DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED

Dark Souls was already one hell of a great game – and I'm genuinely happy with the Remaster. For me, it's not necessarily the hardest entry in the series. But that's not really why I keep coming back to Lordran anyway. It's the world and its incredible atmosphere. Dark Souls can be breathtakingly beautiful – and absolutely disgusting the next moment. You fight your way through Blighttown, this damp, poisonous, rotten hellhole where it feels like even the environment itself is trying to rip the soul out of your body. Everything is dark, cramped, and decaying. And eventually, you reach Anor Londo. Suddenly, the world opens up. Light, vastness, monumental architecture, and this majestic city above the clouds. After all the filth and darkness you've been through, that moment feels even more impressive. To this day, it's one of the most beautiful contrasts I've experienced in a game. Dark Souls manages, like almost no other game, to be beautiful, melancholic, oppressive, and sometimes downright disgusting – while still making everything feel like part of the same world. Add to that the brilliantly interconnected level design, and Lordran genuinely feels like a real place. The Remaster doesn't need to reinvent any of this. It simply gives an already fantastic classic a welcome refresh and gives me a good reason to keep coming back. I've played through it more than once, and I'm pretty sure I'll do it again. Not the hardest Dark Souls. But maybe the most beautiful.