Dark Souls III

Disclosure - wrote this review for another site but time has passed and I don't see a ton of DSIII reviews here on the site. Cross-posting so please let me know if inappropriate but hopefully it helps potential buyers. Also of note is that this is my first true Souls experience, so purists may differ in opinion. Enjoy :)

Dark Souls 3 is a complete and focused experience that will convert the non-believers and confirm the longtime fans’ near zealotry. From boss battles that prove memorable and challenging, yet not overwhelming at the same time to the incredible world detail and enemy design, Dark Souls 3 comes into 2016 with high expectations and delivers on nearly every one of them. Though the story and lore might be a bit tough to parse for new players, it still delivers a cohesive narrative, and the overall execution makes the unfamiliar want to check out what the rest of the series is all about. Simply put Dark Souls 3 is one of the best games of 2016.

As a disclaimer and a bit of background which might help or hinder your identifying with this review, this is my first Souls game. I bounced off Bloodborne for reasons I can’t accurately put into words, and the thought of punishing myself just to get to the next boss just to be punished over and over again just never seemed too appealing. I honestly was a bit terrified at the concept of not just beating Dark Souls 3 but also reviewing it with a critical eye as an “outsider” to the whirlwind culture that has sprung up around the series. I thought I’d hit the same issues where I’d get to the first boss, get frustrated, and never return to the game (even though that wasn’t really an option).

It was when I pierced the veil to engage Iudex Gundyr, Dark Souls 3’s first boss and a massive initial test of skills learned in the tutorial or perhaps retained from previous games. I died, a lot, as is to be expected in this series of games known for appealing to gluttons for punishment. But as I died more and more, I noticed how the game went from a hack and slash to tactical striking affair. I would back off and notice how Iudex would perform a jumping downward strike, leaving him vulnerable for a few brief moments and open to my quick strikes. Just as I began to whittle down Gundyr’s health to about 50%, he transformed into a half-man, half writhing beast of black mass shooting out of his back. His attacks were on the surface the same but now quicker and his jumping strike was no longer the greatest opportunity to strike. Reflecting now, I recognize this as a big moment for me with the game, as I had to not just get the boss to half health, but also change tactics mid-fight. After defeating Gundyr, it clicked. Dark Souls 3 went from a nearly impenetrable experience to something that I knew I had to see through to the end for my own benefit. I now knew that I could do it, just by applying the games rules to my tactics. And that made all the difference.

Dark Souls 3 is obviously third in the series of the titular games, but also follows Demon Souls and Bloodborne in From Software’s gallery of notoriously difficult and unforgiving games. In a return to form, Hidetaka Miyazaki, series creator and director on the original Dark Souls and Bloodborne, takes the directors seat again and reminds fans of his true potential. From a narrative standpoint, the lore of Dark Souls is either a huge or negligible part of the experience depending on who you ask. In Dark Souls 3 though, this story is told in a way that is mysterious and interesting, even to people like myself who haven’t experienced it before or aren’t familiar with callbacks the story may be making to previous entries. The player is tasked with returning the ashes of four “Lords of Cinder” to the Firelink Shrine, a home base of sorts where the player recovers, shops, and upgrades their equipment and talents. Playing through the game I couldn’t help but be a little ponderous of what the characters might be referring to, or what events transpired before. This indicated the degree to which the rest of the game compelled me to find out more. The combat, environment, and enemy design all worked in beautiful concert to spark my interest in the larger Souls universe, and even served as a catalyst to reading entirely too many lore pages on past Dark Souls entries.

Dark Souls 3 is at equal quantities beautiful and brutal. The environments, architecture, backdrops, and overall design are head and shoulders above many games I’ve ever played, and due to the care taken by From Software to make points in the environment that showcase their design, I’ll likely never forget moments like summiting a hill to see Irithyll of the Boreal Valley the first time, or the awe of discovering Anor Londo. I honestly cannot praise the world design and beauty of the game enough, as there were multiple times I caught myself panning the camera around just to take in the sights and notice small details. More than a few times this was to my own detriment, as enemies tend to hide in corners and crevices waiting for sightseers like myself to wander too close to an edge.

Enemies get just as much, if not more, design love from the team at From Software. The detail is incredible, and the variety unmatched by any games put out by even the largest developers and teams in today’s industry. I dare not enter the minds that dream up these nightmare creatures you encounter in the world of Dark Souls 3 but every new enemy I stumbled upon I wanted to spin around and inspect, making me think my most requested feature for Dark Souls is a Batman Arkham-series style action figure mode where I can inspect every little bit of the models. It would be easy for From Software to focus on boss encounters and design as needing to be varied and unique while only making a few pallet swaps for normal enemies. Luckily for players and fans, that’s not remotely the case as each and every area has a new look, feel, and dangerous enemy design to work around.

Boss fights seem to demand a fair amount of image sharing in the Souls series, and there’s no reason that trend won’t continue with Dark Souls 3. As with enemy design, the bosses are as captivating as they are dangerous, and each has nuance to not just their visual but also fighting style and tactics that need to change during the fights. Dark Souls 3 provides simply incredible backdrops for memorable fights, and instantly evoked a childhood playground feeling of me wanting to run and tell my friends “wait until you get to High Lord Wolnir”, or asking what they thought of the slinky and creepy Dancer of the Boreal. Each boss is so interesting that I found myself seeking out the fog-covered doorways in order to engage bosses, maybe just to see what they looked like. Typically just as with Gundyr at the beginning, I would begin attacking and start to learn, and before I knew it, I was felling yet another giant boss and feeling unstoppable. That is until moments later a demon would drop kick me off a wall to the red “You Died” screen – and there’s nothing you can do but sigh and hope to laugh it off.

New to the series are Weapon Arts, which grant a weapon special abilities or a different style that will inflict more damage, or do special attacks depending on that specific weapon. As with most things in Dark Souls I learned, experimentation is key and finding the weapon that compliments your preferred play style is easier than ever, as the player can quickly swap weapons and try the new Weapon Art to see just how cool it looks and how effective it is. This, coupled with a vast and diverse leveling system, multiple character builds to keep players coming back for new runs at a different style, and items that can change your approach instantly keep me thinking that I enjoyed my initial time with Dark Souls 3 so much that I’ll likely go back through and give it a go with a different character or more.

Pros

• Incomparably amazing enemy and world design
• Difficulty isn’t unfair, it’s something to learn from
• Storytelling and gameplay worked together to inspire me to find out more about the world
• Tons of weapons, skills, upgrade paths to try, plenty reason to go through multiple times

Cons

• Lack of direction might be a Souls staple, but can be frustrating trying to find a small path or new direction with no help
• Lore and narrative can seem a bit dense to the uninitiated

The Bottom Line

Dark Souls 3 was a game that intimidated me for the sheer reason that it’s a Souls game, and the barrier to entry seemed so high. For some reason after dying a few times and finally defeating the first boss something clicked, and it victory became attainable. This process repeated itself numerous times over the course of the game and only got more intense as my story progressed. I destroyed mighty giants, I danced with devilish ghouls, and got kicked off my fair share of ledges. The beauty, inspiration, and sometimes righteously disgusting design behind the whole of Dark Souls 3 gave me one of my most memorable gaming experiences to date. Dark Souls 3 should serve as an example of a game that not only serves existing fans extremely well, but isn’t so obtuse in its approach that it can’t be picked up by a newbie and enjoyed, just as much as I did.

Reviewer was provided with a digital code of Dark Souls III for review on PC courtesy of Bandai Namco.