Demon's Souls Greatest Hits Review
Brand: Atlus
Model : DS-00132-3
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CustomerReview
Demon's Souls is a very interesting alternate take on the typical RPG. I found the actual gameplay to be surprisingly different from what I expected in the many reviews. It is certainly true that you will die a lot, and often unexpectedly. However, there are many ways to actually exploit this for your own benefit.
The plot itself is vague, perhaps purposefully. But generally you select a player class, and then try to hack your way through various levels of foes, culminating in eventual boss battles. Along the way, any foe you defeat will result in "souls" -- the game's equivalent of gold or Zenny -- accumulating in your pocket. The souls you gather are used to buy, repair, or upgrade equipment, or eventually purchase stat increases for your character. However, you gain souls even for enemies you don't kill yourself. In 1-player, as far as I can tell, any time any hostile foe dies anywhere on the level, you get their souls. This is true no matter how far away you are at the time, if you had nothing to do with their death, or even if they somehow managed to kill themselves. This is a neat feature, as I'll discuss further below.
The rub with soul-gathering is that if (and when) you die, you lose all the souls you gathered and typically reanimate at a respawn point at the beginning of the level, with all your non-Boss enemies revived as well. You'll also be a "ghost" with 1/2 or 2/3 (if you have a certain ring) of your regular HP, making things a bit more challenging. If you make it back to where you died without dying a second time, you may recover your soul loot, but often you don't and it is lost forever. Sounds painful, right? Well, anyone who has played Diablo II or Borderlands or the like is already sensing the good times: this means that once you die the first time and are a ghost you can farm any level you feel like for souls. Nothing stops you from only clearing 1/2 a level, taking the souls back to the Nexus to buy more equipment or stats, and then rinsing and repeating all you want. You don't lose any of your equipment, only your "soul" money, so if you don't have much money at the moment there's little actual punishment for death.
Better still, any friendly NPCs you free that remain on the levels will often be there when you come back, and will wander off on their own killing foes for you -- and you get all the souls. And even better yet, there are often many different ways to kill your enemies. The environment itself is often a tool. Keep an eye out for traps you can trigger that will destroy foes for you. You can also exploit the violent tendencies of your enemies. Only a fool will charge straight into a group of enemies -- instead, use narrow stairways and blind turns as chokepoints to take them on one at a time. The elaborate 3-D environment of platforms, open staircases (think Mines of Moria-ish), switchbacks, and other devices provide both cover and ways to stage extremely gratifying ambushes. The very first level (known as 1-1) consists of an elaborate castle with one area guarded by an extremely powerful, red-eyed knight with a spear. He's almost impossible to hurt, let alone kill, at low levels. So why do it? Instead, just lure him past the trebuchets into the adjacent tower, which has a huge open air staircase descending many stories. Harrass him from a distance on the corners, and eventually he'll charge at you, miss a turn, and fall to his death. Bam, 2000+ souls. And he'll respawn just like everyone else if you reset the level.
Another great thing about Demon Soul's is that the designers were not completely heartless. It is indeed challenging to push into new, unknown areas and then die far from help. But often you will find switches that will open gates, start elevator devices, or make other structural changes to the level that are permanent regardless of respawns. These often establish short cuts through the level, so if you die later you can just go through the newly opened gate instead of tediously hacking your way the long way around. Given that you have effectively infinite lives if you don't mind losing a few "souls" from your money stash, you can even make mad banzai charges towards switches or gates when you have little to lose. If you do get out of your depth, you can try to retreat as far along your path as possible before you die, making it easier to get back to your body on the next try.
If you go into Demon Soul's with a Conan the Barbarian me smash style, you will be humbled a lot and probably give up on it. But if you adopt a more Lord of the Rings-y approach to the plot as well as a healthy paranoia, you will keep your shield up, peek around corners before taking them, and keep a close eye on your surroundings to watch for potential ambushes, traps, or switches. The game soon becomes extremely satisfying, if never easy. You have to think both strategically and tactically, and there are often ways around an "impossible" problem (such as plugging a resting dragon full of crossbow bolts so he doesn't show up later to burn you to death on an exposed walkway). The game is a nice mix of typical RPG features such as using healing items and finding new and exciting loot, and more adventure themed games that are not hack-and-slash. In a way it reminds me of the old ASCII games like Rogue or Angband in that you have to be very careful about how you push into new levels, and need to maintain discipline at all times. But at the same time, the gratification level when you do succeed can be well worth the trouble.
Demon's Souls Greatest Hits Feature
- Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you'll slice, smash, shoot, and cast magic against some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered
- Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade and wreak havoc in another's game
- Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience
- The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options
- Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment
Demon's Souls Greatest Hits Overview
Beautiful, compelling, and at times unforgiving, Demon's Souls is the hardcore RPG experience PS3 owners have been waiting for since the platform's launch. Revolutionary online features define your adventure like never before, presenting seamless interconnectivity that serves in every instance to enhance the single-player game. Unprecedented in its depth and subtlety, peerless in its relentlessly challenging gameplay, Demon's Souls is the ultimate action RPG. KEYFEATURES - Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge - In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you'll slice, smash, shoot, and cast magic against some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face up to the impossible and win? - Ground-breaking online capabilities - Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade and wreak havoc in another's game. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience. - Freeform and flexible - The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.
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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Sep 30, 2010 18:02:29
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