Dark Souls has nothing to prove to you, you have to prove yourself to Dark Souls. It is gaming redefined; it's amazing.
Story
Oh do I love the story of Dark Souls and I can tell you it from start to the finish, but rather I will give you the summary. Once upon a time there were angry dragons that hated everything. They hurt people and they destroyed people's stuff. Then one day, heroes arose to combat the dragons. They beat up the dragons and became lovable people who want to rule the world.
Basically that's it and really I can't say much else from that. The world of Dark Souls is hard to fully grasp because not much is really explained. If you want a better understanding of the story, you would have to hit up the internet to offer insight to what it's about. Anyway, the protagonist (you) wakes up dead, well undead. But not the Walking Dead sort of way. It's more the fact you lost your humanity but you kept your sanity. Upon waking up, you notice you are in an asylum where other mindless undead are kept. But you are different, so you break out of the place like the brave, independant soul you are and begin your quest to take down the heroes from the story above in order to make someone happy or other.
No, it's not the greatest story, and it doesn't shine like a stage light, but it does set the stage of fantastic characters and of course, Bosses.
Gameplay
The gameplay of this game is very hack and slash, WAIT don't run away yet, this game is different. So before you exit this page, please realize that this game is heralded as the greatest games of last year, and here's why," It is hard". Yeah, that's it. Now you may ask, " What's so hard? Ninja Gaiden is hard," which is true but this game isn't an overpowered jump of the walls, Devil May Cry game where you can decimate enemies like a monstertruck with legs. Here, I'll explain.
The game first allows you to create character, which is very standard for any game that allows itself to be called an RPG. You have many choices of glass that has its own playstyle and unique look. Then you begin your adventure where death is commonplace and claiming victory over your enemies is as rewarding as exploring this world of Dark Souls.
The main resource of the game is souls. You aquire souls from downing enemies and retrieving them from other downed heroes. Then you spend those souls are different things like upgrading your equipment, purchasing more equipment, and ultimately, levelling your character. Majority of the more useful armor and weapons are drops or crafted, so don't worry about wasting your souls on a good weapon. You will also be using a lot of your souls for upgrading your armor and weapons because they become underpowered once you progress through the game. So you can see the heavy emphasis on the souls because they are your lifeblood.
Another resource is Humanity. You use these to turn yourself back to human, because you are undead for the majority of the game until you do so. It's very easy as sitting at a bonfire, kindling it and then reversing your undead state. The greatest downside to being human is that you are able to be invaded by Vengeful NPC spirits who even Players who wish to pick a fight. The spirits are able to drop unique weapons or armor and should be sought out.
There is a large drawback however, because when you die, the souls and humanity you have gathered are dropped where you dropped. You spawn at the nearest bonfire, which is your base of operations, where you must go back to retrieve the souls and humanity. And if you have the misfortune to die again, those souls disappear and the souls you had on you at the time of death, drop where you fell.This mechanic is very unique because you can't name many games that do such a thing. It promotes you to be very stalwart over your souls and causes you to be a much better fighter in fear of losing them.
Combat of the game is very responsive and the character does a very good job of responding to you. Hit the attack button and you attack, you hit the dodge button and you dodge. Do all the above in a quick manner to dodge a large wolf and you feel like you did something right. Because what a game should never do is make you notice the controls unless it's the opening hour. You lock onto enemies and do a very nice strafe around which allow you to either nimbly dodge attacks or backstab an enemy for more damage than your usual strike. You are also to parry an enemies attack to do a nasty 'riposte' which also does a lot more damage than your usual strike. Enemies are also very different and unique as their own move sets. You will not see any reskinned enemies (The knights do not count) and every encounter is a learning curve you complete. Knowing the abilities of your weapons and your playstyle is crucial as it could be the difference of surviving or dying. Weapons are not thrown at you after every encounter, they may drop from certain enemies and they are not items such as ," Fire sword". Weapons are realistic and only the special weapons are the unique in their name as well as their move set.
Boss battles are the climax of the game. This is where you have to be on your toes and you have to observe the boss very closely to understand how to take it down. You may even have to adjust your armor and weapons to be more suitable for the battle, allowing for stamina to regenerate faster or to use an element that the boss is weaker against. Bosses are large and are the test of how well you can adjust and fight on the fly. Once you beat the boss, you can only throw your fist in the air and let the feeling of victory set in as well as the huge amount of souls. The boss will also drop a unique version of a hero soul, where you can use to craft a unique weapon which can improve your combat ability for the future bosses you will encounter.
Aside from striking down evil, you are also able to join a Covenant which is a faction where you align yourself to gain bonuses. To gain these bonuses, you must do certain tasks specific to the convenant. You may have to feed them Humanity, or you have invade other players world to kill them. Once you do these enough the convenant may reward you with powerful magic, equipment or even a shortcut that helps immensely.
-I personally feel the gameplay of this game is unmatched and it's fair. Whenever I died, I felt it was always my felt and it wasn't some cheap issue with the game. The feeling of exploration, the thrill of fighting monsters and bosses, and the progression of your character come together to cause the greatest event in gaming to happen: Immersion. When a game can nestle itself in your thoughts and you want to play it almost religiously, then it has done a great feat.
AUDIO
The audio of this game is very beautiful and it's also very fitting. Though the majority of the game is ambience of the local area, it still helps set the scene. Boss battles also create a very powerful sense of adrenaline. The sounds of the monsters are unique as them and they are very fitting as well. Water sounds like water, and your weapons clang against walls appropiately. When a boss destroys a pillar, you can hear that pillar crumble to its last pebble.
VISUAL
First you polish a golden egg to a shine, then encrust it in diamonds, voila! You have yourself a physical representation for Dark Souls! I'm joking, the graphics for Dark Souls isn't groundbreaking however they are very good. Textures are beautiful and the render distance goes far enough to show the beautiful lighting created by the sun rays. Each area is rendered appropiately and have their own respective effects, such as the lava in Lost Izalith and the trees in Darkroot. Bosses are massive and very intimidating to stare at. Monsters are believable and look as if they belong in the areas you find them. Weapons and armor are also believable and look very good. The downside to all this is that there are points in the game where the framerate dies. Areas like Blight Town are notorious for this so be wary when adventuring in there.
MULTIPLAYER
You are able to adventure with your friends to take down threats within your game, or you are able to invade another players game, with or without friends, for a fight to the death. Multiplayer in this game can be very ruthless where some players show honour while others just want to break your back while you bow with respect. Multiplayer can sometimes require a specific build for your class and a specific equipment set, so be wary taking on other players who create their character solely for Player versus Player action.
REPLAYABILITY
This game has the fabled ,"NEW GAME+", option built right in. After completing the game, it will automatically start you off at the beginning of the game with all your items with the exception of key items needed to progress the story. You are very powerful at this point however the game responds with increasing the damage and health of all the monsters and especially the bosses. You will gain more souls and you're also to do as many playthrough as you want, just remember that Dark Souls will keep adjusting the creatures to eventually be able to sneeze at you and die so be sure to be the best fighter imaginable.
BOTTOMLINE
Dark Souls is one of the best games that came out of 2011 and is a must buy for any console owner (And soon to be PC owners). The game will never lose it's charm and is always constant. I've personally completed the game twice on two different characters. My first character was very slow to beat it but my second ran through very quickly because I understood everything about the game. Buy this game and immerse yourself in a world where 6pm can quickly turn into 3am and you won't care at all.