Already Torn
Banned
I was really concerned about this game after DS2. I was pleasantly surprised.
Dark Souls III Review Thread
- Thread starter HoJu
- Start date
Cloud Strife
Member
Seems rather silly to judge the games based on hours when that will vary wildly from person to person depending on playstyle and regardless of how good you are at the game. I consider myself decent, but I explore literally everything I can find which would bump up my total hours significantly.
As for myself, I'm a little disappointed to hear about the world connectivity. This is no way ruins the game for me, I'm still going to buy it and enjoy the fuck outta it. It's just disappointing, but it sounds as though the logic of the areas are at least sensible in comparison to DS2. The Earthen Peak->Iron Keep comes in mind.
Polygon says : Perhaps the most disappointing part of Dark Souls 3 is that it is a complete technical mess at least in the debug PlayStation 4 version that we played. If that is still the case with the release i will not buy the game.
If the performance is really that horrible
If the performance is really that horrible
Pretty much. The more games you play the less magical it becomes as you're so used to most tricks and can build a good strategy right from the start, not to say it won't be a lot of fun. Best personal example of this is how one of my friends first started his Souls experience with Bloodborne and was wowed. His brother was away and only played it after a month or so and when my friend tried to seem smart in front of him using what he knows about the game he was surprised by how he seemed to have figured out everything so fast and never fell for ambushes. When he asked him how he just replied that he already played Dark Souls and had a good idea of how things will play.
I published my review today (in portuguese) and gave it a 9.5/10.
Easily my favorite one in the series and the most polished one. Didnt had any issues with bonfires being close to one another, I mean, there are two or three areas like that but it doesnt remove the sense of relief and excitement when you finally get past a bunch of enemies or a tough spot.
Easily my favorite one in the series and the most polished one. Didnt had any issues with bonfires being close to one another, I mean, there are two or three areas like that but it doesnt remove the sense of relief and excitement when you finally get past a bunch of enemies or a tough spot.
boredofcanada
Member
You will still buy it. Don't pretend. The performance isn't worse than Blighttown.
MixedBeverage
Member
I'm wondering the same -- I've never done a cleric build and was wanting to try it this time through. But if Faith is super underpowered... ugh. Anyone??
Already Torn
Banned
Performance doesn't even come close to Blighttown. The polygon preview is well reasoned but it seems like they played a different game in all aspects.
My collector's still don't show any date... does any one with a collector's preorder on amazon has a delivery date?
If you were fine with the other Souls games on console you'll be fine with this one too. It's not worse.
It's longer than DeS and BB. The only one that's clearly longer than DaS3 is DaS2.
It's about the same length or longer than DaS1 pre-DLC.
Most people finish it faster than the previous ones... Because it's the 5th in the same style, people know how to play those games now.
DaS1 was my first and took me 70 hours first time around (without the DLC) but no other game in the series ever reached that after, even though it's not the longest. I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. Now I know what I'm doing which is cutting down playtime a lot (and I'm just getting faster as I play more of them). In order I played them in, DaS2 took me 40 hours, DeS took me 16 hours, and BB <20 on a first playthrough. DaS3 took me 25.
LMAO xD
Pretty much.
But sadly it's also not better. Like gatdamn. I had two bosses that were harder than they should have been because the game going slowmotion.
how dare you!! they game is trash!!
get 'im bois!!!!
you are making me a lot more hyped
RedAssedApe
Banned
DaS and DaS3 have a comparable amount of content but a sensibly different pacing, that's all. Depending on when and how you tackle certain areas in DaS the hour counter can increase drastically, there's a lot of downtime in DaS: you might end up going back to several areas two times before/after the Lordvessel, and even with the teleport you're still going to have to walk to certain places.
DaS3 can mostly be played one big area at the time, and never return there after beating the major bosses. Even if you want to do a second pass to pick missed items, you have warping and a lot of bonfires. There are exceptions of course, but the structure is completely different from DaS.
you can't put down soul signs in a boss room. I guess, that's why there are so many bonfires close to it.
