Dark Souls: The game which sucked the soul out of me

So, finally last week I got the limited edition copy of Dark Souls. Aaaah heard so so much about this game, as in the hardest game one will ever play. Its hard, its not a joke. Reviewers in 3killabytes stretched it as far as comparing this game with dating a celebrity, calling it a high maintenance in terms of patience and commitment required from the player. But, that's what everyone is blabbering about.

Dark Souls Source: euniverse.net

What do I think ?? Oh man ! Let me take a deep breath even trying to start talking about this one. I mean really I can go on and on for hours about it. And trust me, if you have played it, you know what I am talking about.
First of all, this game earned a lot of respect and admiration for the Japanese developers, as in they always have something new to offer (for example Vanquish, super awesome FPS), where as on the other hand EA and Ubisoft, who keep milking the same franchise. Hidetaka Miyazaki, you are awesome.

Moving on,
Why Dark Souls is so GREAT ?
Ok, so I heard and knew this game is hard and I prepared myself before hand for the game. And yes, one of the reasons, this game is so awesome is because, I feel the developers treat the players with certain level of respect. The game starts, with a little back story, you dont know what is going on, you are undead, which is awesome :), and you start like usual customizing your character as in the case of any RPGs. But, the cool part about this game is the starting class is just something to start with, there is lot of flexibility in terms of character customization while leveling up. So, first things firsts, the game looks really good, except some frame rate issues in certain parts of the game, which I think is something people talked about a lot in last year.

The area where the game really shines is the combat mechanics, I think I have never seen such accurate combat mechanics in any dungeon crawler. I died a lot of times, a lot but everytime I died it was my mistake, I was too impatient, or didnt parry the attack, or holding weapons in wrong hands. It was never a computer glitch. (So, finally it was nice to see the accurate collision detection out of the Legend of Zelda series... which made me super happy YAY). Plus, I should mention the enemy types and Goodness gracious the AI is pretty awesome, I mean there were types when I was just dueling with a soldier and waitng for him to make a mistake so that I can attack.. Theses moments are the moments where really one needs to be SKILLED for playing this game and button mashers (yes I am talking to Assassin's Creed lovers), will go to bed crying.

The SOCIAL Element.
When I started the game I was going to one region and getting killed like all the time, until I figured, I am too low on levels to go meet the enemies there, so I went to a different area and progressed. This is what I liked, the game never tells you where to go, just lets you free in the world, go try something fail and then try something else. learn the world. And the best part about such a game is everyone who plays this has their own story to share with their friends. There are so many secret areas, and everything is interlinked.

Dark Souls Map Source: neoseeker.com

So, different players might access different parts of the world as they choose and the story of the world unfolds to them accordingly. There are more nitpicks here and there, than one can possibly imagine and understand in a single playthrough and that leads to awesome discussions in the forums.

So, far I am like 10% in the game. and this blog is not meant to be a review or anything just my thoughts about it. :) Anyways, its 2 in the morning and need to go to work tomorrow, until then ..... Take care. 

Will post more on Dark souls as I unfold more, If someone is interested in playing dark souls and explore the super awesome adventure,  together on a friday evening, let me know :)