Demon's Souls PS3

[Baseley09]

1080i/1080p support at all? cheers

[blazing-star]

It says 480p - 720p on the back of the case.

[hudson]

I asked earlier in the thread, but not sure if anyone answered. Does the game unfold in a linear fashion or can open up the game differently to someone else?

[Jashin]

The journey up to the first part is linear. After that, 4 new levels open up, which can be tried in any order, and exited at any time. Additionally, each area also has additional areas to explore after a boss is defeated, as well as optional areas which are usually guarded by some badass enemy.

[hudson]

How are you rating the game now you've had it a few days? More love for it?

[Jashin]

Yeah, it's really, really good. It's kept me away from all other games, and the more I play it, the more I like it. It's very compelling to play, and the constant levelling up and weapon management always act as a spur. The main pull is the constant decision whether it's best to press on or go back to the hub. Inveitably, the decision is to press on. Also inevitably, it's usually the wrong decision. You'd have thought the frequent deaths would be irritating, but that's not the case. That particualr mechanic has been finely honed.


There's lots of nice touches as well. For example, you can touch the bloodstains left by other players on the ground, and you get a short replay in your world of the seconds leading up to the players death. Seeing white phantoms (other players) running around the levels also feels right, and is a good contrast to the solitary nature of the game, enhanced by the graphics and sound.

I've not enjoyed playing a game for a long time, although it does tick all the right boxes for me. It's very difficult though, somthing you can't say about many games these days, which in itself feels refreshing.

[hudson]

It sounds ace.

About the difficulty, how does the player retry a section after dying? Are there frequent checkpoints, manual saves or restart whole section?

thanks

Mine was shipped from Hong Kong today, heopfully have it early next week or roundabouts.

[Jashin]

No, the whole hook is that there are no checkpoints in a level. You die, you're straight back to the beginning of the level, with the items you've collected but without the souls (currency) you've gained. So there is a 'start' checkpoint where you, er, start, and can also warp back to the hub with your loot. You get given a ring early on which lets you warp back with new items but without souls. You can find items to warp back from any point in a level to the hub with both loot at souls, and you can eventually learn a spell to do the same thing. You open a new checkpoint, which leads to a new section in the level, each time you defear a demon.

The game autosaves every time anything significant happens, from dying to buying new items. Once you've made a decision, there's no going back.

[hudson]

Does it ever feel like a chore to go back to the beginning or has it been mostly a joy to play even if you do go back to the "start"?

[Jashin]

No, it's not a chore because most of the time, you're that little bit stronger if you play cannily. Also, there's enough depth to the combat (including managent of stamina - everything you do apart from running around uses stamina) to make you feel that you could have fought better. You get a little further each time, so you learn a little more about the level, perhaps opening a shortcut somewhere which carries over to your next try, which can cut down on the time it takes to reach the same point again. When you die, you leave a bloodstain on the floor where you died. Reaching this without dying before you get to it nest time lets you gain the souls you lost when you died, so there's always an incentive yo go straight back into battle. As I said, one of the biggest successes of the game is just how honed and tuned this mechanic is.

[Baseley09]

It says 480p - 720p on the back of the case.

Cheers man.

FULL HD CONSOLE!

[Jashin]

Having a good outing here - just found a mint shield and opened a shortcut on this playthrough.

[Jashin]

And..... I've died. Arses

[hudson]

Is there anywhere I can find a video review to get me moist?

[Jashin]

Lol, not that I've seen. There's a good thread on NeoGaf, usually in the first couple of pages. Other than that, not an awful lot. I've been after some wallpaper to put on the PS3, which From are usually pretty good with. Not a sausage at the moment though, perhaps because it's published by Sony rather than From.