10 Ways Dark Souls Made All Video Games WORSE
5. Oppressive, Hopeless Atmosphere Becomes The Cool Norm
In the 1990s, we as gamers indulged in some of the most gaudy and colourful games ever created - it was a time of The Crystal Maze and Fun House, and the mascot platformer ruled the gaming roost. Sonic the Hedgehog, RiStar, Cool Spot... er... Zool...
Every colour of the rainbow, and stories drenched in such hope and optimism. You could’ve choked from the levity of it all.
Fast-forward a few decades and everything’s getting grey. Gears of War’s brown-aciousness completely eclipses the more colourful shooters like Halo, and countless games attempt to follow suit.
Then, of course, we reach 2011, and, as if the brown-grey palette of before wasn’t quite dingy enough, Dark Souls ramps up the dark with a morose, overwhelmingly dark gothic experience, which oppresses the player’s spirit and crushes any semblance of hope they may have had.
It didn’t take too long for other games to mimic not just the mechanics... but the tone and imagery, too.
Whilst some only tried to keep it a little bit gothic nightmare, others like Salt and Sanctuary or Blasphemous went above and beyond with the oppressive spirit and barbarous symbolism.
There’s no denying the influence Dark Souls has had on the games that followed it, and I for one am already a bit sick of the dark and dismal visuals.