Using a drake sword and the standart knight shield, i starting to think she didnt add any offensive stats and only adding vitality
Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition Review
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The Good
Immensely imaginative, intensely immersive, but irksome and inaccessible, Dark Souls is a bit like heroin.
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One of the greatest games of recent years makes its way to the PC with Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition.
In each realm of Dark Souls, there are bonfires that offer your only real sanctuary from the constant dangers you face. It's only at these locations that you can spend souls to level up, and when you perish, you restart from the last bonfire at which you rested. Because they serve as checkpoints on your journey, happening upon one can bring with it a tremendous sense of relief, since you know you won't need to overcome the dangers you faced to get here again. That feeling of relief is short-lived though, because you must soon press on into the unknown dangers that lie ahead.
The sense of trepidation that comes with forging on into unknown realms of Dark Souls doesn't subside after you've played the game for an hour or 10 or 20. It is a sustained feeling that arises out of the fact that you rarely know what lies around the next corner, or if you do, you haven't yet managed to overcome the challenges that await you there. That feeling of dread finds tremendous release in those moments when you finally conquer the boss of an area, and in the discoveries of the many shortcuts that link Lordran's realms in often surprising ways and give you the liberty to bypass long stretches you've conquered at least once.
In fact, few games offer a sense of exploration and discovery as rich and rewarding as that of Dark Souls . There is no hand-holding here, no NPC companion or helpful sign telling you which way to go next. Your discoveries are yours alone, and that makes them all the more gratifying. That's not to say that there is no assistance available for the wandering warrior, though. Players can scrawl messages on the ground that serve as clues or warnings to other players. It's a wonderful system that serves to remind you, as do the fleeting, ghostly glimpses you occasionally catch of other adventurers fighting their own battles, that although you are solitary, you aren't alone in your struggles.
Dark Souls is a shared experience in which each player must mostly fight his or her own battles. However, you can call on assistance in moments of need. Players can leave summon signs, and you can summon one or two of these players to your world to help you take on the boss of an area. (You can also leave your own summon sign, offering your assistance to other players.) These connections are fleeting--win or lose against the boss, players are promptly returned to their own worlds--but the impact they have on your journey can be tremendous. Not all connections with other players are benevolent, though. Under certain circumstances, other players can invade your world with the intention of seeking you out and defeating you. It's terrifying to be deep into a dangerous realm and get the notification that your world has been invaded. It's just another example of the ways in which Dark Souls keeps you constantly alert and a little afraid.
Unfortunately, summoning and invading are somewhat spottier on the PC than they were on consoles. When attempting to summon other players to your world, you may more often than not get a "Summoning Failed" message. Additionally, the PC version is locked by default at a resolution of 1024x720, though a user-created mod is available that resolves this issue. However, the PC version improves on its console counterparts in terms of performance; where the console versions suffer from severe frame rate drops in the area known as Blighttown, the PC version does not.
Most noteworthy in the Prepare to Die Edition is the added content, called Artorias of the Abyss. This content adds new areas that take you back into Lordran's past and find you going toe-to-toe with figures who loom large in Dark Souls' lore. Like many things about Dark Souls, the way in which you access Artorias of the Abyss is shrouded in mystery, and unless you investigate the world thoroughly and pay close attention to item descriptions (or just look up the instructions online), you might miss it.
That would be a shame, as the content thoroughly holds its own when added to the existing game. The bright forests of the Royal Wood offer an intriguing glimpse at the Lordran that once was, and the enemies who populate this land are as memorable as the rest of Dark Souls' fantastic stable of adversaries. Particularly excellent is a battle with the knight Artorias, a fearsome foe even by the standards of Dark Souls' challenging bosses. His appearance tells its own story; his armor drips with a purple substance that suggests the corruption that has befallen the once-noble knight, while his left arm hangs from him uselessly, a dead thing. He is frighteningly agile and powerful, and vanquishing him is one of the sweetest victories to be had in a game full of rewarding challenges.
Also in this new realm is the Battle of Stoicism, an arena for player-vs.-player battles. Here, you can partake in one-on-one, two-on-two, or four-player deathmatch battles with nothing at stake but leaderboard glory. Sadly, a number of issues make the arena a frustrating place. It's not unusual to have to wait several minutes or more to be matched with an opponent. (This is assuming you're playing the one-on-one battles, which are much more heavily populated than the other types.) Once you are paired up with a foe and dropped into the arena to see which of you can defeat the other the most times in a three-minute period, you can expect lag to plague your battle, as your opponent hops around the screen without animating properly and you sometimes take damage despite the fact that your opponent didn't appear to hit you. The arena's presence doesn't harm the overall game since it's entirely optional, but it doesn't bring much to it, either.
