Never played Dark Souls before and oh man. This game impressed me. I didn't want to play it at first because it didnt seem too fun at first. That is until you start actually playing the game. You need a controller for it 100% although. This review is only based on DS3 experience alone. Surely having played 1,2 before would change the experience and story perception so keep that in mind.
its really unique in playstyle compared to most modern games. Has that vibe from 2005 games but with a modern touch to it.
At first you seem to aimlessly run around and learn how to dodge, kill random enemies and just funnel down a preset path considering world is not an open world. But each area has few ways to play around it making it not locked into a single path. Some paths are locked and you need to find means to navigate them as well.
You think its just a hardcore game that mimics old school games until you get to the first npc area where you realize that there is some dialogoue, philosophy and lots of mechanics to learn.
Eventually you progress and realize that the story line is there and its not a basic story line. Its layered philosophical themes. You actions, timing of those actions and when you talk to each character and how you help out dictate the outcome. You can miss entire gamestyle if you miss to save some characters without spoilers, so you need to pay attention to detail. I googled what to do and I regret doing it. I would have rather played the game through second time to find the other outcome, I just didn't want to spend a lot of time replaying the game considering you die a LOT before you know what to do, its not forgiving.
It has this deep feeling of melancholy while in the playthrough. Not super dark in horror terms, just seems bleak and hopeless for the majority of the playthrough. You do not know what your goal is but you learn that it seems pointless. A corpse that crawled out of a grave trying to change something.
I don't regret getting it a single bit even at 80% completion rate. I only beat Aldrich, Devourer of Gods or Dancer of the Boreal Valley I dont remember. These are 10-11/14 bosses in game.
