Dark Souls - Great Adult RPG Action

Dark Souls is a brutal third-person action-adventure RPG like nothing you have ever played before. It's rated M for Mature for "Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, and Violence" so it's definitely not child's play. Right from the start, Dark Souls is going to challenge you and suck you into its world, keeping you on your toes and breaking the rules of standard video games.

It's even more challenging than the popular predecessor, Demon's Soul and it's sure to terrify you in a delightful way. If you want to see how twisted a video game can really be, then this is for you. You will face challenges right and left and you will die...a lot. You will be poisoned, eaten, stabbed, pushed off cliffs, assassinated and more. In fact, you will learn ways to die that you might never have even thought of before.

Graphics

The graphics get an A+ for sure, which adds to the excitement and appeal of the game. Death is essential the storyline and theme of Dark Souls so the graphics, down to every minute detail, have to accentuate this. Death is literally at every corner and with eye-popping graphics, you'll be on the edge of your seat fighting for survival.

It is elegantly rendered with clean graphics that are consistent throughout the entire game environment. The simple version: it looks awesome.

Gameplay

Gameplay is versatile in Dark Souls because you have various choices. It has an open world design, co-op play and numerous online playing options such as covenants (which are like factions). Without playing in online mode, it's really not even a complete game. Finding covenant leaders is not straightforward, either. They are hidden in the game in unsuspecting places and part of the game is seeking these out.

Gameplay is not easy but the challenge keeps you intrigued. It has superb, precise combat, abundant bosses that test your skills and engaging NPCs.

Replayability

With its open-ended aspect and multi-player dimension, online interactive playability (co-ops and competitive play), secret areas that can only be accessed after you have beaten the game the first time and more, there is a great deal of replayability. This isn't a game you're going to sit and beat in one session (or two… or three…) but once you do achieve the goal of getting to the end alive, there is still more to do.

It's a great game but it's definitely rated M for a reason. With partial nudity, blood and gore, intense graphics, challenging gameplay and dark themes, this is not a game for younger audiences. It's a far cry from Mario, for sure.