Review for Dark Souls III: Deluxe Edition. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 11/04/2016
Creating a video game that is a masterpiece is not an undertaking for everyone, but doing it repeatedly is almost impossible for anyone. Yet when the game creates it From Software, we're almost sure we're in front of a masterpiece without even having to try it. But since we have a fine palate, we want to be even more critical and we go further: when a game is directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, we are sure that it is a masterpiece.
This writer didn't particularly like Dark Souls 2 due to various questionable game design choices, but loved the other Souls and Bloodborne. As everyone will know by now, Miyazaki did not actively participate in the creation of Dark Souls 2, ma directed Dark Souls 3, and we tell you right away: you can feel the difference.
Once again we will be immersed in a dark and disturbing universe, where anything will try to kill us in the most violent way possible. Lothric is the name of our new home and, as we will soon be told, we have been resurrected with the task of looking for the Ember Rulers: four of the five kings who have deserted from their thrones at the Firelink Shrine. The four Lords are individuals who have participated in the Fire Binding ritual, but have abandoned their place, causing the flame to go out quickly. All rulers must return to their thrones to bind themselves again to the flame and preserve the world. To make matters worse, there seems to be a sort of disease that afflicts the inhabitants of Lothric: this disease manifests itself in the form of a black substance that escapes from the victim's body, taking on an almost draconic shape and exponentially increasing the danger of our opponents. The disease seems to have no qualms and attacks everyone, from bosses to simple enemies. Death is around every corner but unfortunately for us every corner hides a secret that we must discover.
On this basis begins our journey into a dangerous but extremely fascinating world, much more than that of the previous chapter, and at least at the level of what we saw in the first Dark Souls. Despite having a central hub to return to each time to manage our equipment and upgrade the character, the whole game world exudes mysteries and connections: already the first game area after the Firelink Shrine (High Wall of Lothric) is full of roads to along, shortcuts and alternative routes to reach other areas in the most efficient and at the same time twisted way possible. This type of design is even more accentuated in the second area, the Undead Settlement, where alternatives are wasted and figuring out which way to go first is a good way to get a headache. And the further you go, the more things degenerate into a labyrinth worthy of the best puzzle games. All this happens without affecting the peace of the game in the slightest, which remains fast and electrifying at every moment. The enemies in every single area are cleverly arranged: we will never find an enemy positioned in an impossible point to see, ready to fall on our heads killing us instantly, but all enemies can be seen or predicted first by paying a little attention and with a bit of cunning.
Bosses deserve a separate paragraph. This series is famous for many reasons, and among these are the boss fights: huge enemies and very difficult to defeat, a real challenge. While in the other Souls it was partly true of their HP amount or their damage (not in all cases of course, some boss fights are simply epic), in Dark Souls 3 this particular detail is more true than usual, not only for the difficulty of the clashes, but above all for their beauty. The design of most of the bosses is exceptional, their movesets extremely varied, dynamic and unpredictable, but what struck us most was seeing the bosses evolve during the fight, revealing every aspect and detail as they beat us up. The first boss, for example, literally caught us off guard and left us speechless.
New but not too much
In Dark Souls 3 Several new features have been introduced, most of them small in scope, but overall they offer a deeper approach to the game than in the past. First of all, because it is immediately usable, is the novelty deriving from the Stance, that is to say the combat poses, unique for almost every weapon, which completely change the way of approaching combat. Or so they should. In fact, the idea is interesting: each weapon has a particular moveset, which however in most cases is reduced to a buff for some one-handed weapons (axes for example) or a two-handed pose, which, while granting a new moveset, leaves extremely open from a defensive point of view. These movesets are therefore difficult to use in boss fights, and their effectiveness in PvP is still to be tested. The stances gave us the impression that we wanted to give the fight in Dark Souls 3 a footprint and a speed similar to that of Bloodborne, however unattainable in practice given the lack of dodges. A nice news, of course, but not game changing as many of us were hoping for.
The news does not stop at this: the system of defenses given by the equipments has been renewed: now the various pieces of armor will not directly modify our defense values deriving from the stats, but will have their own separate value that will indicate their capacity to absorb damage; mana, or FP, which is used to cast spells, but also to use stance moveset, has been reintroduced (since Demon's Souls); Speaking of mana, new flasks have been introduced that serve to recharge it. In short, there are several news, but in the end, however, nothing is really new.
Playing at Dark Souls 3 we never felt a feeling of bewilderment, but rather a familiarity that the first two bosses weren't even difficult to beat and we defeated them on the first try. To emphasize this feeling even more, there are several familiar faces among NPCs, such as Andre, probably the same Andre of Astora from Dark Souls, or Siegward of Catarina, which will certainly have something to do with Sieglind and Siegmayer of Catarina (allow us to say that the first meeting with Siegward is hilarious. NDR.). This is not necessarily a criticism, but an observation of how the Souls series is so ingrained in our minds that the skills we developed playing the previous games we have brought and found now, and it is a very satisfying feeling.
In all this nostalgic complacency, however, not everything we liked. Some areas and above all some enemies are definitely too similar to others already seen. In the Undead Settlement, for example, buildings and most of the enemies seem completely taken by Bloodborne and brought in Dark Souls 3 without even trying to disguise them a bit. Tall humanoids and dressed as peasants, with pitchforks and spears are practically everywhere, accompanied by stronger ones that are so reminiscent of those almost transformed into wolves present in Bloodborne. Many other examples can be done, but they would be mostly similarities to the other Souls and since it is the same universe, we feel we can turn a blind eye.
Ok, but can it be played on PC?
The answer is yes, Dark Souls 3 runs on good levels even on PCs that are not too powerful, keeping a fixed minimum of 30 fps and dropping only in certain particularly agitated moments. We were able to play quietly at over 60 fps for most of the time, simply by lowering some graphics details and updating the GPU drivers. Probably for once, however, the console version will be superior to the PC version (assuming you don't have a super PC, in which case you won't have any problems).
Graphically we are in front of a gem, as much as its predecessors were, for better or for worse: the graphics engine is not so different from the others and obviously has the same strengths and weaknesses. Breathtaking panoramas and extremely detailed models are counterbalanced by sporadic clipping and stuttering phenomena, as well as animations that are not always very fluid and convincing.
Nothing to say about the audio sector, minimal as always during the exploration phases, but perfect and pressing during the most demanding fights.
► Dark Souls III: Deluxe Edition is an Adventure-RPG game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 11/04/2016