SteamyPunk
Member
Polygon basically said "The performance is a total train-wreck/disaster/worse thing ever!!! But it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game at all."
I've played the game for 50 hours and while the performance isn't perfect, it's nothing we haven't seen before. Some of the slowdown is caused by the next level loading in the background. Meanwhile, the performance is impressively solid when there are 6 players doing crazy PVP. Bloodborne had some performance issues in multiplayer that DS3 doesn't seem to.
Orthogonal
Member
Lots of crazy high playtime thrown about. I finished every game in 20-25 hours with a fair amount of exploration. Hell, I got the DS2 platinum (PC) in a little over 40 hours. Outside of tons of PvP, I don't see how folks get such high playtime.
DealWithIt
Member
PvP is part, grinding. Looking for illusory walls etc. I usually finish these games in 50-60 hours but I'm thorough and I PvP
wait, what?
Yeah, it's weird. I never grind or PvP but I always take ages. I took 50 hours in this one. I think I just go through very slowly and wander about a lot
BaraSailey
Member
I had a similar issue, but fixed it by changing my shipping. I didn't actually change the shipping speed, just clicked on two day shipping again and it updated it to release day.
The previous posts were asking about specific scenes and areas, etc.
There's not really any reason for this thread to be using boss names and areas names, or anything of that sort, and there's no reason to be probing people for specific comments regarding those.
MegaSackman
Member
I don't know, as a first timer took me close to 50hs to finish Bloodborne the first time (side content included), maybe even more. I didn't find it particularly difficult althought it took me looooots of tries to beat: Cleric Beast, Father Gascoigne, Martyr Logarius, and Ebrietas. However I'm pretty sure I was underleveled the whole game.
I'm pretty sure you get way better at these games with every entry (That been said. DLC bosses were more difficult than any boss in the original game though).
I'm pretty sure you get way better at these games with every entry (That been said. DLC bosses were more difficult than any boss in the original game though).
DieNgamers
Member
I think people are just "scared" to get another DS2 again. (I really like DS2, even though it lacks a certain feeling for place and scale..That brings it down in comparison.)
Once they play it they'll probably forget most concerns.
that fixed the issue for me..
now my collector's show to be delivered on release date
I'm very careful when moving through a new area, plus I go through every area multiple times to make sure I haven't missed anything.
Hell, I don't get the people who claim to have done about everything in the game, including bonus bosses and I guess optional areas, in 20 hours. After 20 hours I was in like the 5th or 6th area lol, and I didn't feel like I had wasted much time (except maybe
an hour in the CotD, looking for that one goddamn covenant
GamingOblivion
Banned
Yeah we got a thread for that and spoiler sages should have never entered any thread with dark souls lll in the title.
I don't understand why somebody would beat these games in 20 hours. I guess people just like to rush through everything or follow guides, I personally spent 45 hours on Bloodborne missing two optional areas and the DLC because I didn't want it to end and was walking all the time just to appreciate the incredible atmosphere. Other games force you to walk, in this one it's me who do it.
For me it was:
Demon's Souls (first one played) - 55
Dark Souls - 70
Dark Souls II Scholar - 60
Bloodborne - 45
Then I went back to Demon's Souls after beating the rest and it took me 23 hours. It's completely normal that the first one takes a lot more time (Demon's Souls is the shortest by far, it's baffling to me now that it took me 55h) than the 5th game.
I'm not worried about the length of DS3, I don't like doing speedruns or rushing to prove I'm "better" because I can beat it faster than others, I'd rather spend 50 hours enjoying the last game of the series even if it means wandering around and reading every item description.
Just posted some of my own opinion in the import thread.
Basically I think fans of the series will love this game like I did, it's much better designed than 2 was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However it isn't "one of the best games ever made material" like I would consider DkS1 to be so if you're hoping for that, lower your expectations. I would rank it significantly below bloodborne too since that game felt really fresh this one game very much exists in the shadow of it's predecessors and ultimately ends up being too fan-sevicey for my tastes.
But like I said it's a great game, highly recommended to anyone remotely interested.
