Dark Souls Remastered: PS4 Review

Dark Souls Remastered: PS4 Review

Released by Bandai Namco

Platform: PS4

So, why would you want to punish yourself again?

We all know how depressingly hard Dark Souls can be at the best of times, but the remaster which has relaunched is here to remind you of the fresh hell that there is.

2011 saw From Software's game vault into everyone's best of lists, and saw you die repeatedly as you made your way through an obtuse adventure, aimed at rekindling your perseverance and your desire to be repeatedly punished.

So it's fair to say that the remaster, aside from its improved frame rates and the fact it packs in the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, means you've played it before. It's a shame there's nothing radically new to be added to the mix, but in fairness, Dark Souls is a good game - but given since its launch we've add Nioh, Bloodborne and others, it seems to exist solely on the fact that nostalgia for the game is there to be used.

The RPG elements still work well, and the game still appeals, but given we're about to get a splurge of new content from E3 and that new games are still around to be played (Far Cry 5, God of War's much revitalised revamp), it's hard to fuylly justify why this remaster exists.

The improvement in graphics is welcome, but given everything plays as it did before, the idea of it even existing is puzzling.

Whereas other remasters have built on their previous versions, this one seems to be a bit of a soulless remaster that exists purely because a marketing team said it should.

It's not unplayable, and it's not like the polish isn't welcome, but Dark Souls Remastered needs a little more of a raison d'etre.