The reason for my absence these past few weeks from this blog has been very simple, I've just had too many great games to play to bother writing anything of relevance. I had great plans of writing some thoughts on the season finale of Mad Men, an Uncharted 2 review as well as reviewing the Pixar movie Up but all of that went down the drain when I got my paws on Dragon Age for the PC; a foolish obsession that cost me about two weeks of my life not to mention that I think it killed a large part of my old PC. I'll try to write more about Dragon Age soonish but knowing how I treat new Bioware games I'll only do that once I've run through it multiple times with different characters.
Well, if that wasn't bad enough I ended up jumping from Dragon Age straight into Demon's Souls and now I'm obsessing over that instead. Since I have no qualms about admitting my loser-level I'll just say it outright that it's gotten so bad that I dreamt about Demon's Souls last night. It's the toughest game I've put my skill against in memory and I think I suck extra hard at it since my progression feels like it's going slower than what it normally should considering the hours put in. However this is probably the most unique, creative and immersive game that I've played this whole year and is my personal surprise hit of the year as well as being one of my personal Game of the Year contenders.
The game has punished me over and over yet I keep on re-trying despite knowing that I'll probably get brutalized all over again. This is one of the most immersive games I have ever played, you really feel the hatred for these abominations that are refereed to as demons and the atmosphere is sometimes so oppressive and tense that I have to take a break from the game to calm my nerves. There is not much narrative at all this far in the game but the few pieces of story that have emerged have been excellent with amazing concept art being shown while a narrator speaks. Still, this game thrives on its rich gameplay mechanics and I think that is the reason it's such a success because as soon as you die you don't get to feel the frustration too long before you're off once again to try to kill some demons and collect their souls.
I started the game and I died alot and it's only now after killing two major demons that I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of this. I stopped reading the strategy guide and just focused on playing like I how I would like to play the game. In short, I got my hands on a two-handed Claymore sword and am going full-retard with what my pal Gatts has taught me about killing demon scum. This philosophy can be summed into; you need BIG swords to kill BIG demons. In many ways this game is the closes I've ever played to a Berserk game because of the general bleakness and darkness found in both. Not only is this dark fantasy game one of the best of this year but I think in years ahead it will be considered one of the hidden gems of this generation.
