Opinion: Dark Souls is a Pure Game

What is a "pure" game? In a time where every other game bills itself as a "cinematic experience" with Hollywood quality production values, it's increasingly rare to find a game that offers solid gaming and interactivity that you simply can't get in any other medium. As games continually try to ape the look and style of Hollywood blockbusters, the idea that a game can just be a game is becoming increasingly rare. However, for those looking for an experience that is above all else a gaming experience without the pretense of crossing the boundaries of media, look no further than Dark Souls.

From the get go, it's easy to see that Dark Souls is as light on story as RPGs come. The plot is presented in the most minimal sense, with sparse cutscenes and only the occasional NPC offering you details on the world's background. A lot of story elements are left up to the player to piece together. Read the description of an item here, meet up with a character in another area; each will give you another piece of the puzzle behind the Dark Souls story. And it's not that the story isn't important. The world behind Dark Souls is very rich and filled with nuances that hardcore fans will want to check out (like figuring out who the hell the furtive pygmy is). However, the game doesn't beat you over the head with cinematics or cutscenes interrupting the flow the gameplay. If you want to learn the story of Dark Souls, it's all there; you just have to look for it.

Check out some of Dark Souls' brutal enemies.

In Dark Souls, the gameplay doesn't change much. That's not to say it isn't deep. You'll make your way through the game's world, killing off enemies, taking on the occasional boss, finding and earning new weapons and items, and it will take you many hours to make it through. The game's combat is also great, going beyond its exquisite timing-based parry/repost system (which, like Dark Souls in general, requires a lot of patience and practice) and presenting a system with varied weaponry and environmental obstacles impeding the motion of your strikes. However, the game's difficult battles, soul collection system, and unforgiving enemies stay consistent throughout.

The feeling of strife, struggle, frustration, and perseverance is not something adaptable; if watched as a Dark Souls film, you simply wouldn't get the same feeling. A film can make you empathize with characters or transport you to their world through visuals, music and sound. However, only a game like Dark Souls can truly invest you in the experience and pull you in, and wrestle out such reactions. Your frustration, sense of perseverance and elation when you defeat a difficult foe are all your own, with no sense of empathy aimed at your on-screen avatar.


Additionally, a book can offer a play on your imagination, offering up the written word and letting you fill in the pieces as you read. You envision the characters and the world such a way that could be completely different from the way someone else envisions it, but you're still by and large having the most same emotional attachments and personal investment to the characters in the story. Your feelings are limited to your feelings towards the characters and the situations they find themselves in. In a game like Dark Souls, however, once again your frustration, anger and sense of victory are yours and yours alone.

One of the key themes in Dark Souls is the idea of triumph. The game's extreme challenge level will have you pulling out your hair over a sequence only to be shouting in joy minutes later when you finally overcome. That's the very idea of what a video game offers that you can't get from any other medium. By actively playing on the ideas of failure and triumph, Dark Souls gives you an experience which simply cannot be translated to any other medium.

A game like Dark Souls is an emotional experience, and one wholly unique to the medium. Some of you will love it, others absolutely hate it, but there no denying that the game will hit you over the head and make you feel something, and that "something" is not transmutable to any other form of media. Dark Souls is a frustrating, maddening, and rewarding experience that you won't find elsewhere, thus making as "pure" of a game as they come.


Steven Hopper is the Executive Editor for IGN's Xbox channels. Check him out on MyIGN and Twitter.

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