Dark Souls Prepare To Die Edition Review: A Flawed Masterpiece

Dying in a video game has never been so compelling.

Developer: From Software
Publisher: Namco Bandi Games
Version(s): PC and PS3 and Xbox 360
Price: $19.99
Release: October 4th, 2011

In recent years the Soul series of game have taken the video game community by storm. After the cult hit Demon's Souls From Software release a spiritual successor in the form of Dark Souls which went one to be a major success and eventually spawned a direct sequel and a spin-off franchise in the form of Bloodborne. I absolutely adored Bloodborne and with Dark Souls 3 right around the corner I wanted to dive in and experience all of the Souls games. I have beaten Dark Souls, almost done with Dark Souls 2, and currently starting Demon's Souls. I decided to start with the game that make this series a mainstream hit and I was skeptical of it living up to they hype that has been built up around it over the last few years. Thankfully, it did indeed live up to those lofty expectations.

Characters gather around a bonfire at Firelink Shrine.

Dark Souls begins with the creation myth that tells of an unchanging gray world ruled by everlasting dragons that is challenged by four powerful gods that have gained immense power from something called The First Flame who defeat the dragons and establish the Age of Fire. However the Age of Fire is ending and mankind is afflicted by the insidious Curse of the Undead. Those afflicted are unable to die and will endlessly be reborn at the mysterious bonfires that scatter the land until they lose their minds and go Hollow, attacking anyone on sight. You are an Undead locked up at the Northern Undead Asylum who is saved by a man named Oscar of Astora who asks you before he goes Hollow to go to Lordran, The Land of Ancient Lords, and fulfill the Prophecy of the Undead that will liberate mankind from the Undead Curse. When you arrive in Lordran you are told to ring the two Bells of Awakening so that the fate of the undead can be known. Thus, begins a quest of seemingly endless trials and many, MANY deaths.

You will die many times in Dark Souls and I'm certain that this drake will be responsible for at least one of those deaths.

That is the clearest idea that most people will have of the backstory of Dark Souls the first time they play it because Dark Souls does not spell out it story and themes for the player. Instead it communicates it narrative though environmental storytelling, item descriptions, and conversations with friendly NPCs that you find in the world and slowly builds a massive world with many characters, locations, and factions to get to know. The environmental design of Dark Souls is for the most part some of the best video games have to offer with every level connecting to each other in logical and natural ways which makes navigating them so stratifying. Levels like the strange forest of Darkroot Garden and the trap filled Sen's Fortress will forever be etched in my mind.

Darkroot Garden is an area that is simply dripping in atmosphere.

But Dark Souls isn't known for its excellent environmental design its know for being hard and yes Dark Souls is a very hard game, but not as hard as some people may think. Dark Souls gameplay is split between a real time combat system revolving around stamina conservation and weapon combos and Dungeon and Dragon style stat building that governs the effectiveness of your combat prowess. Getting the hang of the real time combat is very hard and even in the early game the simplest of enemies can wipe the floor with you, but the stats that you slowly build throughout the game using the souls of the enemies upgrading you character and your weapons to better deal with the dangers of Lordran and conquer Dark Souls legendary boss fights. 

Great Grey Wolf Sif is many people's favorite boss in Dark Souls.

Beating a boss in Dark Souls is hands down one of the best feelings that I have ever felt and only got better with each new challenge I faced. The great secret of Dark Souls is that if you know what you are doing the game can be surprisingly easy. It has a Legend of Zelda-esque design of always having the right tool you need to beat an area or boss. I remember feeling that the Bell Gargoyles guarding the first Bell of Awakening were impossible until I realized that I had a shield that could block fire damage and that the gargoyles were weak to lightning and I had found a resin that I could use to buff my weapons with lightning damage. Even though I still had to dodge and block the gargoyles attacks in real time I was more than able to put the odds in my favor. 

The Bell Gargoyles are what I and many others consider the first real boss fight of Dark Souls.

The main thing I deeply respect about Dark Souls is that it respects your intelligence and your time. You can see a lot of the devious traps and enemy encounters the game throws at you simply by taking a minute to stop and look around. The game is does have harsh penalties for death which involving losing all of your souls upon death. But you are always given a chance to get them back and even if you fail you just have souls items that you find throughout the game that you can fall back on if needs be. You can pause the game which is kinda dumb, but the game auto-saves every few seconds so you can pretty much quit at anytime to take a break and never lose that much progress. This auto-save system means if you make a make a choice you can't undo it so it makes every choice you make feel all the more important. 

One must tread cautiously to brave the traps of Sen's Fortress.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Dark Souls is its very unorthodox and obtuse multiplayer. To even access the multiplayer you have to be in human form , but if you are you might notice glowing white symbols on the ground. These are summon signs that players leave on the ground and you can use them to call them into you game they can then help you with the boss and after you beat the boss they disappear. However, being in human form also makes you vulnerable to invasion in which other players invade your game and try and kill you. I have never been a huge fan of the competitive multiplayer of Dark Souls as the odds are almost always in the favor of the invader and the only incentive to invade is gain Humanity which you need to access the multiplayer to begin with. There are multiplayer covenants that you can join to gain rewards by cooperating or invading, but they are for the most part underdeveloped. My favorite part of the multiplayer element of Dark Souls is the messages that you can leave on the ground to either help or hinder other players progress, though most of them are sadly left by trolls that leave messages on the sides of cliffs that tell you to "try jumping." If you are playing offline you can still reap the benefits of being human as you can summon help from NPC allies against certain bosses, but it also opens you up to being invaded by NPC characters as well. For the most part, the multiplayer of Dark Souls is ambitious, but underdeveloped though I feel that its inclusion still benefits the game by giving meaning to player interactions in world which helps pull you into the game even more.

A player fighting a giant rat in the Depths with the assistance of another player summoned into their world.

While I have spent the majority of this review praising Dark Souls to high heaven there are quite a few issues I have with the game. Weapon upgrading is confusing and the game never really gives a good explanation on how to forge powerful weapons and finding all those different embers and blacksmiths is just tedious. Certain enemy encounters also run counter to Dark Souls "difficult, but fair" design philosophy with a pair of archers in an area called Anor Lando taking the cake. The entirety of the Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith levels scream of cut content and feature some of the worst designed boss fights in the game. There are some appalling frame rate issues in certain areas of the game particularly. And as I have already stated that the multiplayer while unique and ambitious is underdeveloped.

Knight Artorias is a boss exclusive to the Artorias of the Abyss expansion pack.

But in spite of those few issues with the game Dark Souls is still a masterclass in environmental design, interactive storytelling, and deep game mechanics. I would recommend that any person that considers themselves a gamer should try at least once. And if you get stuck at anytime in the game the Souls Community is one of the best online gaming communities I have ever been a part of. While there still is the occasional elitist asshole that scoff at newcomers most of the community is more then happy to help newcomers anyway they can. Dark Souls is truly something special and proof that video games can be something truly spectacular and worthy of being called a piece of art. 

You can find Dark Souls at most video game retailers for pretty cheap these days and I highly recommend picking up the Prepare to Die Edition if you can as it comes bundled with the fantastic Artorias of the Abyss DLC which adds a fantastic new area, four new bosses, and a lot of narrative elements that make the base game feel much more complete. Dark Souls is available for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.