Watch out! Controllers may brake and TV screens may shatter! It's Dark Souls everyone!
Gameplay - "Hardcore yet so frustrating at times" (8/10)
Let's face it; Dark Souls is not as open as it intends to be even though it gives you the option to move freely everywhere around the world.. are you actually up-to-par with the enemies health and max damage? the game is highly liner when it comes down to the whole exploration part of the RPG genre mainly because of the fact that you get the feeling of being free while you are actually, probably, most likely moving towards your death, while that's not a bad thing because hey you gatta learn from the video game instead of it directly telling you what to do but its not denying the fact that its frustrating to die 30min into the game by going into a graveyard right in front of you with enemies that can only be killed with a weapon that you can get after beating a bunch of really annoying mini-boss like enemies.
The combat is very intense and provides a great realistic experience overall with every move, every attack, every successful attack you do changes the fight dramatically but at its core is made for players to have higher skill at mastering the difficulties of the hardcore combat while relying only on themselves and their skills.
Presentation - "Looks visually pleasing and the amount of verity is surprising" (9/10)
The visuals look very good there is no doubt about that and it fits the atmosphere of the game perfectly, but sometimes the camera will have a few little bug-outs here and there but that is not a real issue since it happens so rarely, the amount of verity of enemies, items, armor, weapons is big, you can get lots of items by just killing enemies and the merchants will sometimes sell you some nice armor that you have never seen.
Story - "Was there one? Really!?" (6/10)
The real low point of the game is the story, while personally i think that an RPG must have a very impressive storyline or just have one that gets you into it at all Dark Souls does not provide that, there is a story out there but mostly its just background clutter and while you should not notice the story so much and really just play the game because of what gameplay it offers the game falls under the category of "RPG" and well i cant have my RPG's if their stories cant keep me going after I've died over a thousand times in a row.
In short, don't expect something very fun coming out of the story, most of the time its just a cutscene rolling in the background trying to impress you and at least that is successful.
Replayability - "You can... but would you like to brake to second controller now!?" (8/10)
Once you finish the game, that's it, you are done, you can either start a new game or a new game+ with your other character but really you are just going to experience pain all over again and personally after I've finished the game i do not wanna get anywhere close to it, not because its back or anything but just because i am afraid that i will brake my TV next and to simply put, I'm not a millionaire.
In short its a good thing to test your skills again but what sane person will?!
Conclusion - 8.0
While it is a fun game at times and is a real big test of your skills, the amount of frustration it produces is like multiplying the mass of the sun by two (don't try that please) and i am all for playing video games because you are having fun, and frustration is not fun for me in any way.
Thank you for reading this review.
~J-Jazz