Demon's Souls - Review

Starting this review off I would like to mention that I'm someone who has never been a fan of Action-RPGs, repetition, and extremely difficult games. So when I finally bought Demon's Souls I thought it would only hold my interest for a short while before I'd give up and move on to my other gaming comfort zones. However I was wrong because the hype and the word of mouth for this game has been so wrong and misleading. Yes, it is an Action-RPG but it is unlike any other Action-RPG I have ever played, yes, it is trial and error but it is also a game that abides by it's own set of rules and rarely ever breaks them, and yes, it can be a challenging and difficult game but that is only before you learn how to play it or if you play it wrong without adapting your strategies to the different situations. It has been called a niche game but that to has been misleading because it is a game for anyone willing to put in the necessary hours to learn its deep gameplay.

I was wrong because the game is simply amazing and manages to transcend the nuisances I usually hate and it got a grip on me that I have not felt from a game since Baldur's Gate 2. The atmosphere that embodies the game world is incredible, this is a dark and bleak world that oppresses you until you basically get a panic attack. The Kingdom of Boletaria is minimalistic and shrouded in mystery and you will only ever get hints at the larger picture going on in the setting, but it is so well crafted that you will literally feel it more than anything else. It is also a game that does not compromise on it's difficulty and while the game can be unforgiving, in the end its challenge is there for a reason and a huge part of what makes the game so great is the sense of progress and reward that comes from actually becoming good at playing it. Not in recent memory has a game created such a sense of loss and accomplishment, and I can't remember the last game that has engrossed me in it's world and setting to this extent.




The narrative in this game is sparse and minimalistic but much like in games such as Half-Life it ends up being brilliant in the way that you get to experience the world and are never allowed to get the full picture, only hints at a larger story. The basic premise is of King Allant who channelled the power of souls. He brought unprecedented prosperity to his Kingdom of Boletaria. That is, until a thick and colourless fog covered the land's outskirts, cutting it off from the outside world. Those who entered the fog never returned. The old King Allant had awoken the Old One, an ancient being that feeds on souls, from its eternal slumber and unleashed soul-craving demons. The ones whom lost their souls also lost their minds. Now the demons grow stronger and more powerful with each soul they devour. The legend was told from man to man; mighty warriors entered the cursed lands and your character is one of them.

The story is pretty straightforward and there isn't really that much of it, but what really makes it brilliant is that this is a fully realized dark fantasy world. The more you talk to the brilliantly voiced characters surrounding you the more you'll find out through rumours, and simply reading the item descriptions can sometime shed a different light onto something. The twenty or so demon bosses found in the game are not really given extensive background stories but a few of them were clearly human which edges the question if all of them were human at some point. There are not many quests here and it is a pretty straightforward game of killing demons but it really excels above that because of the immersion you'll feel during your cleansing of the five unique worlds. When in the prison of Latria you will feel the inhumanity of the prison, when you're fighting one of the demons you will feel hatred for these abominations, and whenever you encounter a new type of monster you will actually fear the unknown. In Demon's Souls you don't get the story told through safe cutscenes, you are simply forced to live the setting.



However the heart of the game is its absolutely brilliant, deep and extensive gameplay. I have spent sixty hours on my first run through the game and I have reached soul-level one hundred with my knight and I can honestly say that I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. This game really does feel like one of those that the more time and patience you put into it the more reward you will ultimately get from it and let me tell you, the reward is insanely satisfying. I've finished my game using only swords and a bow but there is an insane amount of weapons I haven't even tried yet, not to mention the special weapons you can acquire, the different miracles I never bothered to learn and the whole spell system that I still haven't even touched. There is just so much to do here that at times you feel overwhelmed, at the same time you want to further your character because in this game equipment really makes a huge difference to your game.

Then you have your levels and stats, and the currency to all of this are souls which you get by killing and lose by dying. The amazing thing about levels in this unique RPG is that they help out a lot with making the game easier, and trust me you'll need all the help you can get, but they do not remove your responsibility as player, you simply cannot mess around here, and if you live or die is mostly up to how well you have mastered playing the game as well as how good you are at changing your tactics upon encountering a new situation. All of this makes building a character in Demon's Souls very rewarding and unlike other RPGs that I have played where once upon finishing the game you go back and make a new different character I can say that with Demon's Souls I have no such desire. I just spent sixty hours with my knight and now that he's at level one hundred my only desire to replay the game will be with the New Game+ which is apparently much more difficult than when you play the game for the first time.



