Why Dark Souls is the best game of all time

GamesRadar+ readers and Golden Joystick Awards viewers crowned Dark Souls as the GOAT. Here's why

FromSoftware's seminal action-RPG was crowned the greatest game of all time at this year's Golden Joystick Awards. Here's why it's such a (rightly) heralded classic...

Lordran is one of the most compelling worlds ever

The sprawling, interconnected world of Lordran is the star of the Dark Souls show. Its meticulous blueprint weaves from its highest peaks to its lowest troughs with effortless continuity.

There's nothing like bodying a Dark Souls boss

Claiming the scalp of one of those iconic bosses – seeing it vanish in a blaze of light, watching the words VICTORY ACHIEVED appear – is one of the most euphoric feelings in any game ever. 

It's hard, but it's rarely unfair

Death is often the result of your own failings – be that a mistimed parry or a poorly-executed offensive advance. Within Lordran, you're often your own worst enemy. 

Dark Souls is one of the most influential games of all time

Dark Souls is the OG. It spawned its own genre, with scores of lesser Souls-likes trying to capture the magic of the original. Everything from its unqiue slant on permadeath to the hack-slash-and-roll mechanics have been copied. 

It's such an enduring classic, we'll never stop talking about it

We'll be talking about the genre-defining masterpiece for decades. In Dark Souls, we're told that history repeats itself. But in reality, there will likely never be a game quite like it again. 

For the full feature, check out...