Dark Souls - Retrospective @ Hardcore Gamer

Hardcore Gamer has a new retrospective article looking back at Dark Souls, and looking forward to Dark Souls 2.

It’s been quite a while since I completed my journey through the depths of frustration, anxiety and accomplishment. I laughed, I cried, I screamed at my TV screen with an unquenchable blood-thirst; all in the name of fun. And with Dark Souls II quickly approaching, I’m reminded of my experience; the very one that dragged me back to the early days of gaming; days when success was a matter of skill and practice, rather than routine.

The sequel to Dark Souls, consciously titled Dark Souls II, is set to follow in the dark, demonic footsteps of its predecessor, with an all new graphics engine, a new hero to lead, a new storyline to explore, and a new world expected to contain substantially more content and areas of interest.  It looks as if I’ll be leaping to my death from a prettier cliff next time around, perhaps rushing from a group of even angrier skeletons. We’ll still be repeating our actions, dying as frequently as we dominate, if not more so. We’ll still be learning from our errors, as well as the errors or successes of others. No longer will we be able to memorize AI attack patterns as easily, furthering the horror with varied beasts to battle or frantically escape from.