Worth every death.
The game can be frustratingly hard sometimes and death will become a constant part of your journey. It is not the end of the road, for the game urges the player to learn how to beat it. Dying is simply part of that process.
The challenge the game provides comes in part from the clever level design. Every level is an area in an intricate open world and each presents its own set of challenges. A towering fortress guarded over by man-eating serpents and with a trap around every corner; ancient tombs so dark it is nearly impossible to see, a gloomy, flooded city haunted by ghosts and dark creatures. The levels are not simply a set of challenges for you to conquer. They are atmospheric and brilliantly designed. The unknown areas which you have not explored become a source of risk and fear, and the exhilaration of exploring and conquering them step by step is a reward in itself. The diversity in these levels is astonishing and what is more impressive is how well connected each area is. Shortcuts can be opened by progressing far enough in a level to facilitate travelling through the are in the future. This simple feature, in addition to being a godsend when revisiting an area, also serves to orient the player by enabling quick passage to older areas. This small relief can be wondrous when one is lost in the murky sewers of the Depths, for example, and opening a simple door takes you back to an area that is familiar.
Much of the credit for the game's challenge, however, goes not to the levels but the enemies and the combat system. Dark Souls is not a game where you mash a button repeatedly to pulverize your enemies. Even the lowliest undead can punish for you a small oversight and the more powerful enemies will likely kill you if you are not paying attention. But this is where the game excels. Each enemy has openings that can be exploited if you are paying attention, and the feeling of finally having mastered an enemy is worth the painful ordeal you went through in order to defeat it.
This of gameplay would have not been successful without the precise combat Dark Souls has. While the combat is not necessarily realistic, it feels real, thanks to the excellent collision detection. Your blade may glance off a wall and leave you open, sink into the enemy's flesh or smash onto a shield. In most games, this would be a small detail, but the combat in Dark Souls hinges upon this precision, and the fact that it is almost flawless is one of the game's greatest features. It is a feature further emphasized by the great selection of weapons in the game. Each one plays differently and it is comforting to find a weapon that you instinctively seem to know how to use.
The combat in Dark Souls is mostly action-oriented, but it based on RPG-elements. While it easy to understand the stats, some things would have been better had they come with a little more explanation. A nod to the fact that scaling improves some weapons according to your stats and how upgrading them might change that would have been ideal and avoided the bother of researching them online.
The greatest moments in Dark Souls are the painstaking struggles against the bosses. In a game where even the weakest enemy can be a deadly threat, the bosses must be proportionally far more deadly and imposing. This is absolutely true in Dark Souls. The bosses are unforgiving and shockingly powerful. You will fight demons, dragons and giants. Most memorable, perhaps, was a great grey wolf with a giant sword. Each of the bosses has different attacks, which the player must learn to evade and hopefully exploit in order to defeat them. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing golden letters declare your victory over a boss after a long, grueling fight. A tip of the hat should go the composers behind the game's music, for the scores that play during each boss fight capture the essence of that fight and have you dancing on its strings.
A very small number of bosses, however, fall short of the game's usual standard. One starts in a very tiny room, with the boss demon and two undead dogs immediately swarming you as soon as you enter. It is possible to evade them, but the smallness of the room makes it extremely difficult, not because there is nowhere to go, but because the view was constantly being obscured by objects in the background as the camera jumped around, seemingly unable to handle that confined space. Another boss fight simply gives you a win, basing the whole fight on an a gimmick, which feels like a lost opportunity.
Another aspect which makes the game unique and memorable, seemingly is the storytelling, or perhaps lack of it. As soon as the tutorial level is completed, a giant crow whisks you off to the land of Lordran and deposits you to a bonfire in what is called Firelink Shrine. There are only vague hints of what comes next. You know that you are Chosen, for some reason, and a distinctly unhelpful warrior near the bonfire vaguely describes your mission. You are never told where to go next and what to do, but somehow, you end up there anyway, doing what it is required of you to progress the game. The levels, despite not being linear, will simply carry you to your next objective. Those seeking a deep narrative in Dark Souls will be disappointed, but Dark Souls is not without its story, despite the lack of story telling. Characters in the game, descriptions of objects and the environment itself can help those who keep their eyes open piece together the puzzle of what drives the mission.
The game also incorporates online play. During your travels, you will see ghostly figures walking around, which appear to become more solid closer to bonfires. These are other players, struggling on in their own worlds. Simply knowing that you are not alone in exploring this desolate, hostile world is a minor relief. Players can summon other players in the form of white phantoms to help them with the current level or boss. These short instances of comradeship are welcome, although they are not necessary to beat any of the areas in the game. Less helpful people can choose to invade other players' worlds as a red phantom and kill the hosts, to steal their souls and humanity (two of the resources in the game). Simply being invaded is a thrill. Having a human opponent waiting to ambush you somewhere or actively hunting you down along with the rest of the enemies in the level is exciting and terrifying.
The player can also form covenants with in-game characters that encourage and reward competitive online play. Fighting other people in Dark Souls, however, is a starkly different experience than fighting the AI. The game itself was crafted to be fair and difficult. The multiplayer is simply at odds with that formula, simply because human opponents are designed to be difficult yet fair at the same time. There are many spells, weapons and gameplay mechanics that can be exploited to almost guarantee a win. While the thrill of an invasion is exciting as an emotion relative to the single-player aspect of the game, focusing specifically on competitive multiplayer tends to be less-rewarding and often annoying. In fact, the best option seems to be to forget whatever the game has taught you and equip the most effective bag of cheap tricks you can find. The multiplayer, thankfully, is a mere peripheral of the game and you will not notice these problems without spending a lot of time fighting human opponents.
In conclusion, Dark Souls, despite its small imperfections, is a unique and memorable game, one that is sure to surprise, mesmerize, challenge and torture you for hours and hours. The important thing is never to give up. There is always a way.