Review: Costume Quest

Easily the best game to feature a spider made of French fries

Get ready for the cutest Halloween adventure of your life

Halloween has been approached with varying levels of success countless times in the movie industry, but video gaming has rarely touched on this eclectic holiday. There are plenty of scary titles out there to sink your teeth into, a plethora of grisly gaming experiences in which to indulge on a spooky night, but very few specifically associated with the 31^st of October. Costume Quest, from developer Double Fine, is one of the rare games specifically focused on Halloween. It’s also one of the best downloadable games money can buy. Combining a cheery art-style with a great sense of humour and some fun, simple gameplay mechanics, Costume Quest provides a solid few hours of enjoyable Halloween adventure that all ages can enjoy.

Everything about the game's look oozes charm

The story is simple and set-up nicely, it’s all you’d want from a game like this; nothing too confusing or in-depth. A brother and sister, Wren and Reynold, are off out trick-or-treating when they stumble onto some monsters plotting to steal all the Halloween candy in their neighbourhood. One of the two gets kidnapped by these fiends, and it’s up to the player to save their brother or sister before the night is through. Just your average Halloween night really. You'll meet a couple of new friends and enemies along the way, and learn more about the monsters’ plans. The story might not be the deepest, but it serves its purpose, nothing about the game is particular deep, nor was it intended to be. Costume Quest is simply a fun little ride from beginning to end, the gaming equivalent of a good family Halloween movie.

Now, it’s Halloween, and the name of the game is Costume Quest, so, as you’ll expect, costumes play a big role, and when I say ‘big’, I mean they turn you into giant warriors of destruction that could give Godzilla and Gamera a run for their money, but more on that later. You’ll build and collect various costumes throughout the game, most in typical Halloween style like a vampire, robot, and a knight. Then there are one or two slightly more obscure outfits thrown in for good measure. Collecting the costumes is part of the fun, but actually using them is what makes the game great. Gameplay is divided between simple puzzle-solving, traversing the world, and turn-based combat, and the costumes play a big part in all aspects. Nearly every suit has its own abilities to help you get around, the robot gives you a speed boost to glide around faster and zoom off ramps to reach hidden areas, the knight has a trusty shield to protect you from dangers on the path, and so on. None of the environment-based puzzles are ever too taxing, and the game more or less tells you what power to use in each instance—the game is very kid-friendly and accessible to all ages—but the use of the costumes makes traversing the environments a little more engaging, and makes finding all the secrets a fun and rewarding task.

The Space Warrior costume is easily the coolest, and will help you through dark areas

The combat will be the make-or-break factor for a lot of players, some may find it repetitive and dull, and others will appreciate the simplicity. Regardless, it’d be hard not to love the look of the battles; any time combat is initiated, you’ll be treated to some brilliant scenes of the kids transforming into giant awesome versions of the costumes they’re wearing. The fighting in Costume Quest is for anyone who remembers what it was like to play robots as a kid or pretend to be a gallant knight. That sort of wild imagination that only children have, Double Fine capture it perfectly in the battle sequences as each character, only really wearing the likes of cardboard costumes and plastic vampire teeth, transform into mighty heroes the size of buildings, and do battle with the monsters in scenes that wouldn't look out of place in Power Rangers. How on Earth this fits in with the whole fiction of the game will remain one of the great mysteries of Costume Quest, but, really, it’s a game about kids beating up candy-thieving monsters, so let’s leave realism out of it. 

The combat isn't the game's strongest suit, but it sure looks awesome

The fighting itself is a simple turn-based affair with some quick-time mechanics thrown in. You'll have to time button presses and the like to power up your moves or block enemy attacks. Fights will rarely last more than a few rounds, but the combat isn’t so easy that you won’t have to try; a few mistimed button presses could spell disaster. Luckily, even if you are defeated, you’ll respawn at the same location and can try again instantly. Some depth is present in the combat system, which again ties in with the costumes, each having their own special abilities in battle, some offensive, some defensive, it’s not overly complex but you will have to find the right balance of costumes for some of the more difficult boss fights. There’s also a simple levelling system, and stamps to buy which give you extra abilities or power boosts. The combat is pretty basic, but enjoyable enough and so much fun to watch that it’ll never get tedious, battles are easy and over quickly, and there’s enough other things to do to break-up the action, that all helps to make Costume Quest feel like a very well-balanced game. One minute you’ll be fighting, the next you’ll be bobbing for apples, then using your suit powers to find some secret items. There’s not all that much variety to the game when you really look at it, but the various activities that are present are spread out and paced so well that it never feels repetitive, and no part of the game ever outstays its welcome.

Apple-bobbing a simple mini-game, just like in real life

Throughout the evening, you’ll make your way across three environments, tasked with ridding all the houses of candy through the age-old tradition of trick-or-treating. The areas are cartoony, colourful and well-designed, being simple enough to navigate that you shouldn't feel the need to gripe over the lack of a mini-map, whilst hiding a number of secret paths and treasures to find. Each level takes around thirty minutes to an hour to complete, depending on how thorough you are with exploration. It’s very possible to see everything in the game the first-time through, which speaks more for the quality of the game’s design than its lack of content. There are plenty of collectibles to find, stat-enhancing stamps to collect, side missions to take on, and, of course, costumes to make, and even if you don’t go out of your way to find them all, you’ll uncover most through the natural progression of the game. Double Fine have to be commended for building their game in such a way that players can see almost everything it has to offer without the need for backtracking, grinding, or excessive pixel-hunting exploration.