Despite this minor disappointment, Dark Souls remains one of the greatest games of recent years. There's so much to do and to discover in its beautiful and frightening world. You might encounter and join one of nine covenants, each with its own benefits and agendas. You might find that one NPC has murdered another and that you can invade the killer's world as a spirit of vengeance. The genius of Dark Souls isn't just in its environments, or its monsters, its thrilling combat, or the unusual and exciting ways in which players are connected. It's in the uncompromising way it throws conventional wisdom to the wind, dropping you into its dangerous world without guidance, making you fend for yourself, and teaching you to shrug off defeat time and time again to finally earn victory. That this vast and unforgettable masterpiece is now only $40 makes the decision to play it even easier.
By
Carolyn Petit, Editor
Carolyn Petit has been reading GameSpot since 2000 and writing for it since 2008. She has a particular fondness for games of the 1980s, and intends to leave the field of games journalism as soon as she hears that her local Ghostbusters franchise is hiring.
667 comments
1 Like Everyone keeps saying that the game is total crap on PC. I wonder how many of those people actually played it... I have about 60 hours played on the Xbox version and about 35 hours played on the PC version. I installed the DSfix mod (which is widely known as being the first thing to do when you get the PC version) and high resolution text mods before starting and I've never had a single problem. The game runs BETTER on my PC than it did on my Xbox, running at 60 fps 1080p instead of 30 fps 720p. For reference, my GPU is a GTX 560 Ti. Anyone who instantly says the game is total crap on PC either never tried it or doesn't have a decent gaming rig.
1 Like Awesome Awesome Awesome game. It reminds me of Myst, but with epic fantasy style combat! The controls were super wonky at first. And it doesn't help that the game is notoriously HARD... but please give it a chance to break in. Also, the controls are completely customizable which helps a ton to make keys more convenient to hit. Once your rolling, prepare to enjoy this challenging D&D-esque game that imo is a healthy cross between god of war and skyrim (with a wayyyyyy better storyline obviously)
"Keyboard and mouse are unwieldy", controller not really optional... well what the HECK! If I wanted a flipping console game, I would buy a console.
1 Like Oh, btw too. I don't know how Gamespot lists a game as Single Player or Multi Player but Steam at least gave DS:PtDE both single and multiplayer ratings. You should know that even if you thing you are playing the game single player if your character state is Human and you are 'online' you can be attacked by PvP foes. To avoid the multi player PvP foes you can either keep your PC dead (Hollowed) or force GFWL to log you on 'offline' by physically disconnecting from the Internet. Imho this game is _not_ single player--it is multiplayer online only with this PvP element unless you stick to one of the trick methods mentioned above. Have fun...
Gamespot should reevaluate this review of DS:PtDE and give it a 7.0. Some gamers just love that fact that there is no in-game mapping or direction except to travel a path you think you haven't traveled before until totally lost. I strongly suggest drawing your own crude map(s) and read FAST before location names and NPC locations disappear--especially if using a SSD where load times are so fast info pops on the screen for only a few seconds before you are once again lost. If you want to move along with some pace get a guide or walkthrough too. And btw you will just love dying repeatedly and not respawning in some cases anywhere near where you died. It is just a fantastic game of torture! Believe me I have had so many gamers tell me on Steam's forum that all this was by intentional design. Although I finished the game with trying difficulty I have it lined out on my list to remind me not to buy DS2 until it's (once it is realeased) clear you gamers like it a whole lot more then this PtD. For me it isn't the port that was lacking at all--I used a 360 controller--it was simply all the decent RPG design features of a game that were missing. Enjoy! Your mileage must very if you like this sort of gaming misery.
1 Like If you want a great game that is half baked and ported like shit, this game is for you.
2 Like When talking about the PC version of Dark Souls, Yui Tanimura, director of Dark Souls II, said that "a lot of it was not very well done, sort of half-assed,". http://www.gamespot.com/news/dark-souls-pc-port-was-half-assed-says-director-6406838
I think this quote may be enough to attest that Petit just ain't a good reviewer, right? Or at least that this review in particular was half-assed too? I mean, even the developers admit this was a pretty bad port.
