Painting by numbers
Disclaimer: This review focuses entirely on the PvE aspect of the game.
By this point you'd expect From Software to have nailed down the formula for a successful Souls game. In some sense they have, with Dark Souls 3 combining the good parts of the previous games to a more complete experience, but it sadly plays it a little too safe for my taste. Most areas you visit are very similar to the earlier games, as if the developer had a checklist of "castle, catacomb, swamp etc.". If this is your first Dark Souls game the level design will probably blow your mind, with beautiful vistas and intricate contruction with branching paths and shortcuts. As a Souls veteran though, I can't help thinking I've seen it all before (in one instance I've literally seen it before). I suspect From wanted to tie the Souls games together into a coherent narrative which is fine, but I would have preferred a more isolated experience were any hints of continuity comes from obscure and cryptic references.
Mechanically, it is very much the same slow paced, deliberate and challenging but fair gameplay we all love about the Souls series. Every enemy encounter is a calculated affair were any mistakes or sloppiness is punished harshly. New in this iteration is the introduction of "weapon skills". Every type of weapon (shields included) have a skill mapped to the left trigger. This ranges from short-time passive buffs to devastating special attacks and projectiles. This is tied to an FP bar, which is basically your mana. Coupled with this is a new type of Estus Flask, the Ashen flask.
As an idea the skills are really cool and while doing pirouettes and flips with a two meter greatsword looks more Devil May Cry than Dark Souls, it's rarely actually useful in a fight. Very few shields can be used in conjuction with weapon skills, often forcing you to two-hand your weapon in order to use it. This leaves you vulnerable to the horde of fast and flailing enemies littering the lands and the weapon skills rarely deals more damage than a couple of regular light attacks, making them both risky and unnecessary.
Magic is still a central component of combat in the familiar forms of Sorcery, Pyromancy and Miracles. They consume FP just like the weapon skills, giving you more freedom in your spell usage compared to the fixed slots system from before. Contrary to previous games though they rarely manage to do little more than tickle most enemies, even if you build your character around it. Most encounters become exercises in frustration because of the finicky targeting and long casting times. You might be fooled to thinking it's a good idea to dip your toes in both magic and melee fighting, but after finishing the game as both a caster and a fighter trust me when I say stick to steel unless you deliberately want to make the game harder. In the case of my caster I often found myself relying on my backup katana instead of the expensive lategame spells. Limiting your playstyle is a common way to increase the replayability of Souls games, but never has a major playstyle felt so underpowered. Consider yourself warned.
One area where the game really shines is the boss fights. Dark Souls 2 had massive "big dude in armor" syndrome making many fights bland and forgettable, I'm happy to say this is not the case in Dark Souls 3. Bosses are imaginative and wildly varied. Some are hulking monstrosities, some are nimble fighters not much larger than yourself. No single tactic can best everything forcing you to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your weapon and your playstyle. There are very few if any instances where you feel the game is unfair to you or artificially inflates the difficulty. Many bosses also change form in one way or another throughout the fight forcing you to adapt on the fly.
To summarize Dark Souls 3 is mostly stuff we've already seen before with imbalanced combat and amazing bosses. If you want more Souls, you got it. This is just another Dark Souls, which is probably the most damning thing I could say about it. If you never played a Souls game, this is a great place to start. From Software has a great track record for DLC so there will undoubtedly be a reason to come back to it later.
