Hello everyone. As you all know I have not been blogging regularly for some time now, but the blog I wrote the other day got me in the mood to write/type some more. :P So i'm going to "attempt" (no promises here) to try and do a daily blog about different gaming issues or just a random thought that pops into my head about a certain game as i'm playing through it. Hence the title, "Gaming Thought of the Day"! This should be interesting. :P

Today's Thought: Is Dark Souls Actually Hard?

I am an absolute fan of Demon's Souls. Punishing difficulty and all. Everything from the level design to the horrifying bosses had me drawn in from the beginning. Dark Souls is exactly the same, except its much harder, or is it? Dark Souls is a game that is about learning from your mistakes and overcoming them toachieve your goals. Your goals are to make it to the end of an area and kill the horrifying boss that waits for you. Enemy design and the environments are again the highlights in this game, but the difficulty also returns. This is where I get to my point.

Dark Souls is not a HARD game.

Yeah I said it, the game that has caused most gamers to give up on gaming is not hard. At least not in a normal sense of the word. Dark Souls does not give players enough tools to succeed in the early goings of the game. Instead of being hard Dark Souls decides to punish you with unfairness, (if that's even a word) and cheap enemies. In the first few hours of the game your are so underpowered compared to your enemies that you'll find it hard to push on. 20 hours in and i'm still having moments of doubt as to whether i'll finish it or not. I will finish it, but when an enemy kill you from behind a wall not once, but several times you'll start seeing nothing but Red, until you take that Dark Souls disc out and snap it in half in a fit of rage. The gameplay is nothing more than trial and error and you need to take your time. you can die 20 times facing the same boss by trying to russ, or you can take your time and kill him the first time. It may take you a half hour, but you will succeed. There is no doubt in my mind that if you don't let the game scare you anyone can complete it, but gamers that rush will be murdered over and over and over again.

Final Thoughts:

I'll say it again and again till i'm red in the face. Dark Souls is not a hard game. It is an unfair game. Its a game of pure trial and error, but without all the unfair moments that it deals it wouldn't be so hard. Anyone can play Dark Souls and everyone can beat Dark Souls. Everyone has hyped the difficulty to incredible porportions, when the only thing standing in your way from victory is yourself.

Answer to the Question: "Is Dark Souls Actually Hard?" Unless your count its constantly unfair moments, the answer is absolutely not. Its not hard, but it is challenging and that's all i'll say about it.

So that's my gaming thought of the day. Hope you all enjoyed this (feel free to let me know if you did or didn't or if I need to change anything), even if it is a departure from what I normally do. Anyway, thanks for reading and I should be back tomorrow!!

~Mike. :)