4/5 ★ – james_i_think's review of Dark Souls: Remastered.

Dark Souls really delivers as a truly immersive Dark Fantasy experience. At times it's one of the best RPGs I've played, and at others it's quite frustrating, buggy and unfinished. But there's something that always keeps me going in spite of that, and that speaks volumes. I can see why this is such an influential action RPG; the harsh rules and fleshed-out exploration really throw you into this fascinating world, with an incredible atmosphere for adventuring. The depths of the lore and fighting mechanics have been discussed by many people who know much more about the game than me, so I won't bother. Suffice it to say, the weapons and movesets provides a fun wealth of options to tackle this adventure. The enemy variety is mainly where the game lives or dies, and it (mostly) succeeds very well with a host of grotesque Beserk-inspired creatures and demons, rather than traditional Tolkien style fantasy races. The way that you have to methodically explore each area, taking on one enemy at a time and carefully navigating to the next fog door or bonfire creates an almost mesmerising gameplay loop that never gets dull. And it's worth mentioning that the world is so well inter-connected that it still stands as an excellent example of not needing a warp mechanic (until later in the game, of course). However, my biggest problem with FromSoft's unique devlopment style is that it's very harsh towards newcomers. I always try to play through a game blind, but Dark Souls initially really pushed my patience past breaking point despite my enjoyment of it. Given that the game doesn't explain a lot of its mechanics and nuances, some things I found out the hard way and many things I just never found out at all. The game also plays into the RPG stat mechanics that mean if you don't have a certain item or you don't have enough levels, you take far more and deal far less damage to enemies. Even if you're dodging and attacking at the right times, if you don't have good equipment, weapons or levels, some fights just aren't viable. Now this is a good in-built difficulty level to sway players from a path they're not ready for yet, but sometimes it's very hard to know which way is the right one. The online mechanics are a slightly mixed bag in this sense too; Messages left by others will guide you to secrets you'd otherwise never know about, but you are liable to get invaded and rekt by a min-maxing dickhead who loves to go rookie crushing. Retrospectively, I definitely prefer Elden Ring's system where you can only be invaded when in co-op with another player. And while I'm at it, they've definitely learned in later games that sporadic and sometimes hidden checkpoints, especially with none before a boss, are just kinda bullshit padding. But these games shine the most in their repeat playthroughs, which is where they're definitely at their most enjoyable. Though it can still be frustrating to do something in the wrong order or mess something up by levelling in the wrong stats, you'll only get more out of it by tackling the adventure with some wisdom and experience. My biggest remaining criticism of Dark Souls its own over-ambition, which leaves the infamous Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith areas blatantly unfinished. Nothing quite takes me out of a medieval fantasy adventure like a tough boss in a tiny room it clearly wasn't designed for with two dogs that instantly rush you. Or a boss with a unique design you've already fought copy-pasted in a big, desolate area as a regular enemy to fight again. Or the arse of a zombie dragon being coded and copy-pasted as a "demon" enemy. Or a terrible boss that gives you checkpoints to acknowledge that it's almost impossible to beat it without dying unless you save-scum. I know FromSoft ran out of time and money, but I think I'd just prefer that whole section either cut down to a boss rush or removed entirely. These areas of the game only serve to uncover more bugs, which just continue to drag the game down. I feel like there was a big missed opportunity to fix a lot of these issues in the remaster, but honestly I can see why they opted to leave it as is. I do know that the core DS fanbase are very protective of the game just in its original state. Fans get angry at attempts to fix games, no matter how exploitable or rushed some parts of it are. I respect that choice, though it's a surprisingly safe one for a game that risks alienating people, but I digress. On the whole, the remaster is pretty excellent. I used a texture pack that is a bit more faithful to the original, but I didn't feel the need to mod the lighting system. Dark Souls is a truly unique game in the modern sphere, as risky as that is to maintain an audience. If you're anything like me and you gave up some way into your first playthrough: Try again. Use a guide if you have to. Nobody is going to perfectly understand how to play a game like this on their first try, in fact it took my friend guiding me through the game for me to get a grip on it. If you can stomach both the difficulty and the crappy parts, it'll be a one-of-a-kind dark fantasy you'll be happy you were part of.