Dark Souls - Now with extra Dark Souls 2!

[Knoxville]

Yus I'm well aware I'm nearly five years behind the rest of the world but I picked up the game cheap in a sale over Christmas and I've found myself getting really, really into it this week. I avoided it for quite a long time as a lot of people I knew then said it was excruciatingly hard (mostly with a very smug look on their face at the same time) and it is. It's ball bustingly difficult in places but my god it's rewarding! More importantly it's fair with its difficulty, unlike games such as Ninja Gaiden it rarely feels cheap, my deaths are generally speaking my fault and you have to LEARN. You're not told, or mollycoddled or forced through hours of tutorials you learn things by doing them, or at least, attempting to do them in a very old school kinda fashion.

I love the environment and the atmosphere too, it's like Game of Thrones and Resident Evil smushed together in the nicest yet most dread inducing fashion. I really like the fact that despite being level seventy something and having some pretty powerful kit stashed away I still don't feel like I know much about the world either, just little snippets I've picked up here and there from people I'm never entirely sure you I trust. It makes the landscape a character all its own and really adds to the overall experience.

Enthusiastic arm flailing and gesticulations aside, am I the only person still playing this? Should I be looking at picking up Dark Souls 2 for more of the same in another thirty hours? Oh and to anyone that still remembers, should I not have murdered the second NPC I met in cold blood for his humanity!? That fight still plagues my mind even now!

[Ferral]

I do love Dark Souls but in all honesty prefer DS2.

Dark Souks can be pretty cheap at times. Blighttown for example poisons you for just being there so make a start on the stat that reduces and removes poison effects, a few levels should do it, it is just after The Depths. You can also be cursed in The Depths by Basilisks (boggly eyed frog things - thats my technical term and I'm sticking to it! ) the curse will remove a chunk of your health though, also be aware that The Depths is a favored place for people invading you as red phantoms.

The Capra Demon boss in the small room with the 2 dogs, as soon as you enter make sure to roll to the right or you get both blades caving your skull in, then it is managing to maneuver round said boss to take out dogs first (still avoiding getting your skull caved in). You have to do this boss to get the key needed to unlock The Depths.

Then there is the 2 Black Knight Archers at Anor Londo, now this bit is cheap, you have to dummy run up the outer part of the building, a narrow ledge while said 2 Knights shoot at you with Dragon Bows and arrows, very frustrating, cheap and annoying.

It is a bit cheap in places but it does reward you, don't head into New Londo Ruins till after defeating Seath a bit later on, you have to have loads of transient curses or a specific ring which allows you to kill the ghosts there (you could let a Basilisk curse you in The Depths just before heading there if you wish but it does significantly lower your health), make sure you rescue the witch as you can summon her for the 4 Kings boss battle at the end of New Londo Ruins.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/

Have a read up on the wiki about a few of the areas, it is interesting and gives you pointers on best paths to take etc and may help you realise something if missed.

If you have a PS3 definitely pick up Demons Souls, it is still my favorite

[Knoxville]

Is Dark Souls 2 more of the same? I've watched a few reviews but I don't like the sound of having my health lowered every time I die as a great deal of my approach early on in Dark Souls can only really be described as brute force and ignorance... Which probably explains my penchant for massive greatswords with Germanic names now I think about it.

I watched a lets play of the first few hours to get a handle on things and start out with a few bits and bobs like the Drake Sword to give myself a fighting chance. I killed the Capra Demon chap first time although I think that may have been a lucky encounter, Blighttown was a bit of a pain though. If I'm thinking about the right section then I had to go through that to kill an enourmous topless spider demon lady thing whose name escapes me. I could live with the poisonous floor because I had a ring that made it faster to move on but the toxic dart blowing enemies were a nightmare until I went back to the woods and did some grinding for purple moss. I know exactly which archers you mean as well in Anor Londo, I ended up unequipping everything so I could move faster and just legging it in the end.

At the moment I'm in the middle of Dukes Archives trying to find a key to let a wizard out of his cell, then I have a feeling I'm going to be running into Seath again and this time I'll actually have a fight on my hands. Then I'm going to go exploring again as I get the distinct impression you could miss characters, items or even entire levels in a game like this. I remember finding the Gaping Dragon boss a few nights ago for instance but have no recollection of how I ended up there. It's a good thing it wasn't too hard because I'd never have recovered my souls if I'd died.

I might see if I can find Demon Souls second hand somewhere, my PS3 sounds like a wind tunnel these days as the fans seem to be stuck on full blast but I can ignore that I think if it gives me another game like this!

