Fans of "Demon’s Souls" can rest assured that the difficulty has not changed in "Dark Souls." If that is the good news, then the bad news is the difficultly is not the only thing left unaltered. "Dark Souls" is "Demon’s Souls" in almost every way.

For anyone not familiar with the games, "Dark Souls" is an action RPG that focuses on combat rather than characters or plot.

To be fair, its combat is fantastic and complex. Playing with a shield and spear feels vastly different than using a two-handed sword. Bows can provide much needed range but are inefficient up close, while magic is powerful, but casting leaves you vulnerable.

While "Dark Souls" does have classes to pick from, the only real impact this has on gameplay is starting status and equipment, meaning you can build your character in any way you want. You do this by collecting souls from enemies, which act as the game’s experience points and currency. Souls pay for literally everything, which means it’s not always an easy decision between raising your strength and upgrading your sword.

The catch is that this game is hard. Even basic enemies are honest threats and dying means you lose all your souls. You get one chance to make it back to the spot you died, but enemies respawn and if you fail, you lose them for good.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that boss fights are daunting tasks. The bosses in "Dark Souls" are both wonderfully designed and frustrating. Often times these battles are long and require patience, precision and even a bit of luck. Still, the feeling of killing a dragon three stories tall with just a one-handed sword is extremely rewarding.

"Dark Souls" is rare in that its difficulty does not ruin the experience. Everything your character encounters is about as strong as you are, if not stronger. Most enemies can kill you in five or six attacks and it’s not uncommon for bosses to kill you in one, but they never break the combat system.

It’s worth noting that despite being challenging, the enemies in "Dark Souls" are not smart. Often times they can be tricked into walking off a cliff or become stuck on a post. While in this game every advantage helps, it is bad game design to be able to kill a boss just because you caught them in a glitch, or found a location where they couldn’t reach you. This is easier than it should be.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is where "Dark Souls" gets interesting. Players can leave notes for each other to find in the world that act as hints. “Trap ahead” or “The enemy's weakness is fire” are examples of messages that can save your life.

Because all these messages are left by other players they need to be taken with a grain of salt. If a message promises treasure ahead and points you off a cliff, it may be a leap of faith to a secret area, or it could be a devious gamer trying to trick you into falling to your doom.

If you want to have more direct interactions with players, you can leave a note allowing them to summon you to their world.

If you help them kill a boss, you are both rewarded. Voice support would have been a nice addition, but there is still a strong sense of teamwork in conquering a particularly difficult section with a partner. On the other side, if you’re not feeling cooperative, you can also invade another player’s world, taking the form of a red phantom.

Killing a player in their world grants you souls and items, while ruining their day. It’s an interesting concept that works well and the intricacies of combat hold up beautifully in player-versus-player combat. The advantages and disadvantages of different play styles really stand out when pitted against skilled players instead of the AI. In addition, invading a player’s world does not spawn you right on top of them, it provides you with a chance to lie in wait and plan your attack.

In the end, "Dark Souls" is every bit as deep, challenging and engaging as "Demon’s Souls," but this is mostly because it is more of the same.

The steep difficulty may turn some off, but if you have the patience to endure the many trials of "Dark Souls," you will be rewarded with a deep, combat-focused RPG with some of the coolest online elements in the genre.

PS3/Xbox 360

ESRB: M (Mature)

Rating: 4 of 5 stars