If the first Dark Souls depicted a world gracefully drifting
towards the apocalypse, Dark Souls 3 shows one on a spiraling, feverish descent
directly into it. It’s a fierce and punishing behemoth that dares you to take a
step forward before knocking you back, again and again and again. But with a
bleak, yet beautiful world that’s enthralling to explore and packed with
secrets to find, I always felt compelled to come back, eager for that familiar
thrill of overcoming even the most exacting challenges.
Dark Souls 3 does suffer from occasional framerate dips and
a few underwhelming boss fights, but beyond that, its epic scale, aggressive
obstacles, and rich development of existing lore make it the grandest and
fiercest Dark Souls adventure yet.
The Kingdom of Lothric
and the lands that lie beyond contain some of the most visually striking places
developer From Software has ever crafted. Even though many of its locations do
recycle ideas from familiar locales (like the Catacombs and yet another poison
swamp), they're distinguished well enough to feel distinct from their past game
parallels. There was never a moment when I didn’t feel captivated by their
strong sense of place and the amount of gorgeous detail put into each
environment. I stared out in awe atop the crumbling medieval stronghold of the
High Wall, taking in the view of its surrounding valleys and snow-capped
mountains, while all around me the fort’s frenzied denizens turned to stone and
wood mid-prayer. I trudged through the poison swamps of the Road of Sacrifices
while battling seething, cross-bearing beasts, braved Irithyll’s chilling,
Tower of Latria-like dungeon, and got lost in a multi-story maze of
curse-ridden bookshelves in the Grand Archives.
Every level is not only full of breathtaking architectural marvels
and the minutest environmental embellishments, but also dense with things to do
and see from moment to moment. But those views are more intense than Dark Souls
3 can handle – dramatic framerate dips (which we saw even on an ultra-high-end
PC with two GeForce GTX Titan Zs) caused a lot of these fantastic looking areas
to drag along, sometimes down to 20 to 25 FPS. But the rest of the time, when
it is running at a smooth 60 (on PC only), Dark Souls 3 is a sight to see.
Dark Souls 3’s world
isn’t as openly interconnected as that of Dark Souls 1 (where you can freely
move between high and low-level areas), but individual areas still weave their
own branching paths together seamlessly, creating twisting mazes of overlapping
passages and shortcuts that were a joy to lose myself in. Perhaps it’s because
of this lack of interconnectivity that Dark Souls 3 feels larger than the first
game. Early and late-game levels don’t directly connect as often, so the more
you progress linearly from level to level, the farther it seems like you’ve
journeyed.
If Dark Souls 3
truly is the last in the series as we know it, then it’s a worthy send-off.
Weapon arts allow stylish and versatile new moves without tarnishing the purity
of the combat system. Lothric’s awe-inspiring locations provide visually
stunning arenas for rigorous exploration and fierce face-offs with hosts of
deadly enemies and even deadlier bosses. While not all the risky changes land
as neatly as others, Dark Souls 3 is a powerful journey and the sequel the
series truly deserves.
