Dark Souls - First Impressions

you know 90% of the people out there are afraid of the change, i was a fan of gothic 1 and 2, and love the option of multiple path, and trying to go somewhere i wasnt suppose to, but , if you wanted to see "what if i do this" you can without exactly rolling your character, because as someone states above, the game simply let you reload, that is not rolling my friends, so saying DS is NOT an RPG, or is a bad design… is too much out of what it really is, a master piece, for the other 10 % of the people, who is not afraid of the change
For me is the goty of my all time games, including zelda chronno metroid and the gothic first two games, love it so far, just as much as Demon Souls.-

I'm getting closer and closer to buying a PS3 for this game……

It is also available on the Xbox360.

25 hours into it and still good. Though I haven't gotten very far and I know that it will take a backseat once Skyrim comes out.
But atleast put a few hours into it before judging it as I was ready to call it quit after 2-3 hours.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
I'm getting closer and closer to buying a PS3 for this game……

I don't know that I'd recommend buying a PS3 for this game, but if you do you'll be able to get Demon's Souls cheap and I think that should be played first before playing Dark Souls. Plus the servers might be going down in a few months for Demon's Souls. I just don't know if there are a lot of good games on PS3 or that you'd like them and that it would be worth the purchase of the console.

I know its worth it, every penny I bought it to play Demon Souls, and now, i can play dark souls too, Totally worth it!,Dark souls is Great, why they dont cover hein this site_>?

This site is mostly for PC rpgs i think.

Just thought I'd resurrect this impressions thread rather than create a new one, since I'm currently having my first run at the game. My basis for interest in Dark Souls is a love of the combat from Gothic I and II, a fascination for heavy atmospheres and slow yet rewarding exploration.

This thread also features some quite harrowing tales of pure Dark Souls malefia (hope those dreams are ok, Ovenall mate!) and so provides a very apt introduction to my experiences with the game so far.

First up, thanks to SpoonFULL and others for providing links to both the mouse and resolution fix. I'm playing with keyboard and mouse and can confirm that it's definitely possible to do.

I would say that so far I'm enjoying the game's almost soporific pace, with the repetition upon death and respawn at bonfires having an almost hypnotic quality to it. The desolate lonely atmosphere and sense of menace that the world exudes is fantastic and the exploration within it really shines when you take your time and notice the details.

My action and twitch skills aren't very good, but I'm a cautious and plodding gamer at the best of times and so enjoy the learning curve and challenges involved.
With continual practice and some leveling for instance, the Undead Burg becomes mere child's play. I remember when I started it initially and how it was a cycle of trial until you die and learn a pattern or something to try not to repeat again.

The sense of achievement in overcoming the odds is strong and one of the key features of the experience of playing Dark Souls. Killing the first large knight, one of the first sub-bosses in the Undead Burg felt incredible, as he'd positively murdered my character quite a few times. Luring him out to a firebombed death, then not having him reappear again, was a good feeling.

I started with a Warrior and played for a few hours but decided to restart after making the very stupid mistake of accidentally killing a merchant and discovering to my horror that it had saved my utterly ignoble deed. This is a great example of having to accept consequence for action!

My second and current character is a Cleric, which I'm now about 20 hours in with; at around level 28. I limped past the Asylum Demon (though not in his first iteration) and stumbled past the Taurus Demon in similarly unconvincing fashion.
My most recent boss victory however was against the Bell Gargoyles. This must have taken at least 30-50 deaths; hearing the Firelink Shrine theme music became a kind of somber ritual to a journey toward the Undead Parish. My method when I finally lucked out? Very simple. Stay close and double-handed mace the rotter, throwing a firebomb or knife here or there whenever he's in the air. I'd be killed more often or not when the second Gargoyle joined the fray, usually by fire. It's nasty with two, so getting rid of the first one as soon as possible meant all I had to do was dodge the fire and pick off the second whenever the opportunity arises.

My next big mission is to suss out some methods for the Capra Demon, who I've had the unpleasant misfortune to discover recently. Or I might try to get a little further in the Darkroot Garden; found a bonfire there but the creatures that inhabit the area don't make me want to respawn there. I also managed to find my way to the Catacombs, but finding skeletons who reform in seconds made me take refuge in the "better part of valor" and all that. These choices show the non-linearity present within Dark Souls.

It's a brutal and unforgiving game and I can see why players both love it and loathe it. There's still plenty more for me to learn about and it'll be interesting to see how far I can get before the difficulty threatens to claim another victim.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
My most recent boss victory however was against the Bell Gargoyles. This must have taken at least 30-50 deaths

I keep thinking I'm going to give Dark Souls another try, and then I read quotes like that and think "no thanks".

