Demon's Souls Review

Developer: Bluepoint Games, SIE Worldwide Studios

Platform: PlayStation 5

Genre: Action role-playing

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Release date: 19/11/20

Demon’s Souls is the next-generation version and reboot built from the ground up of the PS3 classic. I’m just putting this out there, I haven’t played the PS3 version, it’s one of the PS consoles I didn’t get. Demon’s Souls is brand new to me. I don’t have any nostalgic baggage of playing the game though it’s considered a classic. I have played Bloodbourne though I will be my reference point for aspects of my game review. Demon’s Souls is a third-person action RPG that is considered one of the hardest games.

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For those familiar with the PS3 version, this game looks like a beautifully updated version of the PS3 game. I usually quickly skip through the character creation introduction, but I did spend time on it and marvelled at the rendering of the faces. The game has several classes that you can create your custom character from – Knight, Thief, Magician, and Wanderer to name a few. Gameplay involves navigating quite a linear path to kill a host of monsters. An increasing presence of demons has plagued the world and must be stopped. The game is unforgiving in many ways, while the controls are simple, the player is required to use their endurance effectively to strategically kill enemies while ensuring you don’t die. An all-out attack approach in Demon’s Souls will lead to many deaths where entire sections of the game must be replayed. You will die over and over.

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It’s slick and polished from the very first frame of the game through its entirety. Every creature, beast and monster you meet throughout the game looks stunning. Boss enemies (some are huge) rendered in meticulous detail, each gruesome and gory detail is brought to life. The environments vary from a mixture of ruined castles, keeps, moats, fields and decaying buildings. The use of light and shading lends itself another sense of the unknown to the player. Enemies are hiding in the shadows and creep up on you as you progress through each level. It has the right mix of difficulty, level progression, levelling up mixed in with a beautiful environment and sound to boot. It has the feel of a game that has been lovingly built up and each aspect of the gameplay while infuriating (when you die) make Demon’s Souls a fantastic journey.

Demon Souls looks amazing in 4K, the game supports 4K 30fps in cinematic mode and 1440p upscaled to 4K at 60fps (dynamic 4k). Demon’s Souls has both PVP and Co-op modes available that are unlocked early in the game. You can play with friends or other Souls players.

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Demon’s Souls is the best release title for the PS5. It looks amazing and plays just as well. While some players will find the game very difficult, it requires time and dedication to get to most of this game. It’s not a lie, it’s a challenge but tons of fun. There is a huge emphasis on strategy, levelling up and being wary of enemies. The bosses are fantastic, and they get tougher as you progress the game. You will die a lot, but you just need to persist. Demon’s Souls is exciting, tough but it is a fantastic must own launch title. Demon’s Souls the launch title to beat all launch titles

Overall: 9/10

Review code supplied by Sony.