No, really, this is actually a screenshot from the game

Double Fine’s humour shines throughout, with the witty dialogue and amusing characters providing plenty of chuckles and enhancing the simplistic story, and helping to extend the playtime as you'll go about talking to as many people as possible just to see what they have to say. The game lacks any voice-acting, in fact the sound design on the whole is probably Costume Quest’s biggest drawback, with some scenes feeling void of sound altogether, but the rest of the game is so charming and easy on the eyes that you can forgive the audio issues. From the bright-eyed, smiling children, to the fantastically-designed battle costumes, to the smallest details like the candy packet experience bar, the game's sense of visual presentation is great all round. Put simply, the game gets a lot more right than wrong, and is more than cute enough for you to ignore its minor issues. It controls well, and there are no technical problems to speak of. It's the perfect example of a simple, but very well-made game that has had a lot of care put into it.

Overall Costume Quest is simply a lovely little game. I played it from start to finish in one sitting last Halloween, and I did the same this year, I’ll probably even play it again next year. Like watching a John Carpenter movie and eating a lot of Skittles, Double Fine’s charming little game is becoming part of my Halloween traditions. If you give it a chance, it might become part of yours too.

For the purposes of this review, the Xbox 360 version of the game was played.

Review: Dark Souls

Prepare to... yep.

Here we see a Dark Souls player burning his controller in rage.

Dark Souls is such a hard game, that even reviewing it is a difficult process, it attracts such a unqiue crowd, and sits proudly in such a niche market, that there’s very little to compare it to, no real benchmark for the ‘Frustratingly Difficult Dark Fantasy’ genre. I’m not a big fan of sports games, but I can still play and review them, commenting on the improvements and possible shortcomings in relation to other games in the genre, but when it comes to Dark Souls, there’s so little out there to quantify it against. So, I’ll approach this review as a long-time gamer, a fan of the fantasy RPG, and someone who enjoyed the fresh, challenging gameplay of the game’s predecessor, Demon’s Souls.

There’s no hiding the fact that, while this game doesn’t share the title of its forebear, the similarities are countless and clear to see. Simply put, anyone who enjoyed Demon’s Souls will feel right at home here, and for those of you who deemed the first game a frustrating, rage-inducing experience that you never want to live through again, well, you might want to steer clear of Dark Souls. If reviews were nothing more than advice on what to buy, this one could end right there. The game retains plenty of the features and style of Demon’s, and while it does bring an awful lot of new things to the table, the core structure remains the same, and it’s doubtful that any of the additions will prove meaningful enough to win over those who couldn‘t find enjoyment in the first game. The series is designed in a very specific way, and attracts a very specific crowd, providing something of a unique flavour in the game market, that most players will either love or hate.

Most things are weak to fire... not everything though.

Almost everything about the game is unique in some way, right down to its visual style. This is a fantasy game through and through, you’ll be battling skeletons and zombies, making your way through forests, dungeons, and castles, but there’s much more to it than that, plenty of unique environments, straight-lines and jagged-edges are used to great effect, and some wonderfully grotesque and original enemy designs give Dark Souls its own morbid stylistic flair that you won’t find in traditional fantasy games. From Software somehow manage to make no area ever look welcoming, every single path you walk down gives the impression that you probably shouldn’t be walking down it. Castles are cold and overbearing, forests are so dense and dark that you’ll wish you could leave a breadcrumb trail for fear of getting lost, even the brightly-lit areas--of which there are plenty, the game isn't excessively dark throughout--can fill you with dread. One of my biggest complaints about the first game was the lack of originality in environments, castles, caves, dungeons, it felt like typical fantasy fare and I hoped for more unique areas to match the original and varied designs of the enemies and gameplay. Dark Souls very much addresses this, while From Software are still confined by the limitations of the genre, and you will still be making your way through swamps and caverns, there are plenty of exciting new environments to explore, a lush valley, a grand ancient city, lava-filled ruins, a giant hollowed-out tree, and much more. Variety is a big part of the game, and the number of different areas is staggering and will keep you hungry for more. Overall, Dark Souls is a good-looking game, it won’t win any awards for graphics, and the frame rate suffers from time to time, but From Software have captured a very unique, dark look to their world, and use it well, every area you visit feels different from anywhere else you’ve visited in other games.

Some of the environments are breathtaking. As in they will suck the breath out of you and leave you a lifeless corpse.

Probably the biggest change from Demon’s Souls, is that this is an ‘open world’ game now. I use that term loosely, because I don’t want people to think this is something like Skyrim, you can’t exactly wonder off wherever you like, but you are given free reign over where you go next. You won’t be picking and choosing levels to warp to, and then teleporting back to a safe hub at the end of each area any more. You are literally dropped off in this world, and free to explore it. Well, ‘free’ might be pushing it a little, some areas will have to be unlocked as you progress, and others will be far too difficult for you to journey through without some experience, but there is no one set path through the game, and it really is up to you to both choose where you would like to go next, and to figure out what on Earth you’re actually meant to be doing. The game provides very little guidance, as you would expect I suppose. You’ll always have some vague instruction about what you should be doing, but it’s left to you to figure out how. For example, at the outset, you are tasked with ringing two bells and given a rough indication of where they are, you being the classic ‘Chosen One’ who will free the world of evil or some such cliché. The story, like with everything else in the game, is mainly left for you to figure out yourself. There are NPCs to talk to, but very few actual cut-scenes or exposition to speak of, even the ending scenes, of which there are two (good or bad), are incredibly short and don’t explain much. It’s a unique style of storytelling and not one I particularly enjoyed, while the story wasn’t really the reason I was playing the game, I would’ve liked perhaps a little more time dedicated to explaining the world, a little extra motivation to play through a game never hurts.

This is the equivalent of a Chuck E Cheese in Dark Souls world.

