Sideed, meaning eight in Somali!
Alright, this is for sure a bit out of order, but fuck it, I'll circle back to the seventh review eventually.
Review the eighth from the StuffMax team (a.k.a Me, Myself and I) is...
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| Salty death, over and over... |
Dark Souls III!
Third (and supposedly final) game in the dark fantasy series published by From Software and spearheaded by Hidetaka Miyazaki, Dark Souls III sets out to be the ending the series deserves, attempting to blend all the best parts of the games that came before it, and create the final masterpiece Souls game in the epic saga.
As always, it is my aim to find out if they've succeeded.
Let's find out!
First Impression
Like nearly every other Souls series game, Dark Souls 3 wastes no time in breezing past the company logos and getting directly to the ominous, near abyssal screen harboring only the games' title.
Unlike previous games in the series, Dark Souls III doesn't accompany this simple and dark start screen with haunting and lulling music, no. Dark Souls III leads in with a beautiful angry and horrifying orchestral swell, full of tortured chanting and beautiful bell work weaved within, setting one's blood racing for one final trip through From Software's salt mines.
Once entering a new game, players are treated to a glimpse of the decaying and truly hellish world that has been left by the folly of those who came before, as well as their role in saving it before the last dregs of fire die, and the world fades into darkness.
The character creation has become solidly more robust, and the beginning stage of the game sets a proper tone for how you're going to be spending the rest of the game.
Crawling out of a coffin after you done died again.
That said, the opening cutscene is a tad on the threadbare side, and not in a way that the Souls series usually handles so well. As opposed to providing exposition while still leaving things vague enough to draw your own conclusions, Dark Souls III opens in such a way that more leaves you a bit confused, and doesn't do much for your imagination other than creating the hope that further exposition will increase your understanding of the situation.
8.0/10: While the start of the game does a very good job of hyping you on an emotional level, the opening is somewhat lacking in terms of hooking you from a storytelling position. On some plane, this works, as the lack of information naturally invokes a form of curiosity, but for people with less investment in the series who aren't coming from older games, it may be a bit harder to get into the world off the bat.
Overall Presentation
Dark Souls' dark fantasy Berserk/Lovecraftian fusion beast of an aesthetic reaches its fever pitch, going above and beyond on the towering spires, horrific bloody tentacle beasts, filthy cretinous backstabbing peasants, and stoic, almost soulless armors ranging from the shiniest of the shiny to the most grody and grimy. The goal of the Souls universe generally seems to be the strongest attempt at making a medieval world that nobody, right mind or otherwise, would want to live in and damn does Dark Souls III hit those notes.
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| Just don't see me. I'm not here. Not here at all. |
In just as many ways though, the vistas and arching stonework sprawled across the kingdom of Lothric can be absolutely breathtaking, with there being moments of legitimate beauty amongst all the filth.
The games menus and text styles suit the mood and tone of the game throughout, and the muted colors of the HUD ensure that there's nearly no point where your immersion is broken by bright colors in this dark, dark world.
To keep you solidly immersed, ambient noise and music trade out at constantly proper moments, at a rate so natural that you almost never notice.
9.5/10: Dark Souls nails it's intended look and feel on every note. If there is anything damn near perfect about this game (and damn near every other Souls game), it is this. That said, there comes a point where things begin to look a bit same-y due to the color tone of the game, but that's easily something overlooked by the time it occurs.
Accessibility
The Souls series is not a series for everyone. Gaming has a reached a sort of position where it has become so popular that most games attempt to appease all comers, which, while benefiting the overall continued presence of gaming in the public eye, has the downside of making most big-name games these days almost feel like they are holding your hand and guiding you along until you're at a point when you don't need it anymore.
And then they may keep holding your hand.
The Souls series does not believe in that philosophy.
That said, Dark Souls III does make more of an effort to make the game more accessible to those who may have been turned off by the Souls games original style of simply pushing you into a spike covered room filled with ravenous zombie wolves, and shutting the door, living it to you to tear a key to the door in the ceiling out of the stomach of the biggest baddest wolf in the room
And when you finally climb out, there are more wolves.
And the breath fire, cause why not.
