Joe Hendrey

If you've played a Dark Souls game, this is more of the same. The dense, interconnected level design is brilliant, the setting is suitably dark and creepy, and visuals and sound design do a great job of setting the mood. The game is at it's absolute best when you're exploring new areas, getting further and further away from the last save point, knowing you're only one slip up away from losing everything (well, everything you haven't spent yet). The gameplay is about mastery of the minimalist combat system, but don't expect the game to guide your learning process - instead expect to hit your head against a brick wall continually until something clicks. This is especially annoying for boss fights where every death means a 20+ second loading screen, followed by 5 minutes of running to get to the boss room, only to die almost immediately to an attack you hadn't seen before. From Software clearly have very little regard for the value of your time. There are elements to the design of the game that are worth experiencing, but unfortunately the shocking performance and unforgivable loading times mean I wouldn't give it a passing grade.