So I was given access to the preview build...

To my surprise I got an email yesterday that offered me to download and play a preview build of this game(PC version), which is basically a demo that allows you to play up to the first major boss. As someone who has put in countless hours into Dark Souls, I thought you may want to hear about the game from my perspective instead of random_reviewer#345 who probably doesn't understand the intracacies of Dark Souls like veterans do. I've only spent a few hours up to this point and will need to play more so this isn't my "final thoughts", but I figured I could throw out my initial impressions. Keep in mind this is geared towards DkS players though there is still probably some general info in here for the rest.



Where do I start...



1. Graphically the game stomps on Dark Souls 1 and 2. Period. The artstyle is different and it's up to personal preference to detrmine whether it's ascetically pleasing, but make no doubt this game is a graphic powerhouse in comparsion. With a recommended spec of I7/Geforce 760/12 gigs of ram, it's not hard to see why. Note that this is to run it on max settings, the minimum requirements are of course much lower. My guess is that PS4 and Xbone versions will be a bit inferior to max PC settings, but will still end up being much better than Dark Souls 2 on PC (or even Bloodborne for that matter).



2. The controls "feel" like Dark Souls, it even has an almost identical control scheme(though that has to be chosen in the options as the default one is different). Overall, the main character felt a bit more sluggish, but not because of clunky controls. More on the lines of it was purposeful. The fast roll in this game feels akin to the medium roll in Dark Souls and since I'm huge on dodging this may have been why it felt a bit slower. If any of you have played the Witcher 2, it felt very similar to the stock roll in that game without any points spent.



3. Parries, backstabs, i-frames all exist in this game. I managed to parry all of the standard enemies, couldn't seem to get one on the boss. I was roll backstabbing some of the tougher enemies, and once I got the timing I was rolling directly though enemy hit boxes. It will take more experimenting to guesstimate i-frames, or figure out if raising any stats will control that. One downer is that parries don't make a satisfying pop sound, or any real indication that they've succeeded. After my first couple of successful parries I didn't even realize I had done it until I actually got a follow up. It'd be nice if they made it more dramatic instead of the enemy just lazily standing there sideways like it is now. Developers if you're watching, this is huge to some of us. Nothing, and I mean nothing is more satisfying than getting a parry in a Souls game and hearing that beloved sound...



4. There are classes, but like Dark Souls it mostly seems to control starting equipment and stats. You have the choice of Rogue, Warrior and Cleric. At this time I have no clue if there will be more upon launch. Stats can be raised independently just like DkS and they seem to do similar things. There is also a luck stat, which seems to indicate greater rewards as drops. Hopefully there will be more to this stat... Blueblood Sword anyone?



5. When you create your character you have 2 important choices. Class and magical type. There were 3 magic types, one was a priestly set of spells, the other was more warrior orientated and the last was stealthy. You can however mix and match classes and magic types, so you can be a Cleric who casts stealth spells or a Rogue who casts warrior spells, etc.. I don't know if this choice locks you into that magic for the rest of the playthrough or if it is possible to get the others later if you so choose.

6. Along with weapons, shields and magic, there is also a claw type device you find and permanently wear. It can cast 3 different types of "spells". Projectile, explosive and one more that escapes me. This takes up magic power(which slowly regens on its own btw) but seems to be independant of actual magic. Apparently it can be upgraded to become more powerful, but there is no crafting in the demo so it remained fairly week and I hardly used it. My guess is that this thing will have some strategic gameplay elements as the game progresses.



7. You don't have mainhand/offhand items in the same way as DkS. Basically you equip a shield, a weapon, the claw and magic. You cycle between these 4 states by tapping on the directional pad(I'm playing with a 360 pad). You can dual wield certain weapons, but you only need one weapon to do it. If you find a new dagger, selecting the dual wield state simply gives you 2 of them. It doesn't seem like you can dual wield different weapons as of yet(though this is a demo so who knows what will change). There are bucklers and larger shields, but only buckler class can parry and it seems the bigger shields can bash.



8. There are bloodstains, aka your "ghost", which is left behind when you die. They work like DkS except for 2 things. 1. They slowly lose experience over time, giving you a time limit to retrieve them. 2. When you are near it, it gives you a passive buff. Meaning if you die in a boss battle you can take advantage of this ghost by not picking it up and getting some sort of benefit. I didn't quite catch what the buff was, I'll have to investigate further.



9. There are no souls of course, only experience. This experience is used at checkpoint locations, some sort of floating shard, that is basically a bonfire. You must choose between using the experience for raising stat points or magic power. You can allocate exp to either of these which are represented by a bar. When it fills up, you get a point. You can't cast any spells until you have at least one spell point, and each spell seems to have at least 3 different levels of power meaning you can make them stronger than the default spell. Also you get an experience bonus for every enemy you kill up until you use a checkpoint. Meaning, if you bypass leveling up at checkpoints you can get more experience than if you just level everytime. Risk vs reward.



10. So far I've seen hammers, greathammers, axes, greataxes, swords, greatswords, monk staffs, fist weapons, daggers and shortsword. They all have minimum requirements and there seems to be some sort of scaling stat. There is also a critical stat for ripostes and backstabs. As of now, the highest critical stat I've seen is 350% on one of the fist weapons called a nail while the standard dagger was 300%. There is no crafting yet, but I keep finding a bunch of "shards" that are supposedly going to be used for crafting, though I have no clue of how it's going to work. Also I have not ran into any bows or crossbows yet....