Not that the game has gotten any easier. But whereas you had to figure out most everything but the basic controls on your own before, the game creates a more forgiving initial environment, with a more comprehensive guide to the controls, faster access to healing items, and super quick access to hub area where you'll spend the majority of your time, in addition to more plentiful checkpoints (bonfires), and the ability to warp from checkpoint to checkpoint, removing the hassle of traveling and backtracking.
So the Souls series now gives you a knife and shield, and the first room doesn't have spikes anymore.
That does make the sudden face first dive into pain a bit more jarring, though.
5.0/10: Dark Souls hasn't changed much in that it's not a big fan of helping you along the pathways of it's world, preferring you buck up and fend for yourself until your strong enough to eat everything that slithers in front of you, but at least it will point you in the right direction for once. And the game's relatively intuitive to get into.
Graphics
Dark Souls III is not the strongest graphical outing on today's systems, but man oh man, does it make use of what strength it has. Where the game isn't as powerful as far as character models and such go, the expanses of Lothric be they disgusting or beautiful are absolutely fantastically rendered, no matter what kind of environment the game throws at you.
From the high castle walls illuminated in the sun being ever so slowly eclipsed, to the unfortunate swamps buried deep below, and ranging to the hauntingly beautiful frozen preserved city of those
In addition, the models for the nerve-wracking boss characters, the excellent particle effects, the trails of light that follow the ridiculously violent swings of weaponry and the fantastic textures of the various equipment all stand out as wonderfully crafted, with excellent design picking up for the few times where less powerful graphics can't manage.
8.5/10: While not the most powerful graphics in the current-gen yard, Dark Souls III makes use of everything it has in fantastic ways. Still, the occasional moments of clip and some rough looking human sized models and faces occasionally stand out as low points.
Sound
The Dark Souls III soundtrack is absolutely stunning, ranging from creepy to pulse pounding, horrifying to haunting, and with some callbacks to older tracks in the serious, even makes tasteful but firm use of nostalgia. There are very VERY few moments where the musical direction doesn't work, but they do exist. But they are thoroughly outnumbered by the constant solid work.
The groans and screams of the unfortunate souls that populate Lothric come across as just as tortured as you would wish to avoid on any day, a solid note in an overall excellently handled example of vocal direction.
The game's characters come across as thoroughly untrustworthy no matter where you are, a feel the game tries to employ with gusto to remind you that nowhere is safe, and you truly don't feel safe anywhere, a fact not helped by the drops in music that leave you with little but ambient noise and silence.
When combat is the name of the game, DSIII does not disappoint, with clangs, bangs, slices, wet thuds and crushing snaps rendered with every excellently animated swing.
9.5/10: DSIII's sound direction is impeccable, easily on of the highest points of the game, with nearly no misses.
Controls
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| A duel! Please don't stab me... |
An area where the Souls series has increased in fantastically, whereas Dark Souls controlled like a well thought out tank, Dark Souls III controls like a finely oiled sleek war machine, movement excellently responsive and hand position quite intuitive, with the minor changes to button layout making certain control decisions feel much more natural.
Offense and defense are handled by the shoulder buttons, with new Weapon Arts taking the place of series staple charge attacks when wielding a weapon with two hands.
Items, dodging and rolling, jumping (which is a bit on the shaky side) and confirmation controls are
mapped to the face buttons, with easy access to a quick menu and emotes on the PS4 touchpad (I've only played this on the PS4, so I am not aware of how the quick menu or emotes work on the X1, though I imagine they're controlled by the Start and Back buttons.)
These smoother controls with less input lag fit the increased pace of the game, where a bit more fast twitch reaction is required of the player.
Despite the increased pace of the game though, attacking is an action you commit to, so it's important to give thought to that when choosing to swing, as swinging wildly or at poor times are an extremely easy way to see that familiar glow of a bonfire far faster than you would like...
8.5/10: Dark Souls controls excellently, fluidly, and comfortably, though some may find the combat buttons being on the shoulders as opposed to the face of the controller a bit off-putting. Also, jumping, while better than previous entries, is still a bit on the unfortunate side.