So guess what? This game is hard. The number of things that can maim, impale, shock, burn, poison, curse, and just plain old kill you is insurmountable. There are lethal traps, treacherous paths, poisonous swamps, and, well, lava pools filled with dinosaurs. Death waits for you around every single corner, ready to strike just as soon as you mistime a sword swing, sprint a little too far, or take one more swig from your potion than you really needed. It really is that brutal, everything has a measured pace to it that you must learn and master if you ever hope to make it through. Timing is probably the most important factor in the game, it's all about knowing the right moment to strike or block, or the precise time to jump to make it over a treacherous gorge rather than falling to your doom. You’ll end up naturally learning animation routines, and even have to carefully plan out when to start casting your spells or swigging your potions, since every action takes a second or two to actually play out, and you’ll be granted no temporary immunity while trying to recover or preparing to strike. The gameplay essentially consists of a long string of learning experiences, first you must become accustomed to the heavy movement controls and timing-based combat, then you will learn how to pace yourself in fights and exploration, mastering each area and battling hordes of enemies as you go until the feel of the game becomes second nature. It certainly takes time to get used to, but after enough time with the game, you'll figure out the tactical combat and carefully-paced progression.

The open world nature of the game doesn't change it as much from Demon's Souls as you might think, since there is still a general hub area you’ll return to, and safe areas throughout the world in the form of bonfires; you will learn to love these little beacons of joy, providing you with an opportunity for a breather and the ability to level up and repair weapons, with the bonfires themselves also serving as checkpoints. From Software deal well with the transition to ‘open world’ style gameplay by including these little safe spots, if you buy the right equipment, you can do all the things you would normally have to do at the hub, right there at any bonfire in the game, removing the need for constant backtracking which would only add more needless frustration. Having said that, there is still a lot of backtracking throughout the game since you never quite know if you’re heading in the right direction, and will sometimes find yourself exploring a whole area, only to be greeted with a dead end and be forced to make your way back. The game does things to make this much easier on the player later on, but in the early going it can be enough to put some people off. The auto-saving checkpoint nature of the bonfires can also pose problems at times, since you’ll respawn at the last bonfire every time you die, so, in the worst case scenario, you could find yourself constantly respawning at a dead end bonfire, forced to try and make your way back through a difficult area and wishing you could just teleport to the hub. But of course, this is all part of the Dark Souls experience, everything you do is a risk, even resting at bonfires can backfire, and you have to consider every choice you make, whether it’s going left at a fork in the road, resting to refill your potions, or taking on a boss.

Enemy designs are one of the best bits about the game, even the gross ones like this scaleless dragon.

Boss battles make up a big part of the experience, there are around two dozen bosses, almost all of which must be defeated if you wish to complete the game. Most of them provide a great challenge and will have to be taken on in a variety of different ways, with a lot of the fun of the game coming from working out the perfect strategy to take down a boss. They all look great, the enemy design throughout the game is inspired, and every creature you face looks and acts differently, giving you even more of a reason to proceed with caution, never knowing what horrendous abilities the next foe might hide. Despite their fearsome appearance and, often devastating power, you’ll want to kill an awful lot of these enemies to acquire the currency of the game; the titular souls. Souls are everything, experience points and money all rolled into one. You’ll spend them on spells, weapons and armour, while also using them to repair and upgrade your equipment, and even level up. It’s a simplistic and interesting currency system and works well. Soul management and careful spending becomes key, particularly early on, and knowing that at any moment you could be struck down and lose everything you’ve earnt gives players added incentive to stay on their toes when carrying a horde of souls.

Multiplayer is present, but not in any traditional sense, just like with everything else on the game, From Software add a unique twist to the way they handle multiplayer. As with Demon’s Souls, players can leave messages for each other dotted about the world, warning of any traps ahead or offering small messages of encouragement. Ghostly shadows of other players will appear from time to time, reminding you that there are others facing the same peril. Co-operative and competitive multiplayer do exist, and work as intended. Players can join up together to face bosses, or invade others’ worlds to do battle. Various items and conditions are required to engage in this multiplayer, which help to limit the potential for excessive invading. The multiplayer side of the experience is not something I have personally taken much interest in, but it certainly is available and functional, and the more ‘passive’ side of the multiplayer, i.e the messages and ghosts of other players, are a great feature that certainly help to ease new players into the game. Even the tutorial is built using these messages, quickly getting you into the habit of checking them all for useful information.

Believe it or not, he's one of the good guys.

The game is really an adventure, that's the one thing I will always keep coming back to. Forgetting about the difficult gameplay, and frustrating elements, it really is a fantastic fantasy role-playing adventure. It drops you off in the world without force-feeding you reams of dialogue and exposition, and lets you go about your own journey however you like. Other games have done this in the past and will do it again in the future, but the way Dark Souls simply lets you loose in this world really can't be compared with anything else. Despite the linearity of some of the progression, and the complete lack of side quests or a branching storyline or any of the traditional 'open world' tropes, they manage to make the game feel like your own personal adventure. You have to figure out where to go, you have to learn how to fight, you have to make every choice and find every soul and explore this world in your own way. Despite my criticisms of the lack of story and guidance, in a way I really appreciated that part of the game because it grants players the ultimate freedom to go about their story and take whatever they like from it. There's a lot to be commended about the game's somewhat minimalistic story and lack of hand-holding.

All in all, I had a great time with Dark Souls. The challenging gameplay and dark design appeal to me, but I accept that I am part of a very niche market. There are certainly plenty of criticisms that people can throw at the game, not necessarily from a technical standpoint--aside from the frame-rate issues the game stands up well--but from a design perspective, it can certainly be argued that this game was made to frustrate. The story isn’t really ‘told’ in any traditional sense, and only the faintest suggestions of guidance are available to let players know what on Earth they’re meant to be doing. The sluggish combat controls can be frustrating, the camera is clumsy, the inventory system could be better, and frankly, the addition of a pause button wouldn’t go amiss. Yet, I would still rate this game as one of the best of 2011 so far, and loved the adventure it took me on. It is a very difficult game, but that can never be a criticism because the difficulty level was an intentional design choice and worked out just as From Software wanted. They set out to make a tough, oppressive game, and they succeeded in every aspect. This won’t appeal to everyone, but it was never really meant to.

Dark Souls will make you love bonfires in ways you never imagined. No, not like that. 

