I can't exactly give a proper review of Demon's Souls, as I've only played maybe 2 hours of it, but if the game remains along the same path, then I can at least state an opinion/observation...
Many people seem to love the game for the apparent return of it's "old school" nature: extreme difficulty. In an era where people are complaining about the increasing ease of games, and the emergence of the casual genre, it makes sense that something with a nostalgic feel has a moderate re-emergence.
However, while some may call this innovative, I am more tempted to consider it broken, and something that should probably only be a one-off (unless there's a direct sequel - to put it another way, From Software should be the only ones to developer a game like this).
The reason it's broken is simple: it's backwards.
We're in an era where games are moving forward in terms of ease and speed (checkpoints, regenerating health) because the people playing them and making them, who more than likely also grew up with them, don't have the time to spend dozens of hours on one game, trying to accomplish one task. When we were young we had lots of time, so a game like this was the norm. Not to mention there was nothing like the modern games we had, so we were all used to "extreme" difficulty.
It makes sense that as we age, and go from the player to the creator, we want to make games that we would play. Unfortunately, modern youth, who still do (and youth more than likely always will) have lots and lots of time for games that are more old school in nature. Then again, there are also adults who have felt "burned" by the increasing ease and predominance of casual games.
But are easier, more time-friendly games a bad thing? Definitely not.
As the language of games matures, it begins to take on it's own unique features. While games from the past decade were mostly trying to mimic movies in their grandiose, cinematic scale, games of today appear to be going more in the direction of books and TV - chapters.
While games have been having save and checkpoints for quite some time, it's only more recently that game makers are understanding the benefits of pacing and creating chapters.
A perfect example of this is the Uncharted series. Each game has around 25 chapters, with each chapter being anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. It can be difficult to find time to play a game, and so when we sit down, we may not really know how long we really have to play. Using chapters is a great way to generate a sense of accomplishment and progress in a small time, even though we may not know how long a chapter will be.
The addition of chapters adds a certain flow that only benefits the narrative and structure of a well-crafted game, to the point where playing through a well-written game such as the Uncharted series is akin to reading a good book that you can't put down. You always want to read or play just one more chapter, and with the progress and direction in which games are going, players can go through a chapter and know that it won't take forever, or if they die, all that time spent will be for naught.
This is the lesson that Demon's Souls sadly ignores - the value of time. I am very intrigued by the world, story and mythos of Demon's Souls, but I have sadly neither the time, interest, or, really, patience to put up with it's design.
Perhaps the sequel will make up for this, but I doubt it.
