Dark Souls: Limited Edition

A spiritual successor to the PS3 only Demon Souls, Dark Souls is a game like nothing else available on the Xbox360. As you may well have already have heard you will die a lot in the process of (attempting to) complete the game. In the 75+ hours it took me to finish I would estimate that I suffered in excess of one hundred deaths. Unlike a number of other games I could name however this rarely became frustrating as each death can be seen as a learning experience allowing you to progress just that little bit further next time.

Following a short, but tough, tutorial section the player finds themselves in an open world that they are free to explore any direction they choose. Never knowing what is around the next corner provides a truly tense yet exhilarating experience and reaching a bonfire (the games equivalent of checkpoints) provides such a huge sense of relief that you will often find yourself letting out a deep breath.

All this is backed up by an excellent combat system that allows for the use of magic, bow and melee tactics as well as any combination in between. Forgoing the use of complex button combinations success depends on quickly working out the attack patterns of the huge variety of enemies and launching your own attacks at just the right moment. A seconds lapse in concentration can be fatal even against the games most basic foes!

If all this sounds impossible help is fortunately always at hand from fellow on-line players. Using an item found early in the game players can leave messages for each other providing information on how to find secret areas or on the weaknesses of certain enemies. It is even possible to summon another player into your world in order to assist you on a particularly troublesome boss and this can go a long way to swinging the odds in your favour.

For anyone looking for something just that bit different I can't recommend Dark Souls highly enough, just ensure that you have the internet handy as the game doesn't clearly explain many of the concepts that are vital if you are to make any kind of progress.

Its so refreshing to finally get a game that wants to make you fail, while at the same time willing you forwards. The contents of the limited edition is pretty nice, as I got the printed book, dvd and cd soundtrack in the box along with a code to get digital copies of this content as well, so I was quite happy. Add to this the nerve shredding sections of pure doom, the satisfaction of beating 'that section' and the online elements and you got yourself a winner. Dark Souls is as much of a game of skill as it is determination, so just keep plugging at it and you'll crack it.

Just draw the curtains, pull the chair that little bit closer to the screen and ....prepare to die. A lot.

I didnt think i would like this game, but on my friends insistance i gave it a crack and i have tobe honest and saw it would make top ten games on xbox ever. Its like a dating a crazy girl, most the times its a pain in the a*&e and you wonder it is worth all the angnst but then you remember its one hell of a ride.

If like me you loved playing Demon Souls with a friend on ps3, and were thinking of doing the same with Dark Souls, think again. The system has completely changed, and it seems From Software are completely agaisnt you co-oping with your friends, and now in insist on you co-oping with complete strangers. My review shouldnt be based on this one aspect, but it's the main reason i bought the game, so I feel quite cheated. So yeh, if your looking for a challenging single player experience then go for it. If like me you were looking for that next challenging co op experience with your friends, look elsewhere.

This game is as unforgiving as games of 25 years ago(3 lives to COMPLETE a game,ring any bells ?...or am I getting old ?),but with amazing graphics and atmosphere.
Dark Souls is very similar to Demons Souls right down to the control method and layout.Its an evolution of Demons Souls idea's rather than a revolution.As Demons Souls is in my top 5 of games of all time,that's no bad thing.The game has no music in it but bags of atmosphere,with a decent surround sound system you can practically feel the wind on you're back or enemies breath on you're neck.The enemies are always lethal,even the early ones you can kill with one swing of you're sword later in the game when you have been levelling up like mad.Complacency and confidence are the problem,you take an extra swing when you should really have retreated or used you're shield...then that's it,a 15 min trek to get back to where you were before you thought you were "The Man" and got spanked. The bosses in this game are easily on par with Demons Souls,but the main difference is this game has no hub area.The whole world is as open and expansive as a console game will get this generation.You open shortcuts to other areas when area boss is defeated and/ or you acquire a key,People have rightly commented (a LOT)on the games difficulty.This game is not you're pick up and play sort of game,it requires you to invest a lot of time and commit enemy attacks to memory.The game does suffer from slight slow down in certain areas(Blight town mainly),but this is not game breaking.The sheer number of upgrades for weapons and armour does boggle the mind,but with the help of darksouls.wikidot you will get there.
As the tag line for the game say's "You will DIE"......................................just an awful lot !!!!!!!