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Release Date: September 22, 2011
Developers: From Software
Publishers: From Software, Namco Bandai Games
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360
Genre: Action role-playing, open world
Players: Single/Multiplayer
Rating:16

Dark Souls ( Dku Souru) is an action role-playing game developed by From Software. From Software exclusively published the title in Japan for the PlayStation 3, Namco Bandai Games it both for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 internationally. Previously referred to as Project Dark, Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. It was released in Japan on September 22, 2011, on October 4 in North America, on October 6 in Australia and on October 7 in Europe of the same year. The game is known for its considerable difficulty, which has prompted much interest and discussion.

The game had an amazing setting, set in a time way before ours. It was probably the biggest game i have ever played. When playing it, it's just a constant adventure, the world just keeps going and going and going, through wide lands, castles, caves way beneath the earths soil to dungeons full of a mast variaty of creatures. This game was absolutly amazing, and a shame it didn't win game of the year! It's set in a 3D perspective which i love in games as you can probably tell from previous reviews, i have to say this games setting could just be the best setting i have ever played in my life. Overall the setting was absolutly fantastic and i would love to see another to this series.

To add to the setting, the gameplay was to die for, this game has one of the best campaigns i have ever played. First off your character, your character is an undead, who at the begining at the game escapes a undead asylem, and hes some kind of chosen one who has to go on a glamerous quest, like most games. Your person can be in 2 forms , Human form or undead form. To become human you must collect humanity, i belive these can either be bought or earned it battle, usually against bosses. There are a few upsides to becoming human, you can invade your friends world and kill them for their humanity, Some weapons can go up in specialties such as strength when equpied as a human. Also you can use 'bonfires' bonfires are..bonfires but they are used as marked locations, so you can travel to and from these bonfires which helps as the game is absolutely massive! Although it seems great, lighting a bonfire will spawn loads of enemies near your loaction. One bad things is that when you die you become an undead and the only chance of becoming human again is by finding where you died and collecting all your stuff back, if you dont do it before you die again, your stuff will be lost forever. I enjoyed the magic aspect of the game, it fits the mood of the game as there are dragons, mythical creatures ect.. The magic was alot less easy than the previous game Demon Souls, as it dosn't kill enemies as easy as it did before, but it was still great, good for taking out unsuspecting creatures ect.. Talking about creatures, the creatires were ablolutely horrific, they were the scariest ememies i have ever come across on a game, i mean theres scary.. and then theres being scarred for life. As you progress the enemies get alot more twisted and alot harder to kill, one boss comes out of the darkness and has the body and head of a dragon, then it stretches and for a stomach he has a massive mouth with like a million teeth, it looks frightning as anything. One problem with this game was the insane difficulty it had, if you buy this game you have to come to grips with the fact that you are going to die, and i dont mean once, i mean you are going to die, this isn't really a game you can play for just the pure entertainment. This is a game you have to really get into, be able to fight at a decent standard, and know when to stop attacking and dodge before you get crushed like a defenceless fly. Now onto the currency, the currency in this game is souls, you can collect souls by defeating enemies or going into another persons world and killing them for all of their souls. Souls are worth more if they are a higher leveled ememy, thats why defeating bosses is crucial to your person progressing through the game, due to having to buy better armor, better powers ect.. Overall this game was a massive hit, was a game i expected to win GOTY, but still a brilliant game.

The graphics were amazing, Playing this game in HD it felt like an actual movie. The beautiful scenery, the way enemies look, the use of spells and hand to hand combat looked brilliant. Also the game was in a 3D perspective and it was still great. When killing creatures and meditating by Bonfires made the game look overly epic. Overall the graphics were brilliant, couldn't get any better than this.

The controls were different to how games where you can use melee weapons usually were, for instance RB and RT are used for attack/strong attacks LB and LT to guard, duel-wield and cast magic. When usually its A, B, X, and Y to do them. These controls were different yet easy to get used to. Overall i really enjoyed these controls i thought they were alot better than basic ones could ever be.

Dark Souls received universal critical acclaim. Famitsu gave the game a highly positive review, scoring it 37 out of 40, based on four scores of 9, 9, 9, and 10. One of the reviewers for Dark Souls described it as "a very hardcore dark-fantasy RPG" that is "role-playing right down to the roots," and stated that the "massive field map and powerful enemies serve to rev up both your sense of adventure and your sense of dread." Another reviewer stated that "the sheer happiness you get after the trial-and-error pays off and you overcome the challenge is absolutely impossible to replicate."

Overall this game was absolutely fantastic, it dosn't get better than this game, if you have any spare money lying around, you should definatly by this game, and it has an average of 100hour gameplay campaign, which was about right for me as i played about 5 hours a day, and completed it in about a month. The gameplay and graphics are fantastic, the controls are new and great, its basicaly the complete package.