Dark Souls

It's when you return to Dark Souls that its difference in demands and tone become most stark.

Where other games allow you to spam health potions instantaneously, Dark Souls demands you contrive the time and space to take your life giving drink lest it becomes your last.

The enemies in Dark Souls attack like their lives truly depend on it. They may not say much but their desire for survival is clear. When they kill you, they seem to swagger away, satisfied with their performance and continued existence.

The environment too offers little to relax or reassure. You're often perilously close to an almost endless drop or forced to fight in cramped conditions that seem to claw at you just as cruelly as the enemy.

Even the NPC in Dark Souls communicate in cryptic and cloaked prose that leaves you uncertain. It's a world that invites you in but never puts you at ease or makes you feel welcome.