This time last week was the time, some could say a happier time and less frustrated time. It was a time where I had never played a Souls game. I have of course heard all about Demon Souls, Dark Souls and its sequel, and even more recently a spiritual successor in Bloodbourne. They are notoriously difficult games which have managed to produce tears from even the most hardened of gamers, yet they have also been critically acclaimed as some of the best games of their genre. I have always been interested and kept an intrigued eye on the games, but think I’ve been somewhat turned off by the difficult entry point. Fast forward a week later and here I am, I’ve been sucked into the world of Dark Souls 2 and sufficiently chewed up, digested, regurgitated, chewed up some more and spat out over and over and over again. I’ve been an inconsolable mess, and swore at the screen more than I have with any other game, but I kept coming back for more punishment time after time, and I’m still not entirely sure why.
Firstly there is no hand holding in this game. After the opening cinematic you get dropped in with no instruction on what to do, or how to do it. While this is indeed a ‘tutorial’ level you get an instant sense that this is a different kind of game. It’s dark and unforgiving tone can be felt from the off. The character naming and creation at the start of the game is well done. Seems a bit of a strange thing saying that, and it is simply implemented, but the way the dialogue rolls into it works very well, as a sort of recollection of who you are after the game has started, rather than the norm of creating yourself beforehand. And once you’re done, your thrust into the tutorial level, and first time around I ended up missing some instructions (which are on stone that can be destroyed) and wandering into the scary world unprepared – not that you can be prepared being so new the games regardless of how much you read on stones.
Now, it was time for the ‘fun’ to begin. There are no hints or tips as to what to do next, or waypoints pointing the way. You just head off, and what will be. You enter the first hub of the game and find some NPC’s who can buy stuff off using souls. Yep, souls are the currency of the game and you get them by killing enemies. After the little safe area I headed off – not before almost being killed by 3 micropigs…..anyway, I headed off. Having been made fully away of how tough the game is I went out as carefully as I could, trying to be patient, and tactful. And it all started off so well, killing the first few enemies I wasn’t sure whether this was the same game I had heard all the fuss about. That slight slither of hope was quickly ruined by my first death. The enemy hit a barrel which exploded and took us both out. ‘You Died’ comes across the screen and fades to black, and I was about to become very familiar with those two simple and piercing words.
Waking up back at the campfire (the campfires are the save points, and fast travel network in the game) I noticed that my health bar had gone down. So every time you die, you get a little bit less health just to make the next go a bit harder. Thank you very much. This can get as bad as 50% less health, an amount which feels very, very small as soon as you start taking damage. This can be lessened by buying and using certain items. When you lose health you become less ‘humane’ and start to look a bit like a zombie. A human effigy can be used to restore you to your former self, and put you back to a full health bar, for however long it lasts.
Dark Souls 2 is all about learning, and patience. You will die a lot, but once you learn how different enemies fight, and how to fight them back, things become a tad less painful. I say a tad, because you won’t suddenly breeze through enemies, the same old ones will kill you again; you’ll just stand a better chance with good tactics, and well times evasion, blocking and attacks. Each of the latter also takes up stamina. And once that’s gone you’re a sitting duck. If you attack too much, you won’t be able to block or evade – You Died. You could be fighting one enemy and not realise another is upon you, you have no stamina left after killing the first – You Died. You might have noticed I said ‘kill you again’ just now. Well that’s because every time you rest at a campfire to save the game, every enemy come back to life, just like that. It really does leave a bleak outlook of things, and the feeling of helplessness in a world that is out to bring you nothing but misery.
Let me backtrack slightly and go back to the currency in the game – Souls. As stated these are collected by killing enemies. If you die though, you lose those Souls. But it’s ok, just get back to where you died and pick up your ‘Essense’ and get your Souls back, if you die on route though, all those Souls will be gone forever. Remember that run of enemies you went through to collect that amount of Souls? Yea tough luck, that little guy you’ve killed hundreds of times before has just bettered you again and they are all gone. It can be so soul destroying at time, it almost made me turn it off and never go back to it again. So why didn’t I? And why would I still keep going back?
Well, the reward of succeeding at something feels SO GOOD. The first time I came across a big fat enemy, I died, a lot. I cursed, I shouted, I felt like giving up and never playing games again. But there is a nagging feels – I’m getting closer, I know what to do, I just need to do it. And once it’s done, WOOOO, it felt like a weight lifted, it felt like an actual accomplishment. Not one of those achievements that pop up on the Xbox to give you a pat on the back for a job well done, but an actually sense of getting better at the game. Dark Souls beats you down so badly that when you get even the smallest high it feels great, and that feeling is very rare in games. Yes you can play any other RPG that might be easiest, or you could play this. Something you need to think about, a game where you need to weigh up which sword you use in battle because one of them is about to break and become useless. Saving up enough Souls to afford the new piece of armour, equipment, weapons or whatever it may be really feels like a big ‘F*** You’ to the game that has been trying it’s damndest to turn you into a blubbering mess.
Dark Souls 2 is not for the faint hearted, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. But nothing else evokes the same feelings. It is a fantastically challenging RPG. It is very well rounded with some very nice visuals (this is a game remade for Xbox One from an older generation, so don’t expect anything jaw dropping), and great combat to boot. If you’re looking for a serious challenge with great reward, and are comfortable with the mechanics of an RPG, look no further.
*Thank you to the Xbox Community Network for the opportunity to review the game**