Dark Souls III

Decades ago games were created to provide a challenge, but as the industry became more accessible many games started to become easier and easier. This is designed to help newcomers, but old school gamers need a challenge. And that’s how the Souls series came to be. Dark Souls III is the epitome of this series and it really manages to deliver a great and very interesting set of mechanics while also expanding the game lore and offering you exciting gameplay to enjoy again and again.

What really makes Dark Souls III shine is the fact that it has the best story in the series. It’s a story about battles, betrayals and knowing who or when to trust. The combat here is spectacular too, there are lots of infusions, spells, move sets and weapons that seamlessly blend together to give you options. You are never powerless, but you do have to work hard to make the gameplay more rewarding for yourself.

You will die a lot, and that’s because the game is designed to be very difficult. Strategizing and learning how enemies attack and react is a part of the game and it does end up becoming an amazing experience every time. There’s the opportunity to use bonfires for saves and teleportation, so even if you die you can load up your save and get back on track to eliminate enemies.

Since this is an RPG, you do get to expand your character’s abilities and unlock new stuff all the time. That’s really insightful because it makes it easy to put a mark on your character. You get to feel what the character feels and you can react to all these things in ways that really matter to you. Of course there will be tricky situations to deal with, but Dark Souls III manages to help you push that and it delivers everything quickly.

Enemies are not boring. Yes, there will be repeated enemy types throughout the game, but you periodically find new enemies too. And then there’s also the fact that you will also need to battle groups, which do end up bringing an additional set of challenges to the table. The game does have co-op support and even some PVP integrated in it as well. That really makes the experience special and it manages to deliver new ways to test out your strengths or share the experience with others.

You can enter Dark Souls III expecting to finish it quickly, but the game is not designed with that in mind. It can be linear at times, but the fact that you always have to create new strategies and improve your character really pushes it to the next level. You never have a stale experience in this game. Everything is designed to be fun and rewarding, and the game certainly delivers. It does take some time to get used to how everything works and you do need to test your strengths, but the story is extraordinary, the gameplay is solid and you have lots of places to explore and secrets to check out. If you want a challenge and to put your gaming skills to the test, Dark Souls III is the game for you!