Dark Souls could possibly be one of the best games ever

Demon's Souls was a PS3 game that came out a couple of years ago. For those who don't know about the game, it is an action-rpg/dungeon crawler game. In Demon's Souls, you basically have a character whose stats you can customize to your liking. You unlock and find spells and there iss a few weapons and weapon types to choose from. Once your character is made, you go through 1 of 5 dungeons, each with its own unique environments and monsters to match. Then each(4/5 being rather long) dungeons have bosses and mini-bosses lain throughout it. They are all very well made and killing them is very satisfying. On that note, Demon's Souls was a fantastic game because of the control and fighting system. The only thing you can compare it to is those old school action adventure games like N64 Zelda or Megaman Legends, where you dodge with a button, slash with a button, and cast with a button. There is no stopping during a fight in Demon's Souls, and if you do, you're dead. In fact, you die so much in Demon's Souls, dying is part of the game! Demon's Souls was so good, there is no game out right now that plays like it. You only have the extremes of either side: Stylish Action games like Bayonetta, down to point and click games like Dragon Age: Origins(a game i returned in order to get the superior Demon's Souls.)



The problem with Demon's Souls was that once you get used to the combat, it becomes a dungeon crawler, with little to no story. Which isn't to say that makes it a bad game, oddly enough it still leaves you with a sense of accomplishment. But in the end, the content is very small, and you are expected to play through "New Game plus" multiple times. But now we have details on the new Dark Souls!!

Dark Souls is not a sequel to Demon's Souls(DeS), though they are both made by From Software. It builds on the best parts of DeS's system to create a grander, fuller experience. You still customize a character with their looks and their stats. But then, instead of being in a "hub" where you use portals for each dungeon, we have a full open world. The developers say that:

All fields are seamless, so whatever you can see, you can reach and explore. If you see a fortress or castle walls in the distance, you can eventually get there.

This is good news. An open world usually needs content to back it up, and that is really the only thing that DeS ever needed, more content. What you do in the world still seems to be relatively the same(until more of the story is revealed). I will assume that the game is still, in essence, a dungeon crawler. The developers claim that :

There will be more complex level designs in the game using more vertical design in areas and such.


So imagine instead of walking around and finding mobs that you need to kill (which there no doubt will be), you will find large castles, deep caves, or gated areas, and inside of those will be all the awesome fighting you'll expect in the game.

Besides monsters though, a big part of DeS was the multiplayer. Demon's Souls was actually a single player game, but you get to interact with other players throughout your campaign. You can view messages left by other players and view the deaths of other players by pressing X over their bloodstain. The most interactive part of the multiplayer was Co-op and pvp! The cooperative mode was done by summoning another player's "blue phantom" into your world, and they can do pretty much whatever they want afterward. Black Phantoms though were players that would actually INVADE your world to seek and destroy you! Imagine running up a castle tower, heading toward the boss of that area, and the next thing you see is "xXSSJSephirothXx has invaded your world!" As bad as that sounds, it is actually a lot of fun. It adds surprise and a bit of chaos to the game.

Here's a copypasta of a lot of the new info. A lot of wich you can find on Playstation Blog
-The main concept has not changed: You try something, die, learn from your mistakes, and eventually overcome those mistakes. In Dark Souls, we’ve added the ability to players to choose their recovery point — essentially respawn points. If you die, you won’t be taken back to the beginning of the level. And as you explore the world, you can carve out your own territory and retry quests you failed. That’s a big difference. It’s an aspect that we want players to use to strategize their approach to the game.
-Dual wielding is an option, but it’s a very difficult choice for novice players. The default fighting style is holding a shield in one hand, a weapon in the other. And the shield adds a lot of protection, it’s quite effective. If you see another player dual wielding, we want you to think, “Oh my god, this guy is special!” Dual wielding is a way to challenge yourself, but it has a lot of downsides and makes the game much harder. When you’re in trouble, you’ll want to return to your shield and sword.
-Throughout the game, there will be both cooperative and competitive play with other players. Each user will enjoy a unique single-player game; at times, they will cross paths with one another. Depending on the situation, the time, and the players’ goals, those players may cooperate or compete against each other. The multiplayer system we’re creating will envelop the single-player mode. Multiplayer will enhance single-player, make it more unique, compared to other games that emphasize traditional multiplayer co-op or competitive play.