11. There is some sort of portal system in the game that opens up optional areas. I ran by it and it was just a circle on the ground but after defeating the first mini-boss I went back and it became an actual portal. Apparently they can be any of 3 things, including treasure or a difficult encounter. Mine was just a portal to a dark dimensional pocket with 3 chests. I'm not sure if that was just luck, or the demo only contains this option. Apparently these will be scattered across the game for those willing to take a risk and they can only be accessed after killing the area boss.

12. Metroidvania is in full swing, at least as far as I can tell so far. There are shortcuts and keys, hidden rooms, backtracking etc.. I found a wall I had to break down and inside was a much, much tougher area than I was currently in. The mobs were obviously higher level and I wasn't really geared to fight them. I eventually took them down and found a room with a pressure plate. Basically I had to step on the plate and then sprint to a normally un-openable door, which let me access a chest with the nail weapon I mentioned earlier. It had double the requirements as any other weapon I had found and was clearly a higher level item so at the time I couldn't use it.



13. There are combos between light and heavy attacks, and they can become stronger based on your timing. If you mash you will just do normal damage/stamina, but if you time your button presses well your stamina bar flashes and you either do more damage or it takes less stamina to perform( I don't remember which it was honestly but either way it's to your advantage). Also, on weapons you cant't dual wield you can instead 2h them. Most agility(dex) weapons seem to be 1h in nature, but the monk staff and another staff I found was based on agility and could used with 2h. The moveset was akin to Santier's spear from DkS 2. It had all sort of combos you could do depending on how you mixed buttons and it could hit multiple times. I used these weapons for most of my initial run.



14. Almost forgot, and this one stings... You can only play as the main character, you can't play as female nor can you change your looks. This is unfortunate but it's the way it is. Main character has voice acting so I can see why it'd be difficult, but with a single female voice actor they still could have done it like Mass Effect does.



15. I ran into 2 NPC's other than the initial one that begins the game with you. I had dialogue options with both of them, and the 2nd was an actual side quest(apparently the first you can meet up later but the demo ends before you can). She asked me to retrieve something, and in return gave me a key to an area called the Catacombs. I found the door but in the demo you are not allowed inside. So from what I can tell, there are side areas in the game that seem to be "optional". I have no idea if these areas will allow you to bypass other areas like in DkS 1, or if it's just a place to get extra loot. Time will tell.



16. Bosses. There is sort of a mini boss you encounter early, that seems mostly like a sub-boss or mini-boss. However at the end of the demo you run into an actual boss which has a health bar broken into 4 sections. When you empty one, they go through a change. So essentially, real bosses seem to have 4 "stages", though I can only speak on the one I fought. He was very similar to the mirron knight ability wise, though not in looks. He had a huge sword and shield and would block everything, so you could only seem to damage him while he recovered from an attack. Other than the standard melee swings, he could send out waves of energy grom his sword, he would smash his shield into the ground which made a bunch of phantom shields surround him making him invulnerable while simultaneously summoning another enemy. He could lower his shield and send a blast of energy outwards from the shield(which seemed the most open time to attack him) and he also had an attack where he'd smash his shield into the ground causing a small aoe shock wave. I beat him on my first attempt as he wasn't particularly fast, though he did do a lot of damage so I could see someone dying who wasn't being careful.

There is so much more I could talk about but this is already a wall of text. Basically, this game is no doubt heavily influenced by Dark Souls but instead of being upset about it I think DkS fans should at least give it a shot. How many times on these very gamefaqs board have we been asked the eternal question... "Are there any games out there like Dark Souls?!" Until now there really wasn't an actual game that could be recommended, I think this may be the first official "Dark Souls clone". I don't mean that offensively either, being a clone of Dark Souls isn't necessarily a bad thing considering there truly are no other games like it. The atmosphere is different, and it seems a bit trimmed/streamlined in comparison, but it still feels very "dark soulsey" in regards to combat and overall gameplay mechanics. One might call it "Dark Souls for casuals" though since this is the demo I honestly can't say how the overall difficulty will play out. As of now it is easier by default, though the portals may end up being steep challenges. Let's hope.



Since I just started last night and can only play after work, I still have a lot more to fool around with. I plan on streaming this weekend with the goal of seeing how much I can break the game, ie; what sort of ridiculous things I can come up with regarding builds and overpowering my character. If any of you guys are interested, swing by and I'll be happy to answer questions as I'm playing.

Good news IMO. I was worried for a bit as there seems to be a total lack of marketing for this game, or maybe I'm not paying much attention. Sounds like it will be a solid experience for DkS fans. Thanks for sharing and I'm definitely interested in watching your stream.

Thank you for the information OP. It is appreciated.

Awesome, already sounds more exciting than what Bloodborne has to offer. The bloodstain buff mechanic is pretty cool - you could get yourself deliberately killed in an advantageous position to get the upper hand in a hard fight. Strategic dying! Does it permanently disappear if you die without picking it up?

Also, I heard in one of the videos that you can take a second skill path in NG+.

That was a really long way to lie about access to the preview build. All you did was use super lengthy descriptions of what we already know. Congrats?

wombat013 posted...

That was a really long way to lie about access to the preview build. All you did was use super lengthy descriptions of what we already know. Congrats?

I didn't know about a lot of that stuff. But thank you for adding something positive and constructive to the topic.

Ignored.

Joey2cool posted...

Good news IMO. I was worried for a bit as there seems to be a total lack of marketing for this game, or maybe I'm not paying much attention. Sounds like it will be a solid experience for DkS fans. Thanks for sharing and I'm definitely interested in watching your stream.

It's also $10 less than other PS4 games sold on PSN, that's always a red flag.