The beauty of Demon's Souls has been served just as well as its beastliness, and good lord is this thing frequently a sight to behold, from the newly polished halls of the Nexus to the moss-shrouded underpasses of the Boletarian Palace, light sieved through soft fronds of vegetation. The Tower of Latria's sense of cold trepidation is ramped up to an almost unbearable degree, even if the mindflayers have lost some of their old menace in their new redesign elsewhere the Valley of Defilement's an incredible study of atrophy and grot, its sagging wooden walkways perched over the darkness carrying a perceptible claggy dampness. Bluepoint's remake leans into those horror elements, making exquisite use of shadow and light. Contrary to what the series' naming convention might suggest, Demon's Souls was always a much darker game than its Dark Souls descendants, as much of a horror game as the full-blown Lovecraftian nightmare of Bloodborne. The remake serves other elements of the 2009 original brilliantly, too. Perhaps the biggest benefit the PS5 brings is the super-quick loading enabled by the SSD - you can now almost instantaneously warp to new areas, taking a lot of the pain from the inevitable grind you'll face. In this way Bluepoint's remake works wonders, the clang of an enemy pickaxe striking your shield reverberating through your wrists as well as your ears, a soul arrow hitting with the perceptible crackle of thunder while boss fights now thump with the room-shaking pizazz of a summer blockbuster. The physicality of Demon's Souls - something just as important to From's series as its lore-soaked architecture and the pervading sense of dread beauty - has never felt quite so explicit. You'll hear the fizzle of their flame-lit swords through the PlayStation 5's 3D Audio - elsewhere you'll likely find yourself flinching as arrows zip by your ears, while you'll feel the tension of the bow in the DualSense's triggers should you want to fire off an arrow in return. You'll see the individual expressions of each dregling in outrageous detail as they lunge out of cover to ambush you. Inch up towards the gates of Boletaria and you'll see the palace, made over in an entirely new architectural style, towering over you. It's not a remaster so much as a full-on remake from the ground up, though the fundamentals remain precisely the same - only here they're served by cutting edge visuals and all the special tricks the new generation of PlayStation hardware can muster. Like 2018's Shadow of the Colossus before it, 2020's Demon's Souls sees masters of the remaster Bluepoint Games take on a beloved modern classic. FromSoftware's brand of hard-edged action has properly made it into the mainstream - even if the Japanese developer is not directly involved here at all. No longer a cult curio, Demon's Souls is the jewel in the crown of the PlayStation 5's launch line-up, a dazzling, lavish remake of the original Soulsbourne at the forefront of Sony's new generation of hardware. Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainmentįive successors later, spiritual or otherwise (you can't accuse the ever industrious FromSoftware of slacking) we've perhaps the series' most high profile moment yet.Developer: Bluepoint Games/SIE Japan Studio.It was nothing less than a phenomenon, and it's hard to argue there has been any series as impactful, influential or downright exquisite this past decade. Passed over by Sony for western release and subsequently picked up by a handful of adventurous importers, it was followed by word of mouth that soon escalated, and the chorus has been ringing out loudly ever since. When it launched way back in 2009, FromSoftware's Demon's Souls was something of a whispered secret. There's friction between the original and this lavish remake, but this is a scintillating launch title that shows off the PS5's strengths.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |