Heading back to Lordran to die again (and again and again)
Dark Souls Remastered was announced and was met with great anticipation by the Dark Souls community as a whole. As time wore on, skepticism began to trickle in as well for various reasons. People began to wonder if the remaster was going to be anything more than a glorified high definition paint job. The game launched on May 25 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and (as an avid fan of the series) here is my take on what the remaster does and does not do for the game.
As mentioned, I love all of Dark Souls, even the much maligned second game. I have played the original through many times and know where everything and everyone is waiting. Firing up the remaster, I found that, well, I still do. When Bandai Namco launched the Scholar of the First Sin edition for Dark Souls 2, they added enemies, moved some around and relocated certain items. There was a long list of things that players found to be different from the original launch. Dark Souls Remastered does not have this. Enemies will be exactly where you expect them to be, guarding exactly what you expect them to guard.
The bigger thing that surprised me, however, is that some of the well known bugs from the game still exist in the remaster. QLOC, the studio that handled the remaster for Bandai Namco for the three platforms currently available, fixed several bugs, but left several more. Long standing fans will know what an utter disaster the original port to PC was, if they could even get it to run. Well, that is not a problem now, thankfully. However, some users at the time of this writing were having some problems getting it to launch.
That sounds all doom and gloom, like I am not particularly fond of the remaster. Well, yes and no. The game looks great and runs smoothly. PvP has been moved from Peer-to-Peer networking to a dedicated server, which is nice. And in the long run, it is Dark Souls, so I am more than happy to dive back into Lordran at least one more time. By launching this Remaster, Bandai Namco has put one of their bigger series entirely on one generation of consoles (and made the PC versions all actually playable.) And if you are on PC, the original version is no longer available for purchase (if you have it, it will not disappear, but you cannot buy it anymore) so expect PvP battles to be more prevalent on the remaster than the original.
Overall, Dark Souls Remastered is a fine port of a great game. It gives long time fans a quick way to dive back into the game that introduced us to the rich world of the Dark Souls series and can introduce new players to the joys and frustrations of said world. For me, I am enjoying my time engaging in jolly co-operation and shall continue to praise the sun in the world of Lordran in high definition.
Justin enjoys most games. He is currently learning the ins and outs of competitive modern Magic while enjoying all sorts of other gaming mediums, assuming he can find the spare time.