I have nothing but fond memories of my very first playthrough around 2014, and revisiting it in 2023 after having played Elden Ring, Dark Souls remains the strongest entry in the series.
The combat is much slower compared to recent entries- every attack animation and roll feels deliberate and readable. This isn't a game that's focused on making the hardest and trickiest enemies or boss fights. Rather, it builds up its difficulty by combining environments and enemy placement, clearly presenting each arena where enemies are present and asking the player "alright, how are you going to approach this?"
The Undead Burg is burned into my mind. I've played this game to completion only twice, but I can clearly remember the placement of all the undead. I think a result of enemies being slower, you pay more attention to your environment and where you're stepping to avoid them. The very first encounter is having to fight a few undead while having firebombs tossed at you. You not only have to worry about the enemy in front of you, but you have to be ready to avoid the firebomb while also minding you don't fall into the bottomless pit you're next to. Many of the encounters are like this- you have enemies in front of you and enemies applying pressure at range.
This structure makes your tools feel much more important in Dark Souls. Any spell caster would have an easier time getting rid of distant enemies, but might have a harder time handling the enemies in front of them. Inversely, focusing on a melee build can help you make quick work of any enemy within a 10 foot radius of you. Shields are good for holding out longer at the risk of getting complacent and overwhelmed, while dodging can keep you away from the enemy as long as you manage your stamina and are careful of your environment.
These decisions feel so much more deliberate in Dark Souls because the pace of combat is steady, not breakneck. I played Dark Souls 3 to completion maybe 4 or 5 times, but none of the beginning areas and enemy placements really stick out to me because rolling comes so easy. The i-frames are more generous and it doesn't consume nearly as much stamina. Rolling HAS to be this way in games like Dark Soul 3 and Elden Ring because the enemies are much faster, the pace of combat has multiplied. Instead of giving players different options for handling faster enemies, the rolling is simply more forgiving.
I've mentioned it in the Elden Ring review, but design choices to the combat like this really matter. Bloodborne has fast enemies, but it gives the additional option of parrying with a ranged weapon and rallying, these are very important options that not only give players another defense mechanism against tough, tricky, and fast opponents, but they also ENCOURAGE the player to engage with that pace, agree with it, and play aggressively.
This game has the most satisfying exploration in the series. Lordran feels like a single cohesive area that you explore every nook and cranny of. The Undead Burg, the Sewers, Blighttown, Sen's Fortress are all connected to each other, and it's through your exploration that you figure out exactly how to end up at those places. This kind of exploration is wonderful, and not being able to teleport at the start of the game really gets the player involved in where they're going. I do prefer this method of exploration over Dark Souls 3's more linear area hopping or Elden Ring's massive world that had little pockets of loop-around shortcuts.
The tone of the game overall sticks out to me a lot. This definitely feels like the most "fantasy" entry, with living skeletons, mushroom people, giant rats, vine monsters, crystal golems, snakemen, etc. The sun shines on Lordran in a warm, pleasant manner, highlighting the green moss and overgrowth in the world. People talk about how the Dark Souls series really paints a dying rotting world, but in this game, it feels more like the world is "getting over" the previous generation in the same way nature will continue to grow when we are gone. It's grim, but it is not entirely miserable.
The NPC dialogue and voice acting feels incredibly charming in juxtaposition to this. They're vague, as all Dark Souls NPC's are, but there is a genuine humanity in their voices. Solaire, Seigmeyer, and the Pyromancy teacher's voices are especially charming. The way the encounters with Solaire and Seigmeyer are structured still make them the best NPC questlines in the series. They are going on the same journey as you are, encountering the same dangers you are, and getting stuck on obstacles you yourself have had to go through. There is a genuine camaraderie that grows as you encounter them at different phases of your journey, and given the smaller scope of the game, it is much easier to encounter them at all, rather than having to teleport back and forth to ensure their events are triggered.
The tragedies are more telegraphed in Dark Souls, and they feel like they happen as circumstances of the environment, rather than something that HAS to happen because this is dark fantasy and everything has to be miserable and everyone has to die. They're more bittersweet than trite. Something about remembering how all NPC quests in DS3 and Elden Ring end with the NPC going crazy, ending up dead in a ditch, or wanting to kill you puts a bitter taste in my mouth because it feels overdone. How many times can we go through this song and dance?