3 Like @snxx couldn't agree more, bought the game after it got a kick-ass 9.5(should have glanced over the user score)i swear alt+f4 the game after 30 mins it was downright horrible to say the least, the most shoddy pc port ever!!how can this game get more than a 7 let alone the astonishing 9.5??
1 Like Anyone that thinks this game doesn't deserve a 9.5 didn't really understand what is so great about this game. It's a game of subtlety of story, feeding you just enough information to make you want to know and seek out more. It's a game with an incredibly complex combat system that has a wide range of possible attacks / defenses. Granted, it's not for everyone and PC people really need to know that before purchasing. I highly recommend renting it for a console to see if it's your style of game before buy the best version (PC) and playing it in HD.
Do you need to have the original PS3 Dark Souls game to be able to play the Prepare to Die Edition? Or it's a stand alone for PS3?
@DiogoLakai I don't have a ps3 but it should be a stand alone like fallout 3 game of the year edition was.
5 Like Everytime i see this game as a second top rated PC game ever i feel insulted as a PC gamer, its really an insult to other great PC titles to be behind this terrible port in the list, i agree its a great game but it doesn`t deserve the 2nd best rating as its a port and not a PC exclusive.
2 Like @Veronity As much as I love this game, and as great as it is, I agree. With the lack of optimization off the bat for PC I wouldn't give it more than a 8.5, the game itself is easily a top 5 all-time RPG. I'm just happy they decided to create a version for PC, at least now for Dark Souls 2 they'll have a dedicated version for PC which should be something really special. Dark Souls 2 and The Witcher 3, probably my two most anticipated game titles of all time, GTA V has my attention too; they better release a PC version.
best fighting and weapon system, best enemy AI and enemy behaviour ever in an fantasy RPG ... camera and movement is abit sloppy compared to the oustanding deatiled combat system, but you get used to it very soon ...
just be thankfuel its available for PC now, they didnt did anything to port it, but that the gamne is now on PC is just a service for all the fans in the world ...
use a XBOX controller
go to Dar souls Nexus and get all the mods you need, DSFIX and SweetFX is recomended
its a dungoncrawler, if you dont like such game, dont play dark souls
2 Like I heard quite a few criticisms for a 9.5. Not to mention it sounds and looks unnecessarily hard.
Holy Crab!!! What the H3ll is this game??
Gimme more adventures ... I'd rather play this than A'Creed
:P
4 Like Too many issues to ignore to get this kind of a review. It got slammed so hard on metacritic they had to delete all the negative reviews. This is not meant to be played on PC. It's meant to be played on consoles with a controller buyer beware.
@randomtext Earlier I bought three "Playstation" gamepads from GAME for around 150 SEK each, They work perfectly for this so your statement is pretty false.
"It's meant to be played on consoles with a controller buyer beware."
What you said is nonsense and doesnt exist in the real world. a console is just a crappy PC with a controller. ACtually its ment to be played on the PC with a controller and 1080p and not on toaster hardware that delivers a blurry washed out stutterfet
3 Like Users Score: 7.1 Says it all. Can't disagree more on a review. I played the game with a Gamepad, so controls are not the issue here. It's the atmosphere, the emptiness, typical of "another great rpg" ripoff. Dudes, just play "Blade of Darkness". It's old, but 10 time better than this game.
@nomailx Speak for your self, ""another great rpg" ripoff" what the hell. It's just that he game isn't for you. In my case, it's my favorite game so far, it's amazingly deep and appeals to me in every way. The atmosphere and emptiness that you talk about is part of the art of the game and if you don't like them then it's just not for you (the game is not empty as in content, though and if you can appreciate the art design, the lore, why everything is like it is, etc, it feels even more alive and meaningful).
@Xeroxer @nomailx I play every game I get the chance to and the genre doesn't matter. Games are one of my biggest interests since I see them as a work of art where the developers put their own selves, experiences and thoughts and allow me to live other experiences apart from (though, always connected to) the ones in my real life. Of course, the games I like the most are the deepest which I'm able to relate to.
The appreciation of a piece of art is subjective to that person sensing it, if you don't like it, it's just not for you, there is little there that draws your attention, nothing to be identified with, not what you wanted to see or experience. In my case, this game is perfect (not taking into account the port part, of course lol, not that it matters to me), I couldn't find anything (any-thing) else that gets so deep in to me, so much that sometimes I don't want to have anything to do with it :P.
