10 Ways Dark Souls Made All Video Games WORSE
7. The Removal Of Crucial Gamified Elements
As games evolve, so too do all sorts of 'Top Secrets You Didn’t Know Designers Add To Games To Make Them More Enjoyable '. Elements that aren’t usually all that noticeable, yet make a major difference to your gaming experience.
These are things like Coyote Time (the brief window of leeway you get in a platforming game which allows you to still jump even if you’ve left the platform) or Last Stand Health (where your last little bit of health is actually worth significantly more than your other health points).
They allow players to have a more enjoyable experience by eliminating more “real” factors in favour of more fun ones. Sometimes this can be called “gamification” or “being gamified”, by really rad people.
Dark Souls does not enjoy gamification.
In fact, it seems to relish the idea of omitting those elements entirely - falling off ledges into chasms happens immediately and without collision leeway, nor any kind of ledge-grab.
The player’s weapon snags on walls whilst enemies appear to be immune to most animation interruptions. The player’s health is offered no special boosts when low... this is a game which in no way adopts the covert-yet-key gamification that other contemporaries do.
As a result, more recent titles have tried to follow suit, ditching these player-focused boons in favour of making the experience more raw.
Because hey, who the hell needs a second chance to rectify your mistakes when you can have a brutal, unforgiving experience?