Recent reviews by Twinmold

Pros:
- Loads of replayability, especially with RNG elements of items/levels
- Many unlockable characters,, having different abilities and unlockable abilities
- Many, MANY items to get with different capabilities, helping and/or hurting in different ways
- Pretty consistent updates, it's definitely been progressing since its early alpha stages
- Wonderful graphics and music, sound design pretty well done

Cons:
- Not for the faint of heart, this game is difficult and gets harder over time in each game
- Tons of items also means tons of remembering what one thing or another does
- Start with only one character, have to unlock all others
- Spacial awareness, if you aren't good with remembering layouts or scanning your environment, you will get ganked hard very often

Highly recommend this game. Single-player matches allow you to get all the items and learn your character more at your own speed, see how they stack up in your playstyle; multi-player matches usually make breaking away from combat slightly easier, gold is shared, makes some situations much easier.

Many people ask why they should buy Dark Souls, what makes it such a good game in the eyes of those who really enjoy it, and if they will ultimately enjoy the game. For starters, Dark Souls isn't your traditional RPG, where all enemies either scale with your level or you are told (by a level display of the enemy) what the enemy level is to appropriately fight them. In the world of Dark Souls, you are thrown into an intense situation where if you don't learn, you die... Again and again, just to keep coming back and try again.

Welcome to the Land of the Lords, Lordran. However, it's been ages since the Lords in their deific status have walked the realm, and the land has now fallen to the Undead by a curse known as the Darksign, which brands humans as monsters, an affront to the Lords and giants whom once called this land their home. Any who has the Darksign has been taken to the Undead Asylum to turn Hollow. Now, the fire they had created is fading, and the Age of Dark is nearing. The Chosen Undead now must journey to Lordran and find out what he/she must do for his/her destiny.

Perhaps one of the key components to the game is the real meaning of trial-and-error gameplay. You can either keep trying an area until you get it right (and all areas on a New Game are possible even without leveling, though extremely difficult), or go to a different area and either attempt to level grind (in an area you've already completed or not) or see if you can progress elsewhere. Due to this, however, many people are instantly turned off to the game, finding a game that you will die in, almost guaranteed, being an out-of-the-question design choice.

Because the game doesn't necessarily tell you exactly where to go (so you better listen carefully to everyone you talk to, they only say most lines one time), you can get lost easily, even right at the beginning of the game. However, do note that this allows for a much more open world, like any proper RPG should have, because you are not limited as much on where you really can go, even early in the game, within your own ability, of course. As such, you can make your own adventure while still following the storyline and finding beautiful environments to gaze upon.

As you aren't really told what to do, lore may also not be explained as well as you may like, as it requires your own interpretation and quite a bit of snooping around to find out most of the lore. You may even completely miss some of the dialogue, more lore-bound and storyline-bound on your first playthrough, if not even beyond that. As such, not every player has necessarily found every piece of information available to the lore in the game, and makes for a game where the community is still looking for bits and pieces, as well as a bit of creativity, in forming and finding the true lore to the world.

Though classes do exist without Dark Souls when you make your character, they do NOT limit your ability in the game. When you level up using souls at a bonfire, you actually select what you want to level up, allowing you to build your character anyway you want from any class you select. The class merely affects your starting gear, which can make the game easier or more difficult for you. However, with the ability in selecting your increases in skills when you level allows for you to choose how you want to play the game and fix a character if you feel you selected the wrong class or choose a class just for the gear, not for the ability. Note, however, you cannot undo levels, so you are stuck with what you choose, so choose carefully.

However, the game isn't without a working multiplayer, for those who prefer the multiplayer aspect of a game. While you are playing the game, you can reverse your Hollowing and become Human, in which virtually all multiplayer options become available (where people can still summon you to their world if you have placed your summon sign down while you are Hollowed). While Human, you can summon other people to your world as White Phantoms to help you successfully beat the area's boss, or you can invade the world of others as a Red Phantom to prevent them from getting to the boss and steal their Humanity. However, you are also subject to invasion while Human, but any White Phantoms you have summoned/do summon can help you fend off the Red Phantom who wishes to pillage your Humanity and revert you to Hollowed. A few aspects to even the multiplayer may be missed on your first playthrough/will have to be missed, so playing the game multiple times is important to doing everything there is. Do note that eventually you CAN get an item, though it can be hard to get, that makes invasion less likely.

Going on record, Dark Souls for PC is actually a port from console, and a poor port at that. There is no resolution support for those with larger screens (such as 1920x1080), limited graphic settings (outside of Blur and Anti-Alias), and framerate limitation of 30 fps, though many people have issues with even getting 20 fps. Personally, with my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550Ti GPU and AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8 GHz CPU, the fps issues and slowdowns in the game are very few and in-between except in major locations where a lot of moving parts exist (such as during certain boss fights). However, as such, having a PC-compatible controller (such as an Xbox 360 or equivalent) is HIGHLY recommended, so if you don't have any control that works with your Steam games, you will have a hard time playing the game.

Luckily, the game provides quite a bit of replay ability. One aspect of the MP not becoming available until you beat the game and start New Game + (which does happen suddenly and makes you lose all but your normal equipment and levels, but you should have a good idea when the end-game is). As a note, however, the enemies get progressively more difficult with every + added to the New Game, up to 7 progressions before it no longer gets any more difficult. However, you can always just start a New Game normal if you want instead of making the game more difficult for your top character. But since some aspects require multiple playthroughs to find, plus changing your playstyle helps you get a new feeling for the game, you can actually try different things and see how you feel about those changes.

Now, this game doesn't necessarily make YOU out as the Chosen Undead, as many have tried, not all have succeeded. You are nothing more than just another soul looking to try and fulfill a destiny that may or may not be your own, unlike most other RPGs that make you out as the legend, destined to succeed in the end. You may ultimately quit and go Hollow yourself! And how can that make you the Chosen Undead?

As for the price. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition is priced, currently, at $29.99 USD. That includes the game's only DLC, but it adds anywhere from 4 to 8 addition hours of gameplay, variant on your game progression speed. If you must absolutely play it right now, it's not a bad price, for a game that takes around 60-80 hours on your first playthrough alone while still being able to be played Offline compared to other games you get 8 hours of gameplay for $60 USD, and it's dependent on the multiplayer for the rest. However, if you are still iffy, you can always wait for a Steam Sale that knocks it down to $14.99 USD or lower.

I personally love Dark Souls and would love to see it have more people playing than I have seen recently. The game is an enjoyable one, once you learn the game mechanics and to actually take it slow. Thus, you can actually get far if you do take it slow. However, the game does have a decent balance between fast-paced and slow-paced gameplay, so those looking for an experience unlike virtually any other out there, pick up Dark Souls today and prepare to die again. And again...