As I have stressed throughout, and fans of the Souls games will continue to stress, the game simply appeals to a certain crowd, it's an acquired taste. The gamers out there who revel in overcoming challenges, who get the biggest thrills from beating the hardest levels, who have spent hours grinding away at a frustrating game just for their own personal satisfaction and triumph upon beating it, these are the people who Dark Souls is made for. From Software have very much mastered the art of appealing to a particular audience. The game isn’t for everyone, I’m sure they’d be the first to admit that, but if you’re one of the people who it is meant for, then you’ll love Dark Souls.

For me, the experience might best be compared to one of those old 'Choose-Your-Own-Adventure' books, everything is set in stone and you'll always ultimately be doing the same things, but every time you play it feels like your unique story. Also, like the old books, a lot of the choices you make will result in horrible death. 

For the purposes of this review, the Xbox 360 version of the game was played.

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Days 6 and 7

As Frank Sinatra once sang, I did it my way. 


Dark Souls is complete, and not a moment too soon. Literally, I beat the final boss at around 11:20pm. I actually don't want to comment too much on what I've just played and the sheer intensity of that experience, I'll save that for the review which should be up by the end of the week. On Friday night, after a day of grinding and with the deadline of the challenge looming, my determination got the best of me. I decided I wouldn't let anything stop me from completing this game on time, and trust me, a lot of things tried to stop me, mostly scary things. The reason I'm not particularly conveying exuberance or joy in this post is because I'm still overwhelmed with disbelief that I've actually finished the game. Some of the battles seemed impossible at times, and even just getting through some areas was the most daunting task. Parts of it felt like I was just banging my head against a wall. The last few hours were some of the hardest I've ever had in gaming, and I've played Atlantis no Nazo. 


The game was everything I expected, and more, I really am sadly too tired to write too much on it right now. Not to sound like one of those people who pretends gaming is a strenuous activity, but that last session genuinely left me exhausted. 


Apologies for the lack of post yesterday, I was playing well into the night and, had I even attempted to write something in my sleep-deprived, caffeine-fuelled state, it would have been beyond incomprehensible. 


The review will be up soon, which will serve as a proper end to my Dark Souls-related musings, and in which I will go into much more detail about how this game turned out. I feel like it was one of the most excruciatingly intense, yet ridiculously rewarding gaming experiences of all time. I really wish I could write more, but this must be the effect of playing that game under pressure for nearly two days straight. 


I'm speechless.

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 5

In case the picture isn't clear, I'm grinding. 


The sad fact is I am not good enough, or at least not confident enough in my character and skills, to carry on to a new area, because every time I try, I seem to get slaughtered pretty easily. I know where I'm heading next, the area known as Sen's Fortress, a place that opened up after I killed the spider, so should be pretty well-suited for me. I've spent a lot of time grinding today, killed that mean old hydra I met back on day one, along with another sub-boss or two, and I entered a covenant.


Now, the covenant system in this game confuses me a little. This is probably because, as with most aspects of Demon's Souls, very little is explained. Basically, I seem to be able to join one of several covenants, or factions, and each one grants me a few bonuses, but I can only be in one at a time. Remember that ring I mentioned at the start of the week? The Old Witch's Ring? I finally found out what it's used for, it lets me talk to a half-spider, half-lady type thing who invites me to join her covenant, which I did. This got me a cool new fireball spell, after that I carried on exploring the area and discovered the covenant which I plan to stay in for the rest of the game; the path of the dragon. Now, I got a pretty cool bonus for joining, and there's only one way I can really describe it; I get to transform my head into a freaking dragon's, and breathe fire. So now you see why this is the covenant for me. The fire attack doesn't actually seem too powerful, but that's probably something to do with my stats. Anyway, each covenant has a leader, (guess what mine is? A huge freaking dragon!) and you can talk to them, and it seems like you can take on special missions for them or give them items. I'm not sure what this does just yet, but I'll try and find out, maybe it unlocks further covenant bonuses or something like that.


So it's been another boring day sadly, but I've decided that today will be the last extended period of grinding I do in this game. From now on I'll be charging head first into the jaws of death with nary a care in the world for my STR or INT values. If I'm to have any hope of finishing in time, I'll have to start making progress, and that begins tomorrow. I've chosen my next destination, and will make my way through it even if it kills me, which it will, several times. If I can get a few bosses beat tomorrow and get through a handful of areas I might just about have enough time to finish it off by Sunday evening. I'm not holding out much hope but there could still be a chance, and even if I don't finish then these posts will continue until I do. Nothing stops the Doom Diary.


Wish me luck.

Help!: Top 10 Dark Souls Tips

Now that I've spent over 24 hours with Dark Souls, I thought I'd take the time to write my first 'Help!' article for the blog, these will usually comprise of little hints and tips that might hopefully help some people out. In this case, ten tips if you're getting started with Dark Souls or for more experienced players who just want to reduce the number of times they feel like hurling their controller at the screen.

Tip: Watch the teeth...

In no particular order:


1) Mix it up: There are an awful lot of ways to play Dark Souls, it's not just your usual case of ranged, melee, or magic. Everything has sub-categories, there are the different magic specialities like pyromancy and miracles, tons of melee weapons with different styles, heavy weapons, light weapons, dual-wielding. You can choose to hold a wand in one hand and an axe in the other if you like, I certainly wouldn't recommend it, but the option is there, along with a lot of other options, so what I would recommend, especially if you're just getting started, is to really take the time to try out all the different systems in the game. Your inventory will quickly fill up with a wide variety of weapons, they behave very differently, and its worth giving them all a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.


2) Consider your options: There is no one set path through Dark Souls. Once you finish the tutorial area, you are free, make no mistake, this is an open world game, it's simply that some areas of that world are a lot more dangerous than others. If you're finding one area too tough, there'll always be at least one other place nearby you could try. It's definitely in your best interests to get in the habit of fully exploring your options instead of tiring yourself out hacking away at an area you might not quite be suited to. 


