Demon's Souls

Prepare yourself for one of the most beautiful yet painfully difficult journeys of your life.

THE VERDICT by Tae K. Kim Tae K. Kim's Avatar Will had been acting a bit odd lately and we attributed it to the fact that he sits next to McKinley on a daily basis; we just assumed McKs weirdness had started to infiltrate Wills immune system. But then we realized that it was all due to his descent into the twisted, masochistic nightmare known as Demons Souls. Its sort of like dating a really hot girl whose crazy -- you know you shouldn't go anywhere near her but damn it, you really love her and you cant help but go back for more, even if you end up regretting it later. In short, you'll have a blast but youll pay a heavy price for it sooner or later.
My first experience with Demon's Souls dates back to the hustling, bustling, absolutely insane experience that was the 2009 E3 Expo. Notepad in hand, I was lead through Atlus's booth by smiling faces, going hands-on with the latest and greatest from their talented developers. Nearing the end of my tour, I caught the unforgettable sight of a man dying and cursing repeatedly, gritting his teeth so hard you could practically hear them cracking.

"What's that?" I asked.
"Er... did I show you Trine yet?" the cheerful PR crew tried to change the subject, smiling nervously.
I held my ground, cleared my throat. "What's that?"
"That's Demon's Souls." Even in the incredibly loud and noisy halls of the LA Convention Center, you could hear the dread in their voice.
"Can I play?"

They reluctantly caved in soon enough, but honestly, I couldn't see why they were hesitant to let me near it. I walked away impressed and wanted more, so when the review build came in, I took on the assignment; maybe I should have listened to their warnings after all. What follows is a chronicle of my journey through the madness that is Demon's Soul.

Demon's Souls

August 22nd, 2009 - 7:00 PM

Just booted up Demon's Souls, and so far I've been prompted to connect to PSN, make a custom character and watch an intro movie. I'm surprised by the amount of depth as far as character creation goes, as this level of selection is generally reserved for Western RPGs. You can fool around with things like eye size, shape, skin color, and jaw width. Of course, you can also assign a class such as Knight, Wizard, Soldier and plenty of others each with their own unique attributes.

One of the most interesting aspects of Demon's Souls is the way it integrates online play. Instead of playing co-op with a thousand other dungeon crawlers simultaneously, fallen warriors of all classes and creeds will leave behind a blood stain when they die. Upon touching one of these blood stains you get to re-trace the last steps of these deceased heroes, witnessing a phantom version of them fighting through their last moments. In turn, you can learn from their mistakes and take the necessary precautions not to fall victim to the same tragedy. Heroes can also leave behind any combination of pre-written messages ("Look out for the rocks," "Watch out for fire," "Beware the enemy's ambush,"), which can aid other players by warning them of every imaginable danger and impending doom. So far these unique warnings have saved my hide a couple of times, but nothing that's completely sold me on the idea.

August 25th 2009 - 10:00 PM

This is frustrating. In the second dungeon now, and plenty sure I've left my own army's worth of corpses. At first it was simple stuff that got me: I parried too late, forgot to block, a zombie soldier chopped my head off.... I also fell victim to various traps and environmental hazards. Rocks fall from nowhere, hordes of enemies ambush you, and I can't even count how many times I was straight-up torched by this giant tool of a dragon. Every time you die (and here's the fun part) you respawn at the beginning of the level. All that blood, sweat and tears you just poured into making it to the boss? Gone. Actually, with every enemy you kill you get a set number of souls. You can use these souls as currency to purchase new items, weapons and armor, or to level your character up. But, let's say you die before you can do anything with these souls -- you lose them. There is a way to recover them, but this pretty much ends up in a maniacal corpse run akin to an Everquest player's night terrors. What's that? You got to your corpse, but died seconds before collecting your souls? Well then, they're gone for good.

Get used to the sights and sounds of Demon's Soul's many, many dungeons, as you'll be retreading them quite a bit. Honestly, I'd be much angrier at this whole situation if the game wasn't just so damn pretty. The textures are stunning, with gorgeous lighting effects bouncing off of every cobblestone. To put it bluntly, yes, the game looks good.

Demon's Souls

Comments [21]

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miamifinfan

I don't get why people are wetting themselves over Demon's Souls. LOOKS SO AVERAGE!

355448
fueledsystem

Unforgivingly hard; you WILL get angry; may or may not drive you insane
isnt this what we want in games though....?
EKGPROD

If I beat Ninja Gaiden Black on the Hardest Difficulty, I can beat this with all my limbs tied behind my back.

neji64

i think gamepro need a better ratting system the 5 star ratting don't work. Gamepro should use a 1-10 type rating system like IGN and Gametrailers it would make a better rate system. because the review don't match the score the reviewer sounds like he likes the game except for the (stain blood idea left with a message etc.) but give it 4. then there's the pros and cons...

pros. Incredibly pretty; unhealthily addicting; great assortment of weapons/items/spells
cons. Unforgivingly hard; you WILL get angry; may or may not drive you insane; main
narrative is a bit murky.

the cons look like they were chosen to be chosen, i can't see how the game being hard(challenging) could be a con. this game should of been given a 5 or 4 1/2 based on the review.

Ramanos

RealGamersUnited wrote:

I've love a challenge!

uhh.... what? you've love a challenge?

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