Hah! Yes. Perhaps I exaggerate slightly to make a point, but twas many consecutive deaths!

There are trials and tribulations to be found within this game for sure, but I think the rewards are certainly there. I'm finding it does take a slightly different mentality and approach to appreciate the "death cycle".
That said, I sense that I'm not very far into the game yet. My threshold may well need more expansion.

But c'mon JDR, you're a Gothic vet. Your skills would be up to the task!

Edit:
Just smashed up the Capra Demon on my third try; twas a bit easier than the Bell Gargoyles! I also had some charcoal pine dust for better melee damage.
The key themes were:

A) Dodging and blocking his initial barrage and running for the stairs. (no target lock engaged.)
B) Kill his assistants (dogs) quickly.
C) Use the stairway as a strategic point to heal and roll left as he approaches.
D) When he drops with you, use his recovery time to do some damage.
E) Flee, use the space, back to the stairs, then rinse and repeat.
If you use the corner well enough, you can even get some free firebombs in.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
Hah! Yes. Perhaps I exaggerate slightly to make a point, but twas many consecutive deaths!

There are trials and tribulations to be found within this game for sure, but I think the rewards are certainly there. I'm finding it does take a slightly different mentality and approach to appreciate the "death cycle".
That said, I sense that I'm not very far into the game yet. My threshold may well need more expansion.

But c'mon JDR, you're a Gothic vet. Your skills would be up to the task!

Edit:
Just smashed up the Capra Demon on my third try; twas a bit easier than the Bell Gargoyles! I also had some charcoal pine dust for better melee damage.
The key themes were:

A) Dodging and blocking his initial barrage and running for the stairs. (no target lock engaged.)
B) Kill his assistants (dogs) quickly.
C) Use the stairway as a strategic point to heal and roll left as he approaches.
D) When he drops with you, use his recovery time to do some damage.
E) Flee, use the space, back to the stairs, then rinse and repeat.
If you use the corner well enough, you can even get some free firebombs in.

Do not forget also that he's weak to fire, so if you wish you can use Bombs, Black Bombs, Pyromancies or Fire Weapons to nuke him on New Game + .

Where does one obtain more of those Black Bombs? They were rather useful in the beginning. I haven't found any suppliers for them yet…

I've just finished up as much of the Darkroot Garden area as I could after killing the um…boss that's there.

I thought those Lloyd's Talisman's might be what I needed to make exploration of the Catacombs easier, but alas, the skeletons keep coming back. I'm also at a loss for how to take on the dragon at the bridge short of running face on into a furnace. I haven't resorted to bows at all yet…
So I think I'm going to explore downwards from Firelink and see what I can find.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
Just smashed up the Capra Demon on my third try; twas a bit easier than the Bell Gargoyles!

Congrats on dispatching this dude so fast, took me about 3x more tries and for me it was the first of few boss fights in the game I disliked.
The real boss was not the demon but the dogs!

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
Where does one obtain more of those Black Bombs? They were rather useful in the beginning. I haven't found any suppliers for them yet…

I think those exemplars you´ve found were meant as an early boon for players who are cautious enough not to waste them on something simple.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
I thought those Lloyd's Talisman's might be what I needed to make exploration of the Catacombs easier, but alas, the skeletons keep coming back.

I think I might be doing your experience with the game a disservice by providing spoilers, but I think it won´t be that big of a spoiler when I assure you that


Also, reading these impressions is fun, thanks .

Cheers for the info, DeepO! Good to have some thoughts confirmed.

I've just taken my first real journey amongst the forboding New Londo Ruins and what an intense few moments! From the thick smoky and dark environment, to the narrow bridge lanes and forlorn figures lurking about the shore in idle moments of torment. Worst of all, there's the dastardly ghosts with their baleful traps, long wispy armed attacks and fatal swarming points.
My first death deep in their territory dropped a load of just under 5000 souls.

Gritting my teeth, I barely managed to repeat the journey and decided to use my first homeward bone after the soul retrieval. Decided after that it was time to have a well earned rest. Progress through there is going to be tough.

Originally Posted by DeepO
Also, reading these impressions is fun, thanks .

No worries. Glad to do a bump and doing my best to keep my own impressions entertaining.

I tried to play it again tonight, but gave up after about 30 minutes. It really is a shame the controls are so unintuitive because I think it would be a lot more popular if the devs had put a little more effort into that aspect.

