I've finished Dark Souls twice now, and I still can't stop thinking about it. I'm six years old and I've heard the noise. If I manipulated Dark Souls' responsive combat system well enough, maybe I could triumph in the dark. If I'd rolled forward immediately on entering the goat demon's lair, maybe I could kill the dogs before they could bite me. I darted between his legs, aimed a blow at his heel, and promptly keeled over, dead from the dog's venom. Swinging my mace in a wide arc, I crushed the skulls of the dogs, but I was poisoned, losing health as I was backed into a corner. Raising my shield, I could deflect the goat demon's blows, but staccato bites from his mutts raised my poison gauge to critical levels. He was armed with two vast cleavers, and supported by two vicious dogs. Fifteen hours into Dark Souls, I fought a ten-foot bipedal goat man. How are you ever meant to beat that? With these dodgy keyboard controls that almost necessitate the use of a controller? No one can beat that thing, it's too tough, it's unfair. The demon's weapon collided with my character's frame and Dark Souls' favourite words flashed up on the screen: вЂњYOU DIED.вЂќ My stamina bar was too low, my grip too weak. Stumbling to my feet, I raised my shield, but for nothing. Dark Souls' combat is brutal, tactile, and always tense. Bows are quick to fire if you have high enough dexterity, daggers can be stabbed into exposed backs for devastatingly powerful and wet-sounding critical hits. Clubs and maces feel heavy and powerful when brought down on heads вЂ“ especially with a character's heavy attack (mapped to right-mouse or R2 on a pad). Spears are jabbed from behind shields, puncturing enemies with an audible pop. I was flung backward into stone columns that crumbled under the force.Дark Souls' combat has a weighty physicality to it: monstrously powerful foes can smash through all but the strongest shields, and different weapons feel markedly different in use. Some players will give in to the fear вЂ“ understandably so, when the dark is only partially explored and already hides such terrors вЂ“ and call for their parents. If I swung my mace, I might chip 28 points from his enormous health bar if he swung his, he was capable of hacking off more than half of mine. This demon was nine or ten times my bulk. Something truly horrible, just like I'd imagined was downstairs in the dark when I was six years old.ДЄnother warning: Dark Souls feels unfair. When that door closed behind me, I was obliged to fight something that could crush my puny body with a swing of its ludicrous hammer, that could flutter a short way into the air and squash me with its bulbous arse. Die, and when you respawn, back at one of the scattered bonfires that serve as safe havens, you look like a monster again.Дark Souls' first demon lived behind a door. I fought for these moments, moments that differentiated my character class from the drained and undead creatures stalking the darkness around me. Collect 'humanity' вЂ“ little sprites scattered around the game вЂ“ and clench it between your fingers, and you'll become human again for a while, injecting colour into your pinched, rotting cheeks вЂ“ until the next time you die.

My job: to bring light to the world, and to fight for my soul.ДЄll players start the game 'hollow'. On my escape вЂ“ by medium of giant crow вЂ“ the game took me to darkened land of Lordran. Playing as a walking, conscious member of the undead, I was tasked with battling my way out of my prison.

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