Demon's Souls - First Impressions

 

 

I could make this first impression very short.  I could tell you striaght up "Leave your house/apartment/box/igloo go to your local gameshop and buy this game right now!" but not even that would be doing this game justice.  Before I start however, let me just say one thing.  For all of you who have heard that this game is unforgiving and very hard....don't let that scare you PLEASE.  I've spent about 4 hours so far in the game and I'm sure it'll get much harder BUT this game is not your "unfair" hard.  Demon's Souls challenges YOU the gamer.  You'll need to master the art of fighting.  Defending, attacking and evading at the right time is everything.  You'll have enemies that you can easily take down by attacking, enemies who you'll find using your shield extremely helpful...and then there are some where you'll have to master the evasion moves.  You'll need to time your dodge rolls at the right time in order to...well not die.

 

You're going to die...you're going to be running through the same areas probably a lot of times...but none of this is bad at all.  Mainly because Demon's Souls possesses (pun intended:P) one of the best and most enjoyable battle systems I've played in recent memory.  No, that's not an overstatement.  One thing that gets me to stop playing a game is when the gameplay is flatout just not fun at all.  Demon's Souls wraps it's fingers around me and locks me in.  As far as the difficulty goes, it's perfect.  

 

One of the first things I noticed with Demon's Souls is there's a LOT going on in this game.  You've got this world tendency thing going on (which I've yet to dig into), the online features (i'll get to this later) and all your usual rpg stats and such.  So Demon's Souls is an rpg as you may have guessed :P but instead of earning experience you'll gain "souls" which you can use to buy new weapons, items, and miracles.  You can use the souls to upgrade and repair weapons and you'll be using the souls to level up stats.  I could go into detail about how all of this stuff works but there's so much going on I still need some more time to really dig into everything.  Plus, that's not what I really want to tell you all about because...what this game does with online needs to be awarded.  Seriously From Software needs to get a medal a big huge medal.

 

While playing Demon's Souls you are always online.  You'll see the ghosts of other players running around, bloodstains from other player's deaths and hints left by other players for you.  I once heard Atlus say that the online features create an "in game strategy guide" for this game...and holy crap they nailed it.  I wasn't sure how the online features would work...I wasn't sure if I'd see a bunch of crappy hints left by people or if no one would leave any hints at all...now that I've experienced it...I feel like this IS a huge innovation as far as online features go.  

 

I'll be reviewing this game once I do finish it but I would like to leave you with this.  Demon's Souls is shaping up to be one of the best PS3 games I've played and as of right now...the best game I've played all year (of course Uncharted 2 may have something to say about that ;) )  All of this could change by the time I finish...but I'm highly doubting it.  If you've been looking for a RPG for the PS3..if you've been on the fence with this game...buy it.  Seriously, go out and buy this game.  You will love it.  Demon's Souls is absolutely fantastic.  The gameplay is insanely fun, the difficulty is just right, and most importantly...it's just flat out FUN.  

 

If there's one thing I know having played the first four hours of Demon's Souls....work tomorrow...will be very VERY LONG.

 

Buy Demon's Souls