I love how the "outlier" review people are discounting is fucking ONE point lower than sites like Gamespot. People decrying Polygon, implying they give controversial scores for clicks, when they gave the game literally 1 point lower then other sites and 2 lower then the metacritic average. I don't see how that's some sort of controversial statement. It's reasonably well written too.
Dark Souls III Review Thread
- Thread starter HoJu
- Start date
Often that's how it works here anyway where a major area has one bonfire and then multiple shortcuts that open up later.
Bloodporne
Member
It's April 4th, I do not possess an Xbox and I'd like to understand what actually happens in the game. Thanks anyway, smarty pants.
That's just not true though. Maybe they didn't realise that the stuff they did wasn't optional
ASilentProtagonist
Member
Ugh.. Having a hard time with this. Rockin a GTX 7702B, but I love playing on PS4... Trophies are nice too.
TimeEffect
Member
Oh? I must be confused as to what the reviews are saying then.
Are there shortcuts to find that connect various areas in the game?
I'm at the last boss on Xbox (with one optional boss left) and the game is fantastic. I'd give it a 9/10 and would rank it above DS2 and BB. Three or four of the bosses are easily some of my favorite in the series -
- with a fluidity of movement, flourishes of color, and a good degree of challenge. Frame rate does suck on Xbox during boss fights which is frustrating but otherwise it basically runs like a souls game.
Abyss Watchers, Dancer, Pontiff, and Two Princes
TatteredHat
Member
All the Souls games have optional exploration areas though. For better or for worse, it's not any different from any of the other entries in the series in that you can speed through the game once you know where to go.
No, the areas all have one connection point but you can traverse the world by foot (excluding one connection which is just a big gap where you can see the other side). There is also a sequence breaking secret that opens up a later area early but it's not via a shortcut
Having played through the game twice now, the Polygon review is pretty much spot-on. The only thing I disagree with is the part where he said you never feel lost or overwhelmed. There is literally one moment in the game in which I felt overwhelmed with different paths to take. But then you whittle them down one by one and realize that it's really just two paths.
Also, there's really not a ton of variation in world design. There are probably more buildings that look like gothic cathedrals than buildings that don't look like gothic cathedrals.
KZXcellent
Member
Not really no. The areas in this one are massive and are set on a linear path. Plenty of shortcuts that make traversing the areas after you've full explored them a lot easier.
Yes there are but not like dozens of them. The design choice here is large detailed areas with lots of internal shortcuts rather than between areas.
You can do:
Abyss watchers, Wolnir, Sage, Deacons
Abyss watchers, Sage, Wolnir, Deacons
Abyss watchers, Sage, Deacons, Wolnir
Sage, Deacons, Abyss watchers, Wolnir
Sage, Abyss watchers, Deacons, Wolnir
Sage, Abyss watchers, Wolnir, Deacons
Abyss watchers, Sage, Wolnir, Deacons
Abyss watchers, Sage, Deacons, Wolnir
Sage, Deacons, Abyss watchers, Wolnir
Sage, Abyss watchers, Deacons, Wolnir
Sage, Abyss watchers, Wolnir, Deacons
and
Pontiff, Aldritch, Yhorm
Pontiff, Yhorm, Aldritch
Yhorm, Pontiff, Aldtritch
Pontiff, Yhorm, Aldritch
Yhorm, Pontiff, Aldtritch
and then there's also the secret
Dancer sequence break
Yeah
CyberPunked
Member
Of course it does. A £90 GPU outperforms both the PS4 and xbox version.
Sanctuary
Member
To hear Yoshichan describe it, Dark Souls was hot trash and easily the worst of any of the games under the Souls umbrella mostly because of the last "50%" of the game (1-2 areas). I completely disagree. But hey, he at least knows which game is the best out of all of these games, so there's that.
Also, I do agree that the Dark Souls 2 DLC doesn't retroactively make the vanilla game better. I like to consider the DLC trilogy as its own, seperate entity too in rankings.
That being said, I still greatly prefer it to Bloodborne (a game that *I liked quite a bit* but grew quickly bored with during replays for a great number of reasons). My biggest complaints with Dark Souls 2 were 1) agility requirement, 2) hitboxes, 3) a wildly inconsistent quality in area designs, and the obviously last-minute performance "fix" that left all of the completely unneeded braziers thanks to a seemingly global brightening of the world. I mean, why the fuck didn't they remove those? It made zero sense to leave them up and seemed vestigial.
The bosses could be very unimaginative too, but they didn't bother me that much, and they at least fit the world for the most part. Oh, and Sorcery was somewhat fucked until late game pre-DLC compared to both miracles and hexes unless you got super lucky with a Lizard Staff drop; which ironically I spent hours farming recently, only to see five drop on my next playthrough. The itemization was so screwy too that the Sunset Staff +5 (something you could grab extremely early too), infused with Dark actually did more damage with sorceries than the Staff of Wisdom +5 did at 60 INT!
