Dark Souls Collector's Edition

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Note: I going to concentrate this review on the "extras" found in the Collector's Edition. My reason being that if you are thinking of purchasing the Collector's Edition, you probably are aware of what the game is like.

What exactly is Dark Souls? It's a spiritual succesor to Demon's Souls, and in reality it might as well be called Demon's Souls II. The game is very atmospheric, very beautiful, eiry, and of course very challenging. As in Demon's Souls, dying is something that is a natural part of Dark Souls. The game is meant to be challenging, and if you played Demon's Souls you know exactly what to expect. If you did not enjoy Demon's Souls, there is no point in purchasing this game. If you did not play Demon's Souls, you might want to purchase that (it's only $20) before purchasing the more expensive Dark Souls. Now, for those of you who are definitely going to purchase Dark Souls, is the Collector's Edition worth the extra cost? The answer, it depends...

First, if you pre-ordered this game, you got the Collector's Edition at NO extra cost! So in that sense, yes this is clearly a wonderful bonus! If you missed out on the pre-order (the Collector's Edition is now sold out), should you pay extra for a copy? Well, here is what is found in the Collector's Edition:

1)First thing you'll notice, it comes in a beautiful and large steelcase (or steel case, steelbook, whatever you call it). Note that it's not real steel of course, but most likely tin. Nevertheless, the case is very well done, and holds the game and arbook.

2)Limited Edition Artbook: it's nice. I'm not a huge fan of game-related artbooks, but this is a nice hard cover artbook. It's not the size of a "normal" book (I consider normal the size of a sheet of paper or 8.5" x 11"), but substantially smaller. Still, it fits snuggly in the steelcase.

3)Mini-Strategy Guide: this is available as a DOWNLOAD only!! Boo... I hate download only items. I would much rather have had the strategy guide be available in hardcopy and have the artbook as a download. I don't know who decided this should be a download only, but I would not give that person/people a high I.Q. rating...

4)Original Game Soundtrack: this is available as a DOWNLOAD only!! What? the beautiful soundtrack...download only?! Yes, that's right. Another "brilliant" move by marketers who are oblivious to what their customers want.

5)Behind the Scenes Video: this is available as a DOWNLOAD only!! Yes, yet again, you are left stranded with a donwload only.

6)A Card to Redeem items 3,4,5.

So there you have it. The items that in my opinion truly make a collector's editions special (special strategy guide and game soundtrack) are download only! I consider this very lame. Yet, I gave the game 5 stars... why? Well, because I can't deny the fact that all these bonuses were given for free! This collector's edition did not cost (originally) any more than the regular edition. The regular edition is a 5-star game in my opinion, and the collector's edition is the same thing with FREE bonuses. So, it's up to you to decide whether these extras are worth the "extra" cost (since you likely will not find the collector's edition for the original price any more). Also, keep in mind that prices will vary. You might be able to find the collector's edition at only a "little" more than the original cost, and other sellers will ask 2-3 times the original cost. As I said, it's up to you, but hopefully this review has helped you decide one way or the other. Either way, let me say that the game itself is still fantastic...

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For those who have played FROM Software's Demon's Souls (itself a spiritual successor of FROM's King's Field franchise and what many would consider to be 2009's game-of-the-year) for the PlayStation 3, Dark Souls will feel immediately familiar, as the controls and play style are pulled directly from it and expanded upon. The same can be said for nearly all other aspects of the game.

It should be noted that this is NOT a sequel to Demon's Souls, as it fleshes out its own original tale and does nothing to further the reality and mythos of Demon's Souls aside from sly winks, subtle nudges and the occasional DEMON THAT WANTS TO BURN YOU WITH ITS FIERY EVERYTHING.

Even within the tutorial level, the game quickly gets you up to speed on the controls and type of game you're in for, one of patience and exploration and existence as meat (somewhat literally, as you start off rather "undead", resembling a bipedal stick of jerky) to be tenderized by every punishing enemy that can reach you... if you're not careful. After the tutorial you are placed at what can loosely be described as a hub, or bonfire, but it's more of a branching off point where the land of Dark Souls can take you down many paths, each showing off a unique and darkly beautiful environment to explore and conquer. While each of these paths is considered accessible, you'll find that you might not yet be prepared to traverse them until later on, once you've leveled up your character and equipped them with better armor, weapons and items.

