Demon's Souls - Initial Impressions - 2 hours

Alright, so I popped the disc in, fearful of a new experience.

It opens with a brief movie stating "On the first day blah blah blah... On the second day the demon's took over..." you get to design your character's gender/face/name and class. I've never been too much of a slider junkie, so I settled on a face pretty quickly and went with the default class - Soldier.

You can choose from several starting classes, but as you gain power, you level your stats, so it doesn't matter what you go with, truly.

Classes include: Knight, Priest, Thief, Magician, Temple Knight, Soldier, Wanderer, Barbarian, Royal and Hunter.

After that, you are launched into the opening movie. It describes Boletaria's King bargaining away the prosperity of his kingdom, allowing the demon's to get a foothold in this world. You hear about heroes coming from the world around to challenge the Fog that has hidden the land away. Biorr of the Twin Fangs, Yurt the Silent Chief, Sage Urbain, Scirvir the Wanderer, the Sixth Saint Astrea and her knight Garl Vinland, and Sage Freke the Visionary.

This dumps you into the tutorial level which teaches you the basics:

R1 - Light Attack

R2 - Heavy Attack

L1 - Block

L2 - Deflect then Riposte R1

O - Step back or roll with direction

R3 - Lock target

The tutorial level throws one or two enemies at you at a time, each area separated by a Fog curtained doorway for you to step through. Eventually, you meet a massive boss, who swiped me twice and killed me, thus binding me to the Nexus as a soul form until I kill my first boss.

The Nexus is the hub between five areas in Boletaria which require you to venture in and cleanse (or at least kill the boss). There's a blacksmith and other characters at the nexus. You will also see shadows of warriors in other worlds mirroring your actions, bloodstains on the floor showing their dying acts and warning messages which can help or possibly imperil you on your trip.

I went to the first world directly behind the closest character you can talk with upon arriving at the Nexus. It is the Boleteraian Palace. A great stone edifice with a warning of dragons in the text before leaving the Nexus. As I approach, sword-wielding enemies attack a few at a time initially. I read a warning about archers around the next corner and raised my shield to charge him. After passing him and a few cronies, I start ascending through the wall of the palace, fighting soldiers, more zombie-like soldiers, some of whom wield flames, and a firebomb throwing soldier. At the top of the wall, there are more archers, a spear-carrying soldier who kills me once and a knight that also kills me once.

I retrieved my soul each time (still at only half-health because I haven't finished the boss off yet) and wandered back to the Nexus. Enemies rush at you or step back and fire at you, try to circle you with superior numbers.

The graphics aren't stellar, but good. The gameplay seems tight. The kills aren't cheap (aside from the first tutorial boss), you have to pay attention.

Did I mention the fact that you can't pause the game.

I think I'm starting to like it. A lot.