Quick Thoughts: Dark Souls Ruined Other Games For Me

I feel it’s been long enough since playing it that I can talk about Dark Souls some more without making this blog the Dark Souls blog.

I think Dark Souls has ruined most games for me. There’s something so irresistibly engaging about it. It’s difficult but fair, has fantastic art direction and music, and intricate combat controls that require skill and mastery. It’s just a really well designed game, despite some glaring, horrible flaws, and it’s so good that I forgive those glaring, horrible flaws and praise the game anyway.

But after an experience like Dark Souls, it’s hard not to feel a bit cheated by most other mainstream games. There’s a lot about Assassin’s Creed 4 that I really like, but the ridiculously cluttered HUD and dull combat make me wish for Dark Souls swordplay. Grand Theft Auto 5 is a blast, but the character actions feel so stiff and unnatural compared to the slower, fluid, responsive movements of Dark Souls.

And that’s not to say Dark Souls is the best game ever or anything. But I do think it opened my eyes to just how much mainstream gaming has to step it up. I knew it did already, but my post-Dark Souls worldview had so much more contrast.

So that got me thinking, when have I felt like this in the past? At first I assumed that the rose tint of hindsight would make my past gaming experiences seem so much more profound than they really were, but I was surprised to discover that I do remember feeling like this before when I really think about it.

Most recently before Dark Souls was probably Far Cry 3. I loved the hell out of Far Cry 2, but the third installment really nailed what I felt a first-person shooter should be. Responsive controls, good sound design, weapons you can practically feel as you fire them, very nice character animations (limb animations? You know what I mean), and most importantly surprisingly nuanced combat; it wasn’t just point and shoot, you had a variety of takedowns and close quarters options as well, and I have yet to have more fun with first-person stealth, at least not since the original Thief.

After playing Far Cry 3, I just wanted to play it some more. I didn’t have a lot of motivation to start other games because they all failed to stimulate me as effectively. And as someone who normally doesn’t even like shooters that much, that’s impressive to me.

Further back in my gaming life was Shadow of the Colossus. I loved the idea of a game comprised almost entirely of boss fights and empty space, but those boss fights were also tense climbing puzzles that felt like a real struggle and that empty space was goddamn gorgeous and serene. This game remains one of my favorites, but at the time I was so frustrated that more games didn’t try to do something weird and awesome like this. We had a lot of samey FPSs and some decent JRPGs, but it was all so safe. Nothing so haunting and beautiful and unique as SotC.

But this sort of thing happened way back in my youth, too. On the SNES, after I played Final Fantasy 4, I found that a lot of other games seemed to lack depth and emotion by comparison. Except, of course, for Final Fantasy 6, which fucking nailed it. I was enthralled by those games, spending entire nights unraveling the lunatic stories and grinding for the best spells and gear. Gameplay-wise they were nothing new, but it was the first time I had experienced complicated stories with memorable characters in games before. And while they may seem kind of quaint today, they completely changed the way I thought about games and the kinds of things they could accomplish.

So what does all that mean? I obviously got over it, because after each example I continued on with a life rich in video games. And along the way I found a lot of really amazing experiences. ICO, Oddworld, Journey (Journey be praised), Fire Emblem: Awakening, Portal, Brothers the list goes on. A worthwhile experience always comes along again eventually.

But for now I still suffer the sense that too many games I’m playing are kind of bland and lazily designed, and a big part of that is because of games like Dark Souls. I’m tired of cluttered HUDs. I’m tired of minimaps. I’m tired of cinematic, visually impressive character movements that occur not from skill but from pressing the “Square” button at the right time. I’m tired of pointless sidequests. I’m tired of pointless main quests. I’m tired of binary morality systems. I’m tired of cutscenes that interrupt gameplay rather than enhance it.

I do want to see more mechanics that demand mastery and skill. I want to see more expertly written scripts. I want to see more focus on art direction and less focus on raw graphics. I want to see more original titles and fewer sequels and franchises and remakes. I want to be challenged intellectually by more games. I want to see technical limitations yield creative use of resources, not buggy, incomplete looking games. I want to see unique gameplay scenarios. I want to feel excited and full of wonder by a gaming experience again.

I have no doubt these things will come with time. Games are experiencing a sort of growing pains, I think, and eventually the brilliant releases will be spaced by much less time. Until then, I can always just play Dark Souls again in the downtime.

The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you.