Review: This article goes in depth about a game and opens a dialogue about the positive and negative aspects that compose that game. At the end of the review, the author notes whether he or she feels this game was worth playing. Keep in mind that this review reflects the author’s opinion; you may have a different experience with this game!
Time Spent: About 65 hours. Extra time was spent testing the patch changes.
Version Played: PC and Xbox One
Loneliness. It’s a theme that writers and musicians have often detailed and described to the best of their ability. We all experience it; from time to time we all feel the incalculable feeling that despite our best efforts, the journey we have embarked upon remains solitary. Yes we may have passing encounters with colorful and dynamic men and women. Yes we may feel the sting of bitter defeat. Yes there will be those who seek to destroy everything we desire and everything we have accomplished. Ultimately though, these instances are fleeting and serve to remind us of our bitter mortality and the inescapable fate we all must endure.
Few games have embodied this like Dark Souls. Created by From Software as the third (and supposedly last) installation in their series of games, Dark Souls 3 returns the player to the Kingdom of Lothric and breathes life into familiar locales such as the Firelink Shrine and the dismal catacombs but also introduces countless new enemies and locations as well as a refined combat system. There’s a great deal to discuss about the final addition to the series, so let’s begin with how it stacks up with the previous games.
I don’t think anything can ever replace the experience I had with the first Dark Souls. It was intense, traumatic, and utterly breathtaking. I had never played a game that wanted to make me quit so badly, yet constantly dangled the idea of success in front of my face. The story never really became clear and while a great deal could be gleaned from character and item backstories and flavor text, a majority of it remained up to the player to simply guess. While this isn’t a terrible way to tell a story and certainly encourages dutiful research into the world, it felt as though the first Dark Souls took a “hands off” approach and left a great deal unanswered. The characters had personality and while a few of them stuck (SOLAIRE!!!), others seemed forgettable.
Dark Souls 3 completely changes that. It certainly doesn’t have the same impact that the first game did (like I said, I don’t think anything will), but the story is slightly more compelling, the flavor text behind items seems to be more in-depth, and the characters…Oh the characters! Dark Souls 3 has added a massive cast to the game and each character has a motivation as well as a questline. Some of the characters make a fantastic return (such as Andre, Patches, and Siegward) and Dark Souls 3 adds plenty of nods to the first two games. Those of you who have played 1 and 2 will immediately recognize some of the equipment or flavor text that exists in Lothric. These returning characters add to the engaging cast of new ones; from the noble Astoran knight Anri to the hopeful Irina to the very cunning Yoel of Londor, Dark Souls 3 eclipses the other games in terms of character development and personality by leaps and bounds. Save for Lucatiel, I barely remember most of the characters from Dark Souls 2 and I often did not feel compelled to find out more about them. For Dark Souls 3, I went out of my way to research their quests and work to complete as many of them as I could. The story is the standard Dark Souls affair: You, the enkindled, must join the other enkindled souls and reunite the Lords of the First Flame (by killing them) in order to relight the First Flame, the source of power (and in some sense, the recurring darkness) that resides in the Dark Souls universe. You find out more about the bosses and the characters throughout the game, but the story doesn’t really evolve from there.
The first Dark Souls had some truly wonderful boss fights and thankfully, Dark Souls 3 seems to respect its ancestor’s heritage by adding some horribly difficult and utterly awe inspiring bosses to the latest iteration in Hidetaka Miyazaki’s masterpiece. One of the most cinematic and flavorful bosses to fight? The Abyss Watchers. One of the bosses that had me shivering in fear and nearly frothing in rage? Dancer of the Boreal Valley. I felt a wide gamut of emotions from the bosses of Dark Souls 3 and while all of them aren’t exactly memorable, I still find myself marveling at some of the designs or mechanics implemented into their combat styles.
I got goosebumps from this fight.
