It isn’t all darkened solitude, Demon’s Souls also has an inventive online component. You are online all the time, much like an MMO you cannot pause, the game continues around you, making menu navigation risky business. Other player’s ghostly apparitions can be seen all around and their glowing messages radiate on the floor, flashes of color that light the dark proving almost comforting in the hostile environment.

 

 

Messages range from simple comments and advice to offers of help from players willing to manifest in your game world. Such offers of help however can only be capitalized upon (or even seen) when you are manifest in a corporeal form.

 

You spend much of the game as spirit, in this form you can enter others worlds, but not summon others to you. To regain a physical form you must either use an item or defeat one of a dungeon’s more powerful demons. Once solid you are able to have other spirit in your world they can help you fight (or they can hunt you down and kill you for sport it’s a risk you have to take).

 

 

Everything looks great about Demon’s Souls. It isn’t pretty by any means, but the numerous and varied environments of the game are incredibly evocative of a history never experienced. You feel like you know what the world may have been like at its peak, and what it is now, a shadow.

 

 

The enemies and ghostly other players add to the overarching dead feel of the world. A feel that is only accentuated by the echoes of your movement in the stone halls you spend most of the game exploring. Heavy foot falls and the metallic clank of your armor only make you feel more alone when there is no one around, and the groans of your soulless opponents’ are at times almost a welcome relief.

 

 

"Demon’s Souls" really isn’t for everyone. You have to be willing to grind and set aside large amounts of time to totally dedicate yourself to the game. It is something truly unique but you have to be a specific kind of person to enjoy the kind of punishment the game offers. For those masochists to whom this sounds appealing however it is a game with few rivals. It is the only game of the year that despite the crazy end of year rush keeps pulling me back with its nerve-fraying gameplay.

 

 

 

 

 

+ Incredible online implementation
+ Great atmosphere
+ A huge game you can get lost in if you have the time to dedicate