And when I really fell off of this game was in an area that, while still tied to the main storyline, feels a lot like DLC and essentially a challenge map for veteran Souls players that might've found the rest of the game "too" accessible.


This game has a kind of rough 2 hour onboard depending on where you travel and what you may or may not miss (my primary hint: PLEASE double back to the first church at night after you've died once or twice) but then it has so many 10-15 hour stretches of total gaming, like, truly addiction that's hard to quantify.

Even though I wasn't as enchanted by the aimlessness of it as most seemed to be, there is definitely a magic to exploring this world that feels a bit different from most, and unlike some other Souls games you'll never feel unsure whether you can hang with an area or not. And those areas you can tell aren't for you, you also get a good sense through your own progression that it's time to go back and show it what's what.

More evident than anything is that even with the mystery of the world gone for the most part and my frustration with the last act of the game, I started a new save (with 70+ on the old one) and while I'm not binging it nearly as hard as my initial run I've still got about 12 hours on that new save and have had a PRETTY different experience from my first run. It's a really neat accomplishment.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz