Now onto the worlds and combat which are both done particularly well in this game. You will have 5 worlds to choose from inside of the game with each world consisting of multiple bosses, plenty of loot and tons of enemies. The worlds are all very unique and provide very different challenges for the player. If you are connected to the PlayStation Network while playing you will begin to notice bloodstains and pink wording on the ground. The pink wording are warnings left behind by other people playing the game. These can give warning about ambushes or hard enemies up ahead. The warnings are pre-assigned phrases that give the bare minimum amount of information but give a great deal of help if accurate. You are able to rate a good comment so that players can vote on what is good or not as well as leave your own messages on the ground. The bloodstains are left on the ground by human players who have died.
The combat in Demon’s Souls is a lot of fun and provides a good deal of depth to the user. You have the option of a sword and shield combo or a 2-handed weapon like a spear. Each weapon requires certain attributes to use so not every class can use each weapon right away. The shield though is a must as the difficulty in this game is off the charts. Get ready because you will die and you will die a lot. Now this is where the difficulty comes into play. Once you die you spawned back to the beginning of the level in soul form. Players in soul form retain all their weapons and items but are left with half health and zero souls. You then have to backtrack to where you died and retrieve your souls which does not sound hard except that every enemy you killed along the way as re-spawned.
This is where some of the faults of the game start to show. First there is no option to save, the game just decides when and where to do it for you. Most of the time the game does this very often and anytime you exit to the main menu it saves but it would still be nice to have the option to do it yourself. There are also no checkpoints in the game besides the first warp into the level and any boss area that you have defeated. With the lack of checkpoints this makes for a lot of backtracking through areas you had already cleared. Lastly there is no pause option in the game and this is one of the biggest issues. There were a few times where i was called away from the game for personal issues only to come back and find that a guard just happened to walk by and slaughter me. You can work around this as if you exit to the main menu and then load back in your character will be at the last spot you left them.
Overall Demon’s Souls is a great game with a lot going for it. The presentation is solid with a good enough story and decent voice overs. The combat in the game shines and really forces you to think before you act. Boss battles are amazing in scale and really test each person to learn and adapt. The game difficulty though is a bit too much at times and will turn away many people due to being very unforgiving. The game could be a bit more forgiving as most of the game will be spent backtracking. If you think you have what it takes and you have great patience then this is a game you should def. check out. However if you don’t enjoy grinding or replaying levels a lot then this should be a rental.
PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score
Fun and Strategic Combat Unique Boss Battles Lack of Difficulty Option, game can be too Unforgiving |
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