Though I do like being a little hater about the series, Dark Souls is a strong game that has strong design manages its setting and tone well. I wish they all came as good as this one.
The combat is much slower compared to recent entries- every attack animation and roll feels deliberate and readable. This isn't a game that's focused on making the hardest and trickiest enemies or boss fights. Rather, it builds up its difficulty by combining environments and enemy placement, clearly presenting each arena where enemies are present and asking the player "alright, how are you going to approach this?"
The Undead Burg is burned into my mind. I've played this game to completion only twice, but I can clearly remember the placement of all the undead. I think a result of enemies being slower, you pay more attention to your environment and where you're stepping to avoid them. The very first encounter is having to fight a few undead while having firebombs tossed at you. You not only have to worry about the enemy in front of you, but you have to be ready to avoid the firebomb while also minding you don't fall into the bottomless pit you're next to. Many of the encounters are like this- you have enemies in front of you and enemies applying pressure at range.
This structure makes your tools feel much more important in Dark Souls. Any spell caster would have an easier time getting rid of distant enemies, but might have a harder time handling the enemies in front of them. Inversely, focusing on a melee build can help you make quick work of any enemy within a 10 foot radius of you. Shields are good for holding out longer at the risk of getting complacent and overwhelmed, while dodging can keep you away from the enemy as long as you manage your stamina and are careful of your environment.
These decisions feel so much more deliberate in Dark Souls because the pace of combat is steady, not breakneck. I played Dark Souls 3 to completion maybe 4 or 5 times, but none of the beginning areas and enemy placements really stick out to me because rolling comes so easy. The i-frames are more generous and it doesn't consume nearly as much stamina. Rolling HAS to be this way in games like Dark Soul 3 and Elden Ring because the enemies are much faster, the pace of combat has multiplied. Instead of giving players different options for handling faster enemies, the rolling is simply more forgiving.
I've mentioned it in the Elden Ring review, but design choices to the combat like this really matter. Bloodborne has fast enemies, but it gives the additional option of parrying with a ranged weapon and rallying, these are very important options that not only give players another defense mechanism against tough, tricky, and fast opponents, but they also ENCOURAGE the player to engage with that pace, agree with it, and play aggressively.
This game has the most satisfying exploration in the series. Lordran feels like a single cohesive area that you explore every nook and cranny of. The Undead Burg, the Sewers, Blighttown, Sen's Fortress are all connected to each other, and it's through your exploration that you figure out exactly how to end up at those places. This kind of exploration is wonderful, and not being able to teleport at the start of the game really gets the player involved in where they're going. I do prefer this method of exploration over Dark Souls 3's more linear area hopping or Elden Ring's massive world that had little pockets of loop-around shortcuts.
The tone of the game overall sticks out to me a lot. This definitely feels like the most "fantasy" entry, with living skeletons, mushroom people, giant rats, vine monsters, crystal golems, snakemen, etc. The sun shines on Lordran in a warm, pleasant manner, highlighting the green moss and overgrowth in the world. People talk about how the Dark Souls series really paints a dying rotting world, but in this game, it feels more like the world is "getting over" the previous generation in the same way nature will continue to grow when we are gone. It's grim, but it is not entirely miserable.
The NPC dialogue and voice acting feels incredibly charming in juxtaposition to this. They're vague, as all Dark Souls NPC's are, but there is a genuine humanity in their voices. Solaire, Seigmeyer, and the Pyromancy teacher's voices are especially charming. The way the encounters with Solaire and Seigmeyer are structured still make them the best NPC questlines in the series. They are going on the same journey as you are, encountering the same dangers you are, and getting stuck on obstacles you yourself have had to go through. There is a genuine camaraderie that grows as you encounter them at different phases of your journey, and given the smaller scope of the game, it is much easier to encounter them at all, rather than having to teleport back and forth to ensure their events are triggered.
The tragedies are more telegraphed in Dark Souls, and they feel like they happen as circumstances of the environment, rather than something that HAS to happen because this is dark fantasy and everything has to be miserable and everyone has to die. They're more bittersweet than trite. Something about remembering how all NPC quests in DS3 and Elden Ring end with the NPC going crazy, ending up dead in a ditch, or wanting to kill you puts a bitter taste in my mouth because it feels overdone. How many times can we go through this song and dance?
Though I do like being a little hater about the series, Dark Souls is a strong game that has strong design manages its setting and tone well. I wish they all came as good as this one.