Dark Souls
The game starts off with telling you the story of the four gods and a scaleless dragon who betrayed his kind defeating the everlasting dragons who ruled the world. You play as an undead, a human who already died but is reanimated because of a curse called the Darksign. You start in a prison cell and the prison you're in is the tutorial part of the game. In this tutorial you meet a dying undead Knight name Oscar who tells you of a prophecy that he was trying to fulfill and now you must fulfill it. This is all you are told of what to do in this game. This is very little guidance or explanation, but the game is designed to be explored and have some clear paths to get some progress. There are characters or more commonly called npcs. Each npc has their own story most of which is implicit. Learning more about the world is through npcs and item descriptions. Though I find that reading the wikis of the game helped me understand more than trying to figure it out myself through the game. When you finish with the tutorial you are taken to Lordran the land of the Ancient Gods where the game is set.
Now many of the areas in the game are dark as hell, but there are a few well lighted areas that are quite gorgeous. The areas are massive but the payable parts of them can vary in size. Many of the enemies are Hollows which the undead become when they die and they look like decayed dead people. We can go hollow as well when we die, but we still maintain our sanity. Luckily you can revert back to human with an consumable item called Humanity which are important. Then there are demons or monsters. There are about 50 npcs and some of which don't talk to you or are not very significant. The fun thing about npcs is that you can kill most of them. Obviously its not advisable especially on your first playthrough. Once you hit them probably by accident its too late. Just hope you didn't hit them hard enough to make them hostile. Killing them does give you their equipment and for certain ones, the Fire Keepers, it will boost your Estus Flasks which are healing items. There's usually one npc that has an asian type name that will sell you asian weapons like katanas. The merchants and blacksmiths are obviously important to keep alive. From what I've seen and heard of it seems people like killing npcs which I don't exactly understand.
The online multiplayer aspect of the game is interesting too. While you're playing there are sometimes phantoms of other players that you can watch them play for a few seconds before they vanish. Also bloodstains are replays of how a player died that you can watch. This only is enabled if you are in human form, but can summon people to help you fight or get invaded in which other players can kill you for humanity, souls, or a special item. Souls are the currency of the game which you need to buy things, upgrade, and level up. There are unique souls that are items you get that tend to be from corpses of warriors or bosses. The fallen warrior souls you can consume for more souls, for souls of bosses you can use it to make a unique weapon. There are also covenants which are like guilds or jobs. Each covenant have benefits mostly for online multiplayer reasons. Only one has a story related benefit which is optional.The leaders of these covenants can be killed and as a result you brake the covenant so think twice before attacking them. There are other penalties for killing certain npcs so be sure to look them up so you know what you're getting into.
The gameplay is quite enjoyable, but I have to admit that I had to cheat and use a guide. Some areas are quite confusing so using a map or guide really helped me get around. Sometimes the stairs or ladder are just so out of sight that I'd miss it and probably never find. Sometimes there are areas that you probably wouldn't figure out like for me I didn't know there were fake walls that I have to hit. Most are optional secrets, but there are a couple that you need to hit to progress. There are a number of chests, but most items you find are on corpses in the form of a bright sphere hovering over. Monsters do drop items but not as much or as often as other rpg games. Most of the bosses are huge which is intimidating. Most of them require some sort of strategy so you can't run up to them and hack and slash and hope for the best. Dying a lot is part of the game too. This could obviously anger people since even if you get your stats up to 99 the game is still difficult. Falling to your death is the most annoying way to die to me. This game could be a test of your temper. There are a lot of things in this game that can come at you from nowhere and kill you or at least ruin your day. In time you learn to know what kind of game this is and expect it.
I like that its available for PC and that my laptop was actually able to handle it just fine. This game is an action RPG by FromSoftware a Japanese company. The voices are in English even in the original Japanese version. If you're playing it on PC I recommend using a controller from a PS3 or Xbox since using the keyboard just doesn't feel right. Overall I highly recommend this game! Even though it is challenging I have yet to find any walkthrough videos or lets plays of this game that does any justice. I've written a spoilery post of the game here.
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