CVG - Dark Souls isn't broken - You are

CVG - John Dean thinks gamers have gone soft – and the age of hand-holding needs to end

[koehler83]

I thought we had this conversation 2 years ago.

[Anon1974]

I eventually had to sell Demon's Souls after my second playthru, not because I wasn't loving it but because I needed to force myself to play something else. This game was like crack.

I'm holding out buying this until the project I'm working on currently has been completed. There aren't many games these days that this old gamer has problems pulling himself away from, but if Dark Souls is anything like the previous title, I'd best set aside a block of my life before buying it. :)

[FunAndGun]

Dark Souls is like crack with a sprinkling of angle dust.

you and your life have been warned!

[DirtyLary]

moderation is your friend. Go buy it.

[Trophywhore]

The title is the truth.

[darren_poolies]

Completely agree, nice read.

[LightofDarkness]

Honestly, if every game was this hard, I'd probably stop playing a lot of them. It requires too much commitment of time, and I don't have that much of it between work, social life and music as well as games.

[gillri]

thats why im waiting for a barren spell next summer, will buy it then

[Canary]

It's not hard, it just has a steep learning curve.

Personally, I'm sick of people claiming these games are hard just because of the artificial difficulty induced by way of the low HP bar and trial-and-error gameplay. Enemy AI is just as bad in DS as in any other game; enemy attacks are just as predictable as in any other game. The only real difference between DS and random game C is that random game C doesn't expect the player to die, ever, and in DS player death is part of the gameplay experience.

[Dacapn]

You must have just started gaming this gen. I remember buying games during the sega genesis days. You bought them not knowing if you'd ever be able to beat them, but that's how things were. Some of the games I had didn't get beaten till like a year or two after I'd purchased them. So with all the other things going on, you try once, if you fail, try again next time. The whole hand holding thing has made most games boring in my opinion. I'd rather just watch a movie most of the time.

@Canary

You're half right. The AI isn't necessarily anything special, it's more so that the game is just unforgiving. Where in most games you'll find and invisible wall, in DS you'll just fall of the cliff and die. Where in most games the enemies scale with you, in DS they are what they are and you can either defeat them now or you can't. DS just took out all the sugarcoating and made a game that is what it is. It's not so much that you enemies do a ton of damage, it's that you're a low level so you're defense is weak, your attack is weak...you're weak. You level and get better, if you really want to you can go back and lay the smackdown on the enemies that used to toss you around.

[LightofDarkness]

Yeah, that must be it, I must've started gaming this gen. That's the only explanation, right?

Or it could be that I'm not 8 anymore and don't have 6-8 hours a day to devote to playing a videogame. I cut my teeth on Ninja Gaiden and Megaman, and I've beaten every single one, even the Zero games on GBA. I beat the original NG on the NES when I was 8 or so, and did the same with NG Black (Master Ninja) on the Xbox many years later.

That's the problem I'm starting to see with this game: presumptuous and condescending Souls fanboys. Nobody is allowed to have any criticism of this game without being labelled as a casual gamer or a "n00b." And I'm sure many are afraid to say anything less they be shunned and ridiculed by their "totally hardcore" peers (and gamers labelling themselves as "hardcore" is another laughable development this gen, but that's for another time).

Anyway, go ahead kids, spam that disagree button.

[Dacapn]

I work, have a life, go to school, and when I have an hour or two to spare, I pop in DS and if I progress, great; if I don't, then I guess I'll have to try to again the next time I have a spare hour or two. You say time is your issue. Who said you have to play this game 6-8 hours a day? Just say it's too hard of a game or say it's not your type of game. Or say that you don't want to spend time playing the game, but don't give me that "it's too time consuming" bs. The game isn't time consuming, you consume too much time playing the game. Your excuse leads to the assumption that you either can't say what you mean, or you just started gaming today, and can't manage your time.

[LightofDarkness]

You must have aching saddle sores from that high horse of yours. I don't need an "excuse", it's a video game, not a bloody legal mandate.

