the net raiders

My first thoughts when I saw the opening cut scene for this game were; Cue the cheesey over the top orchestrated music with beautiful CG footage playing in the background. Continue to the even more over the top cut scenes with a dragon that kick’s butt both literally and visually.

Demon’s Souls first lets you make a customizable character, which is a big plus for me. Games that let you choose your appearance makes the player feel more attached to their character and so they invest more into the actual game play. Unfortunately this can quickly be destroyed by poor controls, A.I. etc. The demons are neat because the developers made them look more like zombies. The A.I. does seem a little confused though.

The story is presented to you at first as a narration, and as you play you realize there isn’t as much of a storyline as there is just you running around in this world. It feels over the top at first, but the artwork is beautiful and panning still shots of scenes is a good way to cut costs on budget but still effectively tell your story. A lot of the game play is played with you as a “spirit” in the “nexus” which I thought was odd and a little cheap. I might have missed something during the intro, but I was under the impressions that the demons got stronger when humans died, so I would assume that all of the creatures would be stronger when you’re in spirit form.

The actual game world is very impressive. The environment like; the water, texture and lighting variances they decided to put in the level is incredible. I’m really not a fan of medival fantasy. However, I like how enormous the creatures and bosses are. Big beasty things are fun to hack up, and the game does a good job of giving you a decent defense (if you play a knight, your shield will be your best friend). The Knight character seems clunky and slow though in comparison to the other classes. There is a lock on system though which is a big plus. For me, trying to focus on a 2D screen with a 3D perspective makes it difficult for me to hit enemies without a lock on system. I was only really good at Kingdom Hearts because of the lock on system, and eventually became second nature after I played it for so long.

I would say this game is worth picking up if it’s the kind of theme and game style that you enjoy, otherwise try something else, or just rent it.