Gameplay
Gameplay consists of dungeon crawling in almost relentlessly hostile environments. The challenging nature of the game provides a foundation of achievement and reward, reinforced by penalties upon player death. Dark Souls takes place in a large and contiguous open world environment, with the player able to travel to and from areas and explore various available paths seamlessly. Bonfires are scattered throughout the world; these represent the sole areas of rest and function as checkpoints. Resting at a bonfire causes all non-boss enemies to respawn, but also refills the player's supply of estus flasks (healing items), sorceries, miracles, and pyromancies. The player can be in either undead form or human form, and death in human form reverts the player to undead form. In undead form, the player is unable to kindle bonfires or summon help from other players; at the same time, players in undead form cannot be invaded by other players. Death in either form results in the loss of all carried souls and humanity, both of which act as forms of currency in the world, though they are each used for different purposes. The player has one chance to recollect the souls and humanity by reaching the location of his death; failing this, the items are permanently lost.Souls are awarded upon killing any enemy, with the amount rewarded generally being proportional to the toughness of the enemy. Humanity on the other hand is significantly rarer. It is required to switch from undead to human form or to kindle bonfires (which itself requires the player to be in human form). Humanity also has several subtle effects on gameplay, such as increasing the item discovery rate or buffing some of the player's resistances. Certain weapons also scale in damage considerably with the possession of humanity.
Dark Souls features an elaborate online mode which is active whenever the console is connected to the internet. The online mode adds numerous dynamic interactions between the individual players, including limited co-op and player versus player, within certain conditions. Communication between players is deliberately limited. If the player is in "party chat" on the 360, the game will be set to offline mode.
The online interactions can facilitate a great amount of PvP activity. Under certain conditions, one player can invade another player's world with the goal of killing the other player. Some areas of the game have been designated unofficial PvP hotspots by the community; in these areas it is common to find hundreds of players either invading or waiting to be invaded in order to engage in 1v1 duels. Two elements of skill are generally involved in PvP: the dueling itself, which relies on reflexes and on-the-spot thinking, and the planning and development of the character build, which involves carefully engineering the character's stats to reap maximum benefits from a chosen configuration of armor and weapons.
Plot
In the founding of the universe, the earth was unformed, covered in crags, and dragons held sole dominion over the world. However, The Lords of Fire along with the human race eventually came into existence for reasons long lost to time. From the Dark, which gained meaning in contrast to Light from the newly kindled flame, emerged four powerful entities--Nito, the first of the dead; the Witch of Izalith and her daughters of chaos; Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights; and the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten--who harnessed the Souls of Lords to combat the dragons, eventually overthrowing them and launching humanity and their new lordly gods into a golden era known as the Age of Fire.
The player character is an Undead, who has yet to become Hollow. The protagonist escapes from the northern Undead Asylum with the help of another Undead and learns of the prophecy concerning a chosen Undead who leaves the Undead Asylum in pilgrimage and rings the two Bells of Awakening in the land of the ancient lords, Lordran.
Once the character has rung the Bells of Awakening, one in the heights of the Undead Parish and the other far, far below in the poisonous swamp at the base of Blighttown, the gate leading to Sen's Fortress and Anor Londo is opened, and the Primordial Serpent Kingseeker Frampt is awoken. He tells the player that he or she is the Chosen Undead who must succeed Lord Gwyn and remove the affliction of the Darksign. It is implied that Frampt is very old and has awaited the protagonist's arrival for a very long time. To achieve this given task, the character must get the Lordvessel from the land of Anor Londo, a forsaken city bathed in sunlight. When the task is done, the character must obtain the four powerful Lord Souls: one from Seath the Scaleless, the proud dragon who betrayed his own out of deep anger over his lack of immortality; one from the Four Kings, ancient rulers of New Londo who fell to Dark and were banished to the Abyss; one from the Bed of Chaos, a mass of life and the source of all demons which was the result of the failed experiments of the Witch of Izalith to recreate the primeval Flame; and Gravelord Nito, the first of the dead.
However, in the Abyss if the player has not placed the Lordvessel on the altar at that point then he or she can instead meet Darkstalker Kaathe, a different Primordial Serpent who opposes Frampt. After informing the player that he or she is a direct descendent of the pygmy, who obtained the Dark Soul, Kaathe will present the protagonist with a different path: to end the Age of Fire and "usher in the Age of Dark." Kaathe stated that Gwyn had wished to "avoid the course of nature," prolonged the Age of Fire, and in doing so branded undead with the Darksign, which only caused suffering. In Linking the Fire, Gwyn sacrificed himself, becoming the Lord of Cinder. The Age of Dark will erase this curse. Kaathe implies that the prophecy of the Chosen Undead espoused by Frampt is a lie crafted by the gods to trick the player into sacrificing himself in order to prolong the tyranny of the old order of deities; indeed, Kaathe implies that the deity status of Gwyn et. al. is only granted to them by the primordial Flame so long as it is kindled. The player must come to his or her own conclusion regarding whether Frampt or Kaathe is telling the truth.
After offering the four Lord Souls to the Lordvessel, with the help of either Frampt or Kaathe, the character must go on to defeat Gwyn. Once the character has slain him, the player is given a vague choice which affects the ending. The player may choose to either sacrifice himself in order to re-kindle the Flame and prolong the rule of the existing order of deities or to let the Flame wither and die, ushering in the Age of Dark (or of Humanity as Kaathe would suggest).
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