Basically I think fans of the series will love this game like I did, it's much better designed than 2 was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However it isn't "one of the best games ever made material" like I would consider DkS1 to be so if you're hoping for that, lower your expectations. I would rank it significantly below bloodborne too since that game felt really fresh this one game very much exists in the shadow of it's predecessors and ultimately ends up being too fan-sevicey for my tastes.
But like I said it's a great game, highly recommended to anyone remotely interested.
TimeEffect
Member
It took years and hundreds of videos collecting and summarizing dialgoue and item descriptions to make a whole story happen. There always is and always will be room for speculation for fans of the series to make. Things are vague enough for people to have fun with it. It's always a process to understand what happens in every game in the series.
MegaSackman
Member
"You feel its power growing, don't you? I've felt it too. You must be careful now. Evil will be drawn to you from outside the Fellowship. And, I fear, from within."
"You must trust yourself. Trust your own strengths."
TimeEffect
Member
Bloodborne disappointed me. Lack of NPCs, items, and a lack of feeling lost and in danger like in DkS1
I was hyped for DkS3 for an open world. If that's not the case, that's okay because the item variety is great
But now Im reading conflicting reports about bonfire locations
Also, are levels huge and full of secrets? Little nooks and crannies, hidden areas, that kind of thing
Polygon's review would have been a 10.5 if Dark Souls 3 had turned into a video game reenactment of the movie Carol. I don't know if DS3 is any good, but Polygon doesn't care how games play but rather interpret what games are trying to say. Something that is purely superfluous.
Polygon can't review games anymore and just say "Wow that was a fun game because it is a gaming-ass-video-game."
Also, I know it was the PS4 version of Batman, but they gave that a 10 without considering the PC version. They must be expunging some guilt and embarrassment from that review still.
Polygon can't review games anymore and just say "Wow that was a fun game because it is a gaming-ass-video-game."
Also, I know it was the PS4 version of Batman, but they gave that a 10 without considering the PC version. They must be expunging some guilt and embarrassment from that review still.
TheChillyAcademic
Member
Wait pyromancy builds are crap!? I don't want another STR/DEX build 
This game isn't lacking in secrets and NPC's. Levels are really big so there is enough space to explore in there.If you want secrets that one could possibly miss out on you got them.
JudgmentJay
Member
My 40 hours didn't include multiplayer. With co-op/PvP included it was 53 hours. The thing is "a fair amount of exploration" is pretty subjective. Do you take your time in an area or do you YOLO sprint to pick up all the items? Do you check walls for illusions? Do you kill every enemy [without cheese]? Do you re-comb an area to double-check and make sure you didn't miss any items? Do you stop often and just look around at the scenery? Do you read item descriptions? Do you check NPCs for new dialogue every time you re-visit the hub? Do you actually listen to all the dialogue or do you just read and skip? There are lots of things that you can do or not do to increase/decrease play time. I'm sure if I *really* wanted to focus on speed I could have beaten DS3 in 20-30 hours, but why in the world would I want to do that?
Individual areas are very large and the game certainly has plenty of secrets. However it's not an interconnected world like DS1 or Bloodborne which was a slight disappointment to me and leads to the world feeling less memorable I think.
NPC side quests are certainly more numerous and fleshed out than BB was, I wouldn't worry about that. The item variety is similar to DS1 too I think, not so many that there is a weapon in each category for every build type like in 2, but definitely plentiful. I will say I don't really like how the games is balanced at the moment when it comes to weapon scaling and different build options, but that's getting a little too nitty gritty.
ebullientprism
Member
Here is the thing, I think Polygon are trash most of the times. But for crying out loud their review (for a change) is actually reasonable. The score might be harsh but the reviewer does justify it with things they disliked about the game, especially the world design. And having seen the game played through multiple times I can totally see why someone would feel that way. Especially if they like the open ended nature of Dark Souls 1 and 2, the game does feel very constrained and limiting.
So instead of getting your fanboy panties in a bunch at least read the review and write why you disagree with it. Dont be like the UC3 thread.