3) Combat is more than just light and heavy: At first, I expect most players will focus mainly on a mixture of blocking, and light and heavy attacks, but don't be afraid to experiment, because the combat system really is a lot deeper than that. Backstabs, parries, lunging strikes, ripostes, there's a lot to master, and it can be overwhelming to learn it all at once, but if you gradually try and work some of these moves into your arsenal, you'll become a much more effective fighter. Try tapping B to quickly dodge a strike and then immediately attack to deliver a devastating reply, or when an enemy is blocking with a shield, try flicking the stick forward and hitting RB/R1 to kick the shield away. There are plenty more useful techniques like this for you to discover.


4) Upgrading your weapons is key: This won't matter too much until you're further into the game, but when you start encountering tough enemies, the game becomes a lot harder if you're still relying on the same old sword you picked up near the start. Try to learn the upgrade system, it's not too difficult to understand, and use it well. Pick a weapon you like the feel of, and focus on building it up, at first the attack difference will be negligible, but once you really start getting into the upgrade trees you will notice a big shift in your weapon's power, and suddenly battles become a lot easier. Further on down the line you can invest in multiple upgraded weapons, giving yourself various elemental damage effects to suit any encounter will make the whole game much more manageable.


5) Never rush into new areas: This one might seem a little obvious, but it's worth reinforcing. If you're exploring somewhere new, you have no idea what could be around the next corner. The areas in this game are all vastly different, and nearly every one of them is full of traps just waiting for headstrong heroes to come charging in. Don't do it. I'll tell you a story to put you off. After beating the early parts of the game quite easily, I got a little cocky. I started moving a little faster. "Nothing can stop my awesome power!" I would cry, defiantly taunting the game with my foolhardy naivety. I wound up almost trying to sprint through the sewer section, which, as you may or may not know, has a lot of trap doors in the floor, perfectly designed for idiots like me to fall straight through. Which I did. Into a room of bug-eyed freaks that turned me to stone. Lesson: Don't rush, ever.


6) Pay attention in boss fights: I'll let you in on a little secret; you're going to die on these bosses. It's an inevitability. So, what should you do? How can you make these deaths work for you? Learn from them! There's a pretty high chance that the first time you try and take on a boss in this game, it'll kill you. So what I always do, on my first attempt, or even first few attempts, is try and learn as much as I possibly can about the fight. Just keep your shield up, stay alive as long as you can and figure out as much as possible so you are armed with the most valuable weapon of all when you return; knowledge. Pay attention to the boss, what attacks it uses, how fast it moves, if there is any pattern to the way it fights, what sort of signs it gives before unleashing each attack. Memorise as much as you can, write it down if you have to. Try and have a look at the arena you're fighting in too, as this can often help shift the fight in your favour. If it's a big open area, remember to use that space to run away and heal whenever you need to. See if you can spot any chokepoints, corners, changes in elevation, or possible barriers to help you out. Learn as much as you can to make the fight a lot easier for yourself next time.


7) Don't stress about starting classes: The class you choose at the beginning of the game has no real impact on how the rest of the game goes. This isn't like your traditional RPG where you have to pick a certain class to use certain armour or weapons, all of them can use everything, so don't worry, there are no long-lasting effects. The only differences in classes are what gear and stats you start with, but these differences aren't big enough to fret about, and you'll change armour and stats to suit your own play-style as you go. If you pick a warrior class and decide after a little while you'd rather specialise in magic, you can go ahead and do that very easily. I began the game as a pyromancer in robes, and am now a knight decked out in heavy armour wielding a giant sword. The game grants you the freedom to play it however you like, regardless of class. 


8) Look around!: Searching areas fully is a big part of the Dark Souls experience. You'll get a lot out of it if you take the time to stop and look around, check out side paths, go out of your way to pick up any items you see. There's a lot to find in this game, and most of it is hidden in some way, there are items, weapons, and more importantly bonfires, shortcuts, and even helpful NPCs that you might not notice unless you explore thoroughly. It's always worth taking a little extra time to fully observe your surroundings, you never know what you might find.


9) Learn from other people's mistakes: The bloodstains and messages on the ground, left by your fellow adventurers will (mostly) be pretty useful, so it's always worth checking them out, especially in new areas as they will often point out hidden traps or enemies that you might not have noticed, they'll save your life quite a few times if you give them a chance. They'll also help you find hidden items and areas, I've discovered quite a lot of useful gear thanks to the messages left by others. However, it is worth noting that not all of these messages will be useful, in fact, some people, dickheads I believe they are called, will purposefully try and get you killed, that's where the game's rating system comes in, along with your own common sense. Say if you stumble on a message atop a cliff saying "Try jumping off", with a rating of 0, you might want to ignore its advice, but if that message were rated highly, you should probably listen to it, believe it or not there are moments in this game where seemingly leaping to your death is the best course of action and can help you find secret areas and items. 


10) Treat every death as a learning experience: Fact is, you're going to die an awful lot throughout this game, and it'll most likely frustrate you to no end. Minimising that frustration is key to making it through the game with your sanity intact, and the best way to do so is to treat each death as a learning experience. Think about what you did wrong, the deaths are almost always entirely the player's fault so don't get mad at the game, or yourself, just focus on realising why you died and think about how you won't let it happen again. This will not only help you stay calm, but genuinely make you a better player. If you're dying over and over from being too hasty in battle, say to yourself "Ok, I need to slow it down a little.", if you seem to be falling to your death far too often, start focusing on moving more carefully. These little adjustments in the way you play will go on to drastically improve your chances of survival, and, in turn, make the game much more enjoyable, so it's always worth trying to learn from your mistakes.




So there you have it. These are the guidelines by which I am living my Dark Souls adventure, and, for the most part, I think they're helping. I hope they can come in handy for you too!