This is too rich. Especially considering GAF was completely enamoured with Dark Souls 2 for the first few weeks, and wouldn't hear anyone on the obviously (to a select few it would seem) glaring flaws. Sure, there were a great many complaints before launch about the lighting and graphical downgrade, but once it launched, most people were too busy enjoying it, or playing in such a way where specific mechanical flaws were not so apparent.
Demon's <> Dark depending on what I'm in the mood for at the time, > Dark Souls 2 DLC > Dark Souls 2 > Bloodborne. No clue where this game is going to fit. It just depends on so many unknowns right now; although they do need to fix whatever is fundamentally broken with offensive miracles and sorceries, and the weapon arts need to justify the focus.
Cloud Strife
Member
I suppose so. I just know From's history of releasing sub-par PC ports, so I was just making sure PC was the superior version in this case.
Dark Souls 1 having amazing DLC also doesn't fix the part, where the last 4th of the base game is the weakest out of any souls games (including Dark Souls 2).
If you could somehow remove everything between getting the lordvessel and fighting gwyn, and insert the DLC instead, it would be the best Souls game easily. But I really value an even experience, and Dark Souls 1 feels the most up and down in terms of quality to me. Dark Souls 2 doesn't reach the same highs, but I don't think it goes as low either, and that's why I like it better than 1 (though still less than DeS and Bloodborne).
I'm very optimistic about 3 though, it sounds awesome.
DieNgamers
Member
DS2 was layed out like a...sun with paths in every direction but ultimately unsatisfying dead ends. Is it like this in DS3? I can't imagine it being scattered all over the place like this.
No. I mean how much detail do you want? I could tell you exactly how it's laid out
For better or worse, not even remotely.
Iva Demilcol
Member
How are you going to forget about Dark Souls II with all the references that are in DS III?
including weapons, armour sets, phantoms, item descriptions, etc
MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
For those who have played Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series which one is harder?About the same difficulty level?
Bloodborne was hardest for me but it was my first one of these games
DieNgamers
Member
I don't want to be spoilered but I imagine it's more like a tree with some branches. I've heard the game's strength lies in the design of the areas themselves.
If you're a crackpot, you can forget anything!
He's been shitting up every DS3 thread with his obstinacy.
I thought BB was the easiest, including the Platinum, but I realized very early that Vitality was wildly OP, so I put most of my points in it, past the soft caps, and wore most of the +HP runes.
SteamyPunk
Member
The required parts of Bloodborne are easier but some of the optional areas/bosses are the hardest in the series.
Cloud Strife
Member
Well from the pic that was just posted (can't see it anymore?) it seems like it.
KZXcellent
Member
Basically it's a linear path that will occasionally have another path to take that eventually leads to a dead end. I found the paths that were not optional lead to dead ends that were quite satisfying because the areas were great and the bosses were fantastic.
The worst part of the Import thread was him desperately trying prove that DS2 has no connection in DS3.
Orthogonal
Member
DS2 was a very good port. They learned their lesson from DS1.
I don't think that's accurate, you aren't warping onto separate paths except for the very first area past the hub, they are connected but for most of them it's just one way.
Here is my professionally drawn map of the overarching world.
The cutscene after Area 9 can occur at some other points too but I'm leaving it as the most basic path for now.
Anything with an arrow and without a text remark means you walk to it from the previous area, though it may be past a boss or some other kind of gatekeeper.
I really disagree with that.
There's a main path that is some number of bosses long, and sometimes some off-shoots that have bosses on them.
Sumio Mondo
Member
Considering this is supposed to be the last Dark Souls game (at least for a long time) I don't see why they would leave out references to the previous two games for all of the fans. It honestly sounds like Dark Souls 3 is taking elements from all of the previous Souls games (Bloodborne included) which to me, is a good thing.
Austin Walker decribed the layout in each game in comparison to DS3.
Dark Souls is like a tower, where you're going upwards and downwards with floors to explore.
Dark Souls 2 is flat, where you are going far out in every which way, and it just goes.
Dark Souls 3 is a line. But maybe it's more like a tree branch?
Dark Souls is like a tower, where you're going upwards and downwards with floors to explore.
Dark Souls 2 is flat, where you are going far out in every which way, and it just goes.
Dark Souls 3 is a line. But maybe it's more like a tree branch?
MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
Thanks I have played BB only and looking forward to play DS3!
With optional content included, for me Bloodborne has tougher bosses (not by much) but easier progression through the levels
family_guy
Member
How have the PC versions been for online play? Is there cheating?
History? They learned from DS1, wtf.
Yeah, kind of. What happens is you reach some areas where there are multiple paths. Both paths are necessary to progress but only one is physically connected to the progression.
I thought Bloodborne was way easier then either Dark Souls game. It was a lot more forgiving in combat to me.
More like a baseball bat with a bunch of gnarly-ass nails sticking out of it?
Bloodporne
Member
Looks exciting and truly creative. Can't wait to explore an MTA subway line.
IAmAnAgnostic
Member
People keep saying this but I never saw why. I enjoyed the last 4th of Dark Souls just as much as the rest of the game apart from one specific boss fight. In fact some of the best areas of the game are in the last 4th so this criticism truly confuses me.
It's different but I liked it. Feels like you're going on an epic journey
it even has the right color for my subway line