My time was completely devoured by gigantic project after gigantic project. Nonetheless, I escape to the other side with more to talk about. My recent battles with deadlines and overall work to do have left me with less time to the things I really love doing. For one, playing video games.
I'm usually fairly on top of all new releases that I am interested in. In normal times midnight releases, and two day play sessions of titles I was excited about were common. Times have changed however, there sits a stack of five games I have yet to beat. Some more than a month or two old.
The severity of this seemingly minute detail hit me like a sack of bricks. Gone are the days of full days where I had no obligations. When all I had to worry about was traveling to the kitchen to feed myself in between sessions of an engrossing game. I am left with less time to pack time into games that do not interest me. In order to truly enjoy the time I have with games today the experience must be comprised of pure distilled awesome.
When you only have an hour to play, you don't want to half-assedly play a game you don't care about. The other day I found myself with about three hours of pure free-time. A rare commodity. With something akin to childlike glee I approached my stack of new games.
What to do, what to do. Catherine was a fun game, not extremely deep, but fun. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was a game I had a love hate relationship with, today it was still hate - I moved on. I remembered enjoying the first Gears of War so much that purchasing the third installment of the title was a no brainer, yet here I am only two chapters completed in the story with no interest remaining. If only there was something to look forward to. Something deep, involving, challenging, and beautifully well crafted. If only...oh wait. That's right.
The first blog entry I ever wrote was about Demons Souls - the spiritual predecessor of Dark Souls.
When I speak of a world that punishes both the evil and the good that inhabit it - I am most likely describing a world much like that of Demons Souls.
Some may view the video above as something that would put them off of a title. However, when I see the words - Prepare To Die - flash brazenly across the screen I cannot help but become excited. Demons Souls does not accept you into its world with open arms. You are weak, alone, and in constant mortal peril. Nearly every human, animal, or twisted demon wants nothing but to stop your heart from beating - and they will succeed.
Castle battlements are riddled with holes for you to plunge through, arrows snap out of traps placed in walls or floors, monumental stone boulders tumble down staircases, the very ground beneath your feet poisons you, and you cannot pause. You can only afford yourself a moment to breathe after coming out alive on the other side of a grueling fight.
Any moment you spend not taking this game seriously will punish you. You will learn your place it says as you laugh at the tiny rat creeping toward you. You will learn to use caution it says as the tiny rat leaps upon your character and digs its fangs in. You will learn to start ALLLL THE WAY THE FUCK OVER it laughs as that goddamn rat has just infected you with a horrible plague. You scramble through your inventory drinking potions and eating entire flowers whole trying to stop the slow decay of your flesh. Nothing works, you don't have the right item. You panic and sprint towards what you believe to be the end of the stage. The smell of your decomposing skin is the least of your worries as you sprint across a rickety rope bridge into the waiting arms of some mutated monstrosity with a club the size of a street sign. You cry out and raise your shield. The blow is devastating. You can nearly imagine all of the bones in your right arm crunching, the club shows no regard for your carefully looted armor. You cartwheel over the edge of the bridge and plunge to your death amid the bones of other fools.
Start over.
As you travel through the worlds of these two games you collect souls from fallen enemies. You use these to augment your own soul, thus making your stronger. They are integral for you to progress and when you die, you lose them all. You can pick some up if you can fight your way back to where you met your demise. Sometimes this is not possible and they are simply gone.
I miss these aspects of older games. How would you rise after a knight the size of a skyscraper steps on you? You wouldn't, you're dead holmes.
Now I am filled tense excitement, even if I only have an hour to play, Dark Souls will bring its A game. I can't wait.
The punishing aspect of this game is what makes the experience what it is. Every environment is tailor made to fill you with despair - but afford just enough hope to keep you trudging on.
There are few feelings like hacking your way through a stage and reaching the Arch Demon guarding the way to the next area. You give yourself five minutes to compose yourself. Are all of your current armor choices the best? Is there something you can equip or use that may give you an advantage? Do I have to? Do I really have to go in there?
Yes. Yes you do, and more often than not you'll be greeted by something close to this.
And then you're gonna die again and have to re-do everything.
This is serious business, and if you manage to come out on top against one of the bosses you feel like a certified badass.
All the while, as you drag your battered and broken body through whatever horror filled landscape you are trapped in, other players are able to leave spectral messages on the ground that you can read. Nothing fills you with dread like walking up to a huge door and seeing some sort of red arcane text emblazoning the ground. You approach and the only thing it says is, "Good Luck." Wonderful. What you are saying is that the likelihood of this next room being filled with treasure and hugs is pretty low, am I right?
Not only that, it is possible for players that have died to invade your dimension in search of your physical form. You may be mid battle with some horrible fire vomiting demon when the words "A Black Phantom Has Entered Your World" appear forbiddingly across your screen. At this point the invading player enters the beginning of your stage. You have time to choose where you will meet in combat, so the defending player has a small advantage. You steel yourself as a smokey red ghost creeps toward you bearing a giant great sword.
At this point it becomes a battle of keeping your cool. The first player who makes a mistake will most likely be instantly killed. If the invading player wins, you die and lose your body - becoming a spirit. He returns to life in his own world, back in peak physical form.
I could go on for hours, but this game has been on my mind for months now.
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