Dark Souls – Games of the Year [Xbox 360/PS3]

Posted December 28, 2011 by Ally Doig.

Grim medieval ARPG DARK SOULS scored a massive 9.4 in our review, but there’s more to it than bone-crushing difficulty. Here’s why we think it deserves to be counted as one of the games of the year.

3.30AM. Burning eyeballs, manic stare, gritted teeth. A sea of scrawled notes, crumpled checklists and dirty coffee cups stretched across the desk towards the TV set. I felt like a scientist on the brink of complete and utter madness; so close to absolute self-destruction, but still hoping for that elusive, triumphant moment when everything would finally fall into place. Just one final miracle. The ultimate victory.

After 151 hours playing Dark Souls – three and a half playthroughs, 925 gamerscore and more painful deaths than my caffeine-addled brain was capable of recalling – I dragged my beleaguered warrior down the long spiral staircase towards the Blades of the Darkmoon covenant to pick up the last bit of magic my character had yet to learn.

25G – ‘Prayer of a Maiden’ popped up in the top right of the screen and then, finally, a single brief message summing up all the blood, sweat and tears I’d shed over From Software’s beast of a game. 50 gamer points. “The Dark Soul – All achievements completed. Congratulations!”. A small, but cherished prize in return for an unholy amount of effort.

Now, on the surface, that full 1000 gamer points is merely an arbitrary number, nothing but hollow bragging rights. But to the battle-weary player it’s representative of everything that Dark Souls offers – the long, slow process of scouring every inch of its meticulously designed world, coming to appreciate the richness of its lore and the inhabitants, and eventual mastery of a game that uncompromisingly sticks to a rigid, formal ethos. And for this I disregarded the Dark Knight. Shunned Skyrim.

Let me elaborate further. Practically everybody – regardless of whether they’ve ventured into Lordran’s unforgiving lands or not – is aware of how tough the game is and yes, Dark Souls is a challenging game, not to mention much of its appeal lies in the sense of achievement it offers through perseverance. But while its steep and unrelenting learning curve is integral to the experience, there is so much more to Dark Souls than its difficulty.

Left in the dark

Much of the success of the franchise – I guess we can call it a franchise now – actually stems from each game’s unconventional design. Take how Dark Souls is deliberately cryptic for example. In a traditional RPG or adventure game, we expect at least in part to be offered a helping hand as to where to head next; a map marker, compass or friendly NPC, perhaps. Without a little guidance we feel lost and frustrated, and quite rightly might criticise the developers for allowing us to be so.

However, Dark Souls’ being so purposefully obtuse from the outset benefits it in two distinct ways. Firstly it feeds the constant feeling of solitude and apprehension – the morbidity of the world around you – that in turn makes it such an involving game. By being told very little about the dark fantasy landscape you’re wandering through, you’re forced to press forward, quickly adapt to its rules and uncover its secrets little by little. And yet it all feels entirely unscripted. Its lack of obviousness actually makes it a richer experience because the onus is on you to understand, and subsequently attempt to conquer its vast and complex sprawl.

Uphill struggle

This brings me to my second point: adventure in Dark Souls actually means adventure. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed Uncharted 3. As a cinematic spectacle it’s more or less unrivalled. But you’re constantly led by the nose, so obviously funnelled down one linear route that there’s very little in the way of exploration. It’s blockbuster set pieces are a joy, but personally speaking, no big-budget action sequence can eclipse the feeling taking your first nervous steps into one of Lordran’s foreboding labyrinths. Every moment in Dark Souls’ open yet claustrophobic world is fraught with tension and each successful measure of progress, utterly cherished.

And that open world is painstakingly designed. Hidden passageways and caverns link the game’s varied environments together, and there’s a palpable sense of appreciation for the moment a shortcut links up with a familiar area you know isn’t quite as daunting as the one you’ve just fought through. While Skyrim’s epic map stretches off into the distance in every direction, Dark Souls’ is more tightly knit and web like.

It impresses most in its verticality. One particular shortcut leads you from the putrid, swampland village of Blighttown all the way up to the relative homeliness of the safe haven at the Firelink shrine where you start the game. From there you’ll continue upwards through the death traps of Sen’s Fortress and eventually to the towering spires of the city of Anor Londo even further up. Dark Souls is often an uphill struggle in the most literal sense, but the diversity of the architecture and ingenuity of its layout will have the intrepid explorer in many of you doing backflips for joy.

Wheels within wheels

Which is why Dark Souls is my Game of the Year – though to be honest I could easily write this piece five times over and probably miss something out. There are so many intricacies to its mechanics and so many cogs within the overall mechanism that can only be appreciated through dedicated play.

The simplistic, yet deep combat system, the opportunities which the new guild system of covenant allegiances presents, the masterful, minimalist storytelling: Dark Souls certainly demands a lengthy investment of time to appreciate its brilliance. I’ve ploughed more hours into this than all of 2011’s other blockbusters combined. And all I can think about is starting again with a new character.