Extremely challenging, extremely fun, and extremely addicting.
When you die, you lose all your souls (read below). You can reclaim your soul if you can reach the point of your death again without you dying again on your way back to your body. You'll be in soul form with 50% of your nomral health or 75% if you have the Cling Ring after dying.There are bosses at the end of every chapter. There are HUGE ones which may intimidate you, but don't be scared.
The whole soul system works out pretty well as well. Whenever you kill an enemy, you gain souls. Weaker enemies give less souls, stronger enemies give more souls. Bosses and mini bosses give an exceptional amount of souls. These souls are the main currency and experience. Soul level is your "level" as they call it in most RPGs. Turning them in to upgrade your stats will give you a higher soul level. Upgrading any ONE stat will up your soul level by ONE.The max level is 712.
There are eight different classes, but they really only matter in the first few levels. Royalty class is the easiest and best in my opinion for the beginning of the game.
The graphics are not the best and definitely not the worst. I guess you'd say they're good for a PS3 game.
Pros
1. Addicting, maybe a con as well
2. Good controls mostly
3. Variety of weapons and armor
4. Enjoyably challenging (most of the time)
5. Choice of class, you can basically make any kind of character once you get higher level in the game.
6. Mini bosses throughout the level add an extra challenge + bunch of extra souls.
7. Nicely modeled bosses.
8. You have your own light with you to light your way through the darkness aka a sort of flashlight.
Cons
1. Targeting system - can't really explain it but malfunctions at some points
2. Having to restart the whole chapter after dying gets really frustrating, especially if you're really deep in the level
3. You may have to turn up your brightness.
4. This game saves data automatically very frequently. Make sure you don't attack an important NPC by accident as it will be saved and you might have to restart the whole game if you want it resolved. You can fix this sometimes by quitting the game very shortly after doing your mistake. I take no responsibility for messing up your saves.
Sorry this review was kind of lengthy, but there was a lot to talk about this game. Overall a 9.5. Love the challenge, love the game. Patience is key.
I probably left out some stuff. Just go to demonssouls.wikidot.com if you have any more questions