Dark Souls Part 001: Waking in the Undead Asylum
0I want to get this out of the way first. Until a few months ago, my only experience with Dark Souls was up until Undead Burg where I repeatedly tried to kill the Black Knight and kept failing. Since then I have spent most of my free time these last few months learning every aspect of this game. I have come to the conclusion that this is one of the worst games I have ever had the displeasure of sitting down and completing. Terrible enemy behavior, terrible level geometry, a buggy mess all over the place, and senseless grinding for Souls. The only parts that I legitimately enjoyed were the boss fights, at least most of them. My conclusion is that this game does not live up to the hype, is difficult for the wrong reasons, and generally wastes your time. To make matters worse, this series has spawned a horde of suckers who vehemently defend every design decision FromSoftware has made no matter how stupid those decisions were or how stupid it makes them look. Unfortunately, after looking back on FromSoftware's previous work, it seems like they just never knew how to make good games in the first place. At least the game has a cool aesthetic and can be appreciated as more of a Metroid style game. If it weren't for that, I would have gave up a long time ago. The game is just not worth it.
The Undead Asylum is a good starting area. The first enemies you come across are non-aggressive and it teaches you most of the gameplay mechanics through the messages left by the developers. It also introduces you to some of the first BS game design you will encounter. Most enemies go beyond what is generally considered acceptable stress. The burned skin type enemies which I refer to as Bacon do not let up ever. They constantly rush at you, neve giving you a break. Also, shield type enemies can go into a kind of shielding mode where they are programmed to always face the player no matter how fast the player moves around them.
The worst game mechanic in the game as far as I can tell is the parrying system. I demonstrated my feeble attempts to try to use it in the video. Tt's safe to say that the timing required is way too strict. It should have been way more lenient. The problem isn't necessarily that it's difficult to do, but that much easier and simpler and easier gameplay mechanics exist. Why would I ever want to take the time to learn how to parry when dodging and shielding are so much better and work at such a higher success rate? It's just a waste.
Another problem showcased in the video is how if your connection to the internet, or even just your connection to Xbox Live or PSN, is interrupted for any reason, the game forces you back to the title screen to start in offline mode. You have to hope the game saved all of your progress. I don't see why they couldn't have it disconnect and reconnect on the fly. All the game would need to do is stop showing messages and player ghosts temporarily until it reconnects.
One criticism I have about Dark Souls is how the game doesn't do a very good job at conveying the story. By the time you get through the Undead Asylum, you have already forgotten all the characters introduced in the opening cutscene. Most of the story given to you throughout the game come from item descriptions and NPC dialogue, but they don't give you enough information to really connect the dots and see the bigger picture. Thankfully, the story doesn't really matter. It's irrelevant to all other problems the game has or how the game plays.
DEATH COUNT: 0
Chapters:
00:00:00 Title Screen
00:00:44 Character Creation
00:04:44 Opening Cutscene
00:10:02 Waking Up In The Cell
00:12:58 Lighting First Bonfire
00:14:26 Get Equipped With Sword & Shield
00:18:00 Meeting With Oscar
00:21:58 Trying to Parry
00:24:38 Exiting the Game