I'm sure they're fine if you invest the time into it, but the game isn't grabbing me hard enough for that. I'm tempted tp pick this up for the PS3 though. Does anyone know if the extra content for the PC version is available for the PS3 version now? If so, are they charging extra for it?

*Edit* The extra content is an addtional $15 for the PS3 version. What a joke…

Ahh, that's a shame that you can't get into it.

With the fan made fixes, the controls are pretty much configurable to however you want to set it up on keyboard. However, the console skin remains (which is a little annoying) but there's probably ways to get rid of that already as well.

It took me awhile to get used to not having an outright pause button, but I just configured "escape" for the status menu, E for use object and F for cycling inventory, shift for block. The rest is fairly standard and doesn't take much to get used to.

Another small update:
I decided to change direction after getting soundly whopped at the hands of those ghosts. Remembering I had the key to the depths, I went looking for locked doors and eventually found the one to match the key.

During some long exploration into a weaving sewer system, I was very lucky to endure a couple of nasty fights with mini-capra like, duel wielding dudes. I took my time to minimise falling into a choking or ambush point, but eventually made a mistake in mis-timing a roll, falling into a pit.

Before I could adequately get my bearings, two bulbous eyed frog like creatures set upon my character. I managed to dispose of one, but the other did vicious damage and maimed me to a cursed death.

I then spent the next half hour or so grinding out some souls at half-hit points in the cursed status, aware that I'd need 6000 for a purging stone. That added another dimension of caution to the combat, but in my greed to get to the amount quickly, I fell prey to a triple thief ambush in the lower burg and was cornered by a fatal blow causing blood loss and death.
Ahh, there goes my souls that were lost in the depths…There's a dark irony sometimes to the events you have to endure in this game.

One query:
I've given the smith the Ember and also offered the boss-soul acquired in the Darkroot Guarden, but I have yet to find a weapon seemingly worthy of ascension. I'm guessing this won't happen until much later on?

Well…might try one more time and see if I can reach a bonfire in the depths.

Got this game last week for the 360 and think it's fantastic. Was a bit frustrating at first because yes it is difficult and very different in terms of pacing and game mechanics from what you'd expect from an action/RPG but it's the sort of game where you have to find your rythm and now I am absolutely hooked.

It's refreshing to have combat be this difficult with ordinary enemies and not just bosses but the game isn't unforgiving: learn the controls, the types of enemies you're up against and pay attention to the environment and the game remains challenging but reasonably so.

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
One query:
I've given the smith the Ember and also offered the boss-soul acquired in the Darkroot Guarden, but I have yet to find a weapon seemingly worthy of ascension. I'm guessing this won't happen until much later on?

If you mean that no weapon shows up in the ascension menu, that´s because you need to have a standard (upgrade-able by titanite shards) weapon reinforced to +5 first, then you´ll be able to modify it (possible paths depend on embers you´ve already given to a blacksmith) and reinforce further.

Also, you very likely still have the boss soul in your inventory since

Originally Posted by Pessimeister
Ahh, that's a shame that you can't get into it.

With the fan made fixes, the controls are pretty much configurable to however you want to set it up on keyboard. However, the console skin remains (which is a little annoying) but there's probably ways to get rid of that already as well.

I can't even figure out how to quit the game properly, and I swear I hit every damn button on the keyboard. I end up just alt-tabbing and closing the application.

It's not just the controls though. I hate how the background textures look stretched and washed out in the PC version, even with the hi-res patch and max settings, it's just distracting to me.

I'm still determined to give DS a serious try though. I've got my eyes open for a PS3 copy.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I can't even figure out how to quit the game properly, and I swear I hit every damn button on the keyboard. I end up just alt-tabbing and closing the application.

It's not just the controls though. I hate how the background textures look stretched and washed out in the PC version, even with the hi-res patch and max settings, it's just distracting to me.

I'm still determined to give DS a serious try though. I've got my eyes open for a PS3 copy.

Lol, I did the same thing I believe it's insert key to get to the menu. I don't remember because I changed it with a mod. If you haven't modded the controls then yes it's unplayable with mouse and keyboard.

After modding though I find it quite playable with mouse and keyboard and not all that hard but I'm only 3 hrs in and am being very cautious. Don't know if I'll finish but it won't be because of difficulty but because its not that interesting but I will give it a solid 10 hrs before I decide.

So, i just got this off the steam sale yesterday. Is this the mouse / KB mod you guys are talking about?:
http://darksouls.nexusmods.com/mods/28
Anything else strongly recommended?