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 4

Remarkably uneventful day in terms of Dark Souls, since I have been too busy with pesky real-life business to get much done. I've still had a few hours of play, and want to get one or two more before bed so this'll have to be a quick post. Basically, I'm grinding. Kaiden just doesn't seem quite tough enough to handle any of the areas that are available to me right now, so I'm tediously killing a few enemies over and over to level up. There are probably much better grinding spots elsewhere in the game than the one I've chosen, but at this rate I'm going up a level every five minutes or so. I'm also focusing on levelling some weapons, which leads me onto another point I wanted to briefly touch on.

The upgrade system in this game is deep. There is a lot going on, and, in typical Dark Souls fashion, the game won't really tell you much about it, leaving me to figure out what I can by myself, but basically, you collect different shards, which can upgrade your weapons in different ways. Rarer shards will add elemental damage and the like, while the more common ones will simply improve strength. At certain points when levelling your weapon, you can choose which path you want to take with it, for example, I levelled a sword to '+5', at which point I was given the option to continue levelling it all up to '+10', or create a 'Raw' or 'Divine' sword with my rarer shards, giving the weapon different characteristics. I've also collected some souls from a couple of bosses, which are also apparently used to create unique weapons, although how I would go about this remains to be seen. It turns out, playing this game without a guide is pretty darn tricky, but I'll stick to it.

So, apologies for this brief post, to make up for it I'm about to write another little article about Dark Souls that you'll hopefully enjoy or find useful. And then more grinding for as long as I can stay awake.

Kaiden out

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 3

Day 3, two bosses beaten, well over one hundred deaths now logged, some sweet wraith-style armour discovered, quite a lot happened, but day 3 will always primarily be remembered as 'Day of the Insects' in my Dark Souls Journey. 

Having ventured on from where we left off yesterday, me and Kaiden found ourselves in a swamp, an area I specifically abhorred in Demon's Souls, and this was no different. Not only is the swamp poisonous, but it plays host to some of the creepiest creatures in the entire game. Huge mosquito-types that spray you with blood, some giant fly/spider hybrids, and leeches, which are also obviously wonderfully oversized just to make them that much scarier.

This area is not fun. I'm sure, when Dark Souls was being developed, this is the part where they just let the extra-sadistic half of the office design an area, the enemies are terrifying, every step you take poisons you further, and the place is so dark that you can barely see a few feet ahead of you, let alone figure out which way you should be going. Oh and, just so you don't feel too pleased with yourself when you do finally make it out, the very next area is a tunnel covered with spider webs, leading to one of the hardest bosses in the game.

As you may have noticed, I've had a rough old time with Dark Souls today, I've now logged about 23 hours with the game, but the last few of those hours have really pushed my limits. As with Demon's Souls, the first couple of areas of the game seem hard at first, but once you play them for a few hours, they become much more manageable, you feel like you have some control in those areas once you know where the traps and enemies all are. I know that I can run through the first few castle areas now without too many problems, I know the enemies, I know the layout, I'm in control. Down in the dark swampy depths, I lose that feeling of control entirely. When you're in a huge open area with enemies rushing you from every direction, the ground poisoning you as you trudge slowly along, and the lighting so dim that navigation becomes a chore, it seems nearly impossible to suggest that you could ever really learn this area well enough to feel comfortable in it, and it certainly seems impossible to suggest you could ever enjoy it. Maybe that's the intention, they clearly set out to design a treacherous, harrowing, oppressive environment, and they succeeded, but in doing so, they've made an area that I never want to visit again because nothing about it was fun. 

This same thing happened to me in Dark Souls, and it might just be one of my own personal issues, but I dislike the fact that any time I play this game again, I'll always dread that area and wish I could skip it entirely. I suppose it's an unavoidable element in a game like this, when the game is specifically designed to frustrate and scare you, there will undoubtedly be parts of it that fill you with dread. But, in this instance, it's not a case of being scared of the swamp, I've already conquered the area, I know I can do it and the enemies there aren't particularly challenging, it's simply a case of finding everything about that swamp to be tedious, unfair, and completely lacking in any enjoyment whatsoever. Maybe it's just me, or maybe it really is a case of the developer's going a little too far with this one. There are always those odd levels, even in your favourite games, that you sometimes wish you could avoid, the 'Library' of Halo: Combat Evolved, Ocarina of Time's 'Water Temple', those bits in the last-gen GTA games where you have to control RC planes, you get the idea, and I really think these swamp sections are the 'Souls' series' absolute worst bits.

Anyway, enough of "Mike's Pet Peeves", on with the story. After finally making it out of the swamp and reaching the spider's lair, I was treated to yet another brilliant and ridiculously challenging boss battle. I won't lie, that one took about fifteen tries, and the feeling of satisfaction from finally beating it was quite overwhelming. That's probably the best thing about these games, the feeling you get when you finally do it, when the thing you've been desperately hammering away at over and over finally falls down. There are times when I literally have to set the controller down and jump for joy, it feels that good. People will always criticise these games for the amount of time you spend in a state of frustration and anger, but what they don't realise is that, at least in my opinion, the rare moments of elation you get from eventually overcoming whatever obstacle is frustrating you are totally worth it. I spent about three hours, getting more and more annoyed, grinding away at that area and boss, but when I finally beat her, my moment of triumph felt pretty damn good, and it really felt like I'd accomplished something. I think that's the real driving force behind people who play these games, the sense of achievement and overcoming the odds when everything is stacked against you. Emotions that, sadly, are somewhat hard to find in games these days. Dark Souls provides them in spades. 

My feeling of triumph turned out to be short-lived after the spider's demise. I was killed shortly afterwards by a colossal lava demon called Ceaseless Discharge, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

I went back to the relative safety of the castle, searching for new routes, ended up in a forest where the insect theme continued in the form of a battle with a giant laser-firing butterfly. I might as well stop putting words like 'giant' in front of everything, you could just assume from now on that most things in this game are stupidly huge. The butterfly didn't put up much of a fight and was defeated quite easily.

