FromSoftware's magnum opus, taking enough of the hardcore difficulty from the first Demon's Souls, and building an interconnected world comprised of many areas that no matter how far you thought you may have travelled, a quick dive through a previously-locked gate would make you see an area from an entirely new vantage point. It's the atmosphere and tone of the first Dark Souls that elevates it far above its predecessor or sequel. There's just something so perfectly done about starting life as a withered Hollow soldier, scraping together enough things to fight and explore from inside a prison cell that everything after feels like you're cracing out a sense of purpose in the world alongside your hero. The difficulty is ratcheted way up mind you, so don't go thinking this is a cakewalk. Dark Souls will have your intrepid explorative thoughts for breakfast, toasting you from afar and sending you back to a checkpoint far beforehand if you get carried away not treating each nook and cranny with the respect it deserves. However, when you factor in that dying is just another game mechanic that sees you trying to recover your lost Souls in a mad bid to get back to your point of failure, it's a pendulum-swing sense of progression and reward that nothing else even comes close to.
