Dark Souls

Dark Souls (ダークソウル) is an RPG developed by From Software. Previously referred to as Project Dark, Dark Souls is the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. It was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in Japan on September 22, 2011, on October 4 in North America, and on October 7 in Europe of the same year. A Windows version was released in August 2012.

The game consists of dungeon crawling in almost relentlessly hostile environments and exploits the tension instilled by risk vs. reward game mechanics and penalties upon player death. Dark Souls takes place in an open world environment, with the player able to travel to and from areas and explore various available paths. Dark Souls allows players to light Bonfires, which function as respawn locations. These bonfires also replenish health, magic, and special items like Estus flasks - limited vials that restore health, but also respawn all enemies previously defeated, except for bosses and certain special enemies. The player must fight their way through various locations and defeat bosses to progress.

Dark Souls features an elaborate online mode, very much like that of Demon's Souls, which is active whenever the game is connected to the internet (for the Xbox 360 version this feature requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription). The online mode adds numerous dynamic interactions between the individual worlds players, including limited co-op and player versus player within certain conditions. Communication between players is deliberately limited.

Versions
The game was first released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan on September 22, 2011, and in Western regions in October 2011. Branded as the Prepare To Die Edition, it came out in August 2012 and featured new content, including bosses, enemies, equipment, and NPCs. The new content, subtitled /Artorias of the Abyss/, was also released for consoles in October 2012 as downloadable content (DLC). In April 2016, Dark Souls became available on Xbox One via backward compatibility.

A remastered version of the game, titled Dark Souls: Remastered, was released worldwide for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in May 2018, and for the Nintendo Switch on October 19, 2018. The remaster was ported by the Polish studio QLOC, whereas the Switch version was ported by the Singaporean studio Virtuos. The game runs at a native 60 frames per second on all platforms except the Nintendo Switch and supports a 4K resolution on the PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X, and Windows. Several changes were made to the online multiplayer, including adding dedicated servers, increasing the maximum number of players online from four to six, and password matchmaking.