Dark Souls Remastered (PlayStation 4) Review

With the PlayStation 4 having Bloodborne and all three Dark Souls available, it is very interesting to see how the series quality shifts. Some advancements to the formula are introduced and dropped in a single game, while others carry over. In some cases, the worst ideas end up staying through the franchise, like how playing while hollow has no penalty. This was a design that was dropped from the very first From Software "soul" game: Demon's Souls... the one the world forgot. Demon's Souls was not perfect; it had frequent and long load times, a limited equipment pool and some obtuse design, like Boletaria's infamous climbable ledge. When Dark Souls came out, it made some natural progress with the formula. Things like how all the game's areas are interconnected, so the world was one cohesive map, was the next logical step after the Nexus hub. The combat was expanded by introducing back-stabbing, kicking, and plunging attacks.

From Software did take a few step backwards when making the leap from Demon's to Dark. The aforementioned lack of consequence when playing hollow meant there was no real incentive to be in human form other than for aesthetics... which won't matter if a character is decked out in full body armour. In Demon's Souls it was a real risk to play as either phantom or human since the former meant playing with only half of max HP and the latter meant that users would be vulnerable to invading phantoms. Dark Souls has no substantial trade-off when considering the option. Even the amazing Bloodborne did not get this right. Even the obtuse, yet fascinating, "World Tendency" mechanic got dropped in favour of the "Covenant" system, which was mostly useful for online play. World Tendency was such a gutsy design choice in Demon's Souls because it punishes failure by introducing even harder enemies into stages. It was part of the appeal and atmosphere, and the fact that this remaster of Dark Souls is so safe in terms of refinement is disappointing. Dark Souls Remastered could have done with a bit more experimentation, like how Scholar of the First Sin made strides to improve on the vanilla game. The original Dark Souls had room for improvement.

Now running at a very steady and fluid 60 frames per second, Dark Souls no longer has the excuse of technical limitations. From Software's design can now be scrutinised without any distraction and, for the most part, everything holds up. Exploring Blight Town with such fluid gameplay is like playing a totally different game. The dragon's fire on the Undead Burg's bridge no longer makes the game play like molasses. Every part of the adventure feels very smooth and responsive. Some of the lighting has been enhanced, which can be noticed by looking at how real-time illumination occurs with torches and how the light reflects off armour and weapons. Certain atmospheric effects have been improved, like shadow quality, fog, and ember particles. It is not always for the best, though, since it seems that whoever made this update, sought to dump every piece of armour into a launderette and give everything a spit-shine. There is a noticeable sense of cleanliness in this version of Dark Souls; much of the grit seems to have been scrubbed away and it affects the look and feel of the world, making it feel bland. When this first came out, the palpable filth and grime made everything feel real. Some of the new textures and assets miss the mark that From Software intended, even if they are technically "better."

With so many "souls" style games to come out over the years, it is a shame that this update is inconsistent with some of the aspects that were improvements in the sequels. Dark Souls Remastered still uses the old four-way rolling while locked on to targets, something that is very hard to go back to after so many entries. The hit-detection and collision are still woefully inaccurate and implausible - expect to get unfairly whacked from enemies that are behind thick stone walls. The latter parts of the game are still poorly designed, such as the Crystal Cavern, which was easily the weakest part of the original, is still as unrefined as ever. It still feels like the collision is broken and characters will slip and slide off flat surfaces for no reason when playing this area because when it was first developed, it was rushed. This remaster was the chance to refine and re-think this stage to make it better and it was completely wasted. The Crystal Cavern is just one example of how From Software had to rush the development late in the cycle. Other areas that don't feel fleshed out that could have been improved in this update include Anor Londo, which is still just a boring palace with a few enemies guarding some areas. This could have been a great chance to experiment with the advancements in this series by implementing roaming enemies in the palace instead of just standing in one spot, waiting for anyone to get close.

The biggest improvements, outside of the stable, high frame-rate, are small quality of life adjustments. Things like button-remapping, the option to re-size the HUD, and even being able to use multiple soul-items at once, are worthwhile inclusions. Sadly, this is as good as the improvements go.

Most people interested in this series will likely be satisfied just to explore Blight Town with a stable frame-rate, which is what they are going to get, and not much else. This is still Dark Souls in all its glory, for the most part, even if some of the atmosphere has been reduced due to some of the high detailed assets missing the point of the original. For those who have not played the vanilla release, this may be tricky to get into since it does not have much of the forward-thinking features or polish that later From Software games have, like Bloodborne or Dark Souls III. This is still one of the better games to have come out in the past decade, for its unique world building and its unmatched level design, which holds up today. With so many copy-cats out there, like Ni-Oh, Lords of the Fallen, The Surge, Absolver and the inevitable Code Vein, Dark Souls Remastered still crushes the competition. Even with all these technical flaws still present, the spirit of innovation and creativity still burns brightly.