[Ferral]

Just open up the PS3 and clean the fans and vents if it is out of warranty, probably just a build up of dust on the blades, had to do it to mine around September last year and now it is quiet again. I had to watch a video on Youtube though to see disassemble, easier than I thought it would be in all honesty.

I got my Demons Souls from Amazon for a tenner 2011

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Namco-Bandai...s=demons+souls

I got a pre owned from Zoverstocks as their stuff is always like new

[kopite]

Dark souls 1 I started hating it. Played a few hours and got annoyed at getting constantly smashed in undead burgh. Stopped playing for about a year and then mid way through last year I decided to give it another go and I'm glad I did. The first time I saw gaping dragon I shat bricks!! I agree with feral that blight town is annoying due to poison but there are some really well done areas of the game. Sens fortress was brilliant, Anor londo looks amazing.

Lost Izalith was a let down but from what I've heard this was due to the programmers running out of time to finish it.


I'm playing through ds2 atm but I am not enjoying it as much. I used a halbred in ds1 so tried it again in ds2 and at times its a bit of a slog. Some nice bosses but Nothing that has really impressed me as much as ds1 so far(to be fair I have just got through iron keep so There may be some big stuff to come..)

[Allen]

What platform do you guys play this on? And if it's PC, how do you control it? I bought DS PtD edition and the controls were just horrible on the PC, I therefore didn't really get in to the game. After hearing so much good stuff about it, I would love to give it a proper go.

I have an Xbox controller on the PC, is it better to try that?

[Ferral]

You NEED a controller for the souls games! 3rd person action games in general play better with a controller I feel.

The controls will make a lot more sense if you use the 360 pad on it

[kopite]

Yeah without a controller it's a mare to play.

With a controller and some patience(you will die A LOT) its a very rewarding game

[Knoxville]

Playing it on the 360 here too, I can't imagine it'd be much cop with a mouse and keyboard set up to be honest not with the kind of reaction times and controller inputs you need to stay vaguely alive.

Played quite a bit over the weekend and I'm now up to level 91 (is there a cap at all?) although I do have to retract my previous statement about it not being cheap having been through the Crystal Caves.... Who in their right mind makes the only walkways forward invisible and then relies upon nice people on the internet to leave markers on them to be helpful so I can tell what I'm about to walk on to is actually solid ground? Lunacy!

Still, I made it, eventually! So that's Seath, Nito and The Four Kings dealt with ... I think that leaves one major boss battle before the end game, if I'm not mistaken so I think I'm going to check out the painted world and a few other bits before I get started on that!

[Ferral]

Yeah, Crystal Caves is a bit of a chew, the gold golems there also on the narrow walkways!

Mind you the walkways, now I didn't notice this the first few tries but if you stand and look, you have snowflakes falling and they make a droplet like effect when they hit the walkways so you can see where you are supposed to go.

Next up is Sif the Great White Wolf with the HUGE Sword in his mouth. Its actually a pretty easy fight this one, just lock onto his legs and stay underneath him, if he jumps away just close gap and repeat. I found Sif and Seath the easiest lord souls to get.

Painted world is pretty cool, there is a huge undead dragon near the end, easy to take out with ranged attacks. There is also an optional boss after the undead dragon, you speak to her and have the choice to attack or just leave, pretty tough fight must admit. You also get attacked by a heavy similar to Havel after the dragon, you can use an exploit to kill him though. If you go through the boss fog he will stand up against it and you can spam arrows at him through the fog to take him out.

If you are feeling daring you can always kill the apparition you speak to after killing Ornstein and Smough (Sun Goddess or whatever her name is with the rather large assets), this makes Anor Londo go dark and you can access another boss, mind you this will leave you open to constant invasions there until you get to New Game+. If you are going to do this have a read up on the wiki beforehand just to see what consequences you will have to deal with!

[Dooms]

I tried playing it when it first came out on PC and it had so many graphical and control issues that I gave up soon after I started. Need to reinstall and give it another go now its been patched a bit.

[Ferral]

It has been moved to Steamworks now also, on GFWL there were loads of people that invaded using cheats, Anor Londo was a favorite spot for these with there being so many black knights there.

[kopite]

O and S other wise known as the worst bosses every thought up by anyone!

Although saying that Killing them was such an amazing feeling.

I am sorely tempted to play through again on pc

[Ferral]

I was stuck for 3 months and dozens of attempts trying to get past those 2!!

I finally managed to summon 2 human players and when the bosses fell it was an amazing feeling, you really feel like you have achieved something.

