Bloodborne's battles are fluid, intense, and tremendously exciting - as an arch in-game description notes, "shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity." And it's in this context that Dark Souls 3 returns to the classic sword-and-shield combat of the Souls games.
The greatest game of 2015, also developed by From Software and directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, was a Souls-alike, in the sense of sharing the same foundation but using this to create a much more offensive combat system based around transforming ('trick) weapons. The big reason behind this increase in enemy aggression, I would hazard, is Bloodborne. Later enemies are relentless and clumped in groups so it's not uncommon to be simply harried to death, boxed-in by constant blows or unseen assailants, and mercilessly finished-off every time you go for a panic chug of health-giving Estus. Part of this is Dark Souls 3 working with a familiar combat system, and several returning enemy types, which has led to an increase in what it expects from the player. I know these games well but, even allowing for ring-rust, was simply knocked flat by many enemies and bosses time and again.
There are surprises in how From Software has approached Dark Souls 3 and one is the incredible challenge it offers, to the extent an early patch toning certain elements down would be no surprise. Such additions are not game-changers, but they're welcome for allowing players to get cute in some especially-deadly situations. Here it's not a foolproof strategy, because aggro-ing multiple enemies is always risky, but there are many opportunities to do it with tough enemies - in the case of the black knights, one can be used to take out or at least weaken an especially bothersome clutch of pyromancers, while deeper in Izalith another can provide invaluable assistance against a lethal NPC. Enemies have always been able to suffer collateral damage in the Souls games but this was more about AoE attacks from bosses. In several sections you can drag different types of enemy together and, with a bit of luck, get them fighting. The black knights also introduce one of Dark Souls 3's more curiously prevalent tactics - for a first run-through, at least. You push on to find goat-like pyromancers lurking around corners and blasting fire from huge distances and, if you can find them, there are even yet remnants of the black knights charged with holding back the flood. Rooms are piled with the corpses of demons, former citizens are now so feral they move on all fours, and intricate corridors criss-cross each other with countless dead ends and hidden routes. Dark Souls 3 re-imagines Izalith as it should have been, a descending stone labyrinth riven with fire and heat, filled with the detritus of ancient war. The lost kingdom of Izalith is crucial to Dark Souls' world, but the area itself ended up relatively bare and rushed - a huge lava floor filled with placeholder enemies followed by a small settlement and the worst boss in the game. One is treated as an opportunity, a second chance to get it right. Maybe my deprived character can find some trousers. Sights like this are what makes the Souls games so special, because you know that at some point you'll be exploring it. Some areas have been built-upon, layers of stone swaddling the original architecture nearly beyond recognition, while others have been looted or transplanted over the years, and relics of the world past are in new homes. Firelink Shrine is the first of what will be many environmental callbacks, each bearing the weight of centuries and many changed beyond recognition. In Dark Souls 3 this long-term wear and tear is applied to the Lordran we knew. This is surprisingly direct and aggressive with what has gone before, to the extent it feels like From Software wants to definitively cap the series.ĭark Souls was a world where history had already happened over hundreds of years, and you as the Chosen Undead were learning about it by picking through the debris. It's not a bad concept, as these things go, but Dark Souls 3 has no such compunctions. At the core of Dark Souls 2 was a message about repetition, about how cycles can become ever-diminishing and ever-further from their source, and in so doing it shifted focus from the world created by Dark Souls towards its own distorted reflection of same. One of the player's first significant accomplishments in Dark Souls 3 is finding a much-changed Firelink Shrine, indicating the more direct relationship with Dark Souls that will be borne out over this epic journey.
Availability: Out on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on April 12th.