Since 2011, no title in the Dark Souls series has lived up to the enrapturing world of the premiere installment, Dark Souls takes elements from Zelda, Metroid, and beyond to craft one of the quintessential fantasy games, the oppressive difficulty and sedated travel speed forces you to get comfortable with this universe, and the ludonarrative excellence displayed by Fromsoftware, borne of this title, is yet to be matched. I'd be remiss to consider this title flawless, it deeply fails and descends in scope and design near the final act, but even within the muck, there are still beautiful and haunting displays of writing and visual design, and even in the face of that, my heart still wants to give it a 5, but a 4.5 will do.

Obviously, everyone should play Dark Souls, even if just for a little while.