Dark Souls Remastered Review

The original Dark Souls was released back in 2011, becoming known as one of the hardest games out there. It became famous for its punishing difficulty, grueling bosses and unforgiving combat. Phrases like “Thank you, Dark Souls” became popular as players found just how cheap can be in the demon, knight and monster-filled realm of Lordran.

Dark Souls Remastered released in 2018, adding graphical updates, framerate improvements, bug fixes, multiplayer reworks and other minor quality-of-life improvements. The main bread and butter of the game remains the same and so this review will comment on “Dark Souls” as a whole.

“We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land”

In Dark Souls, you are the Chosen Undead. A nobody, who was simply rotting in a jail cell until an unnamed knight threw a corpse with the key to the lock through a hole in the roof. This follows the opening cinematic cutscene which depicts Lord Gwyn leading a war, in which he was ultimately victorious, against ancient Everlasting Dragons to become ruler of the land and beginning the Age of Fire. But with light, there is dark and from the dark rose humanity. Among humanity, were the Undead, branded with the Darksign and you- the player- are one of them.
The story of Dark Souls is obscure, vague, convoluted and all other related synonyms. That opening cutscene is about as much of the story that you will get simply given to you. The rest is up to you to find- however much you find is, again, up to you. Cryptic dialogue, item description, the environment, the world itself tells the rest of the story. Or at least, drip-feeds you tiny scraps of information that is up to interpretation. As you explore the world, you will learn about key events and characters through fleeting references and throwaway lines of dialogue. The story of the sprawling and dying land of Lordran is (noticing a theme?) what you make of it.

What I love about Dark Souls’s storytelling (or I suppose purposeful lack thereof) is how it lends itself to exploration. I always wanted to know more, and so I always wanted to explore more – just in case I found an item with maybe one or two more sentences that I would not even understand the context of anyway, or maybe a friendly knight wearing onion-shaped armour who does not know how to enter a fortress. It’s all so addictive and enrapturing, and the friendly characters, what little there are, are so vibrant and fun. I loved not knowing and trying to understand. Getting little pieces of information here and there and trying to fit it into my own theories of the timeline of events, and the roles all these characters (big, little, dead or alive) had. For example, in the corner of a great hallway, besides a giant painting, is a corpse from which you get the Black Iron Armour which description only reads: “Armor of Black Iron Tarkus, a knight known for his great strength. Built of a special black iron and providing strong defense, notably against fire, but so terribly heavy to be unwieldy to all but Tarkus himself.” This made me wonder why such a legendary knight is dead in the corner of a big hall alone? The answers are there, you just have to search, and I loved to explore and find them.

However, I must admit that this lack of guidance sometimes backfires. NPC characters can have questlines, which usually involve finding them around the world and doing small favours and talking to them. The lack of a guide can really become a problem here, however. That friendly knight? Oh, he went insane because you did not do something that you had no real way of knowing even existed and now he’s dead. Or, you did something in the wrong order and now the onion-shaped knight has disappeared from the world. These questline failures make you miss out on unique experiences and items without even knowing you failed. The workaround is, of course, Google but for some that may ruin the sense of discovery that is so prominent in this game.

Along with this sense of discovery, Dark Souls is a beautifully bleak world. It’s lonely, dying and hostile. Within it are people trying to cling to any sort of hope to not go insane. The soundtrack, both ambient and boss fight themes is full of masterpieces. Lonely, haunting violins or grandiose trumpets, all the music reflects what is happening at the time, be it a moment of reflection or a battle against an insane dragon. There is not much to say except that really, the music is outstanding.

“Don’t you dare go hollow”

The gameplay of Dark Souls is made up of exploration and combat with a wide variety of enemies in a wide variety of different areas. Each area will culminate in a boss fight required to progress the game- by way of either rewarding the player with a key item or allowing access to the next area. In each area there will be a main path (leading to the boss), a multitude of branching side routes and shortcuts, items, optional stronger enemies and sometimes another boss fight. One thing to make anyone very aware of, is that there is no hand holding, walkthrough or helpful companion who tells you where exactly you need to go. You are alone in this world and beyond some cryptic and uncommon clues, there is no guidance to be found.

