#1

Blimey. I had read the reviews before purchasing this one, so I knew roughly what to expect. However, I was still completely blown away at both the brilliantness of the game, and the sheer broken shite of a PC port that it is.

Let us begin with the most talked about reason Dark Souls is so popular: difficulty. Everyone knows this game is tough. Real tough. By god they were not lying. I have so far clocked up about 2 hours in-game time. I think I have died about 15 times. Ouch. You really do need to be careful in this one. No charging into the fray, shouting "Leeeeroy". It will not work, ever.

Once you get used to the games clunky controls (and horrible tutorial on how to control your character), you begin to develop a weirdly intuitive synergy with the combat mechanics and it all suddenly makes sense. The combat is surprisingly good. It's lethal and unforgiving, but also rewarding and tactful. It grows on you. Also, the requirement for a joypad to play on is indeed correct. Do not attempt to play this with a mouse and keyboard.

Next up: graphics. Yet another part of the game that is let down by the crappiness of the PC port. Resolution looks pretty meh. No full HD? Seriously! The whole world looks a bit blurry and under-optimised. A shame, as the foundations are clearly there. It looks okay to be honest, and you do get used to it, but I expected more from a fairly recent game. I guess, if anything, this goes to show just how disadvantaged our poor console-jockey-cousins are when it comes to graphics.

The game itself has an interesting concept. The world seems fully-realised and the story interesting. I can't comment much on this yet as I am only 2 hours in, so we shall see how this develops.

So, to summarise, this is a promising game, held back by the flaws of being a dire PC port.

Jimbo Rating: 3/5