The sequel: How many controllers have been snapped in the pursuit of completing even a single dungeon in Dark Souls? It hardly bears thinking about. From Software's series of hack-and-slash role playing games have earned a reputation for their fiendish difficulty level, which harken back to the good old days of gaming where death actually meant something (usually it meant starting from scratch, after a period of punching the sofa and weeping). Checkpoints? We don't need no stinking checkpoints. Better get used to seeing that starkly simple YOU DIED game over screen, because it'll be popping up a lot as you navigate your brave warrior through the Undead Asylum. Those fancy weapons and armour you accumulated aren't going to last long. The original: Part of the reason Dark Souls has achieved such a cult following is because its mechanics and game playing philosophy seem decidedly old school (and the graphics, thankfully, don't). We already know that the game are spiritual successors to From's earlier Demon Souls - the title of which belongs to Sony, rather than new publishers Namco Bandai, hence the change - but did you know they've been making titles in this vein for years? The King's Field series began in 1994 on the Playstation and each instalment followed a similar template: first-person dungeon crawlers known for brooding atmospheres and cryptic, labyrinths. With demons. And you died a lot. You could've been snapping your controllers in half for so much longer!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
