Demon's Souls Reviews

If you've been scouring the Internet for one less-than-favorable review of Demon's Souls, you won't find it among this latest batch.

The first is at Aeropause with a score of 4.5/5:
My experience with the game is that if you enjoy stat-building deep RPGs, where your control of the character is much greater than simply selecting Attack, Magic, Item or Run, then you will find plenty to enjoy here. While I would not label it as hard, the level of frustration is off the scale as you spend plenty of time dying and loading. Even the game realizes this, and this quirk will definitely alienate more than a handful of players. This is the A-list RPG that the PS3 has been waiting for.

The second is at SmashPad with a score of 9/10:
If you didn't get the hint already, Demon's Souls is an unforgiving title that won't be enjoyed by the most weak-hearted of people. But if you can get by its excruciating difficulty, you'll find a game that has all sorts of things to uncover. The combat system is robust, the amount of exploration is amazing, and the game looks and sounds beautiful. Combine all this with the game's masterful storytelling without hours and hours of dialog, and you have what's probably the best and most frightening role-playing game this generation so far just in time for Halloween.

The third is at AV Club with a score of "B":
The forced repetition and steep odds could've been a disaster. But the mêlée combat, mapped primarily to the PlayStation 3's rear triggers, is so beautifully precise, it demands to be mastered. Death always feels like an absence of skill, not an unpredictable abuse on the game's part. And when players fight their way back to where their own bloodstains are still lying, then make it just a few steps further, it's enough of a personal victory to compel them to keep fighting. It's heartbreaking but immersive, that rare occasion that a game truly makes players feel like heroes facing down impossible odds. And every success, hard-won one grueling inch at a time, is likely to keep them coming back for more.

The fourth is at Blast Magazine with a score of 9.6/10:
Just like many of today's RPGs, you have to deal with inventory and equip weight; too much on hand means you won't be able to show off your agile rolling and running effectively, so be mindful of this. Unlike many of today's RPGs, there is no pause button, so you can't just hit pause and equip a more powerful weapon or heal yourself while a bad guy tries to lop your head off. Always be prepared is right up there with any other personal rule you can come up with for surviving Demon's Souls.

And the fifth is at Gameplay Monthly with a score of "A-":
This game has deserved the high scores and praise it's been getting. From Software deserves acknowledgement for the unique take on this type of genre. I hope the sales do well, as they deserve it.