Truly, many people play Dark Souls and its kin Bloodborne, for the opportunity to cut down their opponents with sword, axe, or spear or even launch powerful spells to split their foes in twain. Dark Souls 2, while certainly not as spectacular as the first game, greatly improved upon the first game’s mechanics and refined some of the combat. We got to experience dual-wielding weapons for the first time and while some were opposed to how From Software revamped the magic system, the Dark Souls series desperately needed something to balance out the power of magic. Clearly taking inspiration from the success of Bloodborne, From Software and Hidetaka Miyazaki have refined the combat system to an even greater degree; while not as fast paced as its sister game, Dark Souls 3 has a more rapid flow to its combat than the previous installations and every single weapon has a “combat style” that allows the player to truly revamp the way he or she uses that weapon. In addition to their HP and stamina bars, players now have a new bar called the “FP bar.” This bar drains when you cast spells as well as when you use your weapon’s combat style. For example, I normally use a Lightning Claymore +10. Swinging it normally drains stamina and I go through the weapon’s normal attack patterns. Should I desire, however, I can two-hand the weapon and hold my left trigger on my controller. This will cause my character to assume a high guard with the sword pointed directly at my opponent. From here, I can thrust forward or go into a sweeping lunge. Some weapons can even combo off your original special attack! This greatly changes the way Dark Souls plays and lets players truly customize a play style all to him or herself!
You can refill this FP bar using some of your Estus Flask uses, thus enabling someone who wants to build a character based on spellcasting or special attacks a completely viable option! This is easily the most customizable of the three games and From Software made a phenomenal choice incorporating some of the positive elements of Bloodborne into Dark Souls 3.
Despite my adoration for this game, not all remains well. As I’ve previously mentioned, Dark Souls games rarely go into detail about their stories and while Dark Souls 3 certainly provides a great deal of lore and certainly provides a significantly improved cast of characters, it still leaves the player with countless questions. Rarely do the cast of NPCs ever have any true resolution; yes you can complete their quests but ultimately, their fate remains the same and you discover very little in the way about who they could have become. I love Dark Souls‘ inherent loneliness and fatalism (it’s easily the top reason I play this game), but for once I would like to go significantly more into a particular NPC’s story. The entire plot about reuniting the First Flame doesn’t drive me forward; fighting bosses and experiencing the challenge is what makes me constantly come back to this game. The story simply feels like filler.
Speaking of challenges…The Nameless King was an intense fight.
Multiplayer has always been both a highlight and a stumbling point for the Dark Souls franchise. Summoning friends has never felt easier as From Software incorporated a password protected summoning option for people who want to play together (another thing they adapted from Bloodborne)! You can even join a friend’s game regardless of how high of a level you may be. You’ll suffer a reduction of your stats down to your friend’s level, but the removal of the “summoning cap” was a spectacular move on From’s part. Unfortunately, every Dark Souls game has suffered from a cheating problem and Dark Souls 3 is not exempt. Countless times did I experience the wrath of invincible invaders or players who had incomprehensibly powerful spells. Countless times did I perish at their hands. From Software released many patches stating that they had helped mitigate the cheating problem, resolved crashing issues, and added “balance changes”, but the company still remains incredibly vague on exactly everything they have accomplished with these patches. As far as mechanical issues, some of them certainly helped as my PC version of Dark Souls 3 rarely crashed. Others, such as the weapon balance changes and the multiplayer work, didn’t seem as effective. This can be frustrating for players, especially those who were outright banned from using multiplayer with the general population for accidentally accepting “illegal items” (items that were obtained using an exploit or were modded) or for those who were banned for no reason at all. These activities by From Software diminish the overall experience of the game.
While easily the best PC version of the entire Dark Souls series, both the PC and Xbox One versions still suffer from notable framerate drops, with the Xbox One version being more notable. When Dark Souls 3 ran well on my PC, it looked and handled spectacularly and while nothing will ever beat the gargantuan slow downs of Blight Town from the first game, Dark Souls 3 has its moments of FPS dips that can elicit frustration.
Beyond all of this, however, Dark Souls 3 manages to shine. I had a blast completing the main story with two of my friends and I plan on constantly replaying the game in the future. Despite some hiccups along the road, Dark Souls 3 stands as a fitting conclusion to the series and offers plenty of subtle and blatant nods to its predecessors. I greatly await From Software’s further patches and additions to this game. Hopefully the expansions are just as good!
Praise the sun!
-Valiant
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