OSCAR COOPER
"Sometimes a game comes along and boots you firmly up the arse, in a good way"
It took me a long time to put fingers to keyboard about this game, not because I'm bone idol (i am) but because it could possibly be one of my favorite games of all time. I often gush about recently played titles to peers, only to be met with rolling eyes and a face that says 'so you have a new flavor of the month! again'. This time I was serious, its a bit like trying to convince your friends that the girl you're seeing really is 'the one' only to be offered a list of previous relationships where you were in precisely the same position two weeks prior, but I really meant it.
I did a hell of a lot head scratching before purchasing this title, Skyrim was writhing around in a pool of its own critical praise and I will confess I am a Bethesda fanboy, so it wasn't any easy decision. I labored through video reviews, walkthroughs, lengthy articles in Edge, watched semi literate vloggers riding horses through Riverwood on youtube for hours. But it wasnt my time to take the proverbial arrow to the knee so I took the jump and went for Dark Souls first, what really turned me on about the game were the stories from journalists warning the player not to tread its blood stained floors without preparing yourself for psychological warfare. I am a sucker for punishment and miss the do or die stance of the old genre, so I sat down in an empty house, doors locked (crash helmet on) and started.
"From the out set I knew something was different, like when you meet a genius at a dinner party and they can barely speak a normal sentence let alone interact with humans."
From the out set I knew something was different, like when you meet a genius at a dinner party and they can barely speak a normal sentence let alone interact us mortals. This game tells you nothing, it holds its cards very close to its scaly chest, the tutorial is minimal and I (grew to) love that. Straight away the learning curve leaps up before your very eyes like a giant cobra who's tail you've just trampled while it was sleeping in the woods, those journalist voices started to ring in my ears like old Obi Wan with skywalker when the shit starts to hit the fan on the Death Star, but I soldiered on.
Wow did it pay off, having a laptop cracked open by your side becomes essential, a whole community was building and coming together in their suffering, offering counselling, advice and survival tips. And that's its pulling power, you are a survivor in a world that absolutely hates you, even the NPC's couldn't care less what happens to you, every corner you turn, every foot you step in an unexplored or even explored direction is a gift from the games ruthless enemies, they have allowed you to live that long, and you should be grateful.
Once I got my head around the combat and the fact that button mashing wasn't going to cut the mustard, encounters became tense and exciting, one bad decision from my side would result in me going back to square one, but understand this, the save system in the game is vastly improved from Demon Souls and retracing wasn't a massively bad thing. The game encourages level grinding, so by the time you return to slaughter the foe that ran you through five minutes previous you have a whole bunch of new stuff and an added confidence with tackling them. The family next door sure as hell heard the occasion when I first defeated the Taurus Demon (22 attempts) and that's only the second boss... and they were in their garden, it was their young children I felt sorry for, no one should hear a middle age man scream profanities like that mid Saturday afternoon, they'll think twice before having a barbecue again when I'm on a gaming stretch.
Like all good RPG's, you become a badass, but like all good RPG's so do your counterparts and Boss fights become epic in scale and the risk reward with the combat is totally thrilling. Which brings me to the Boss fights and general creature design, I am an artist with an obsession for drawing monsters, big ones, small ones, ones with eyes on their teeth, you name it. I marveled in the art direction of this game, a constant stream of variety came flooding my way every time I discovered or more staggered half dead and scarred witless into a new level.
I played most of the first half on my own, I am always reluctant to go online with a game like this because sometimes it can ruin my immersion (I'm weird, I know) but the game was so massive and its scope so exhausting I thought it only fit to open the door to friends, which is where I had my first problem, none of my friends owned it, and didn't want to own it. However I am a very persuasive individual and in listed an unwitting friend/victim of mine to join me, again another problem, he wasn't going to fork out 50quid for a title he had no interest in.
"Like all good RPG's, you become a badass, but like all good RPG's so do your counterparts and Boss fights become epic in scale and the risk reward with the combat never lets off"
So... and this is how far I'll go for Dark souls co-op, I currently live in the Middle East, my friend is in London, so I had to transfer the cash via western fucking Union to his named account, which was a ball ache to say the least, then had to verbally frog march him to the game store, phone the store before hand in London to check they had a copy (again, ball ache). Then the game gets popular and disappears off the shelves everywhere in the UK, so had to ring round the whole of South London to find him a copy (did I mention ball ache) but finally I did it, got him to log on and I listened with joyous abode to the cries of frustration and pain as he to went through the eye of the needle that is the Dark Souls opening first few hours. He is now as bigger fan as I and thanks me like a reformed pupil to the harsh headmaster for showing him the light, be it through suffering and massive detriment to his own mental health.
If you played Skyrim and not this, then shame on you, and with the recent announcement of the sequel, I am now From Software's biggest fan and I suspect I'll will be in Western fucking ball ache Union again very soon.
Regards Oscar