Dark Souls 3 Review

The Soulsborne games for me personally sits very high up on my all time favourite game series. Have you ever thought “these games are easy, when are games going to get difficult?” Well look no further than the Soulsborne games, now let's head on through to my review on Darks Souls 3.

The Story

Dark souls 3 is set in a fantasy kingdom called Lothric. In all Dark souls games you play as undead, which everyone and everything in this world is also undead.

The intro to the game speaks of how the world is slowly burning out and so is coming to the end of its cycle and thus the first flame needs to be rekindled. This has been done before and those that had rekindled the flame became lords of cinder and gained great power in doing so.

You awaken as an ‘unkindled’ and undead destined to light the first flame once again and return the world into the beginning of the cycle. You travel through where you awoke from your grave through to the central hub area called the Firelink shrine, this where you can level up, buy items, speak to selected NPCs, upgrade weapons and many other things.

From here you travel around the world by the connected bonfires, from any bonfire in the world you can travel to any other bonfire that you have lit. To move on you travel via the bonfire to the High wall of Lothric, you fight your way through to the other side of this area and battle a boss called Vordt of the Boreal Valley. Once defeated you find a cliffside of which you can go no further, after backtracking you speak to a priestess call Emma who gives you a banner. You use this banner to get help to travel to the Undead settlement which from here you move on and on killing boss after boss and mob after mob until you reach The Abyss Watchers.

This is the first Lord of Cinder you come across. These were a legion of warriors who made sure the abyss, a dark and dangerous force, would not seep into this world. Eventually the abyss effected them and they now fight each other endlessly, you defeat them and take their ashes. In firelink shrine there are five thrones each one for each Lord of Cinder, placing all of these will mean you can then move on to kindle the flame. So you travel to Anor Londo to defeat Aldrich, the Profaned Capital to defeat Yhorm the giant and finally Lothric the young prince. The fifth Lord of Cinder is already in Firelink shrine sitting on his throne.

Once these are all defeated you can then travel to the Kiln of the First flame to battle the Soul of Cinder, this is the last defence for the ashes of the first flame. Once you defeat the soul of the first flame and then light the first flame the world is rekindled and thus the cycle begins again. This then opens up to NG+ and this is a never ending cycle. There are other bosses and areas to explore which are not part of the main story.

Dark Souls 3 and the whole franchise is not majorly story driven, the story is important and in my opinion an interesting one with great concepts behind it. If you would like to understand the story of this game and the ones before it, then you will need to do a lot of research to get a good understanding. There are 2 other endings depending on NPC quests but I will not go into these in this review.

Gameplay

Dark souls games are known for their difficulty and it is for good reason. These games have revolutionised the Action RPG genre. The gameplay is in real time combat of which every move you make is important, and if an error is made then you are dead or at least pay f it. When you die you lose souls which is this games experience, you can get these back if you go back to where you die but if you die before you get them they are lost forever. Souls are used to buy items upgrade weapons and level up your character. This makes it a very unforgiving game and for some is a massive put off but for us madmen, it makes it so much better!!

There are many play style and weapons to use, from gigantic great hammers too short swords and daggers. There is sorcery, miracles and pyromancies to use as well, either as buffs targetable spells or being able to turn into inanimate objects so to evade other players in PvP so as to ambush them. The gameplay is what makes Dark Souls as a franchise, the pure skill needed to just play the game without having major trouble is what draws you in, once you ‘Get Gud’ you feel invincible. The boss fights are all unique, wait every type of enemy is unique with their own moves to learn, if you like a challenge like i do this game will draw you in till you're addicted. The addition that if you are really stuck on a boss or area that you can use and ember and gain more health until you die really makes a difference!!

Overall the gameplay in the Dark Souls is challenging, frustrating, unforgiving but boy does it give satisfaction. In my humble opinion I would be to say that once you try Dark Souls and really get through it you will not be able to look at another Action RPG the same way.

Muliplayer

The Dark Souls experience is best experienced while playing online, this doesn't mean jumping out of the main PvE into a PvP server you just play your game online as long as you are connected to the internet. It doesn’t change the main game until you are embered and then players can invade you as a Dark spirit and try to kill you while you are adventuring. However players may also come to your aid by using a soapstone to etch their name on the floor so that they can be summoned into your world or by using a covenant.Invaders also usually use cheap tricks (myself included) to throw you off ledges or lure you into an ambush so be ready.

They may also exploit glitches to their advantage so watch out. For new players this is a very troubling and annoying experience but once you get the hang of it those invaders don’t stand a chance and if you struggle, well don’t ember. But remember if you are really struggling at a boss look for help, usually there will be at least one person putting their soapstone down on their favourite boss ready to help you get it done.

Visuals

This game is stunning, it hasn’t got the best graphics but they are very detailed. The gothic/medieval armour and dark environments really give you the feel that you are in a place of death. Each location has its own unique and detailed feel, towering castle to muddy poisonous swamps.

The weapons and armour really make the characters look like totally badass, and well who wouldn’t want to be a knight which a massive sword? The spells and miracles look almost hard to believe at times and they really do make being a sorcerer very appealing.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack really fits the game, making epic boss fights intense almost to make the player panic even more. A mixture of orchestra and classical singing fights the gothic style aswell, all the soundtrack of this game beautifully fights its surroundings. The main areas of the game do not have a major amount of music, this makes the boss fights so much more incredible.

You walk into a boss fight and boy do you know it, music plays and the boss charges making you have to really be prepared for what is to come. I personally love the music from Dark Souls 3 not that I like the genre of music but just how it makes the game feel.

The Verdict

Overall Dark Souls 3 really blew me away, capturing everything I thought I hated about games and turned it around and forced me to love it. The visuals are not the best graphics but they are beautiful as ever. The gameplay may be difficult to master but that is the fun of this type of game. If you haven’t already I would recommend trying Dark Souls 3 you never know you might be a madman too.

8/10 - Brilliant

Pros:

Great Visuals

Epic Music

Challenging But Rewarding Gameplay

Unique Multiplayer

Cons:

Difficult Gameplay

Vague Story

Not Accessible For New Players

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