co-op destroys the difficulty entirely. What a glorious battle Allant was in Demon's Souls on NG+ if you were solo... I haven't found anything that great 60 hours into Dark Souls, only bugs and frustration. If you played and loved Demon's Souls, I recommend you rent this and check it out before buying.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
4. GrumpyReviewer

   2

   Let's be honest for a second, here. Seriously. Ask yourself: "do I really like this game?" or "am I really enjoying this?". I think Dark Souls is the perfect example of Psychological Marketing. Developers and the media MADE US believe that suffering exhaustively with some sort of "do it again until you get good at it" business is something nice, something we want, the ideal gaming experience. It's not. Dark Souls is, no question about it, a beautiful game, challenging and well crafted. That being said, the difficulty level is just way, way too high - to a point that there's not fun at all to play it. But we do, we play, we suffer, because "they" made us believe this was the best gaming experience ever. I gave up on Dark Souls as soon as I realized that I just don't have time for this. Being a gamer in my 30s, I have pretty much 1 hour per day to play games. And I don't want to spend these precious hours hating myself or hating a game because I cannot have any fun, because of frustration. I'm no masochist, sorry. For me, the ultimate gaming experience is HAVING FUN. And there's [almost] no fun to be had in Dark Souls, sorry.… Expand

   • Helpful? 7 of 12 users said Yes.

See all 284 User Reviews