Overall a pretty cool game. The combat is fun and engaging for the most part, though later on commanding your squad became a little stale. There wasn't too much variety but considering it's not even 10 hours long, that repetition really only sets in in the final mission (which really took way too long imo). I also had some weird bug later on that had my squad constantly walk back through the levels? I had to assign them spots or I would simply be on my own in combat. I don't think that'll be a universal experience though.

Story-wise this game is just really cool. I mean, what's not to love about playing as a bad-ass group of Special Forces clones and carrying out these really daunting ops. It's cool and I had a good time, but it ended up a little underwhelming.

Decided to start over from my first save, where I didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere after 18 hours. Maybe it was my build, maybe I just didn't really understand the flow of the game, whatever it was: restarting was the right option because I just killed the last of all bosses after 22 hours of playtime.

The flow of levelling up and growing stronger in this game is really well done. Progression is pretty subtle, but noticeable enough to still feel rewarding, whereas backtracking to a previous area really shows you much more powerful you've grown.

Just in general I quite like the flow of the game. Where in my first playthrough I was really put off by the lack of bonfires around, this time I grew to appreciate all the little shortcuts that open up as you keep exploring new area's.

And with that I also want to say that this game isn't always that hard? Maybe I was just using a really good build (and a good combination of items) but I was able to beat about 12 out of the 19 bosses in 3 attempts or less. And don't get me wrong, these fights are brutal and really keep you on your toes. The bosses that took me longer were usually quite fun as well, with trying to find the perfect moment to dodge and learning their movesets. Not every hit a boss gets on you feels earned, but in general I learned something after every death.

Now while that very much applies to the bosses, I'm afraid I can't say the same about some of the regular encounters throughout the game. I tended to take my time, and try and grab as many items as possible, which was quite fun. Slowly beating through enemies to progress felt good and made sense, but when I was on my way to a bossfight, they'd really get on my nerves.

Running through all the enemies you've already beaten a few times for the 7th is not really a satisfying experience. Fights where 3 enemies jump you at once don't exactly feel like they're difficult because they're hard, they're difficult because it's cheap.

But to be honest, that is my biggest complaint with Dark Souls 3. Everything outside of that misstep was pretty good, and while I don't really see myself going through it again, I have certainly gained a lot of respect for these types of games. (I haven't talked about it here much but uncovering a bit of story here and there can feel just as rewarding as a new piece of loot. At least to me).

Soooo, yeah. Good game, overall fun experience. I can see why people get on with these so well even though I'm not as enthusiastic.