[Knoxville]

Damn, I didn't spot those snowflakes at all! I spent ages walking slowly along the platforms and using the little Prism stones to try and mark a path but I ran out after the first couple of attempts and it just became a war of attrition. I got pretty good at running past all the crystal giants on the way there from the archives but man, I lost track of the number of times I fell!

I've beaten Sif already because I neeeded his ring to get into the Abyss without dying and beat the Four Kings, awesome looking fight and one of the cooler bosses in my opinion but you're right it's probably one of the simplest. I think it's Ceaseless Discharge I've got to beat next? Or I've got to beat that to get through to the last boss in Izaliath, I can't remember... I know the last soul I'm after's down there somewhere though!

I think I'm going to do the painted world later on if I have time, I read a bit about it the other day and it said you're stuck there and can't warp out until you've beaten/ignored the final boss so I want to do that in one sitting if I can. I found out who I murdered at the start of the game as well, it was someone called Petrus who's supposedly one of Princess Rhea's guards. Which explains why a strange woman and another two NPC's showed up a little later and attacked me.

As for Smough and Orenstein don't even get me started, I wasted so much humanity reverting to human form so I could summon one of the Solaire Knights to help me with that fight only to get smacked down anyway. I think half the problem was that I was determined to get Orensteins armour and when I read about the fight it said I had to kill him last for a chance to buy it but when he goes kingsize on you the fight just gets ridiculous so I gave up and focused on him first and left Smough alone instead. I was so happy when I finally made it through in one piece!

[Ferral]

Ah yes, the Ceaseless Discharge down from where you fought the Spider Woman boss to ring the second bell.

There is a set of armour there before you head left after draining the lava away to be able to walk on it. The armour makes you look like the Grim Reaper and is a decent full set. Mind you, as soon as you grab it the huge boss enemy awakens that is behind you, easy to kill though, you can either go toe to toe with it or leg it back to the gateway. Legging it is the easiest option and once you reach the now closed fog gate it hangs onto the ledge for dear life and you can hit its hand, it will then drop into the chasm, makes the fight much easier, I would use ranged attacks on it though as it can still smack you with its other hand.

Once you do head down over to the left and you are walking on the drained lava your normal enemies are Capra and Taurus Demons. Take it slow here and make sure you have a good supply of arrows to lure them one at a time, you should be powerful enough by then to actually take them, out like the normal earlier enemies. Be aware you get maggot things appearing out the walls and the area to the left of the steps is a trap so if you grab the items there make sure you leg it or you will die!

Once up the steps to the right is a locked door, you can only open it if you have joined a certain Covenant, You need to be able to open it ideally if you have been following Solair (Sun Knight) as his story / questline finishes here. If you don't open it Solaire goes mad and when you meet him on the other side it is a fight to the death, you will get the sunlight maggot regardless though which is handy for the Catacombs and black dark area just past the graveyard at Firelink shrine. If you do open the door you can kill the bugs there and Solaire survives giving a good ending to his story.

Opening this door also gives a bit of a shortcut to the next area.

If you can't open the door then at the top of the steps is a fog gate and a boss battle against The Armourer, can be a bit tough but use the usual strafe / hit and roll tactics and you should be golden. Follow the area and you have yet another boss fight, this time a fire serpent type thing. Once you enter its fog leg it to the right side of the area as there is a decent area where you can stand and attack without fear of burning up in the lava.

Once you have beaten this boss I would definitely find a ring that gives you 100% fire resistance as you have a lot of walking on fire in this area before the Ceaseless Discharge.

Ceaseless Discharge can be a bit of a pain, it does only take 3 hits to kill it though. Hit the thing on the left, then try and make it back, hit the thing on the right and then make it back and then hit the middle thing, be aware that the middle platform will collapse under foot so make sure you run and jump. Thankfully this boss once you hit left or right side thing even if you die you don't have to start again from scratch, when you make it back there it will be in the state where you died. Also bear in mind that you will be attacked by a NPC Phantom just outside the boss fog gate.

You don't have to go into the end game straight away after putting the 4 souls into the vessel, you can go off and do other things so that may be a good time to head to the painted world or maybe revisit the asylum where you started. If my mind serves me right if you don't already have a certain item you won't be able to visit the painted world and will need to head back to the asylum to actually collect the item from your cell. Bear in mind also that the soldier that died that you spoke to is now a phantom and the area is crawling with black knights.

The room where you fought the Asylum Demon at the start be careful, if you stand on the middle section of the floor it falls away and there is another tougher asylum demon boss waiting there to pound you into the ground!

The last area once you put the lords souls in the vessel to open the door is crawling with black knights and is a popular area for end game invasions. I would put your summon sign down and run the area by being summoned by other players to get a feel for it before going in yourself.