Now I find myself in a bit of a pickle. There are four or five possible routes to go, all of which seem to contain enemies that might just be a little too tough for me, so I'm back to grinding, the trouble is, I'm at the point where it takes quite a lot of time to even go up a single level, so it doesn't really seem worth the trouble. I've switched off the game for the day while I mull over my next move. We're nearly at the halfway point of the week and I feel like, if I continue at this pace, I can definitely finish the game by Sunday, but the move I make next could prove vital. I have no real idea which way to go or what to do next, but I'll have to decide one way or another.

Tune in tomorrow to see how it turns out...

Death count: I have no idea anymore, but it's easily over 100

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 2

Note: Blog was down for a while so that's why this has gone up late, apologies.


And so we reach the end of my second day with Dark Souls. I made a lot more progress today than yesterday, at least it certainly feels that way. Death count has also risen exponentially, let's just say it's over fifty at this point, I lost track. Playing for quite a long time leads to complacency, which, in turn, meant I made some really silly mistakes and died pretty often in my last hour or so of play. Nevertheless, Kaiden has journeyed well today. 


So, the story so far: After a little more grinding, I proceeded on to try and find the next boss, or bosses, as it turned out. A pair of gargoyles, an awful lot like the pair of gargoyles you may have fought in the last game. Ok, I'll end it with the "Hey this is just like that part in Demon's Souls" bit now, because it'll get annoying and is pretty unfair to the game, because frankly, for everything in this game that seems to be a copy from Demon's Souls, there'll be something else entirely new to remind me it is a completely different game with a lot of fresh content.


After a few tries with the gargoyles, I finished them off. One cool thing about the boss fights in this game is that most bosses will have tails, tails which can be removed with carefully placed strikes, an act that rewards you with special items. So, for the sadists out there who think these boss battles aren't hard enough already, there's an extra level of strategy you can try and indulge in to earn all these items. Personally, I just duck, roll, and flail wildly at the big, scary monsters until they fall down, but luck was on my side with the gargoyles as I somehow managed to lop off one of their tails and claim a nifty axe as my prize. It came in handy in the areas that followed.


Another, quite remarkable thing about Dark Souls is that it literally does not tell you where to go next. There are so many alternate routes and paths and areas to explore, that, really, you just have to pick a direction and hope for the best. It's yet another quite ingenious way of immersing the player in the experience and make this feel like a true adventure. Cautiously taking steps down an untrodden path, wary of what you might find, never feeling safe, desperately hoping you've chosen an easy route, moments like this are so commonplace in Dark Souls and truly do create this feeling of exploring an unknown, and dangerous world. There are so many role-playing games out there where you can feel relatively safe venturing from your beaten path, secure in the knowledge that your character should be more than a match for any enemies you might find. In Dark Souls, it's very different, there are places in the game that you can most certainly try and journey through, but unless you're ready for what that area has in store, you certainly won't live to make it to the other side. 


There are side paths you might take, just to see where they lead, and suddenly find yourself falling through a hole in the floor, unable to get back, forced to make your way through some new mysterious area, completely unaware of what fresh terrors await you. Fear, caution, and doubt are all commonplace, but so is the spirit of adventure! There's so much to see and find, so many places to explore that are wildly different, a ridiculous amount of terrifying creations out there ready to hunt you down, and the best part is, you never know what you'll find next. Each path you choose and step you take feels like an important decision that could have untold effects on the way your story plays out, even the mistakes you make are your own and define your adventure, ensuring that no two Dark Souls journeys will ever be quite the same.


An example of this came today in my own journey. After defeating the gargoyles, I found myself with no real sense of direction, I wasn't sure where to go next. There is no clear path marked out for you, so I began exploring the area a little deeper to try and progress. It was then that I stumbled on a new area, Darkroot Garden. I was foolishly optimistic that this area might be suited to my level after how quickly I had disposed of the previous bosses, so began exploring. After a little while, and a few turns onto some side paths, I became hopelessly lost in the area and found myself wishing to be back at the castle. Then, in the distance, I spotted something moving and went to investigate. That was yet another mistake. The movement turned out to be a nine-headed hydra monster thing that killed me as soon as I got in range.


At this point I realised that the Darkroot Garden might not be my cup of tea, so began the search for another way. I found a new path taking me deeper into the castle and decided to follow this, it turned out to be much more suitable to Kaiden's abilities, and I made my progress quite steadily, defeating the area boss on my third attempt. Luckily, the path continued from this point with little deviation so I followed it onward to the next area, the Depths. This turned out to be a sewer maze, everyone's favourite part of an RPG. I decided to just try and brute force my way through, sprinting whenever I got a chance, slicing through any enemies I found before they could attack, and boy were there some creepy looking enemies down there. Bug-eyed freaks that seemed to be able to turn their victims to stone, gelatinous blobs falling from the ceiling, and a giant rat, naturally. 


It was in this area that I had my first taste of the game's competitive multiplayer. With no real warning to speak of, a player entered my world, rising from the ground in front of me, and proceeded to get destroyed by that nifty axe I mentioned earlier. He or she didn't seem very good at the game, but the experience itself of fighting another player was beyond terrifying. It just adds more levels to that fear and adventure I spoke about, not only do you not know what the world itself holds in store for you, but at any moment these other players can infiltrate your game and strike you down, the level of tension all of this creates is unreal, so much so that at this point I just try to block it out and let each death not bother me too much, all of them have to be treated as learning experiences otherwise you may literally go mad with frustration playing this game.


At the end of the Depths area I spent about a full hour trying, and eventually succeeding, to defeat the boss, a hideous, and ridiculously large dragon. After this I have journeyed on to the next area, delightfully, and fittingly named Blighttown, and it is here where the adventure has ended for the day. Beating three area bosses feels like a decent amount of progress, if I can keep that up maybe there's a chance of finishing by the deadline, but it still seems like the game has only just begun, and I can't help feeling it's about to get a lot harder from here.


