Souls Effect

In the Yard Spring 2013, Skyrim was a king among ARPG, and indie at the peak of payback. Hyp on Dark Souls only gained momentum, hitting me. And I finally decided to try such an interesting cocktail: dark fantasy, the promise of hardcore and roofing gamemes. So for me the phenomenon began, which walked in a roller in the gaming industry, and divided the players into two camps: some souls did not aspect in the new creation of the studio even little-known in the wide circles, others unequivocally did not understand the enthusiasm of the former and successfully ignored the newly originated trend: Souls-Like combat system.

Here, for a better understanding, the experience in any Souls game will come in handy, but the final formula of the combat system is still simple: a strong and weak blow, a block with a shield and dodging the cadres of invulnerability; All this spends Stamin and the Imter of a clear sight on the fights of one-variety. It seemed that there was nothing of the time here. All elements were one way or another in other games, but in fact we received a very viable hybrid. Previously, the Action-component in ARPG relied on a simplified slasher mechanics, here-a three-dimensional fighting game from which they selected Long Combo. You may be surprised, but three pillars of fighting in the fullest are fully present: Timing, Spacing and Combo.

If everything is straightforward with the first two: press the buttons at the right time and keep the desired distance; then the combo-component reduced to two or three strokes. And its performance is ensured by one innovation: each inflated blow absorbs the invisible resource of the victim – balance [poise]. If the resource indicator reaches a zero mark – the victim becomes
stunned for a small amount of time for which one or two additional strike.

The new fighting mechanics turned out to be so successful that the competitive multiplayer in each part (except for the artificially buried Demon’s Souls) is still alive.

Souls Effect: Apocalypse

Year 2014, in the game field real hysteria. The first full -fledged clone is damaged: Lords of the Fallen, which does not reach the level of implementation. Many flaws with a combat system spoil the enjoyment of strokes with steel pointed objects.

From everywhere they begin to pour the Vegas Plus announcements of platformers with similar mechanics, journalists form the template “X – Dark Souls from the world Y”, where X is a new game, and Y is its genre affiliation. One of these promising announcements even shoots. SALT & SANCTYARY developers successfully porten the combat system for platform rails, but it turns out that the game has much more from metroids than from souls.

The second side effect of the popularity of the new mechanics was that the developers of many games began to apply these developments in their creations. Even the stronghold of stability and capture of the towers, Assassin’s Creed, wrapped it on the holiday. And for a reason.

For warm -up: Enter Dark Souls Has Ruined Gaming for ME in the search engine. Most likely, you will find hundreds of comments and records that it is difficult for people to return to other games after experience in Dark Souls. Even recognized masterpieces like The Witcher 3 are felt extremely weak in their combat component. The inability to score the most terrible monster with a rusty broken sword depresses the veterans of dark souls. There is no constant reminder of the honesty of game mechanics, where personal skill plays the main role, and not the level of level above the head of the next NPC. Where made mistakes are your personal mistakes. Not missing with the chance of getting in 95%. Three times in a row.

And this is not a far -fetched problem, this is a real scourge for many gamers. I remember how I liked Skyrim, in which more than a hundred hours were held. Launching him a couple of years ago I gave up in half an hour: the woodenness of the battles and the hard pressure of the pumping are too striking. It seems that the page of the RPG historia has rolled over.

Souls Effect: Return to the Castle of Gaming

In one momet, I thought that I started to get old. What has come, the so -called game impotence. But it was worth digging up FTL bins, and after 40 hours it became clear: no, there was something else. The same Souls Effect from the name manifested itself. People quickly get used to the good, and the easiest well -known bolt to do well is to do badly and return as it was. But the essence of the method is different: create a positive contrast and managing to forget about the negative. Therefore, struggling with Souls Effect, I have deduced several rules for myself that have been successfully working for me for 1.5 years:

1. After Soul-game, it is best to take a break at least 2 weeks in front of another Action RPG/Adventure game. Violation of this item prettyly spoiled for me God of War 2018. I will probably make a tablet myself with this rule and put it next to the TV.
2. It is necessary to alternate genres and settings. During breaks from the first point, the first -person shooters and playing with step -by -step mechanics come well. Preferably without swords and other dragons.
3. Without excessive skepticism, try new. Our brain clearly gravitates to the old and comfortable, so here you need to consciously kick yourself. I was extremely surprised how I liked Beond: Two Souls, although I do not perceive Kinzo at all.
4. Never look for a game on the request of “Games Like X” is an extremely useless activity that will give rise to a ton of disappointment and time spent: a similar game, with a high degree of probability, will be much worse showing itself in the aspects of this very similarity. But to look at the tops is still sometimes worth. They can lead to pleasant, for themselves, discoveries.

But over time, the other sides of the effect of souls began to manifest. When every first victory over the boss causes delight, a feeling of achievement. Each shiny found – a reward for the study of the world. Each bonfire gives the appearance of progress and a break. This effect is first invisible, perceived for granted. But it is worth losing it and other games just crumble, stop holding. Someone may not pay attention, someone will find other methods of sublimation for themselves, but the key word “achievement” was not in vain mentioned.

This is the reverse dark side of the shower effect. When during the game they show that you did something significant within the framework of the game itself. Saved a random NPC from an unenviable fate, or collected a collection of swords from around the world: the game knows about it and tells you, retains the screenshot of the event. The collection of all 100% of achievements is not just a climax of efforts, but a kind of way to understand that the game has been completed. Passed as it was in the mid -90s – until the end.

There are many games with a bad or lazy list of achievements, there are artificially redundant achievements, but there is a darkness of subjectively bad games. But the general trend with achievements is extremely fascinating in itself. Meta-game over ordinary games, to which the shower effect led me.

P.S. Do not play Dark Souls if you do not want to accidentally break the love of video games for yourself for yourself.