Dark Souls 3 Review

When it comes to video games, From Software's "Souls" series are unique entities, thanks to their gameplay, punishing but fair difficulty, and impressive world building through lore. From 2009's PS3-exclusive Demon's Souls, to the first two entries of Dark Souls, and onwards to the PS4-exclusive spiritual spinoff Bloodborne, these games came to define a unique niche in RPG games. And now, with Dark Souls 3, From Software and Hidetaka Miyazaki brings this franchise to a close. How does it hold up?

You play as the Ashen One, an undead that takes on the responsibility of linking the First Flame after the Lords of Cinder, heroes that have linked the flame in the past, have abandoned their thrones and their duty when the flame begins to die out, which would bring an end to the Age of Fire and bring forth the Age of Dark. To begin the ritual for linking the flame, the Ashen One must travel through the Kingdom of Lothric, defeat the four Lords of Cinder, and bring their essences back to their thrones. As usual, there isn't much of an active story going on, but you are told and shown the history of Lothric through the sights you see, the creatures you fight, and the items you collect. If you weren't a fan of this sort of storytelling, whether you've played previous Souls offerings or are fresh to the games, then this won't do anything to change your mind. But for those who enjoy looking into the lore of a world or enjoyed this form of world building from the previous Souls entries, Dark Souls 3 certainly doesn't disappoint.

Graphically, the game looks quite nice, and even more so if you play the game on a well-equipped PC. Lighting and detail is pretty spot-on, and each area in the game is given a unique atmosphere, from the bleak Undead Settlement, to the rancid Farron Keep, to the sunny and bright Archdragon Peak, and the gorgeous frozen streets and boreal lights of Irithyll. There is quite a lot of blood spilt, a graphical feature carried over from Bloodborne, and it will leave bloodstains on the floors, walls, and your own character, too. The game runs at 30 FPS on consoles, while the PC version can achieve 60 FPS depending on hardware and settings. However, at least in the PS4 version, I found that the game can have framerate drops occasionally, making the on-screen action stutter for a few seconds. Thankfully, this isn't as big an issue as Dark Soul's Blightown on consoles, but it is a noticeable one. Character and creature animations are very good, though most of the human character animations are pulled wholesale from previous "Souls" games with some tidying up and smoothing out in some cases.

The gameplay in Dark Souls 3, however, is the real meat of the game, and it is as great as it has always been in the past. As you progress through the game and earn Souls, you can use them to buy items, equipment, and spells, improve or infuse your weapons, or to level up your character's attributes. There are nine attributes, and while in previous games there was at least one that was completely useless, all of the attributes in Dark Souls 3 are useful depending on the character you want to build. The usual suspects are here, including Vigor, Strength, and Faith, but returning from Demon's Souls is the Luck stat, which increases your item drop rate, application of Poison and Bleed effects for your weapons, boosts your Curse resistance, and scales with certain weapons and weapons with a Hollow infusion. The gameplay has a focus on combat, as you have to keep an eye on your health, stamina, remaining items such as Estus Flask heals, and another returning feature from Demon's Souls; a Focus Point meter. Replacing the limited amount of uses for each spell from previous games, this blue meter serves as a mana bar of sorts, showing how much FP you have and have consumed from using magic, miracles, pyromancy, and another new feature called Weapon Skills. Each weapon and shield has a Weapon Skill, which could be a strong attack or a buff depending on the weapon. These Weapon Skills often are quite useful in combat, and usually provide an interesting engagement option. Performing actions with your character feels much like the original Dark Souls, instead of the more clunky feeling of Dark Souls 2; each sprint, roll, and attack feels weighty, but it is also quite responsive. The game feels like a more natural evolution of Dark Souls than Dark Souls 2 ever did. Combat also feels faster paced than Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2, but not as fast as Bloodborne. Of course, you will be facing a variety of dangerous enemies, many of which are much, much bigger than you are, which is par for the course for the Souls series. But the feeling of accomplishment after beating a difficult enemy or a boss is unlike any other felt in other games. And of course there is New Game +, where you can play through the game again with tougher enemies, more enemies, and new treasures to collect, including improved rings.

Online interactions in Dark Souls 3 are much improved over its predecessors, thanks to some welcome changes. The "Soul Memory" system from Dark Souls 2 has been discarded, returning to the more conventional (and convenient) system of basing online interactions based on your character's Soul Level. This allows for a consistent metagame for PvP character levels, as well as you being able to summon help from people around your Soul Level. However, online interactions are also based on your most upgraded weapon. While this can be a little restrictive in a few select cases, this is a great way from preventing griefers from invading earlier areas with powerful weapons or magic, a problem which plagues the original Dark Souls. The online multiplayer supports up to 4 players in one session, or 6 when a certain item is used, with players either taking the role of a cooperator or an invader. This can create a variety of combat scenarios, depending on the Covenants and roles of each player. Speaking of Covenants, they also play a large role in online play, as they usually have players play a certain role. Blue Sentinels and Blades of the Darkmoon get automatically summoned by players in the Way of Blue covenant, protecting them when they get invaded. The Warriors of Sunlight once again engage in jolly cooperation with players with their gold phantoms. Rosaria's Fingers are the new invader covenant, with their reward items being used to reallocate stats or change your character's appearance a limited amount of times. There are two location-based invader covenants, where you are summoned to prevent players from advancing through an area. But the most interesting addition are the Mound-Makers, which has a unique role not seen in previous games. While they are a hostile Covenant whose goal is to kill the host or his allied phantoms, if summoned by leaving their purple summon sign, Mound-Makers can actually assist players and attack enemies, which can lead to some trickery with some planning and an unaware player. While the novelty is interesting, they just end up being another invader Covenant in the end, as by now most players are aware of what a Mound-Maker can do.

While I can nit-pick about certain features of the game, there is one true glaring flaw with Dark Souls 3: Poise. Poise, in the previous games, was a stat that dictated how difficult it was to stagger a character after being attacked, and can be increased or decreased depending on armor, other equipment, and spells. Characters with low Poise are easily staggered by any weapon, while characters with a lot of Poise are not as easily staggered. In Dark Souls 3, however, Poise doesn't seem to work at all. You could be wearing a full set of the heaviest, most defensive armor in the game, and you can be stunned by a knife. This also leaves Poise increasing equipment completely worthless. The only way to not get staggered in this game is to use an attack which has hyper armor or use a certain Weapon Skill or Pyromancy to prevent this from happening. Hopefully, the issue with Poise will be fixed in a future update.

Overall, Dark Souls 3 is a fantastic game. While it still has its flaws, it is still a quite enjoyable experience, and one that has quite a lot of replay value if you enjoy making different character builds. Every new area found, invader slain, and boss defeated is a triumph, one that is unique to Dark Souls 3 and its predecessors. While it is sad to see that this will be the final entry in the series, I feel that it was best to end on a good note, rather than be subject to being a cash-cow franchise that will eventually lose its character and quality as I've seen with other video game franchises (Assassin's Creed, I'm looking at you). The Souls games have certainly made a legacy in the world of video games, and I'm eagerly looking forward to what FromSoftware will be making next.

VERDICT: Essential!