And that is where the bonfire comes in to play. Scattered through the lands are unlit mounds marked with a sword, waiting for you to come and ignite them, where they then become resting places/refresher points. By refresher I mean that that newly lit bonfire is where you will respawn should you happen (Oh, it WILL happen) to be killed. So there is some comfort in that, and also in the fact that whenever you return to a fire your consumable health flasks, known as Estus flasks, will be replenished, along with spells and miracles if you decide to put focus in using magic. Now by rest I mean you can take comfort in that spot, knowing that enemies, unless currently chasing you, will not interrupt you as you sit by the fire and take the souls collected from each enemy slain and trade them toward improving your character's stats. The downside? Touching the fire resets the world, so all minor enemies return to their locations ready to battle you once again. So choose wisely the times you wish to touch the flames.

I mentioned souls gained from enemies, and they are important, as it is your method not only for leveling up your stats, but also purchasing an array of items from merchants and others NPCs.

With many games these days inviting a "run and gun" type of mentality and a fair amount of hand-holding, it takes a bit of reconditioning to understand that with this game it pays to think logically, as Dark Souls adheres to rules. There are clues within the layout of the land regarding where to go and what secrets lie ahead, and every enemy is beatable, even at low level stats, by studying movements and method and knowing the right equipment to go in with. This game is all about bettering yourself, and thus feels incredibly rewarding with each land successfully journeyed or boss demon defeated. And the treasure that comes from that? It's best left unspoiled what you'll come to possess.

The combat in Dark Souls is some of the best combat I've encountered in any game, with each weapon offering its own style and moveset, from long-range to short, slashing, cutting, blunt, piercing, so many options and secret weapons to discover and build as well using blacksmiths. Each set of armor provides its own strengths and weaknesses, and there's a level of balancing that doesn't allow any weapon to feel over-powered or game-breaking. And if it starts to because of how high you've leveled? Just wait until you carry over into New Game +. And as I mentioned, battling feels fun and intuitive because of the logical nature of the enemies. Logical but not bland.

A lot of people have wanted to know more about multi-player. It's been ramped up significantly from what was offered in Demon's Souls, while still maintaining that "This is my difficult journey through a harsh and desolate land" feel. Some nice carry-overs from Demon's Souls are the blood stains and ghosts. Blood stains can appear on the ground in your world and when clicked on, you'll see the last 10 seconds of another players in ghost form, leading up to their death. It's a nice touch in providing the player an idea of what might be in store for them. Players can also sometimes just briefly appear visible in one another's worlds. You can't interact with them, and they only appear doing what they are doing in their game for a few seconds, but it helps to add a bit more ambiance to the game.

Further multi-player options are done using certain stone items. One stone, an orange soapstone that you can buy early in the game, allows you to write messages on the ground that get displayed to other players, just as theirs are displayed to you. It's helpful for hints, tactics and if you want, trickery. If someone chooses to recommend a message, the person who wrote it is rewarded immediately with a boost of health. You have the ability, once awarded a white soapstone, to join other players or have them join you for some aid in felling the demons. But just as easily through yet another stone, players could choose to instead invade your world as a black phantom (or vice-versa), seeking to destroy you and collect your souls and restore their humanity, as the more human you are, the more inclined certain NPCs are to speak and deal with you, as well as other perks. That was as far as things went in Demon's Souls. Dark Souls, however, really makes things interesting.

The game offers you the option through various interactions to join covenants. By pledging allegiance, you are opening yourself up to new opportunities, usually regarding multi-player, that are incredibly unique. One such covenant awards you black armor and sword and sends you to other worlds to slay those who choose to maliciously invade players, thus avenging the victims, but only if the victim submitted the invader into the Book of the Guilty, which acts as a WANTED list. Another covenant allows you to place a glowing sign on the ground, which appears in that same spot in the games of three other random players, who then encounter waves of black phantom enemies that spawn from the sign, until the player is either killed (thus awarding the sign layer souls) or one of the three players finds the sign in their world and crosses through it to hunt down and kill you. Potentially all three could enter your world, and then you better be running. That's just a small example of the possibilities that covenants can offer, but be careful of which you join, because they do not take kindly to those who break it, but even that presents its own interesting opportunities.

