So, I think most players know the score with Dark Souls now. It's a ruthless and beautifully designed game that drops you in with little-to-no hand-holding, moving from one challenging area to the next. It's hard as nails, obtuse as hell (if you're into lore, Dark Souls should be a definite look in) and is very addictive. With every death, you want another go. Another go to get deeper into the mysterious world of Lordran. To discover more secrets. Encounter horrific new enemies. Challenge the mighty bosses. And soak in the spawling locales. All this while you slowly level your character in an infinitely complex system that allows for fun variations on the starting classes (I always seem to favour a Miracle-based tank). There's plenty of replay value with New Game+ that ups the difficulty, meaning it's always enticing to come back for more.
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| Dark Souls Remastered is a welcome return to a classic game |
Right off the bat, Dark Souls Remastered looks gorgeous. The remastering team have done a great job of really drawing those colours out in greater clarity. Compared to the dull colour scheme of Dark Souls III, the original game is a more vibrant yet somehow moodier experience then what came after. You don't need to have everything rendered in grey-scale to be terrifying (Dark Souls III). The team have also upscaled the game to run at a higher frame rate, so infamously laggy areas such as Blightown can now be enjoyed with smoother clarity (though enjoy is not a term one uses in Blightown).
The best addition though is the password system, a new feature in the later games. The original Dark Souls allowed you to summon other players in to help you out on tricky areas or tackle challenging bosses together. By return, the summoned player would received EXP as you run round someone else's world. It's a great way of helping each other and gaining EXP. Winner, winner. However, you could only summon in players who were in a certain range of your current level (10% each way I believe). This meant that me and my friend group had to remain fairly sync with our levels in order to help each other. Another risk this system presented was the possibility that other players could summom you before your friend could and also face potentially long waiting times for each other's summon signs to appear in the respective player's world (this could be mere seconds or up to an hour). The password system introduced later in the series meant that friends could set a phrase that would match to each other's game and allowed for an easier time summoning. Private match-making basically. So the choice to add this feature into Dark Souls Remastered is a God send.
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| Get ready to re-fight the plethora of classic bosses, including the might Gargoyles |
Outside of the technicalities of remastering the game and tinkering with minor mechanics, the thing I was most interested in was how the game held up, considering all the developments the series and From Software have made since the original release. And honestly, it still does the job though not without a couple of niggles. The first half of the game is flawless. The mood is heavy and each new area is challenging and interesting, starting from the medieval style Undead Burg down to the pits of Blightown to the highest peaks of the Italian Gothic inspired architecture of Anor Londo. The pace just continues to build and build as the player vanquishes increasingly difficult foes culminating in the legendary Smough and Orenstein fight. Then the player gets the ability to fast travel around the world and some of the magic is diminished. Part of Dark Souls' immense "charm" was that sense of dread around every corner as you went further and further away from your place of comfort in the beginning of the game to increasingly darker depths. I can't think of any other way From Software could have handled the second half of the game better, as physically back-tracking to the scattered four locations that make up the game's final act would have been a real chore, but I think it's fair to say that you lose that sense of dread and the joy of discovering how the whole world is interconnected. That and I find the final four locations not quite as inspiring as those in the first half (Demon Ruins and its infamously bad ending boss fight, the Bed of Chaos, springing to mind). Part of this was due to a rushed schedule to get the game finished on time and unfortunatey it shows now. One does wonder if From Software could have used this chance to improve upon these sections but that's a whole other debate (check out Jim Sterling's video on this for a levelled discussion - link at the bottom of the page). However, these levels do offer interesting challenges and some excellent and unforgettable boss fights (even if we're just looking at them purely based on an art design level). And if you get bored of that, you can unlock the hidden areas of the game or fight your way through the very tough DLC.
As it stands, Dark Souls Remastered is about what I wanted from this re-release; a shiny new version of the game that clears up the visuals, up-scales the frame-rate and offers improved online match-making so me and my friends have an easier time finding each other when we’re in dire need of help. I suppose an argument could be made that From Software essentially coasted it on this release and Dark Souls Remastered only serves to remind consumers what a solid game that original one was. Some slight niggles aside, I was delighted to find that Dark Souls lived up to my memory. I still find the annoying parts annoying (Bed of Chaos) but when it gets cooking, it's one of the richest and most appetizing meals on the menu. If you haven't played the game, now is the perfect opportunity. You'll never play an action-adventure game in the same way again.
So if you're interested, I thought I'd list my thoughts on the other games in the series, along with Bloodborne.I find with the Souls series it's a case of diminishing returns. That said, I really like Dark Souls II a lot. When it first came out I was crushingly disappointed but decided to re-visit it when the Scholar of The First Sin edition came out, that added the DLC and tweaked aspects of the original game. I would advise getting this version as I had a blast playing it. It's probably more unforgiving than Dark Souls, in that it's not as fair a game, and some of the locations are a bit unremarkable but I don't know, I just enjoyed the heck out of it.
PS4 exclusive Bloodborne came next and it's bloody excellent. It's probably From Software's best game, the ultimate culmination of everything they learned making Demons Souls (which I've never finished and would love a remaster of) and the Souls series. It's a masterpiece of art design, level design and gameplay. It's slightly more accessible than the Souls series but still hard as nails. An essential modern-classic.
Ok I call Bloodborne the best From Software game but the original Dark Souls will always be my favourite.
Dark Souls III on the other hand is by far the worst game in the series. The levels are utterly forgettable with a drab art design. It's a Frankenstein's monster of a game trying to combine the gameplay styles of Dark Souls and Bloodborne. The enemies are quick and reactive like in Bloodborne but they forgot to make the gameplay quick and reactive in order to combat said enemies (a la Bloodborne). This means the whole game is just a huge chore. I don't know who dropped the ball here but it's a disappointing way for the series to end.
Jim Sterling video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTNRPkuhvyw
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