Dark Souls: Death will be the least of your concerns
Recently Bandai Namco dropped a trailer to a remastered version of this gem from 2012. I am amazed how recent that game released, it felt much older, but I digress.
We all at least heard of it, maybe only because of it's recent third installation. We heard how hard and convoluted it is supposed to be, how unforgiving, we heard how people raged an cried while playing it. But only few of us ever actually played it, and let me tell you, my fascination for it is very different from the source of the memes it spawned. Before I continue I want to make clear, that I will focus on the original Dark Souls here, 'Dark Souls 1', not the franchise as a whole. Also this will involve narrative spoilers, so be warned if you concern yourself with those things.
Design tops Graphic
This is an ongoing theme of gaming industry. Graphic will be always limited, the art of a good game is to make the visuals fitting not as realistic as possible. Granted, for many modern titles these are synonymous, but that's not always the case. The best example would be the indie hit Minecraft, 3D graphics can't get much simpler, an yet millions of players got captivated by this blocky, pixelated look. It was original, it was nerdy, and most important of all, it fitted perfectly with the gameplay.
Dark Souls ... is different. It's very much a case where technical limitations stood in the way of the life-likeness it's makers would have wanted. From today's perspective it can be almost, dare I say, ugly at times, at least from the technical lens. A fun piece of trivia explains why 70% of the game's are's are at least to some degree moist, muddy or wet. It was simply one of the few things that generation's consoles were pretty good at. But we will always have technical limitations, and games like Minecraft proved that 'good' graphic is more than nigh resolution and fancy shaders. The visual quality of a game is just as much, if not more, defined by its design.
Design-wise Dark Souls is a gem, a diamond, fitted in a ring of pure platinum. There are huge essays about the level design alone, so I will try to keep things reasonably brief. Unlike the ever evolving graphic, design is timeless, 35 years ago we had designs that were just as good as today's. Design is a much better scale for quality because of this timelessness.
Just think about Mario, our favorite turtle stomping plumber, the design didn't change over decades, think about the world of early Zelda games or the body horror of 'the Thing'. It's old, yes, but still oh so powerful. You can see the love in every face-ripping tentacle.
Something I have great respect for is how well Dark Souls used visual storytelling. The burned out husk of the Kiln of the first flame clearly tells a story about fire and ash. Anor Londo, the lost city of gods, where mortals and giants lift alongside each other, today an empty shell, for the most part devoid of life, only batwinged demons and fire breathing gargoyles patrolling it's streets. You can see the former glory of the world, all that was lost, the beauty and it's sad decay.
A hidden story
What is Dark Souls about? I am sure even many players would have problems answering that. This is it's biggest strength and arguably weakness too. You have to work for it, you have to piece it together like a puzzle, only that half the pieces got burned in a big fire, and the other half got damages by the black smoke. Most games spoonfeed you it's story and lore, force it down your throat, that's how exposition dumps happen, hour long cinematics and just as long dialogues. Not all of those are bad things per se, but they kill player involvement. It's like you watch TV. If you want to have any idea of what the world is about and what you are supposed to do, you have to pay attention here. Important dialog tends to not be repeated, there isn't a Journal, no quest log, no map, even the dialogues are very one-sided, rarely are you able to give more input than yes or no. The only clue you have about what the heck is wrong with the world is a convoluted 2 minutes cinematic at the beginning of the game. You are dropped into this new world, asking yourself why you play a piece of beef jerky instead of the beautiful human you designed over the last hour only to surprisingly get stumped by a huge, obese demon. Your most important puzzle pieces? Visual story telling and god damn item descriptions, yes you heard that right. Imagine Skyrim without NPCs and the only source of lore are random books.
How is this even fun?
Yes, both you and your grandma are maybe really confused by now. This approach of story telling sounds antagonistic and worst ... and maybe barely interesting at best? Isn't a game supposed to be fun, lighthearted and relaxing?
Well, that's why Dark Souls is still a niche title with a small but very dedicated community. it's one of these games that you either love or hate, there isn't much in between. This aint Super Mario, it's neither bettor nor worse, it's just a different approach. Dark Souls does something that's very uncommon for games: It doesn't feel like you 'consume' the way you play candy crush or watch your favorite show, surprisingly enough you get the much stronger feeling of 'creation', when you beat a boss, or even progress to the next bonfire you feel just as proud as an artist finishing a painting, like a hobby gardener looking at the fruits of his hard work, you feel a sense of achievement that is rare in today's gaming scene. You are actually proud when you progress, and rightfully so. That's why it has the reputation of being hard, because the world is a hard place, because it believes in your skills, because you have it in you to beat it. It's almost like your very own Heroes Journey, you as a person can be proud, because you did what few people could. If you look at the steam achievements, only about 12% of the people who bought the game actually defeated the end boss, compare this with the almost 30% of Skyrim players who killed Alduin and you feel pretty hardcore.
I could write for hours and hours about this, and I will. We haven't talked about the story and world, about it's problems and it's combat. We will do all this in the future, there will be a second part of this, so look forward to this. Until then, grab your estus and take care not to become hollow, traveler.
Picture Sources:
- i.ytimg.com/vi/pNbW6IMroMM/maxresdefault.jpg
- people.rit.edu/~rmc9454/645/project3/images/big_barrels.jpg
- img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140811202705/darksouls/ru/images/e/ef/Kiln_of_the_first_flame.jpg
- cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/2016/09/anor_londo.jpg
- i.imgur.com/BHYSl.jpg
- gameandtype.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/You-Died-DS.jpg