I can't say enough about how beautifully designed the world is. There is a staggering amount of variance with each path you take, to the point that you're surprised you've found an area that looks so surprisingly new and different. It's amazingly how intuitively intertwined it all becomes as well, with shortcuts opened as you progress and multiple ways to get around. And sometimes you'll catch yourself looking far off in the distance, even if that distance is somehow ABOVE you, and wondering if you can get there. Yep, you can. Demon's Souls managed to be pretty with a palette of grays and kept that feeling of dark, foreboding emptiness. Dark Souls takes that, splashes it in many parts with color and STILL manages to keep that same wonderful, moody atmosphere. And FROM really allows their environments to sing and provide ambiance on their own, without constant background music for that evocation. Music is there, and it's thrilling and moody and fitting, but saved for certain moments. Everything else is soundtracked by the fulfilling clang of swords, the echoing water drops in a far-reaching cavern, the sound of a dragon's lungs heaving somewhere in the dark. That's music in and of itself.

OVERALL:

If I had to say something in the negative regarding this game, it would only be that there are times, despite how intuitively the game is laid out, that you can get a bit lost or confused on where to go next. But in my experience, it's never for very long.

Dark Souls takes everything about its spiritual predecessor, Demon's Souls, and enriches and improves upon it with bigger worlds, a wider array of enemies and locations, more weapons, more secrets, more items. Armor serves a greater purpose and can be upgraded, multi-player is all the more exciting with new play options and a chance to be saintly and helpful or insidiously vicious. Upgrading weapons and armor makes more sense and offers a variety of paths to improve your stuff, sound is rich and atmospheric, and bosses are absolutely epic.

Oh. And yes, crystal lizards are still in this game. BUT! They continue to respawn until you manage to kill them. Huzzah!

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This title feels like a more well-polished, more well-defined version of what Demon's Souls should have been. On its own, Demon's Souls was a fantastically challenging game, but the mechanics (particularly menu navigation) were a bit overwhelming at times. Dark Souls seems to have improved upon this model with a more intuitive menu system, and they even seem to have tweaked some of the action mechanics as well, while still keeping the spirit of the game intact. This franchise (the same as King's Field before it) will always be about learning from your mistakes and playing intelligently for a more rewarding experience. I've only spent about two hours with it, but already I can tell that I'm going to be getting just as ensconced in the world of Dark Souls as I was with its predecessor. Bottom Line: This is a 5-Star game for those who love a challenge built into a well-crafted world/storyline. All those looking for quick thrills and even quicker bursts of playtime should move on to other game franchises.

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When I finished playing Demon's Souls back in 2010, I wrote in my review that it was my favorite game of the current console generation, and that still holds true today. The game was a truly unique and innovative RPG in a generation that, despite being full of many great games, isn't going to be remembered so much for its innovations in game design. So obviously, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on Dark Souls, the game the developers have touted as the "spiritual successor" to Demon's Souls. After putting nearly 90 hours into the game, I can say that Dark Souls is every bit as good as the masterful Demon's Souls. Dark Souls has made some key changes to the design of the previous game, yet at the same time maintained, and even refined, all the characteristics that not only made Demon's Souls such a great game, but also, a breath of fresh air.

The biggest change Dark Souls brings to the fold is the introduction of a singular, interconnected game world. Not so much an "open world" like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption, but more so a series of fully explorable areas that are connected by at least one passage (think Super Metroid). This gives the game world a much greater sense of not only mystery, but dread as well. Where as Demon's Souls gave you much more guidance by providing a peaceful hub world leading to the separate areas of the game, Dark Souls drops you into the middle of its world without any sense of where you are supposed to go. You will receive vague hints from NPCs, but it's up to you to find your way around, and this makes you feel not only more isolated, but also makes achievement even more satisfying. As you learn your way around, you'll slowly begin to see how the world is interconnected, and you'll marvel at the absolute genius behind the design of the world (which manages even to trump its predecessor in level design). The same dark, dreadful and isolating vibe that oozed from Demon's Souls levels remains here, and is amplified by the sense of scale you get from this world. Atmosphere plays such a dominant role in this game; Dark Soul's atmosphere is so thick that it is basically an ever-present character in the world, continuously following you around.

