Critique - Dark Souls PDF

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Critical Analysis for Adam's class...

Description

When brought up in conversation, the title "Dark Souls" often brings up discussions of rage-inducing boss fights, hilarious ragdoll glitches and people saying they can't effectively participate because they couldn't get past the first boss. But I consider the game memorable for a different reason, and that's because Dark Souls is one of the best examples of environmental storytelling I've ever experienced. In Dark Souls, the designers immediately begin establishing its world as a cold, unforgiving place by starting you locked in a prison cell with no weapons. As the narrator wraps up the intro sequence, she states that you as the player are 'undead' and have been sent up north to the prison to rot until you eventually turn mad like the wandering undead you see around you. A key is dropped into your cell through a hole in the roof by a literal knight in shining armour, adorned in blue garb. Which, in the world full of brick, blood, and stone, is a refreshing and calming psychological trap for the player seeing as how he is dying when you meet him next not more than 10 minutes from your escape, and even less time since you were just ambushed by a giant demon roughly 10 times your size. With no one to left to help you, you fight through the prison, and defeat the beast on your own, reinforcing the idea that you are hopeless and alone, setting the stage for the unforgiving game. Once you leave the prison, you're greeted by a gorgeous view of the mountainous landscape around the crumbling structure, giving the player an idea of just how big and empty this world is. This theme is repeated multiple times through the game; namely when you first reach Anor Londo. It appears to be a giant city that at one point may have held life, but as you see it now, there's nothing. Even most of the enemies you fight here are merely stone structures. Throughout the game, you encounter many items, weapons, and armours, some good, some bad, all of which obscure and confusing. But it's not just the overwhelming amount of stats that make them that way; it's the item descriptions. Although, 'description' may not be the best word for it since they function more like storytelling devices. Every item you come across has some story as to how it happened to be; Telling vague stories of ancient witches, kings, betrayals, and sometimes of nothing remarkable, but with these small clues the online community have formed endless pages of lore about everything in its world. Dark Souls may not be the most approachable game on the market. Though it's clear, from the darkest corners of Blighttown to the highest churchbell in Anor Londo, you will always be steps away from another small clue that will suddenly make an obscure phrase mean something entirely new which is why I consider Dark Souls to have some of the best environmental storytelling in games....