Onelargeprawn
Four years ago, we reviewed the sleeper hit Demon’s Souls. It popularized a bare-bones RPG where everything was trying to kill you, and where being killed was the best start to a game ever. It was followed up by a more popular Dark Souls, which made its debut on non-PS3 consoles, and now we have the direct follow up, titled Dark Souls……II. Ready to die again? And again? And again? Good! Let’s get going.
Hard, difficult, frustrating, troublesome, tough, problematic, arduous, herculean, vexing, trying, backbreaking, grueling, challenging, tricky, rough, rocky, baffling, fractious, and down-right embarrassing [Ed: You forgot ‘soul crushingly infuriating’]. These are all synonyms for Dark Souls. In the Oxford English dictionary under the word ‘difficult’, the definition simply says; ‘Dark Souls’. I have never played anything like it; it’s unique. At first I used all the above words and many unprintable ones to describe it, often at the top of my voice and sometimes through my teeth, hissing in frustration. But with time I gradually found other words for Dark Souls; reward, respect, learn, skill, elation, win, gratifying, gain, reach, advance, make headway, satisfying, enjoy, rise, and earn it! Find out how Dark Souls beat me down, tore me a new one, and then slowly built me back up and won me over… after the jump.