Also, I don't like when people think their opinion is absolute fact ("speak for yourself"), isn't everything subjective/relative to you and your experiences?
3 Like Indeed... This is not a game made for PC. But for a console. The developers, didn't even adjust the necessary modifications needed to know what buttons you should use. And for a RPG, there are quite a few buttons needed. Not playerfriendly. My score 3/10
3 Like This girl is crazy we need real reviews. Hope she no do no more reviews. One can only hope.
@gentle_storm If you hope she no do no more reviews, then you're hoping she does lots more reviews. Glad to see such affirming, positive support; it's all too often lacking these days.
5 Like "Some PC-specific technical issues."
GameSpot should hold the Understatement of the Year awards.
It blows my mind how this port got this score.
1 Like 30fps cap - Not much of a deal (fixable with DSFix mod).
no PC button prompts - I didn't care, it was very intuitive and didn't gave me problems (that's just my opinion, so yours is a valid point).
awful keyboard binds - That's subjective, just configure the controls.
woeful resolution ceiling - Yes, but easily fixable with DSFix.
terrible performance from desperately bad hardware utilisation - The game loads a lot faster and plays smoother than in consoles (not in an old PC, of course).
£30 price tag despite being one year late - I thought $40 was a good price for the original game and the additional content (and when comparing the price for the game and DLC in consoles).
no re-mappable controls - False (except for mouse-buttons, but Mouse Fix, the mod that fixes the mouse-camera control lets you do it).
a memory leak - Well, I'm glad I didn't run in to it if this is true.
For me, the only problems were the small resolution and the bad mouse-camera control, but I didn't care since they were fixable with two small mods (or one mod plus a controller). Also, using GFWL wasn't a good idea (and the memory leak may be a problem caused by it according to what I read).
I know mods aren't taken into account with reviews and I don't think they should be (except for games like Skyrim for PC were they promote modding and support it because it's a great option to have, but that's still not taking into account specific mods, but the modding option), I just didn't care because the issues weren't really much of a deal (I mostly liked the features added by DSFix).
Why do you care so much about the score? Maybe the "PC-specific technical issues" weren't so bad for the reviewer and were compensated by the additional content (at least I think that way and it's just and opinion). 
3 Like @KeviNOlighT 30pfs cap - You can't just give the developers credit, and push up the score for someone else's work. There's no other way to say it. They were lazy, and taking the work of a bystander and attributing it to your dev team is essentially stealing.
Resolution ceiling - Same thing.
Mouse config - Same. Thing.
Price - It doesn't matter what you *thought* a good price was, it still came out a year late at the same price as Borderlands 2 or Hitman 4 or any other *new* AAA game.
Memory leak - You may not have run into it, but it's a common issue. After about 20-30 minutes gameplay you lose approximately 1fps every 5 minutes, until it stabilises at 15fps
Performance - It doesn't *matter* that it runs smoother on PC, It had *better* run smoother when you're comparing it to *seven-year-old mid range computers*. The fact of the matter is, it runs almost as well on modern integrated graphics as it does on a $600 GPU, while your CPU usage hardly ever tops 30%%. That unbelievably lazy copy-and-paste coding from the 360.
And no, I'm tired of people saying "well it was just you". So maybe you didn't get a memory leak, but saying Carol may have been playing an awesome version with no problems at all is just unbelievably lame and desperate... and totally false.
I care about the score because the whole industry *runs* on scores, in case you hadn't noticed. The dev gets more money based on the review of the game, and giving a 9.5 to a piece of crap (regardless of who decides to fix it) is just wrong. We're saying; "It's OK to be half assed in everything we'll call it perfect no matter what you vomit up next".
1 Like @KeviNOlighT It doesn't matter that they're useless with PC optimisation, what they did was just greedy. I don't expect them to just pull the skills out of their ass on demand, but you don't charge full, new, AAA price for a piece of crap.
Sorry I thought we were having a discussion about the GameSpot review for Dark Souls PC, I wasn't aware we were just talking about your feelings.
Next time don't line them all up and use them as responses to *real facts*if you want to be understood.
