Fire serves as a constant metaphor for life in Dark Souls.

Being undead in Dark Souls isn’t the terminal fate you may think it is, however there are degrees to the affliction, and it can even be reversed. That flame is now gradually fading, ushering in a new age of darkness that is rendering people into ghouls, or worse. This comes after a long series of cataclysmic creation events, in which the world of Lodran, the game’s setting, was forged by holy fire. To the potential surprise of new players, your character is undead (or “hollowed”), languishing in an asylum for revenants. The game I was playing was Dark Souls Remastered, an enhanced version of the game that was originally released in 2011. I embarked on a journey through a game that quakes the spirits of even the most hardened of players, striking fear into their hearts for its reputedly fearsome difficulty. Given my newfound attraction to the genre, I thought it was prudent of me to go back to where it all began.

Last year I fell in love with Soulsborne lookalikes The Surge and Lords of the Fallen.