Glimmer of hope
Despite the inevitability of death all hope isn't lost. Dark Souls' innovative online component provides a beacon of light that shines through the moribund fog. Gameplay is set in a persistent online universe where adventurers, all facing the same trials and tribulations, will help you out. Messages are scrawled on the ground from players who have trodden the same path, offering advice on how to beat enemies, and often pointing you in the right direction to wonderful treasures. A rating system allows you to rank messages based on their usefulness while you, too, can leave your own messages of hope or despair from the list of preset options.
"Merchant ahead" reads one message, taking us down a route we may have otherwise missed, where we find a man selling his wares. Another reads "Use fire," suggesting that the armoured hog currently glaring at us has a weakness to flames. Another simply reads "I can't take this" - a sentiment that we've shared on numerous occasions. Yet, for a multitude of reasons, Dark Souls keeps you coming back for more. We've lost sleep over thinking about tough-to-kill bosses and wondering what strategies we could possibly use to bring them down.
And eventually, when you do get that breakthrough and all of sudden realise that perhaps you should tackle a dragon by first shooting his tail off with numerous well-placed arrows, or climb a tower and jump on the head of a Taurus Demon rather than tackle him head on, it all becomes worth agonising over. Indeed, Dark Souls' unforgiving challenge is a major part of its addictive charm.
The knowledge that others are going through a similar experience often plays out in your game and motivates you to keep going. A chime from afar signals that another player has just taken down a big boss, while bloodstains replay the last five seconds of another player's death, occasionally providing hints on what terror awaits. You can invade other peoples' worlds to steal their items, and vice versa, and though progression can be extremely slow you always feel as if you're getting closer to your goal.