I didn't say I wasn't playing the game. I also didn't say it's not my kind of game. I just said it's not perfect and I wouldn't want every game I play to require the same commitment and tip-toeing progression. But no, to people like you that's a blatant attack on it's perfection, and must be met with snide comments and a swift glance down your nose at the offending parties.

[Dacapn]

Well there you go. You don't want every game to have slow progression. Now you're saying what you mean, and you're making sense now.

[Psychotica]

The good thing is that you are not required to finish in a short time. Who cares if it takes weeks, months or even a year or two?

[MeatAbstract]

I would like to see more games like the Souls series. The gaming industry is massive enough to cater for everyones tastes, I just wish they'd cater to the masochistic a bit more.

Loving this game - it's everything I expected it to be and more.

[StrikerZ3ro112]

This game is amazing, it has surpassed all expectations. There is a reason that the game was advertised the way it was, To keep people who dont like a challenge away. If you cant play the game because you think it's too hard, you shouldn't be playing it in the first place.

[Tanir]

everything in the game is perfect, they just gotta fix the infinite souls thing, and the 1 hit kill dragon glitch -_- that dragon glitch screwed me over

[mandf]

The infinite souls glitch isn't a game breaker or is it going to be a problem. Nobody can invade anyones game unless they are within 5+ or 5- of your level. Anyone who exploited this has no advantage. If anything they screwed themselves because they didn't play the game and earn armor or weapons to use with there soul level. I agree with the dragon though.

[Tanir]

i know what u mean but ur partially wrong, what if the person didnt use the souls to level but to buy tons of materials to make retardedly strong weapons and armor?

otherwise your right :P

[mandf]

I see your point but you can't duplicate or buy the important ones. If someone honestly make it to lvl 350, they have had time to collect the important ones unlike the exploiters which makes his weapons stronger by default.

[DirtyLary]

People say you can invade any level with the forest covenant.

[Kamikaze135]

The game is great. My only complaint is the object collision....it seems to always get in the way when I try to snipe with my arrows from a distance.

[DirtyLary]

Take off the training wheels. Drop the arrows/bolts.

[Philoctetes]

Great article. Nice read.

[knowledge4lfe]

the game is amazing. my only beef is the shitty frames per second. its crawls to a halt sometimes. it was never an issue in demon souls. now we gotta deal with it. in the blight it makes it almost unplayable at times. other then hat i have zero complaints. im 25 hours in and cant stop.

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

yeah I hear ya on that one. I just finished Blighttown yesterday and the Frames dropped really bad in that area. The rest of the game seems fine tho, but that one area is pretty bad. Probably because its a huge open area and has alot of polygons because of all the wooded planks and platforms maybe? i dont know but that area was not cool because it could drop to like 10-15fps in that area sometimes.

I killed that lady spider boss with the help of that AI phantom that you fight and can summon, and some other person who was a magic user.

Just having a person there to help with the bosses is huge because at the very least they will distract it for you so you can get some good hits in or retreat and heal when your hurt while it attacks the others.

Ive summoned people 2 times for help with two of the bosses and its always good to know that you can always get some help if you are stuck.

[Psychotica]

I bought Rage instead of this on release day. I bought this 4 days later and haven't touched Rage since. Fantastic game...

[Heishiro__Mitsurugi]

Dark Souls are for hardcore gamers. :)

[SillyBastid]

great article, well done, and very true

[Tex117]

Game is pure greatness.

We should all be counted as lucky to be gamers (especially RPG Fants) this fall.

Dark Souls then Skyrim...too completely different and completely brilliant RPG's.

Dark Souls is my favorite game of the generation...well at least tied with Demon's Souls (hey...it was brand new at the time and I pre-ordered the Deluxe on the word of some importers...felt more cult-hit...just saying)....That said, Im greatly looking forward to Skyrim when it drops.

A welcomed change of pace.

[Mister_G]

I agreed with this article, until today when I got cursed by a frog.

Now seriously considering starting again from scratch :'(

Only 20 hours in :'(

[tickticktick]

I haven't played this yet. Is the difficulty like Ninja Gaiden? I remember people saying that Ninja Gaiden was hard but after awhile though I got good.