Berserk is a very atmospheric and dark manga, exceeding only in The Golden Age Arc, while the rest fails flat.

Story: The manga follows adventures and struggles of Guts, a former mercenary and a wanderer who is doing everything he can for survival. The story is well paced and full of details in The Golden Age Arc, where backstories and characters are gathered in an organic construct which feels that the world is real and characters belong there, with their hopes, dreams and reality. The Arc has more layers - climbing up to the throne, dreams and authority, bound, etc; while the rest is just an atmospheric survival (Guts goes to some place, sees scary things, kills scary things, moves on - loop). There are some interesting backstories later, but the world doesn't feel organic at all, more like some Guts' playground. Chilling atmosphere and interesting backstories are what saved the manga, otherwise it would have been just hack'n'smash gore.

Art: There isn't much need to talk about this. It is amazing, details are astounding and extremely realistic. Action, gore and horror are very detailed, some scenes are memorable, though the only negative part is that Puck looks like he was drawn by a child sometimes (I know it's for comedy purposes, but that part doesn't fit in with the rest).

Characters: I will write more about them in the spoilers part. The only developed characters belong to the Hawk band: Griffith, Casca, Gaston, Corkus, Judeau, Pippin, even Guts develops his character a little in the band. They have a personality, they react to words and actions, they have ideals, wishes, fears, etc. They feel like they are in the world, they follow their leader and try to get the best outcome in any situation. I feel like the rest of the characters are black or white, they have just a purpose to do something and you can already sense what will such character do, or the author flips characters from time to time to make more drama. That feels very shallow and the characters feel like they just serve a purpose, like they exist to perform and action and that's it. For example, Puck exists only to heal Guts and give him keys.

Enjoyment: Overall, it was decent. Excluding The Golden Age Art, the manga was still somewhat entertaining with gore details, some action and the atmosphere. The action is somewhat alright, though it becomes generic with time, here's formula: Guts gets into trouble, he swings around and the enemy pins him down. He shoots the enemy with his arm-cannon and decapitates the enemy within a second, repeating the same thing with most of large enemies. It becomes dull and uninspiring. Fights become more fierce later, but they become most of the focus, there isn't much story, just bloodshed.




____SPOILER ALERT, if you haven't read the manga yet, don't read the part below:____

I will write more about characters and the way I see them as black and white. Many characters look like they live for only one purpose, like hunting down some people (heretics, some other sort of enemies or whatever). Even though The Golden Age Arc was amazing, I feel like Griffith was sacrificed for the sake of the plot, just to make him a villain. Griffith's character was the most complex and extremely well made. He was very intelligent, charismatic, caring, careful, full of virtues and etiquette. It's impossible that such character would be so careless and get to princess' chambers and have a way with her, even though the path to the throne was already secured. I felt like the author tossed Griffith into the trash bin, just to make him a villain for the plot twist, which felt so horrendous, not because of the consequences of the action, but because this isn't part of Griffith's nature. Maybe the author didn't come up with any other idea to turn him into a villain, but it's a pity to throw away such well developed character. (plot twist - the author flips Griffith to make him careless just that he gets into trouble, flipping the king as well to make him extremely evil so the Griffith somehow becomes villain.. That sounds pretty awful)
What about Guts? He left the band like all the years meant nothing to him, all his somewhat character development was tossed into the bin as well, he became nothing but an angry man who fought everything, doing contradicting actions like he didn't want to be in the band, but he didn't want to stay out of the band, also Casca part, dreaming about running away with her, but he left her at one place. I didn't get his character at all, I may be cynical and criticizing too much, but I got impression that his character was done pretty awfully.
Others feel black or white, you don't get a lot of info about them, you see if they want to get the good characters into danger or if they are so selfless and help everyone. That looks pretty shallow.