Demon Souls Review

I wrote some reviews a few years ago for actionbutton.net that seemed to get lost somewhere in the internet. At the time, Demon Souls had not been released in the US and I wanted to give complimentary games writing a shot.

"a review of

Demon's Souls

a videogame by From Software

published by Sony Computer Entertainment (Japan and Asia) and Atlus (US)

text by jacob munford

Score: 4 stars out of 4

Bottom Line: Demon's Souls is “the pocketwatch that you can give to your grandchildren”

My original plan for this review was to steal the IGN format of game reviews, with the terrible segmented 'graphics' and 'gameplay' sections and all, and write a sardonic review where the reviewer sees all of Demon's Souls successes as faults and tops the whole thing off with a 7/10 at the end of the article. My bottom line would be: Demon's Souls is not for everyone, but hardcore gamers will eat it up. For a while, I thought this was clever. But it isn't, really. It's too easy. It would be like challenging a cab driver to a fencing match. It doesn't actually celebrate what a real piece of goddamned work this thing is.

But the reason taking the piss out of game reviewers felt so appealing to me in the first place is that the reviews for this game write themselves. When this game comes out in America in October 2009, expect to see plenty of game writers warning about the ways in which the game is difficult to a fault, the combat isn't as well-animated as something like Dynasty Warriors and that the multiplayer system is clunky and awkward. Expect 7s. Expect a metacritic score of 7.6. Expect to be disappointed when whatever you read for your product reports makes you breathe a bit deeper.

Here's the facts, man. Demon's Souls is a game about struggling with discomfort. Demon's Souls uses the typical fantasy environment and milks logic out of it with the ferocity of a teenaged farmboy who is forced to go to an all-boys school. There are castles and forts in this game, you know. But these castles and forts aren't comfortable places. Most castles and forts aren't, really. There's crumbling stone everywhere. You fight through these things with the passion and verve of a human being surrounded by monsters, since that's what you are. If you are a broadsword-wielding meatbrick, expect to learn about the timing and pacing of home invasions. If you decide to use a rapier, expect to dance like you ain't never danced before. Stakes is high, y'know what I mean? You can die easy if you aren't on point, all the time, and combat is as serious as basketball would be in a movie about basketball. The combat doesn't snap or pop like it does in games like God Hand, but it's just a different type of music. It is spare, with offbeat percussion and open air. You can call it difficult if you aren't willing to put your back into it, but games don't typically make us earn it. It's nice to be regarded as somebody who isn't interested in having my food injected directly into my stomach.

In this game, dungeons are a tone as opposed to an aesthetic. The levels are dangerous worlds that loop with forward momentum, but roll back up into themselves as a comfort. They are laid out like darkened, rarely-used rooms in a basement. You trace your hands across the walls to see how they feel. You find a corner and feel assuaged, as most mapmakers do. But the consistent lack of light in the room is a reminder that you've only found the border of an entire open space, and you can't see a thing. The problem with games that let you play mapmaker is the assumption that drawing a map is the end goal of exploration. No way, sisters. That shit is nothing but liner notes. The reality is that anything worth exploring will have dynamics: dullness and danger and reward and tension. If you are the type of person who can lose yourself in an environment, Demon's Souls can play you like a stringed instrument.

The game is designed around anticipations and expectations. When you get near the end of the game, you realize how clockwork everything is. The atmosphere is not accidental, it is pathologically constructed. It is the culmination of well-punctuated kineticism combined with crystalline-structured maze making and line drawing. But early in the game? You don't know what's around the next corner. You hope it is something that you can handle. You are getting to know this person and are navigating their personality like a sailboat in cold waters. The game allows you to bring other players into your game, but the reality is that these people are nothing more than guiding flags. They may show you where to go, but not always how to get there. They can't speak, only nod. You aren't on an equal plateau, you don't get the same things. It's awkward and alienating. It can only serve to show you how to stand on your own two feet.

Demon's Souls is the right kind of game. It is confident in itself. Playing it correctly can make you more confident in yourself. I've heard people call this a dungeon simulator, but that isn't quite right. Simulation is a dirty word, you know. It implies an echo of something else, something more concrete. Demon's Souls is as real as the inside of a watch. It ticks consistently. The watch hands never stop moving clockwise. Anybody who can read an analog clock will understand the facade of the watch and hear the ticks of clicking gears but if the watch breaks, be at a loss as to how the thing fits together. Watchmakers are old and lazy symbols for beings of internal order and momentum. But these guys? These Demon's Souls guys? These guys are watchmakers. There's no other way to describe them. They've made a well-oiled machine that will only stop doing its job when it is ignored."