Board Thread:Dark Souls/@comment-25106727-20140626034651/@comment-16047389-20140627174403

Colddeadbutt wrote: So I'm 60+ hours in on my first playthrough of DS1. Im a level 51 knight. Rang both bells, defeated the Hydra, yadda, yadda, yadda. And I think I'm gonna quit. This game sucks. I appreciate a game that doesn't hold your hand, I really do. But this game is completely incomprehensible. For a number of reasons. First, it is unplayable without using some kind of walkthrough. You will not succeed at this game without an someone else to tell you where to go. Which brings me to my second point. The story is non-existent. Even something as trite as Call of Duty at least has a token campaign mode that lets you know what is happening and why. Not so in DS. To date I have found none of the "lore" that I have seen others post so loving about. Third, the pvp is a joke. Summoning does not work. Ever. And finally, the game simply is not fair. Due to the complete lack of explanation boss battles are simply brutal exercises in futility and chance. No sir, I think Im done here. From Software got my money. Good for them. But they wont get it again. Ever stop and think that it's just because you're bad at this game? I don't mean that to insult you, or to demean you as a gamer. Dark Souls is not a game made for everyone. Every single enemy in the game has the potential of easily killing you if you don't know attack patterns or positions ahead of time. But at the same time, it is also entirely possible to go through every single boss fight without taking any actual damage from them, because it is in fact all patterns. Some gamers can handle that, some can't.

Unplayable? Hardly. I played through on my first character without the need of any walkthrough. Now, to be fair, there is a lot of things that are well hidden and that you would never know the first playthrough, like how to return to the Undead Asylum. But as for the main plotline? Yea it's straightforward. Ring the bells and you notice the previous barred gate is now open. I had some problems finding my way through certain places, yea. But it is more linear than it appears. Each zone usually only goes one or two different ways. And the natural obstacles placed in each zone pretty much guides you down one path. Actually finding each zone requires a minor amount of exploration. But the only people that would get lost or not notice the linear pathways aren't paying attention. Dark Souls is not a game meant for people with short attention spans who only care about getting from point A to point B.

Nonexistant story? Clearly you aren't looking very hard. Every single item in the game maps out a bit more of the backstory of Lordran. Every character has dialouge explaining their purpose, feelings, and history. The only possible way that you couldn't pick up on the story, is if you are just ignoring dialouge. Actually, you probably are. That would explain why you have absolutely no idea where to go or anything about the story.

The overwhelming bosses are one of this games greatest features. Each one is pretty much a guaranteed death the first time. But like I said before, it's all patterns. Once you learn the pattern, it is entirely possible to beat a boss without taking a single hit. It's just all about paying attention. Not a single one of the boss fights is a matter of chance. Every attack can be avoided. Every boss has a weakness. The point is to find it.

This game was not made to cater to those that don't care enough to put actual time and effort into it. Now this game DOES have some problems in it that hurt it as a whole. The Covenant system could've been done better, and yea PVP has fallen off by a large margin since Dark Souls 2 was released. But not knowing where to go? Not knowing the story? That is all your problem, not the game's. There are plenty of things in the game that will point you in the proper direction. If you don't pay attention to them, that's your fault, not the game's.