Introduction

Dark Souls is a 2011 action RPG developed by FromSoftware, best known at the time for their equally spectacular Armored Core franchise and their Ps3 exclusive, Demon’s Souls. The game was directed by the sadistic Hidetaka Miyazaki, a man who spends his lonely nights devising strange foot fetishes while drinking gamers’ tears as a source of energy.  

Dark Souls is the first entry of the infamously brutal trilogy that has brought so many of us together to wallow in despair and is the spiritual successor to the aforementioned Demon’s Souls. The game has also created its own sub-genre called the Soul-like RPG and has inspired the creation of many imitators such as Nioh and The Surge.

Setting and Plot

So, this whole mess takes place in the fictional land of Lordran, when one day a magical flame sparked, attracting an assortment of colourful individuals. These lords of something or the other used the fire to gain newfound power and built a kingdom in their image, stylizing themselves as the Gods.

After settling into their new positions and exterminating a few dragons in the process, our newly made gods soon discovered that the source of their power is slowly fading away, leading to everything they built going out in a puff of smoke. It got so bad that the dead coming back to life was only a minor annoyance. To counter this madness, they decided to take the ostrich approach of doing things and make the flame someone else’s problem, mainly yours.

Well, that is what I think the story is. You see, initially, you have no idea what is going on. At the start of the game, you are technically locked up in some undead asylum until some random knight decides that you radiate chosen one vibes and decides to bust you out. Then he shortly dies afterwards without giving you any substantial information outside of a family saying too specific to say under any other circumstances. Then you ride out on a giant bird, fly to the land of the gods and become a murder hobo because you have no clue what is going on.

What I just explained is pretty much all the story the game provides willingly, which you only receive in the first five minutes. You will need to explore the land of Lordran and find out what mysteries lay inside for yourself. Every item has an interesting inventory description that can help enhance your perspective of this world, while the characters you meet can try and fill in the blanks.

A genius omission by Fromsoftware was removing any UI assistance like maps and quests journals that could guide you on your journey. This characteristic helps players become more creative and find their own path. During my first playthrough, I ran deep into an underground necropolis filled with invincible spectres where I got beaten to a pulp, only to realise that it was the wrong section entirely. However, I did find a blacksmith and some high-level loot while exploring.

Gameplay

Let’s be honest, Lordran is slightly above Australia in places where everything can kill you, and you will die many times. As a small act of pity, FromSoftware has created several checkpoints in the form of bonfires scattered around the land of Lordran. The idea behind this is that when you die, your character will return to the last bonfire they visited, but every enemy will reappear as well. I should also mention that any items you pick up or shortcuts that you unlock along the way will also carry over after you die.

Similar to its predecessor, Dark Souls is an RPG where the player can use an experience point currency, called souls, to upgrade their abilities and weaponry. The more souls you obtain throughout your journey, the stronger you get. However, you would need to find a bonfire in order to level up.

You are probably thinking to yourselves while reading this review that the frustration and difficulty of this game is an over-exaggeration. However, what I purposely omitted to mention is that your souls do not return to you after death. While this feature can be frustrating, fighting a boss with the knowledge that I could lose it all is an exhilarating sensation, to say the least.

Speaking about the bosses, Dark Souls has a whole pantheon of baddies that would love to chew you up and spit you out. While some players enjoy the game for the exploration, I love it for the challenge, and this game has a lot of it. The bosses are formidable opponents that take a few sacrifices to understand how to beat them, but once you learn their patterns, you feel rewarded for slaying a powerful foe. Dark Souls is about trial and error, and it is this learning curve that makes the game so enticing to play.

Online Features

One of Dark Souls’ most unique features is it’s multiplayer. You can play the game offline or online, but I do recommend playing the game online to get the full experience. Playing the game online can incite others to help or hinder your progress, which opens the doors to co-op and PVP.

Hostile players appear in-game as red phantoms and can turn you into a meat kebab and make off with your souls if you are not too careful. On the other end of the spectrum, you can summon helpful players to take down powerful bosses or deal with difficult challenges.

You can join in on the action by either being a jerk and invading someone else’s world or by writing your name on the ground as a sort of hero for hire.

There is also the option to leave messages behind to “guide” other players around. I tend to take these messages with a pinch of salt, as I have been told to jump to my death much more times than I dare to count. However, one can find helpful ones that can reveal secret items and locations along with enemy weaknesses. Just be prepared to smack a few walls for some duds.

Music

While FromSoftware has produced many excellent orchestral soundtracks over the years, with The Answer from the Armoured Core franchise and The Tower Knight from Demon’s Souls being exceptional in their own right, Dark Souls feels stands above the rest. Listening to booming boss themes of Ornstein and Smough or the sad piano melodies of Gywn set the tone for every fight. Motoi Sakuruba brought out his A-game for this first iteration of the Dark Souls series.

Conclusion

Dark Souls is one of those games which is easy to learn but stupidly hard to master. The game has clunky controls, which makes the fights more intense to play. It has challenging adversaries that keep you on your toes, but they are euphoric to defeat, and it has a convoluted narrative which is enticing to unravel.

Under these conditions, any lesser studio would fail but the developers of FromSoftware are masters of their craft, and this first entry kindles a legacy that can be felt decades later.

Dark Souls’ mysterious but deadly world is a beautiful marriage of narrative discovery through gameplay. Everything has its placement and reason for being there, and it is all part of what makes Dark Souls so great to play. Everything here is connected, but it is up to you to decide how to piece it together.