There's little more I can say about Dark Souls at this point, the exploration, varied environments, hidden secrets, terrifying creature designs, and wonderfully challenging combat are helping it secure a place as one of my top games of the year. On the negative side, there have been some pretty severe frame rate issues, and despite how well-designed some of these areas and creatures are, I'm yet to see an environment that really feels entirely new and different to anything I played in Demon's Souls, it's not that I want the game to be completely different, and I appreciate that the RPG genre naturally confines itself to some cliché environments, the game was always going to have to have a castle area and a sewer area for example, but I do hope to stumble on at least one unique place before my journey ends. Despite these criticisms, I'm enjoying Dark Souls more and more as it goes on and look forward to seeing what I find tomorrow.


Death count so far: 50+ 

Dark Souls Doom Diary - Day 1

Well, here it is, the first day of my Dark Souls challenge. I spent a pretty decent amount of time with the game today, but not as much as I'd have liked, and I didn't make nearly as much progress as I might have liked, but still, today was a refresher, and boy did I need it. 

It's been quite a while since I played Demon's Souls, and, let's not beat about the bush here, Dark Souls is almost identical to its 'spiritual predecessor', so it took a while to get back into that mentality. The whole "I need to move slowly and cautiously and keep an eye on my surroundings at all times because there are traps and if I- OH MY GOD DRAGON!" mindset took a little while to sink in at first. These games really do require their own specific approach, the same as any other game really, it's just that with Dark Souls, the approach you have to take is to be as attentive, careful, and patient as humanly possible.

So, yeah, it's a 'Souls' game through and through. The combat is slow and methodical, the lock-on system is shocking, death is inescapable, and you really do need to concentrate. A friend keeps on describing the game as 'oppressive', and I'd be inclined to agree, but just because that word isn't exactly glowing with positivity doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a criticism. I suppose it could certainly be taken as one, there are a lot of people out there who would say this game is just too much, too brutal and unforgiving, oppressive in the way that it saps their enjoyment and forces them into concentrating much more than they would want to while playing a video game. I, on the other hand, love that side of it. Yes it's brutal, yes it's unforgiving, yes it will give you that feeling of wanting to tear out your hair and go play Viva Piñata instead but, when you're really into it, there's nothing quite like it. 

So, for me, the fact that the game is oppressive merely means it is incredibly engaging, it sucks you in, in a way few games can, it forces you to really get into it and immerse yourself as fully as possible if you want to succeed. It's as though the game itself is saying "Hey man you're gonna really play me ok? Don't go looking out the window, don't go making yourself a cup of coffee, don't think you can play this with one eye on your computer screen! Pause button? You don't get one! If you want to succeed at any part of this game, you are gonna have to pay attention!" Personally I really like that about this game. It's a kind of crude 'forced immersion' technique when you really look at it, but it works, and that's kind of all that matters.

So how am I doing so far? Well, Kaiden, my pyromancer, made it through the first tutorial area without so much as a scratch! And then proceeded to be impaled, slashed, and burned alive no less than fourteen times in the first area. Keeping a 'death count' for the purposes of this blog is a little depressing, but at least I'm a long way from triple digits for now. Currently I'm grinding the first area, which I've pretty much memorised at this point, levelling up, buying some better equipment and tools from the local merchant, and getting ready to try and storm through the next few areas, this is pretty much how I went about the first game. It probably won't go as smoothly as I'm hoping but I feel like I'm much more in the 'Demon's Souls' mindset than I was when I first started playing, which should help my progress. The idea of finishing this game by Sunday night seems impossible at the moment but I'll keep at it. 

Kaiden is looking pretty snazzy at the moment with some new armour I found, and wielding a battle axe along with his fiery magic, I'll try not to lead him into too much peril. On a side note, when creating a character, you are given the option to select a 'Gift', an item to start the game with, now this can be one of any number of things, there's a full health potion, an explosive firebomb, a key that will unlock any door, and a couple of somewhat more mysterious objects. I chose something called the Old Witch's Ring, an item with no apparent use, but I am desperately hoping it pays off into something awesome later on in the game, I could easily search for it online and see what it does, but one of the rules is no strategy guides so I'm avoiding all that sort of info. I'll let you know when I finally figure out what this ring does, and when it inevitably turns out to be disappointing compared to my expectations.

I don't particularly want to go too far into spoiler territory with this but there are just some things I won't be able to leave out over the rest of these posts so do be warned. So far I think Dark Souls is excellent, it takes an awful lot of cues from the previous game, right down to the fact that the first area involves running across a bridge beset by a ferocious dragon, but there's definitely a lot of new content here, it seems like everything I was hoping for. Can't wait to play some more.

Death count so far: 14

Dark Souls: Trials and Tribulations of Gaming Pride

That excessively long title can only mean one thing. 

Yes, a new mini-feature for the blog. Basically, I'm setting myself a challenge. I'm buying Dark Souls tomorrow, and the challenge will be to have it completed by the end of the week. 

I have very little idea whether or not this is a realistic goal, and I know it took me longer than a week to complete Demon's Souls, but what the hell, that's why it's called a challenge. Along with actually playing it, I'll be posting daily reports of how I'm doing and how I'm finding the game, which will more than likely involve colourful tales of the many ways I have died.

Rules:

1) I have from around 9:30am on Monday until 11:59pm on Sunday to complete the game.

2) No strategy guides or anything like that.

3) Unless I am literally slain by a mythical demon in real life, or somehow otherwise unavailable, I must post a daily report of how it's going.

4) These daily reports must be amusing and interesting. (Frankly I think I'll struggle with this rule)

If this goes well and is fun to do, which I think it might be, then I hope to do it for lots of other games in the future too, kind of like those 'let's play' video walkthroughs some people do. But instead of my monotonic voice over clips of my feeble gameplay, you'll get a written report instead, that way you won't have to know about all the embarrassing mistakes I make.

Wish me luck!