I came a long way, defeated enemies I thought I could never defeat. Some of those were giants, transforming each time I was getting close to killing them. I’ve traveled a lot, met a lot of strange creatures and grew stronger with every step I took. I thought my journey came to an end until I was teleported to the Painted World of Ariandel, filled with new enemies to defeat and new objects to gather.
The Painted World of Ariandel
Ashes of Ariandel is the first big expansion of Dark Souls III. We’ll get a total of two expansions, completing the story of this third Dark Souls game. Ashes of Ariandel sets the tone and brings in a very impressive new environment filled with new enemies to defeat and new secrets to discover. If you’ve played Dark Souls before, you might remember the Painted World of Ariandel since it resembles the Painted World of Ariamis from Dark Souls I. That’s nothing to worry about since that world was without a doubt the most impressive one the franchise ever created. World of Ariandel is as impressive as its inspiration and this results in a very impressive world to discover.
The World of Ariandel is the perfect world to discover during this time of the year. It’s a snowy landscape filled with hidden ruins and castles. It’s perhaps the best part of the expansion and it’s worth discovering every hidden corner and dungeon on this map. Don’t expect to be able to walk around in the world without having to worry about something. This still is a Dark Souls game so enemies and traps are waiting for you behind each corner. The freezing cold helps to set the atmosphere even more, you’ll never feel at ease since the white landscapes are filled with new dangers.
New enemies are lurking behind the trees
The world of Ariandel is filled with new enemies, both human-like and mutants. Everything in this mysterious fairytale world wants to kill you so you’ll never feel at ease. At some parts of the game, even the trees were trying to kill us. It also happens from time to time that the game forces you to defeat big waves of enemies. At the start of the game; you’ll need to kill an entire wolf pack. Too bad the game doesn’t feature more of these intense moments. All in all, this isn’t a very difficult expansion at all.
The expansion only features two bosses to defeat with the last one being the only one that’s really hard to bring down. It’s a shame that this expansion isn’t on the same level as the main game when it comes to the level of difficulty. Sure, you’ll still die a lot but that’s mostly due to surprise attacks of enemies instead of overpowered enemies. Keep in mind however that players are recommended to reach the Lothric Castle and have a Souls Level of around 70 to be able to complete this expansion.
New secrets to discover
Dark Souls has always been a lot more than just trying to defeat your enemies. Just like the main game, the expansion is filled with hidden rooms and rare chests to open. New are some of the weapons that will transform your character to a local Wolverine or a hammer that’s powerful enough to make the whole earth tremble. The new weapons are worth discovering since they offer new ways of playing and new ways of bringing those enemies down.
The only downside about the expansion is that’s it’s not that big and you’ll be able to finish it in less than six hours, even if you tried to find every secret that this mysterious world has to offer. In order to give the gamers some more content, From Software added a PvP area where you can fight with and against other Dark Souls players.
You’re not alone
In order to unlock this PvP area, you’ll need to defeat an optional boss. Defeating it isn’t that easy and it sets the bar high for this PvP area. Only those strong enough to bring down the boss will be able to play together. It’s the best reward possible and I’m sure everybody will try to defeat that boss, even when they die time after time.
Once you defeated the boss, you can enter this new PvP area where you can play several different modes. You can go head to head with other players or work together with two others to bring down the team of three opponents. The PvP mechanism works very well and adds a lot of hours to the already impressive expansion.
Conclusion:
Ashes of Ariandel is a great expansion but it’s not the best the franchise has to offer. It’s a shame the expansion doesn’t take that long to complete and that it’s rather easy to defeat your enemies compared to the main game. That being said, the new environments, new enemies and new weapons are definitely worth a trip to this mysterious world. The PvP area adds a lot of great gameplay moments to the expansion so you’ll have enough reasons to get this one in digital stores. If you can’t get enough of the Dark Souls franchise, this is one you simply need to get.
