Dark Souls (and, well, by default, Demon’s Souls) certainly changed the way the industry approached the third-person action adventure.
For years, the formula had started to stagnate – with a growing focus on cinematic set-piece action, on trying to emulate the action blockbusters of the movie industry and leaving gamers so far removed from a sense of grounding that even the most realistic-looking game just felt like going through the motions.
When Dark Souls grew in popularity, it did so in response to those games, but in turn brought a few… quirky flaws of its own, like throwing out an old pie that was way too salty and replacing it with a curry with raisins in it.
I personally… do not like the Dark Souls formula. I can understand the appeal in theory, but to me, it represents a number of steps backwards in a number of crucial game design principles. Whilst I can absolutely appreciate a lot of aspects of the series – environmental storytelling, architectural art and so forward – there’re a ton that stick in my teeth like… curry raisins.
God, I hate raisins in curry.
So, putting my own neck on the line, here are ten ways Dark Souls made all videogames… worse!
