Dark Souls managed to gather a lot of fans over the years. Right from the start, it offered something a lot of gamers thought went lost in modern games; a true challenge. We had to wait on it a little longer but Dark Souls 3 is finally here and is here to put an end to the impressive Dark Souls trilogy as we know it. It’s the first to release on the current generation only and this results in a breathtaking journey filled with painful deaths. They don’t call the franchise ‘You Died: The Game’ for nothing. Time to start our thrilling journey.
Why am I here?
If this is your first Dark Souls game, you’ll be confused by the story or actually the lack of it. Right from the start, Dark Souls covered a mysterious theme filled with messages and quests to understand your goal. The lore of Dark Souls is huge so don’t expect to understand everything the moment you start the game. What you do need to understand, however, is your purpose in the dark horror-esque world.
You follow a noble quest in Dark Souls 3, you’re goal is to purify the dark world of Lothric by taking down the Lords of Cider. This will be explained to you the moment you start up the game. When you start your adventure, the game will show the Lords of Cider in an impressive cut scene, from that moment on, it’s clear from the start. Dark Souls 3 has to be the best-looking entry in the franchise yet. The scene, accompanied by epic music, introduced us to some of the bosses we’ll hate later on in the game; it’s the perfect introduction and perfect start of our new adventure.
There are others in this forsaken world
One of Dark Souls 3’ biggest changes is the inclusion of other NPC characters in the forsaken world. During your quest, you’ll meet up with a lot of friendly characters. These give you items you can use to take down enemies or task you with quests to gather unique weapons or gear. Meeting these friendly characters is a welcome change for the dark world of Dark Souls 3. In a world where death lays around every corner, meeting friendly characters will set off a spark of hope in your heart. If you want to meet these friendly characters some more, you can go to the central hub called Firelink Shrine.
Dark Souls 3 is here to impress
Firelink Shrine has to be the most impressive environment of the entire game without a doubt. Thanks to the power of the current generation and the impressive ‘Bloodborne’ engine, you’ll be surprised by its beauty. In here you’ll be able to get new gear, talk to the others or come to rest just for a little while. It’s an impressive setting in the game but there are more environments to discover than just this one. The only downside of it all is that the world feels far less open.
A more linear approach
Something we noticed during our adventure in the impressive kingdom of Lothric, was that the locations are way more linear than other Dark Souls games. Where the older Dark Souls games played more like a Metroidvania, Dark Souls 3 takes you from location to location using a set path. There are some moments where we could pick our destination (read boss) ourselves but that didn’t happen a lot. If you like the open-world approach of Dark Souls 2, you might be disappointed with this more linear approach. Again, there are points where you can pick your path but those are more an exception.
That being said, once you arrive at your new location, you’ll have a lot of freedom to go where you want to go. It’s great to see that the locations still kept their labyrinth-like designs. Each location is filled with hidden items, hidden paths and hidden doors. But be warned, discovering them all isn’t that easy. As in other Dark Souls game, the locations are filled with enemies to defeat. Ranging from regular demons to the feared knights and impressive boss battles. Dark Souls 3 feels like a ‘Best of Dark Souls’ game and that makes sense since it’s the end of the original trilogy. This also means you’ll face some familiar enemies but never think it’s easy to defeat them.
Brutal enemies
If you haven’t played it before, we’re sure you have heard the rumors about it. Dark Souls isn’t an easy game and Dark Souls 3 isn’t an exception. The enemies are hard to defeat and the bosses will ask hours of your time in order to bring them down. But, since the game likes to demonstrate the power of the franchise that much, you’ll run into some familiar enemies. This takes away the element of surprise for the veteran players and we’re sure those veterans won’t have that many problems completing the game. Dark Souls 3 feels a little easier than the ones that released before but it’s still not an easy game.
The hardest part about the game are of course the giant bosses. Those bosses always have two phases. The first boss you’ll face demonstrates the sickness of design perfectly. What appeared to be a giant knight at first, transformed in a hideous black blur of death during its second phase. Fighting bosses isn’t easy and you’ll need to rely on your attacking and blocking skills a lot. That being said, the combat runs a lot faster and more fluently than before, making it closer to Bloodborne than the original Dark Souls. Faster combat is a big plus in this game without a doubt.
New combat
Aside of better visuals, the engine also innovates the battles. Thanks to the new power of the consoles, the battles are fought in a higher pace. Your playable character (you can pick the type of character at the start) moved a lot faster than before. The classic dodge and attack moves remained the same but everything felt a lot faster. Don’t be mistaken, faster combat doesn’t mean it’s easier to take down the enemies. The enemies are faster as well and will attack you at higher speed. Blocking their attacks is more difficult than ever before and they’ll never hold back. The combat is very challenging especially when you’re fighting the knights or bosses.
Another important difference in combat is the different types of weapons and their stances. A stance is a special attack that lowers your defence but inflicts more damage to the enemies. Depending on the weapon you’re currently wielding, the stance attack changes. If you’re using the regular light sword, you’ll use both hands to deliver a hard horizontal strike. If you’re using the great sword, your stance attack will result in a devastating, shield-destroying, blow on your enemy. This attack can take down the weaker enemies in a single blow. If you’re wielding dual swords (which can be activated as one now), you’ll use a spinning attack, enabling to inflict damage on multiple enemies at once.
As you can read, the biggest difference in combat is the speed and pacing of it. This also counts for your enemies. You’ll face the fastest enemies you’ve ever faced and this also means that learning their pattern of attacks is of less importance, especially while you’re fighting bosses. Unlike the other games, Dark Souls 3 counts more on your reflexes to stay alive, if you can’t dodge an attack in time, you’ll see the ‘You Died’ screen a lot more than you would like. Of course, it’s still important to learn the pattern nevertheless but compared to the older games, it’s far less important due to the improved combat.
The Dark Souls issues
So far so good, right? Well, Dark Souls 3 isn’t perfect, just like its predecessors it still struggles with the camera, which can become rather frustrating. It’s not funny to restart thanks to a weird camera angle that had nothing to do with your skills of taking down your opponent. Aside of this, the frame rate isn’t as stable as we would have wanted and menus aren’t easy to operate.
Of course, if these are the only complaints we have, you know Dark Souls 3 still offers great but frustrating moments. Its beauty will blow fans of the franchise away.
Conclusion
Dark Souls 3 feels like a ‘Best of Dark Souls’ game and takes away the element of surprise for the veteran players. It offers a more linear and at the same time more memorable experience than ever before. If you’re a fan of the franchise, you’ll need to own this no matter what. Dark Souls 3 offers incredible bosses, a high level of difficulty and mind-blowing environments. If you’re new to this, you’ll miss out on the lore but you’ll get the most brutal and yet most beautiful game you’ll ever play in return.
