Demon's Souls - Dark Fantasy at its best

"A thick colorless mist surrounds the kingdom of King Allant XII and ensures that chaos and fear. Those who entered the fog, never to return. The power-hungry behavior of the old King saw to it that" The Old One "from his sleep woke up and now the world is facing its demise ... "

Demon's Souls is an exclusive fantasy RPG, which was developed by From Software and finally released after more than a year late in Europe. The game, which is known for its grim character and its merciless difficulty has managed above all by the eager mouth of the strong fan base in the West.

Already at the beginning of the almost infinite and individual design possibilities of your own player should be noted: Here the player can, depending on the name, gender, hairstyle and other persons or characteristics as well as different classes (mage, thief, knight, etc.) his actor set according to their own standards and desires. The different options provide a different style of play throughout the game play. A magician who is fixated on spells must use a different tactic than, say, a knight whose preferences lie more on his strength. During the game the player can highlight specific properties and thus consolidate its playing style and strengths and weaknesses of character by specific level up the individual character traits (intelligence, strength, etc.). The wide range of different variations and motivating gameplay force the players almost to that game a second time to play a minimum quantity to at least learn a fraction of the total.

The different worlds are not only characterized by its diversity, but in a special way by their atmosphere. The setting is usually melancholic and breathed gloomy and combines traditional European architecture with stereotypical personalities from ancient legends and literature (Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust says hello). The graph provides a good staging and the soundtrack supports the medieval atmosphere tremendously. The brutal difficulty and the depressive scenario making the game not only atmospherically incomparable but in my opinion also partly macabre and creepy. The aim of the game is to kill the "main demon" of each section as well as to collect their souls. By killing enemies, the player collects souls, which are used to level up, buy and improving objects and learning new spells / miracle. This can also be the inexorable reputation of Demon's Souls explain: The game is designed so that it stores directly after each action and the player is not therefore able to save their own or to load a section again. For defeating enemies not stupid enough slap. The expectations of the developers are to develop a tactic and exploit the properties of the opponent for its own benefit. Mostly one's own death is justified and almost never unfair, but it costs patience and perseverance to take the entire section once more in attack. There is but one way or another place where the lack of technology can lead to frustration. The gameplay of Demon's Souls is still very well staged and almost perfectly designed as collecting items and the multiple opportunities for interaction can influence the flow of the game massively.
The online mode integrates innovative elements into the game: So can other games leave notes based on bloodstains or the player has an opportunity to help or kill these others.

The perfectly orchestrated scenario can not mask the lack of depth and structure with respect to the story yet. This is shown only rather superficial and very scarce. Only the different interactions with the multi-faceted character elicits the story a little room for interpretations.

Demon's Souls is therefore a very good RPG, which will ensure its depth in the gameplay and the innovative elements for lengthy gameplay among hardcore gamers. However, the high degree of difficulty might deter some potential players. Moreover, in my opinion, looks for the lack of depth with regard to the story of the game from a Topwertung.

PS: The "Black Phantom Edition" includes a strategy guide (in English), which it could be quite useful for some players. The successful soundtrack and an artbook complete the package.