A key change also comes in a more forgiving checkpoint system, represented by various bonfires that can be lit and serve as not only as a place to rest and replenish, but to upgrade & repair weapons and armor, manage your inventory, and eventually, warp to different bonfires you've previously visited. I found this to be a much smarter design than the "start from the beginning" method employed by its predecessor.

Despite these changes, Dark Souls remains one of the purest, most challenging, and most enjoyable games to be released this console generation. The combat remains among the finest of any game ever made, demanding patience, practice and cunning from the player. Your enemies remain fierce, intimidating, and sometimes terrifying. The different types of weapons, armors and items, as well as they ways they can be upgraded, has exponentially increased over what was offered in Demon's Souls. The multiplayer component, where hints from other players can be left in your game world, where partners can be summoned to aid in battle, and where you can invade another's game or be invaded yourself, has been given a new dimension of depth with the ability to join Covenants. And the boss battles are still the most epic and sinister of any other games out there. From Software, the developers, have successfully kept what worked in the first game, made changes where it counts, and still turned everything on its head with the newly structured world. The game feels familiar, yet fresh. Fans of Demon's Souls will be pleased. For first-timers with the right amount of fortitude, Dark Souls will be a revelation.

Demon's Souls is still my favorite game of this console generation. I'll never forget the first time I stepped into the imposing world of that game, and how I slowly realized that the developers were quietly revolutionizing the RPG genre. Yet despite this, I can still say that Dark Souls is the better game of the two. It feels less fragmented, more masterfully crafted, and most importantly, more fully realized. This is a game that is retaining the essence of the hardcore RPG experience while setting itself apart from its contemporaries by combining brilliant design with stellar gameplay to create an experience that simply isn't being matched by anyone else. Dark Souls is another masterpiece from From Software, a developer who is daring to be different by reaching further than most others would dare, and is striking gold by doing so. RPG fans would be doing themselves a disservice by missing this game.

A NOTE ON THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION: I ordered this version of the game, and I'm glad I did. The metal case is very handsome, and comes in a hard plastic slip case to protect it. A code that can be redeemed for a downloadable strategy guide is included, although I didn't use this, as I don't like to play games using guides. Best of all is the hard cover art book, which features drawings and paintings of most of the game's enemies and bosses. The creature design in Dark Souls is really stellar, and having this book is a treasure for big fans of the game. Overall, I feel this edition was well worth the $59.95 I paid.

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I purchased the collector's edition. Yes, it was a free upgrade, but the final product was pretty laughable if you compare it to other video game collector's edition.

First off, finding any information on what was actually included was pretty evasive. Even the game website didn't have a concrete answer. Lots of speculation on which regions were getting what, but no hard fact information. When it did arrive, it was a metal tin, and included with the game was a DVD sized art book (The pictures are pretty small, with very little description or explanations, and honestly pretty forgettable.)and the rest of the content was downloadable from the website. The soundtrack is gorgeous, but the map and player guide (especially if you've already played Demon's Souls) aren't very helpful. There's information on classes and how the attacks work, but nothing about weapon stats or armor upgrades. Luckily there's a online wiki in the works that will hopefully answer in more details things the players need to know.

I'd say skip the collector's edition and buy the regular game.

Two other things also stand out. The frames per second drop to some pretty horrendous and inexcusable numbers. It seems like the developers were okay with certain encounters barely being playable. I first experienced this in the forest area with the "bear-cat" and his added friends. It lagged to the point of unplayability. Again, no excuse for that.

The other issue is multiplayer. As of this writing don't buy this game hoping you can run some areas with friends in mind. It probably won't happen. There isn't a central server like there was in Demon's Souls, so the chances of you and your buddies being in the same server world are slim to none. Even more frustrating is that Namco/Bandai/From Software have been silent on any upcoming changes or patches regarding this. The most players have gotten is a step by step guide on how to try to connect (which the player base already knows) Hopefully this changes, but even a "we're looking at it" comment would go a long way with customers.

The combat system is incredible and the visuals are pretty astonishing in a lot of the areas, and yes if you played Demon's Souls you'll probably love this game.

Although still a great game, it feels certain aspects were rushed, corners cut and not thoroughly tested. I certainly hope there are future patches to address the issues to make this the truly great game it could be.

*Updated rating to reflect patched improved co-op, and all around fun.