Why I Love Demon's Souls
By Lizard Dude
Fear of Death
The first wonderful thing about Demon's Souls is this: You cannot save, you cannot load, you cannot pause even in menus. Everything you do is permanent and real. Most games really hurt the experience by allowing players unlimited quicksaving/quickloading or numerous checkpoints. That might be more convenient, but it really wrecks the flow and feel of a game. Nothing feels risky. A numbness develops. But in Demon's Souls, when you're alive you feel alive. You want to live. You care. If you see something ahead that looks dangerous, you carefully consider your actions instead of just rushing in to see what happens, reloading if neccessary. The game ended up like this as a byproduct of its multiplayer, but even when you're by yourself it really adds to the experience.
Combat System
The second wonderful thing about Demon's Souls is this: The combat is really really good. This sure ain't Final Fantasy, it's not World of Warcraft, and it isn't even Diablo. It's entirely action- and skill-based, but your limited stamina makes each move important. If you just repeatedly attack, you're going to get creamed. The fighting system is rich and deep, with multiple attack types per weapon, parrying, ripostes, and guard breaks. It's basically a dungeon-crawl with Soulcalibur Lite combat. And that's totally rad.
Potential To Do Anything
The third wonderful thing about Demon's Souls is this: Your character has no limits. Your starting class determines your initial gear and stats, but you can eventually do anything you want. You can learn every spell in the game even if you start as a Barbarian. You can wear plate armor as a Magician. It will just take longer to get there. Additionally, you can use any weapon or wear any gear at any time no matter your stats. You will just suck at it. I was messing around with a giant club I didn't have the strength for and laughed as my guy couldn't even get it off the ground during a rolling attack. Another neat thing is that since each hand is individually equippied and controlled, you can effectively use advanced one-handed weapons you aren't strong enough for if you use both hands at once.
Level Design
If you've played any God of War you know the feeling when you're going through a big convoluted temple or something and come out upon a balcony and think, "Oh I'm there!" Demon's Souls is great at that at well. I haven't seen the entire game yet, but what I have is great. It's also really good at letting you create natural shortcuts back to earlier areas, which you can then use if you die and have to start over.
Insane Multiplayer
And perhaps the most unique thing about Demon's Souls: the multi. Seeing the real-time ghosts of other players as they're playing their own game. Reading messages people have left. Watching how other people died. Summoning dead people to help you beat your game. Helping other people's games to come back to life yourself. Invading someone else's essentially single-player game universe and killing them. This stuff is just straight up crazy pimp.
Act Fast
My only fear about Demon's Souls is that people who play it a long time from now will have a significantly lessened experience because there won't be nearly as many other people playing it. If you have interest in this game and the ability to obtain it, I strongly suggest playing it now, not later.
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