My basic chemistry class in college was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken in my entire life. Not particularly because it was difficult, but when it comes to the sciences, I was not programmed to excel. Science, Biology, Chemistry, anything science related just goes right over my head. The only way I passed that class was to buckle down and give it my full attention, and even then I could just barely scrape by. That same process was required for me when playing Dark Souls 3.
Dark Souls 3 has been out for well over a year, its additional downloadable content has wrapped up, and the series is thus-far concluded. That being said, Dark Souls 3 still has its fires linked and people are still playing and overanalyzing every little thing about its story, lore and gameplay mechanics. No one can deny that Dark Souls as a series (including Demon's Souls and Bloodborne) has made a tremendous ripple effect in the gaming industry that will be felt for years to come. While some could say it's left too big of an impression on the gaming industry, today we are going to delve into what makes Dark Souls 3 so good and what Dark Souls 3 could've improved on. Let it be known that this is only my opinion and interpretation of the game. If you disagree, that is perfectly fine and I would love to discuss it further.
The Story and Lore
Dark Souls 3, like its predecessors, has a very minimalist approach to direct story telling. Rather, it has one opening cinematic at the beginning of the game, establishing the broad events of the game and where you fit in, and one cutscene for when the game's complete. As far as any more details on the story, that's entirely up to the player to decide. Dark Souls 3 does this beautiful thing, where the player is not bombarded with walls of texts, or cutscenes that last on forever. Instead, the player can just go and play the game without ever really knowing too much about what the "linking of the fire" really means. While this might sound lazy, it's quite masterfully done as all of the storytelling is told throughout the environments of the game. What does that even mean? Well, it means that when a player walks up to an enemy knight who is guarding a corpse, the player can either think to themselves, "oh hey, an enemy's in the way," or, "why is that knight protecting that corpse for?" It very subtlety reveals the events that took place through its environment and it's up to the player to decide how far he wants to go in order to find out why things are happening the way they are.
The only real criticism I have of this method of storytelling is that players too often miss out on the masterfully crafted world building. I have too many friends who've played through Dark Souls 3 multiple times who can't tell me what the games main plot was or talk about any of its interesting lore. While I understand that this method of storytelling was intentionally done, and while it does work for Dark Souls as a series, it's still problematic if you're trying to follow the in-depth story of Dark Souls 3. I've had to use several different Wikis, as well as a video series on YouTube to really follow and keep up with it. Which can be quite time-consuming and tedious.The same criticism can also be said of the games characters. While there are certainly some memorable character, such as Siegward of Catarina (better known as a beautiful onion man) they often times blend in to the background. Now, before I get crucified for making that statement, I need to emphasize that the characters of Dark Souls 3 are not badly written. In fact, there lore is quite interesting when you can find it, but this constant need to research characters is still tedious.
The Music and Atmosphere
Before I can really talk about the music or atmosphere, I need you to think about your favorite movie, video game, or book. Think about why you like it, and all the little things about it that make it so special. If you've done what I've said, you're no longer reading my review, you're now engrossed in that fictional universe. Dark Souls 3 atmosphere is exactly like that. You're no longer playing a hard game, you're a warrior adventuring in the dying world of Lordran. You're completely lost in this world that bombards the player with a feeling of dread and hopelessness. It offers you very little respite between checkpoints, or bonfires, as it's a constant struggle for survival. When you die, it's crushing, but when you succeed it couldn't be anymore sweet. The music really amplifies this tone the game set by providing minimal music. While you traverse the world of Lordran no music is playing and the player is greeted with ambience instead of music. So now that you know music doesn't really play throughout the main game, you understand that when there is music, it is significant. Music is only played whenever there's a boss fight and it just makes that boss fight even more of an epic encounter. The music that is played isn't just your run of the mill boss music, but a beautiful masterpiece that deserves to be appreciated for years to come.
The Gameplay and Level Design
Just like its predecessors, the gameplay is exhilarating and refreshing from most RPG's I've played. FromSoftware has really refined the combat to a formula at this point, and have ironed out most of its flaws from previous titles. Swinging your sword feels crisp, rolling away from danger feels optimal and blocking feels really good. You really feel equipped and ready to take on the world even though you're going to die and get angry quite a lot in this game. Dark Souls 3 really rewards players who are patient as that's the name of trial and error. In order to succeed and fully enjoy this game, you really have to sit back and ask yourself questions like, "why am I dying," or "what's the enemy doing?" When you can manage that, it makes for an incredible experience. Gameplay aside, some of the areas in Dark Souls 3 are just a joy to explore. Lotrhric Castle, Anor Londo, The Grand Archives, and Archdragon Peak are just as much fun to explore as they are quite literally rewarding to explore as there's plenty of treasure to be discovered.
While it may sound like I have nothing bad to say about the game, that couldn't be further from the truth. There are plenty of things to criticize Dark Souls 3 for, so why don't we start with the camera. The camera in video games is arguably the most important part of any video game as being able to see what you're doing is undoubtedly paramount to enjoying a game. The camera in Dark Souls 3 is mostly okay, but it really falls flat during several boss fights. For example, if you've chosen to lock onto an enemy, then regardless of wherever you move, the camera will still be focused on that enemy. However, for certain bosses, the camera can be your worst nightmare and go all over the place when you need it most like when you need to dodge the incoming sword that's designed to ruin your day. This is not the case for every boss, but I've noticed that for huge bosses, like a dragon or someone riding a dragon, the camera does whatever it wants leaving the player disoriented trying to figure out where the boss went. Challenge is one thing, but trying to figure out how the camera works during a boss fight is just cruel.
Next Dark Souls 3 does not do a good job at explaining how its stats work. While the tutorial does a good job explaining the core mechanics as well as the boss mechanics, understanding what to level up is a completely different story. If you're like me, then you'll level up what sounds good to level up even if its the last thing your character needs. You only get an idea of what to invest your stats in based on weapons or spells you acquire throughout the game, but you still have to commit several level ups to even use those weapons efficiently, and if you decide you don't like those weapons or spells, then you're nearly out of luck. Thankfully, you can reassign stats, (as long as you know where to find the person who does that for you) but it's still rather cryptic as is a common reoccurring issue.
Finally, the first several levels or areas of Dark Souls 3 aren't exactly inviting for new players. I'm not saying their hard, but rather not very fun to explore. The Undead Settlement, Farron Keep, Cattacombs of Carthus and especially the Smouldering Lake can really drag and be obnoxious to explore due to difficulty and labyrinth like these areas inherently are. Once you do get past these areas, the game dramatically picks up the pace, but you can be forgiven for getting tired out despite the mostly cool boss battles you've had. Although certain boss battles did not help the aforementioned areas any more fun to explore. I'm looking at you Curse-Rotted Greatwood.
The Conclusion
If you can get past Dark Souls 3 difficultly spikes and the first few frustrating areas, you will be rewarded with not only one of the best RPG's of all time, but one of 2016's finest games to debut. Which is why I give Dark Souls 3 a solid 3.5/4. The only thing really holding it back, besides the aforementioned criticisms, was that all of its accomplishments are due to its predecessor Dark Souls, and it didn't do as much as it could've to really stand out as a sequel. Despite that, it deserves all the praise I could muster for it's gameplay, boss fights and beautiful soundtrack.
Bonus Content:
Here's the link to the Dark Souls lore videos I was talking about. While the quality isn't the greatest in this one, it dramatically improves in his later videos. If you got some free time, check out this guys work.