@naryanrobinson Huh... Ok, I didn't gave credit to the developers for someone else work as you say, I told you my personal opinion and experience. I understand if others really mind those issues, but don't put words in my mouth. I didn't tell you "it was just you" about the memory leak, I didn't tell you that Carolyn was playing an awesome version with no problems at all, I told you maybe the issues weren't so bad for her in her experience, I wasn't telling you a "fact" (you know, "maybe", "opinion").
I said the issues weren't so important for me, but I recognized them and of course I'm hoping for them to learn from what happened to the PC version and and apply it in the development of DS2. There's a fact to take into account here, though, From Software didn't have experience with PC at all and they didn't want to make a port, but surely Namco Bandai pushed them to make it (after the petition) and FS staff said that they would have to make a direct port from the 360 (no, I'm not defending them, just giving you the main reason as to why the port ended up like this and, also, why it probably won't be like this in the next game, since they found that there's a market for the series on PC and have more budget).
Again, I truly understand if you or others really cared about the issues, it's just that not everyone thinks like you or me. About the score, the review is an opinion; this is not the only site that reviews games; there's the User Score, too.
@naryanrobinson It blows my mind how biased people's opinions can be. Dark Souls has zero ( 0 ) technical issues. It's just a little rough in some corners, but that's all.
Mouse+keyboard works perfect as I played it 90 hours with that combination and I don't remember one moment that I felt it wasn't working as it should.
Only problem with it is that you need to download DSfix to get the most out of its potential and that's barely a con.
This game deserves its 9.5 in any sense of the word and I believe it's one of the best games PCs have seen last decade.
4 Like
30fps cap, no PC button prompts, awful keyboard binds, woeful resolution ceiling, terrible performance from desperately bad hardware utilisation, £30 price tag despite being one year late, no re-mappable controls, a memory leak.
Oh I'm sorry, did you think this is a website that counts up all the mods ever made for a game, takes an average, then goes back and gives the developers a score based on the other people's work? Well that's cute.
Thanks for the story though. Super interesting, but then I'm just "biased" after all.
@mati_melo_No keyboard bindings are not "nulled" because you can play with a gamepad. The game is for the PC. Having a PC entails having a keyboard and mouse, NOT a gamepad. That's an optional accessory that's adding to the price of the game.
No the speed is not "good enough as it is", because if it was "good enough as it is" the whole internet would not have been complaining about it.
"Resolution ceiling" in English means maximum resolution, not the resolution of the inside of the roof, and yes it is woeful. Most 16:9 monitors won't go *lower* than that resolution. The absolute minimum.
It's got nothing to do with the content of the game or how challenging it is. You can't give 9.5 to one version, then give the *totally crap* version of the same thing, the same score. It's just not right.
In most games, the tiniest screen tearing or lag would cause a lower score for that version, but here for some reason the total f*** up version gets the same, nearly perfect score. 2 Like @mati_melo_ No keyboard bindings are not "nulled" becasuse you can play with a gamepad. The game is for the PC. Having a PC entails having a keyboard and mouse, NOT a gamepad. That's an optional accessory that's adding to the price of the game.
No the speed is not "good enough as it is", because if it was "good enough as it is" the whole internet would not have been complaining about it.
"Resolution ceiling" in English means maximum resolution, not the resolution of the inside of the roof, and yes it is woeful. Most 16:9 monitors won't go *lower* than that resolution. The absolute minimum.
It's got nothing to do with the content of the game or how challenging it is. You can't give 9.5 to one version, then give the *totally crap* version of the same thing, the same score. It's just not right.
In most games, the tiniest screen tearing or lag would cause a lower score for that version, but here for some reason the total f*** up version gets the same, nearly perfect score.
@naryanrobinson @DuaMn
you can play the game with a controller so keyborad bindings is nulled... 30 fps cap ? so what game is supposed to be tactical u dont need exagerated fps for that, speed is good enough as it is, woeful resolution ceiling ? u grade a game because of its ceiling ? thats sad, the only fact i see its maybe its not the game for u, maybe 9.5 its exagerated but it is a challenging good game, a kind thats almost gone since assasins creed series and alikes came out, so really i dont know what ur talking about, btw sorry for my english im from argentina :)
4 Like @DuaMn Great substitute for actual facts. I wouldn't expect anything less from a troll.
Look it's not my fault if you don't know what you're talking about and you get mad when other people do.
Those are the facts and if you can't handle it you should get off the internet kid.
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Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
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- Publisher(s): Namco Bandai Games America
- Developer(s): From Software
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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