DARK SOULS™: REMASTERED

属于是屎味巧克力。只要能够吃下所有恶意通关后，回味一定是一款好作品。对于广受好评的地图设计，个人感觉宏观的地图设计非常好，从火鸡厂出发，就像是开放世界一般，游戏初期就能到好几张小区域，而各个小区域又相互连通。可问题在于当深入不同的小区域后，每个地方都有无数粪点。同时并非所有区域都适合初期探索，如果执意探索除不死镇外的任何区域，都会痛不欲生。总体来看属于前期地图的火鸡厂-不死镇-教会这一块区域是设计的最好的，他们的捷径会放在初见注意不到的地方，当打开捷径的时候真的会眼前一亮。并且不死镇有许多能够跳跃的小缺口，大大增加的推图的乐趣。但再之后的所有地图，缺点都远大于优点。虽然不能对这款十五年前的游戏苛求过多，但如果能够将其他区域好好打磨，只要达到不死镇一半的水准，魂一在我看来就能达到神作的高度。

It’s basically chocolate that tastes like shit — bitter and painful while you’re playing, but once you’ve swallowed it all and cleared every ounce of malice the game throws at you, you realize it’s actually something brilliant.

The much-praised world and map design really shines on a macro level. Starting from Firelink Shrine, the world almost feels like an open-world game. From the very beginning, you can access several smaller areas, and each of them connects to others in clever, surprising ways.

The problem is, once you dive deep into those areas, every single place is packed with frustrating design choices. And not all zones are meant for early exploration — if you stubbornly push into anywhere other than the Undead Burg, you’re in for pure suffering.

Overall, the Firelink Shrine → Undead Burg → Undead Parish stretch is by far the best-designed part of the game. The shortcuts are hidden just out of sight, and the moment you open one, it’s that classic Dark Souls “holy shit, this connects here?!” feeling. Especially in Undead Burg — those narrow ledges and small gaps you can jump across make exploring genuinely satisfying.

But after that section, the rest of the maps have more flaws than highlights. Of course, it’s hard to be too harsh on a game from fifteen years ago, but if the later areas had been polished even to half the level of Undead Burg, Dark Souls I could easily have reached legendary status in my eyes.