Difficulty
You know, I want to go particularly in depth for how hard this game is, but I kinda think it's common knowledge that the Souls series prides itself on its difficulty. Now, I didn't find it to be particularly hard, but that's coming from having beaten every other game in the series and being used to this level of difficulty. And there is a lot to be said for how even one person joining you in jolly co-operation will make certain portions of the game far easier.
That said, when playing solo, the game has not remotely fallen off in difficulty, not even a little bit.
Enemies are faster, hit harder, and things that made previous games easier like stacking armor to make your swings unstoppable or racking up nonsensically powerful magic nukes don't have anywhere near the same impact that older games seemed to allow.
And bosses seem to be harder than ever, now with new phases and forms that they assume mid fight, disgustingly powerful grab attacks, teleportation and generally being a million times bigger than you, and reaching you from across the world.
Also, sneak attacks and poison and evil everywhere.
Expect death. And expect it often.
8.5/10: Death is a constant in the game, but almost never is it cheap and not a result of you fucking up. This is for sure a game you should only come for if you're looking for challenge though, as you can't select your difficulty, and on new games, it only goes higher.
Replayability
One of the highlights of the Souls series is it's replayability. DSIII is a bit on the disappointing side as far as that goes, as there isn't much reason to continue playing once you've finished the game besides the challenge of the increased difficulty, as unlike in other Souls games, not much changes as far as your rewards and character interactions go when you start a new playthrough.
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| 420 Praise It! |
But if challenge and joining with people in jolly co-operation (or not so jolly invasion) is your game,
then feel free to get yourself in there!
That in mind, there are at least 3 planned expansions coming up, so the game does still have life beyond the first thrill of success. But as that hasn't be released yet, we can only anticipate excitedly.
7.0/10: The game isn't as full of cool surprises on later playthroughs, but the joy of victory and the thrill of jolly co-op (or invasion, if that's your thing) make replays worth it. Plus, it's really easy to miss stuff, so it's nice to find what you missed the second (or third) go-round.
Story
Dark Souls III's story surrounds the struggle of you, the reborn Ashen One, conglomerate of all those who failed to link the fire and save the world as you rise in a last ditch effort to use the souls of the Lords of Cinder (the big baddies spread across Lothric) to give energy to the First Flame before it's snuffed out, and everything goes to hell in a handbasket....
Well, more to hell in a handbasket. A lower circle.
Aaaaand... Well, that's about all you get, story-wise. There are some more threads and such, connections to previous games, but the game does it's damnedest to let you know that any story you gather is almost conjecture. And while in some regards, that can be the beauty of the Souls series, it doesn't work if the game doesn't give you much to formulate ideas with.
There's plenty of fantastic lore in the item descriptions and environment, but very little by way of what's happening as the main story progresses.
Now, admittedly, there are fans who have likely looked harder than I have, and gleaned a much more complete story, but admittedly, I didn't really feel like enough was given to have a satisfying and fulfilling conclusion.
5.0/10: The lore of the Souls series is always strong, and it's a solid base, but the game feels too vague to even enjoy the regular art of Souls theory-crafting.
Fun Factor
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| I still don't like these odds... |
All that said, we come to the most important part. Is the game fun?
Hell yes.
The story is not solid, sure, there's a solid chunk less content, and damn is this game sometimes like beating your face against a wall until your blood transmutes into pure rage-induced salt.
But between the beautiful world, extensive lore, dope armor and weapons, cool attacks, fending off invasions, Jolly Co-operation, and the sweet, sweet taste of victory...
Man.
There's pretty much not a damn thing like it.
I just wish it was longer. I wish there was more.
9.5/10: I have every intention of going home and swinging in to this game later this week. Maybe even tonight. My one gripe is it's over too soon. Good thing there's both New Game + AND incoming DLC!
SCORE
And so, we reach the goal-line!
Survey says....
THE VERDICT
DARK SOULS III SCORES A
79.0
A GREAT DAMN GAME
Woo. Yeah!
Dark Souls III is a really solid game, and despite the score, I love it way more. Maybe I'm getting better at this bias thing!
Anywho, I will revisit this game once the expansions drop, and see how it looks to me then!
WOO! Just before deadline.
Alriiiiiight.
Look out for new video content on the StuffMax youtube channel on Saturday!
Yep.
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