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So, I've been playing Dark Souls a lot for the last week and a half, a period that also could be described as "since it came out" - I had it pre-ordered, because oh hell yes. (For an entertaining thematic breakdown of the game, you could just check out its TVTropes summary.)
I'm enjoying it a lot, but one thing seriously stands out from all other games I've ever played, for its inclusion of a feature I've yearned for in a number of games.
In Dark Souls, there are ledges and places to fall. Sometimes, you want to jump. Other times, jumping is death.
Dark Souls, first of all games I've ever played, gives you the ability to drop a damn pebble off the ledge to get an idea of how far down it is.
You can't scrabble around in the dirt for any random pebble - which is fine, by the way, that's a feature that would *not* be worth the coding effort for the programmers. What you can do is, very cheaply, buy a stack of an item called a Prism Stone. Prism Stones can then be dropped off ledges, and will make a loud noise if it's too far to survive. You can *also* use them as path markers, because where they land, they stay, and they glow in sparkly, pretty colours. (One of seven or eight colours, although which colour you get is random.)
This makes maze-like areas way, way less annoying. In some sections that I found mildly confusing before I really learned my way around, I would drop prism stones in certain spots, and then, when I got turned around, I'd know it, because oh hey, that sparkly blue glow at the base of that ladder means that's the one I came down to get here, because that's where I dropped a blue stone.
It's not the first game to include a way to do something like that, but a lot of games that should, don't.
It's a small thing, but it can do an amazing amount to reduce the frustration level of the game.
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