Combat, famously, is punishing. Making a mistake, be it overextending or missing a dodge, will often have fatal consequences. Upon death, you will drop all your accrued ‘sous’ (currency for leveling up, buying upgrades etc) on the spot where you died. If you can get back there, you can acquire them, no problem. But here’s the catch: when you die, you drop the souls that you had at the time of death. For example, let’s say you died with 50,000 souls. Whilst trying to return to your spot of death you kill a couple enemies on the way and earn 1500. Except, you make a mistake and die. You drop the 1500 souls where you died and now you can recover them. The 50,000? Gone. Permanently. This paired with traps, ambushes, seemingly unfair fights and limited healing earned the reputation that this game has. It can also lend itself to frustration and impatience with backtracking which will, in all likelihood, lead to more death. This is a game that requires patience and demands respect. Any enemy, even the lowliest of rats, can kill you so you have to be on your toes.

Dark Souls treats death as a learning experience and survival as a reward. Your checkpoints (bonfires) are sparse yet the sense of relief is overwhelming when you find one. It’s that sense of relief that makes this game truly addictive. The feeling over overcoming a challenge- be it a boss or just a difficult section is amazing. All of Dark Souls is a challenge, so these little victories keep you going. And then you want to keep going, just for the next little victory.The biggest draw is the bosses. There are 22 bosses in the base game, 13 of them mandatory and 4 in the dlc which comes included in the remaster. Bosses can vary from major story characters and huge story beats to mere stepping stones. Unfortunately, the quality of the bosses also varies. Luckily, the vast majority of the bosses really feel epic, against demons, dragons, and heroic or not-so-heroic knights. But a select few do feel poorly done. They feel cheap and a little thrown together which is a shame. Speaking of quality, I must admit that the second half of the game does not quite reach the height of the first. Like the bosses, a few areas (and enough to be noticeable) feel thrown together. Either full of empty space or with reused enemies seemingly randomly and thoughtlessly thrown around. Again, this slight dip in quality is a shame because the first half of the game has fantastic level design. Loops, shortcuts, foreshadowing, grand vistas, twists and turns, the first half of Dark Souls is simply brilliant. The second half is very good but, standing next to perfection, the flaws are noticeable.

I never felt Dark Souls to be impossible. But if you ever do, there are ways to make playing a little easier. There is the tried-and-true method of simply grinding to level up, going down an optional route (if there is one accessible) or playing online. Other players can be summoned into your world and help you explore and beat the boss of that area, and they are rewarded too. The upshot is that the area boss has increased health. The remaster added password matchmaking too so you can join with your friends as well in jolly cooperation.

Artorias the Abysswalker

The game’s DLC, included in this review by coming as standard with the remaster, is a step above the base game. It is very short, but also very sweet. Taking place back in time, it covers the story (and reveals the truth) of the legendary Knight Artorias who is only mentioned in item description in the main game. It is my favourite story within Dark Souls and is really intriguing to find out the truth behind the legend. Besides the main story, the DLC takes what we learned in the base game and turns it up a notch. This DLC is a different kind of difficulty compared to the main game in that it does feel quicker. The boss fights are a cut above the rest and while I do think the design and overall quality is great, these bosses really do require perfect fight performances and quick thinking and reactions. For some, this may be just too demanding and feel like too much of a challenge. I would encourage everyone to experience the DLC as best they can, because it really is Dark Souls at its best and purest – and a real great addition to the game

Verdict

I really could go on and on and on about this game. I already have yet there is so much more that could be talked about. I love Dark Souls, that much is apparent. It’s a wonderful, sprawling dark fantasy adventure full of curiosity, dread and triumph. It must be said, however, that it is not flawless, as much as I like to think it is. A noticeable, not a lot but noticeable, amount of bosses and areas feel lower quality than the rest. And with the wrong mindset, or just the wrong type of player because the difficulty will be divisive, this game will not gel with some people. But for those particularly resilient (or stubborn like me), a fantastic adventure awaits