And the gameplay doesn't stop giving there because I haven't yet even mentioned the amazingly innovative online component to Demon's Souls which pushes the game from Awesome! to Prime. In Demon's Souls if you have an internet connection and PSN Id then your single player world will be connected automatically to other players, what this means in short is that you can leave messages to other player as well as read messages that other players have left, this simple mechanic makes the game so much easier because messages that are helpful get rated up and will stay in the world longer, while unhelpful messages don't get rated up and are gone pretty quickly. You will also occasionally see the ghosts of other players and how they're playing in their worlds and just observing them can warn you of the dangers ahead. Otherwise some ghosts can be summoned by the bloodstains you will find and in these you get to observe how another player met their demise nearby which also helps as a warning system.

When you're in body form you will also be able to summon up to two additional players to your world to help you out and this is what you're encouraged to do if you ever get stuck on a particularly tough demon, and if you ever enter another player's world and help them defeat their demon you will be resurrected from soul form in your world. This co-op feature shattered a prejudice I had for a long time on how co-op should be and how a good co-op could only function with a proper voice chat in place, well Demon's Souls has no voice communication in co-op and it is among the most intense co-op I have experienced in a game. You have gestures at your disposal for communication and this quiet form of co-op only ends up adding to the immersion of the game where there are no interruptions with annoying player voices, instead there are three warriors fighting together in silence. The final aspect of the online component is the notion of invaders, which is basically another player that invades your world, or you invading someone else's, and you fight over each others accumulated souls. In fact one of the Archdemons, a final big boss demon in a world, is actually an invading player and I cannot even begin to explain how getting invaded will get your heart racing.



The presentation in Demon's Souls is not really that impressive from a technically point of view, however the game works around any technical limitations by having a beautiful art direction, and like I mentioned earlier, actually building a believable world. The art design, especially on the twenty or so demons is simply amazing and there were only two of them that I found slightly generic, the rest are probably the best boss battles I have experienced since Shadow of the Colossus. There are of course a few technical hiccups here, mainly with frame rate drops in certain areas, as well as some strange behaviour with ragdolls physics on fallen enemies. However the two big minuses for me were that the targeting system could at times not lock-on properly or lock-on an opponent further back in line that was irrelevant to me, the other big gripe I had was that the enemy AI was extremely underwhelming most of the game and could be exploited for cheaper gameplay. In the end there is really nothing major to complain about with the game and even if you exploit the AI the only loss will be your own.

When it comes to the audio the biggest reward is the soundtrack, it just goes so well with the game in its moodiness and eerie sense of dread. I think almost every major demon in the game has their own song and the music really help you get in the right battle mood. I haven't added game music to my iPod since Lost Odyssey but I have done so once again with Demon's Souls soundtrack that I received with my Deluxe Edition of the game. Tracks like "Return to Slumber", "One Who Craves Souls" and the main theme "Demon's Souls" really stand out. The other great aspect of the audio is the amazing voice work for all the NPC characters and they to help immerse you into the world, when there is basically no lip-sync on the characters in-game and yet you still feel like they're real believable characters you must give credit to the amazing actors that have done the voice work. I am not really an audiophile so for me a great audio in a game is when I am not bothered by anything I hear, and this is the case with Demon's Souls. The metal and swords swinging sounds seemed believable and hearing them was satisfying which for me equals good audio work.



In conclusion, Demon's Souls is dark, immersive, and challenging, it will not compromise and hold your hand but this does not make it as some reviewers have claimed a "niche" game. I'm not a fan of Action-RPGs and I am not a fan of difficulty, but I am completely and utterly in love with Demon's Souls. Yes, it will punish you in the beginning but you must simply get through the steep learning curve and the rewards from this game will be endless. It has stolen sixty hours of my life and will probably steal many more because it's that good. I have sunk myself into a dark world of despair and I've had bad dreams to tell about it, I have punched my paws against my controller in anger at an immeasurable loss and I have screamed with joy while throwing my paws into the air after a long overdue victory. This is not only the finest game I have played this year, it is one of the best games I have ever played. The few technical and design misses are like dust on a brilliant piece of art; they do nothing to impair the sheer brilliance of the piece. This generation I have felt that a few games have gone above the norm and have deserved the honours of Prime, games such as Gear of War, Metal Gear Solid 4, Little Big Planet have all pushed their respective genres forward as well as gaming in general, and today I give Demon's Souls the same honours.