Video games are so easy these days. In-game tutorials, health regeneration, frequent checkpoints, enemies who dance around us without attacking... it’s like developers are making interactive entertainment for babies.
Or at least that’s what the folks at From Software, the Japanese studio behind the sadistically difficult new sword-slashing role-playing game Dark Souls, apparently think.
Dubbed a “spiritual successor” to 2009’s brutally challenging Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls' primary selling point is its unrelenting hardness. It provides no instructions, consistently pits players against some of the most deadly enemies ever to be coded into a game, offers little respite in its limited game saves and health recuperation, and deliberately punishes players by erasing most of their progress whenever they die – which, if you haven’t guessed yet, happens a lot.
This isn’t poor game design. It is intended. From Software believes that there is an underserved niche of the hardcore gaming population that is tired of being coddled, and that these people pine for the truly gruelling games of yesteryear, only with modern graphics and play mechanics.
I’m not sure I’m a member of this demographic.
As was the case with Demon’s Souls, I was intrigued by the prospect of playing a game that promised to pummel both my avatar and my spirit. Indeed, the experienced player in me saw the three words – "prepare to die" – repeated in all of game's marketing materials as a challenge to my abilities.
I was completely engaged for the first couple of hours. I crept around Dark Souls’ cramped but free-to-roam world, dreading what might lie around every corner and finding more often than not that I was no match for whatever it was. Eventually I discovered a path populated with enemies that I could handle – if only barely, and just one at a time. And as I slowly worked through these foes and collected their souls – the game’s precious currency, used to both level up and buy items and equipment – I began to feel a kind of exhilaration. It was a mixture of fright, excitement, and satisfaction at my hard-won success.
Then I died.
And lost all of my souls.
And was sent back to my home camp.
And realized that all of the enemies I had defeated had magically respawned.
All of my work had been erased. This is the way of Dark Souls. You will die. Frequently. Of this there is no question. However, you will learn from your deaths. And as you make your way back to the blood stain left by your most recent slaying – you'll recover lost souls if you reach it without dying again – you’ll likely fare a little better, if only because you know what to expect and when to expect it.
But real improvement – by which I mean character growth – is painfully slow, and the benefits of levelling up almost imperceptible. I once arrived back at camp after almost an hour of cautious exploration with enough souls to level up four times. When I headed back out I saw no difference at all in my battle prowess. It was disheartening.
There are some exceptions. I’ve occasionally run across stashes of armour that confer modest but noticeable improvements to my defensive capabilities, as well as a few powerful weapons that would decrease by one or two the number of successful strikes necessary to kill an enemy. These were exciting moments.
And patient grinding will eventually prove fruitful. I killed and re-killed the undead inhabitants of a nearby church for more than an hour in order to level up my dexterity so I could wield a massive sword with exceptional attack strength that I'd stumbled across by chance.
Still, the pace of progress is very slow, and the frustration of losing that progress over and over again can be almost unbearable.
