Most of the negative reviews come from the fact that many believe the remaster does not justify the full price and also should have been given to atleast PC players for free considering how bad the original Dark Souls port was handled. I do agree.

But I can't really give this game a thumbs down because of that, Dark Souls is one of the best games made in this decade. The remaster is worth buying on sale if you enjoyed the original one. Most notable feature of the remaster is optimization and improvements to the engine like performance, resolution and 60 FPS, as well as finally improving the keyboard and mouse controls. It's not the original game with DSfix as some might suggest but took DSfix as a guide of what the devs were supposed to fix or add in the engine.

For those who haven't played Dark Souls and stayed away from it because of the "it's too difficult" hype, you should know that the difficulty is over exgaggerated. But the game is challenging and rewarding, that combination makes this game often frustrating but also satisfying and exciting. Even though there's not much NPC interactions and dialogues, the game has an incredibly interesting lore with one of the best intros I've seen in recent times. The first half of the game also has some of the best level designs. forget about how detailed the locations are but the way they connect to each other is incredibly well thought off.

Where the game shows it's weakness are few parts of the late game. Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith were rushed in order to complete the production of the game on time. Years have passed and while FromSoftware and Namco had an opportunity to fix things like the awkward enemy placement in these areas, they've just partially fixed the lava. A shame because Lost Izalith has a very strong backstory and also serves as an important area in the game.

I have played the original and remaster combined 5 times. While writing this, I haven't played DS2, 3, Bloodborne or Sekiro. The best playthrough of Dark Souls will be your first not knowing what to expect and not looking into a wiki.