After putting in several hours on All of the Dark Souls Games (not including Souls like titles from FROM software) This still is the best one, best online out of the trilogy and second best offline. Surprisingly has the least amount of cheaters despite the later titles having done more to fight cheating. Oh yes, as of this review plenty of people are still playing this game online, no need for connectivity mods (in fact those mods are doing more harm than good) as long as you know the rules of what level range of both your weapons as well as your character works best in what areas you won't be waiting long. Gameplay wise, DS1 has probably the most realistic weapon physics and with less "phantom" range on attacks than the sequel titles have. Most of the enemies use realistic move sets, it's not plagued with heavy set monsters with infinite stamina that can lunge at you as if they were as lite as Peter Pan (DS3) or move like marionettes getting caught on corners like you were playing a Nintendo 64 game (ds2). You can tell the most love went into this game. Don't get me wrong, DS2 and DS3 are not terrible, but DS1 is still the GOAT.

Play this game offline. That's the summary, the explanation follows. The vast majority of players who are playing online have either installed a randomizer, using basic hacks like invulnerability and lag switching, or make an attempt to corrupt your save file. Occasionally you will run into honorable players and highly skilled opponents. Not enough though to enjoy the online experience. If you intend to play online, back up your save, you'll be doing yourself a tremendous favor. I've allowed comments on this review hoping to see if my experience is not unique, or just to enjoy a "git gud scrub" from the community. Thank you.

I've been waiting a long time to be able to play this on a PC in English. I was glad to see it maintained the story lines (with filler) and the gacha elements being ignored doesn't cripple new players. I can confidently say that up to level 40 you do not need to spend any money to enjoy the game and hopefully that should be enough time to decide if a player wants to make any real investments into it. My only gripe is the lack of commands to be key mapped, given that it was originally a touchscreen game that makes sense but it does play well on a desktop and could benefit to be played using a controller interface.

Worst game of the series for online play. The controller betrays you in many ways, Stored actions, terrible response to kick and leap commands. Most of the player base has resorted to cheating or just have plain lost their minds. I'm guessing the mainstream has moved on to Elden so I should have expected this, but people playing the older souls games online have more class than these degenerates, including the cheaters.

Offline it's not too bad, the controls are still the worst in the series but it's workable. You'll die mostly to stored rolls and attacks depleting your stamina. I know it's not any of my controllers because the online community made a mod that fixes the faulty controls but players shouldn't have to resort to modding to play this game. The first game I can understand but apparently FROM has learned nothing from previous PC game flaws.

Love it! Hate it! Most of this game is a challenging but fair romp though ruins that are warped remains of urban and rural hangouts. But then there's the Jackals and the Forcemen who basically take whatever skill, knowledge, and gear you've developed for days and make you feel like you just started playing 5 minutes ago. If you end up loving this game, and you have the patience, this doesn't have to be pay to win.

Greatest game of the series. Probably will remain that way. Not as balanced or fair compared to later titles but the sense of accomplishment is far greater.