During the first lockdown, my brother, my cousin, and I went on a dark adventure and experienced the horrors of a challenging video game called Bloodborne. This time around, we decided to stress ourselves and get an early start to develop high blood pressure and try our hand in one of gaming’s most challenging video game, Dark Souls.
It was developed by From Software, the studio behind the creation of Bloodborne. Dark Souls was the first entry to kick off the critically acclaimed Dark Souls trilogy. Known for its challenging gameplay and detailed world, Dark Souls takes the player on an unforgettable journey through the broken Kingdom of Lordran.
Dark Souls utilizes the medieval fantasy setting, where the land has been overrun by the undead and other deformed monstrosities that lie within the dark corners of the ancient kingdom.
The game allows three player co-op, where players can venture together through the interconnected areas in the game’s world. Much like Bloodborne, players must make their way through an area and eliminate a boss, which is usually a large disturbingly deformed monster.
This game is much harder than Bloodborne and throws the player into ridiculously high stress situations and it doesn’t help that this game also allows enemy players to invade your world and wreak havoc on your progress in the area, as if the game wasn’t hard enough already.
While Bloodborne’s gameplay focused on dodging and parrying enemies, Dark Souls relies heavily on blocking with a shield. Players can still roll to avoid an enemy’s attack, However, the method is not as efficient as performing a block. The gameplay is a little clunkier than Bloodborne’s and can be annoying, however, the deep immersion makes up for it’s clunky gameplay.
This game is an absolute joy to play with friends and that’s the only way I can do it, I cannot go through this torture on my own. Yes, it delivers a very satisfying sense of accomplishment when you beat a boss or overcome a challenging obstacle, but sometimes, it’s just not worth the stress. The music is phenomenal and the game does have great moments, but the difficulty level almost kills it for me.
Dark Souls uses its gameplay to tell the story to the player, which is something I love and I think more games should use this approach. Every room, letter, and character that the play comes across, carries great importance to the story but it’s also very easy for the player to miss these details. Although I do enjoy Bloodborne more, I’m happy I played this game. This is a game that every gamer should experience, at least once in their life.
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