A parade of death

Be prepared to die … a lot. “Dark Souls” isn’t for the faint of heart or those who like to play games on the easy setting. The action role-playing game — a spiritual sequel to 2009’s “Demon’s Souls” — sticks to the dark-fantasy theme, but improves on nearly every aspect from graphics to gameplay.

If you get frustrated by failure, this may not be your cup of tea. “Sadistic challenge” barely begins to describe the difficulty — it’s a true return to hard-core gaming. The simplest enemies can easily kill you if you don’t time attacks and blocks perfectly, and there are tons of hidden traps that enemies spring without warning. All of this comes packaged with minimal directions on what to do and where to go.