I was skeptical about the remaster up until the very release date.

Things already started somewhat sour after eating up fextralife's nonsense about a full-on remake hook, line and sinker; and then falling for a mistranslated press kit that basically turned out lying its ass off about gameplay changes. That was not From's fault, it's true; but then I got super suspicious about an external studio doing the job, and more so about the complete radio silence regarding the game's progress throughout the months (all while merrily cashing in on preorders left and right); and then about that preview code that oh-so-conveniently only showed areas that already played fine in the original.

Then, Eurogamer -finally!- came up with that feature benchmarking Blighttown, and things started looking up... BUT THEN! early Steam user reviews talked about the game's logic being tied to framerate and how any slight dip in performance would throw everything into slow motion, and how that was even worse than regular stuttering; and I was suspicious again.

I eventually broke down and bought the thing, because at the end of the day I'm still a massive From fanboy, and worst case scenario I could just refund.

About a week and 4 characters in, not only can I gladly report that I have very little to complain about the remaster (and what little I can say is all in the realm of the extreme nitpicking), but I have to honestly apologize to and congratulate QLOC for their technical prowess. My PC is good enough to run anything out there with fairly decent framerates, but it's still a cheap enough tin can to barely deserve registering in the annals of the master race; and even I have been getting a rock solid 60 fps with constant, smooth pacing; all the way up to (and including) Blighttown. No amount of geometry, characters, action or particles have made even a dent in the performance so far. Considering the mess that was the original code -which (even after all the awesome, awesome work of Durante, Clément Barnier, cmoyano and Nwks) showed frame pacing issues in even the beefiest PCs in certain areas-, whatever QLOC did with this version is nothing short of impressive.

I have always liked Blighttown. Even at its worst, it's clever and gorgeous in terms of design and it's arguably the best way to put your skills to test. Finally playing it at a constant 60 fps is a thing of beauty that no one should miss on. Don't take the shortcut, don't be such a pansy.


Of course I would've liked a more extensive work -if nothing else, some level of reworking of Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith was in order-, and I can understand the complaints about being charged for what is essentially what should've come in the box back in 2012; but the game was undeniably, massively improved; I'm really enjoying what I've got; and I think it was worth what I paid for. Some degree of magic has clearly been done here and these people deserve being recognized for that.


Plus the game is alive like I have never seen it before; not in the original release, not in the yearly Return to Lordran events -never. Almost 6 years later, it still warms my heart hearing all those bells.

I was skeptical about the remaster up until the very release date. Things already started somewhat sour after eating up fextralife's nonsense about a full-on remake hook, line and sinker; and then falling for a mistranslated press kit that basically turned out lying its ass off about gameplay changes. That was not From's fault, it's true; but then I got super suspicious about an external studio doing the job, and more so about the complete radio silence regarding the game's progress throughout the months (all while merrily cashing in on preorders left and right); and then about that preview code that oh-so-conveniently only showed areas that already played fine in the original. Then, Eurogamer -finally!- came up with that feature benchmarking Blighttown, and things started looking up... BUT THEN! early Steam user reviews talked about the game's logic being tied to framerate and how any slight dip in performance would throw everything into slow motion, and how that was even worse than regular stuttering; and I was suspicious again. I eventually broke down and bought the thing, because at the end of the day I'm still a massive From fanboy, and worst case scenario I could just refund. About a week and 4 characters in, not only can I gladly report that I have very little to complain about the remaster (and what little I can say is all in the realm of the extreme nitpicking), but I have to honestly apologize to and congratulate QLOC for their technical prowess. My PC is good enough to run anything out there with fairly decent framerates, but it's still a cheap enough tin can to barely deserve registering in the annals of the master race; and even I have been getting a rock solid 60 fps with constant, smooth pacing; all the way up to (and including) Blighttown. No amount of geometry, characters, action or particles have made even a dent in the performance so far. Considering the mess that was the original code -which (even after all the awesome, awesome work of Durante, Clément Barnier, cmoyano and Nwks) showed frame pacing issues in even the beefiest PCs in certain areas-, whatever QLOC did with this version is nothing short of impressive. I have always liked Blighttown. Even at its worst, it's clever and gorgeous in terms of design and it's arguably the best way to put your skills to test. Finally playing it at a constant 60 fps is a thing of beauty that no one should miss on. Don't take the shortcut, don't be such a pansy. Of course I would've liked a more extensive work -if nothing else, some level of reworking of Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith was in order-, and I can understand the complaints about being charged for what is essentially what should've come in the box back in 2012; but the game was undeniably, massively improved; I'm really enjoying what I've got; and I think it was worth what I paid for. Some degree of magic has clearly been done here and these people deserve being recognized for that. Plus the game is alive like I have never seen it before; not in the original release, not in the yearly Return to Lordran events -never. Almost 6 years later, it still warms my heart hearing all those bells.