Demon’s Souls from Atlus doesn’t care for your Halo 3. It’s not interested in your rapid health regeneration. It laughs in the face of your frequent checkpoints. In short, Demon’s Souls has seen you and found you wanting.
After playing Demon’s Souls through three aggravating, airborne controller hours. I reflected on my first night with Demon’s Souls and felt an intense satisfaction that I hadn’t felt in quite some time. Achieving even the smallest feat in the game brings immense pride: you’ve actually done something right in a game that is brutal but fair.
The game is remarkably inaccessible – there are no objective arrows, no mission briefings, nothing to guide you beyond the merest glimpse of direction of your final quest. The world has been over run by demons. Go kill them.
The roguelike mechanic of currency loss is a vicious balance of risk versus reward. Go forwards and lose everything? Or turn back without accomplishing your goals? It’s up to you to decide if you can hack it.
Even the weakest for in the game can bring you down if you move without thought. The slow, methodical progression of the game is the antithesis of modern hold-your-hand action gaming. It’s a challenge – a real challenge – and despite being infuriating (or perhaps because of it) it’s incredibly fun.
