**NOTE** I have made a change to my rating systyem. I have decided to make everything out of ten, since that gives me a wider plane to deal with. Thanks and happy new year-Toad Sage***Well I fired up the ps3 this Christmas...And I got Little Big Planet and Demons souls.
Since you have probably heard the LPB is the best game ever....so Ill go ahead and review the game you havent ever heard of.
Title: Demon's Souls
Platform: ps3
Genre: Action, Role-playing
An exclusive for the Playstation 3, Demon’s Souls was a game that received little attention prior to its release. It seemed as though only a few people were excited about this game. This may have been due to the big time releases of Assassins Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2, both being huge titles. So, I guess it’s safe for me to say this game blew the “hype” way, way out of the water.
Story: The story of this Japanese born RPG (role playing game) is very captivating. The game takes place in an imaginary world sometime in a middle ages-like period. A dark, uncontrollable fog has swept over the land after the rulers made some sour deals with demons. Now it’s up to you, the hero to defeat the fiendish devil spoken of only as the “The Old One.” Countless heroes have gone to destroy him and failed, so now it’s your turn to step up to the plate. The story isn’t outright bland, but it’s not a masterpiece either. Things pertaining to the story like cut scenes and interactions with NPC’s (non-playable characters) don’t happen too often. But they happen often enough to keep you in tuned with what’s happening and add some pizzazz to the game play.
Game Play: Before you jump into actually playing the game you must first create a character and choose their class (soldier, wizard ect). The character creation process is very generic and what you would expect from an RPG in today’s world. The end result is a very individual looking character, and that’s all that really counts. After that, it drops you into the action. Demon’s Souls is an extremely difficult game. You will find yourself dead more times than you can count. It has to be one of the hardest games out on the market today. The game forces you to actually think and use strategy which is very uncommon for an action game. So if you don’t like to plan and actually think things out BEFORE you rush in and attack, this game isn’t for you. Let’s get back to dying. When you get killed in Demon’s Souls, all of the souls you have collected are lost (which can be gained back if you find the spot you fell) and you become a spirit. As a spirit you are connected to what they call “The Nexus.” This is essentially a spirit world. Instead of having to restart the game when you die, you are transformed into a spirit version of yourself and are free to continue game play. The downside to this is that your health is halved, so it does have its costs to be stuck down. This is where it gets interesting. Through online play you have a few game play options after you die. The first thing you can do is join up with another player online. While you are deceased you can be summoned by another player (who is alive) and you two can play the level together helping each other out. The bonus for the live player is that he gets a buddy to aid which helps him in a major way. The bonus for the player who was dead and summoned is that if they successfully get to the end of the level and defeat the master demon at the end, the dead player is resurrected. The other option is for the dead player to invade a live player’s game. He appears as a spirit known as a “Black Phantom” and his objective is to hunt and kill the live player. If he is successful then he is resurrected. Some other ways to get resurrected are to use a rare item that is found, or simply completing the level yourself. Another element of online play is player messages. What players have the ability to do is leave a short warning message on the ground for other players to see and read. Things like “beware of the enemy’s ambush” and “use fire on this enemy” appear often. Another way that the player can be aided is the use of “bloodstains.” How this works is the player goes up to a bloodstain (which is in the place where another player died) and views the moments leading up to the player’s death. This helps you see what they did wrong. This unique style of online play has never been done before in a video game. It is very fun and creative. The game play may be very hard, but it rewards the one who uses tactics and is careful. The moments you are still alive are a reward of your skill.
Other Elements: The visuals in this game are stunning. The whole game has a very classic medieval fantasy feel that is straight out of the book. So expect to see Knights in shining armor, castles, dragons and the lot. The same can be said about the visual styles of the enemies. They are very creepy and amazing. It’s not often we see a game like this that is so visually pleasing. The soundtrack of the game is equally epic brining you pieces that meet the mood of every occasion you run into in the game, everything from epic battles to mystic castles.
Demon’s Souls is an epic that should not be missed, but does require some skill for the player to advance. I give it an 8/10
