Out of the three Dark Souls games, I think this one is my least favourite, but that doesn't mean that I dislike it at all or I think it's bad. The gameplay is pretty jank, the bosses are clunky and there are several fights or levels I actively dread doing. However as a piece of art I think I respect this one the most, at the risk of sounding a bit pretentious. The formula hadn't been figured out yet, so they tried a lot of strange and ambitious things. Some worked, some didn't, overall its an endlessly fascinating mixed bag with great lore and a well thought out world. On the other end of the spectrum is Dark Souls 3, which I think is near perfect in terms of game feel and setpieces, but it plays things very safe and has a few fanservicey bits that feel like memberberries.
If you haven't gotten into this series at all I'm honestly not sure if i'd recommend this game as your first entry, but on the other hand I don't know what game i'd even say to start with. I personally bounced off this game like a rubber ball several times. Every time I tried to play people attempted to backseat me through the whole game [i]"...you gotta level up to equip the zweihander then go get the drake sword then go use the master key and backstab havel 30 times then..."[/i] and it wasn't until Dark Souls 2 came out until I finally got into [i]that[/i] game and beat it and became a lifelong fan. Dark Souls 2 is probably the most forgiving for new players, but it's also strange in its own ways, and 3 is just a straight ballbuster if you haven't got a good grip on the mechanics. I guess i'd recommend this to new players if you're willing to put up with some grade-A crust and jank, or 2 if you are a more casual observer and just want to see what the series is vaguely like. It's weird writing this as pretty much everyone I know has played this series through or tried multiple times and gave up, but I think its important to realize that there's a lot of people out there who have probably just heard the reputation of Fromsoft games being impossible and never bothered to try. It's a lot more manageable than you might think!
