A great action RPG where the sense of exploration and discovery is somewhat ruined by the fact that the game simply obscures too much information from the player. This is not a huge problem when it comes to learning the mechanics, that can be achieved by trial and error and just generally getting the hang of things.

The rest though? Well, have fun not finding out about at least half of the story beats, items and a whole gosh darn DLC campaign if you don't want to rely on the wiki. You will miss cool NPCs and you will most definitely miss their side quests because the game does a terrible job of leading the player or really in just giving you ideas on points of interest. Dark Souls gets high praise for its lack of handholding but in reality most of that is just the result of really bad game design when it comes to directing the player's attention. Use the wiki if you don't want to miss out on stuff and even though you'll end up accidentally spoiling some things it's still better than finding out that you missed content after the fact.

The bonfire system on the other hand is more like a double edged sword instead of something that could be considered objectively bad design. On the positive side it's a great tool at providing tension during exploration but once you find a boss it just becomes a tedious exercise in continously speedrunning a section just to get another chance at fighting the boss. A lot of people enjoy these "boss runs" but to me they felt like tedious padding and the game certainly would have been long enough even without them. Checkpoints before bossfights, it's not a hard thing to do, developers.

Once you accept these shortcomings you get a stellar action RPG to play through though: great combat system, some really cool bossfights, amazing atmosphere, nice lore and mostly good level design. I say mostly good level design only because the endgame sections have a very noticable case of "Xen syndrome" in that they feel rushed and honestly just play ridiculously bad. Especially Demon Ruins feels like a map from some Unity asset flip they sell on Steam for cheaps.

Also: Dark Souls is surprisingly good at being a social experience. The messages and bloodstaines left by other players add a lot to the experience and seeing their ghosts roam around just adds a wholesome element to dying over and over again. Even the PvP and the coop give you a lot of options when it comes to approaching multiplayer and as a result it becomes an organic part of the campaign itself. Genius stuff.

As for the remaster: it's the same Dark Souls except it's no longer the worst PC port you've ever played.