Dark Souls 3 Review

The fear of the unknown. Taking that first crucial step into a new area. I know a lot of people who travel, but only to places that have been thoroughly traveled and explored. When people go on vacation it's never to a deserted island, but to a major city or hub with things to see and do. Heck, most people's greatest fear is to be stranded on a deserted island...alone. We like to feel safe-even when it means things are boring. True adventure requires us to abandon safety and embrace risk. Only with high risk will we find high reward. Dark Souls is a game that asks you to take that risk.

A phrase you will see early and often during your first playthrough

I finally finished Dark Souls 3 a few days ago and found myself feeling the same feeling I've had with all the other entries in the series-a sense of relief. Not because the game was bad, but because the game tested me as a gamer. It frustrated me, it tricked me, and it bested me at times. But all it took, like the other hard games, was a observation and a buttload of patience for me to get through it. And nothing feels more satisfying then to see the health bar of the last boss go down to zero.

The best feeling about beating a game like Dark Souls is that when a boss is beaten, the reward is not only the extra souls and access to new weapons, but also the fact that there was a sense of mastery in skill. An early example would be when I fought the Old Demon King lurking in the Smouldering Lake, an early level that arrows raining down on you and a giant worm chasing you. The boss is relatively simple and slow despite the chaotic moveset he shows off later in the fight. Instead of greedily attacking the boss and staying super close to him at all times, I found that certain attacks needed distance while others were safe to dodge and then punish. But it took a loong time. I had to die a lot. He was the first boss fight where I died dozens of times. But the reward was a pretty sweet hammer and the boost of confidence for the subsequent, harder bosses.

The boss design in this game is incredible and almost each boss feels unique and epic

Since I started with the boss battles, let's review them. There are some really well-designed fights in this game. One of the first few bosses is completely invulnerable except for one weak spot. The whole fight is then about trying to figure out how to hurt him while fending off respawning enemies. After figuring out how to hurt him, you drop down below into a small pit and a huge, ugly hand just pops out of the beast. There comes forth another puzzle in identifying new weak points. But once it's figured out, the boss battle is essentially over. Figuring out the weak spots gives the "ah-ha" moment that feels satisfying and rewarding.

The game is full of boss battles like this which thrills me every time I face one. But then, there comes a point where I found that certain boss types repeat. There were different bosses that share attack patterns and some bosses had movesets that were blatant rip-offs of older Dark Souls games. I know this is a sequel, but adding filler bosses sort of tarnished the game for me. Some boss strategies were just, "get close, dodge, dodge, dodge, punish, distance, and repeat" or something similar. It didn't, however, detract from the good ones like the one I mentioned above.

Beautiful vistas and landscapes fill this game up. Most places you see off in the distance, you can go to.

The world is gorgeous and feels very connected. Though, in my opinion, it isn't as interwoven as the first Dark Souls. Dark Souls 3's world sort of feels like a nice snaking line that goes up and down but rarely ever makes big circles around to other areas. There are some moments where a shortcut would be unlocked to the previous area, but nothing like how Dark Souls created completely different paths through the world. Dark Souls 3 makes up for the lack of inter-connectivity with the best graphics to date. My computer couldn't handle the game at max settings, but the screenshots I've provided are a testament to the attention to detail and fidelity the developers put into this game.

But to add on to my poor computer's worries, there were many bugs that made the game unnecessarily difficult to play. There was a lighting glitch that would crash my game when I had gotten to any bonfire or if I played for more than ten seconds. I had to research a bit for the solution and found that I had to change my lighting settings to "low" to get my game to just run. This was sort of a let down to find that there were game breaking bugs on the third entry of a franchise. Not to mention the hacking that goes on in the player versus player (PVP) aspect of the game deterred me from trying it. Thankfully, From Software (the developers of the game) are slowly patching up those bugs.

Welcome to Dark Souls...Where things like THIS exist...

The story of Dark Souls 3 is like all the other Dark Souls: piecemeal and ambigious. It's inferred through the item descriptions and the small amount of cut-scenes shown before bosses. The whole premise of the game is to best the three Lords of Cinders that roam throughout the world and eventually beat a prince that ruled (rules?) over the kingdom. The story plays out to be a direct sequel to Dark Souls 1 with Dark Souls 2 being in the same universe but different area. This was all I could gather from my first playthrough without researching the rest of the story online. But it was enough for me. The essence of Dark Souls is in the gameplay and level design. The icing on top is the deep lore hidden inside the gameplay and level design. The lack of story exposition doesn't bother me. There are games that serve that purpose for me, and Dark Souls doesn't have to be one of those games to be a great game. As long as the game keeps me on my toes, I'm a happy camper.

But that brings me to one of my last points: The game is the shortest main game of the series. It's not just the amount of bosses that concern me, but the areas themselves. There were some huge areas like the poisonous and arduous Farron Keep or the icy streets of Ithryll. But then there were areas that were very short that made me felt like the game was a bit complete. Clocking in about 38-40 hours, it's the shortest time it took me to complete a Dark Souls game

You'll meet the oddest of characters in this game...All with their own charm and personalities

The only things I cannot comment on (which only adds more praise to the game) are the sidequest lines and supporting characters. Not only are all the archetypes of the Souls series are in order, and completing their sidequests will give you unique rewards and even help you on boss fights. Sidequests aren't very cut and dry in this game (nothing is) and having these little rewards for figuring them out is nice.

I wish I could delve into the itty bitty details of the game. I even wrote notes about the story, trying to make sense of what little the game gave me. But I ended up getting pulled in by the game so much I forgot to take notes for a review. Upon completing the game, I realize that's a positive.

Boss design can be so cool but seeing a boss like this can also make you wet your pants.

It's been confirmed that Dark Souls 3 is the last in the franchise. The developer/creator has confirmed it. I'm glad though because despite how good the game was, I wouldn't want the Dark Souls franchise to overstay its welcome. If you haven't already, start this game. Try it. Play it. Fail. Then try again. If anything, Dark Souls is one of the closest the AAA studios have at the return back to the good old days of "NES hard" games of the late 80's. It's an RPG that rewards technique over stats and levels. It's a game that rewards reaction speed but also rewards careful planning. It's unforgiving but limitless merciful at the same time. It's a beautiful dichotomy and I feel like that once this series is over, we won't be seeing something like this again.

There will be imitators. I already have a game called "Salt and Sanctuary" on my list. But it'll be a while before I get to it. And though they will be good in their own right, I don't think they will measure up to the experiences I have had with this series. Below is a gallery of some of the screenshots I took during the game.