Kind of like Dark Souls 1 with that game's rough edges smoothed over. In the process, it also smooths over the looping, interconnected world for something a bit more linear (but branching), but who cares? It's the most polished--and the most fun--Dark Souls has ever been, and it offers combat that is faster, more fluid, and more exciting to boot.
Dark Souls III is as DARK and HARD and GROSS and GRIM and DIM as ever, but also unapologetically beautiful. The first time I stepped into Irythill, I got a little emotional. The first time I got lost in the marshy swamps of Farron Keep, I felt a manic excitement more intense than anything else Dark Souls had thrown at me prior. This game is Dark Souls at its most refined, devoid of all the halting friction that marks DS1's low points. Maybe it's not fair to write this review in such a comparative tone, but the fact is that Dark Souls 1 is already one of the most singular and impressive games I've ever played... and this one is better. I feel that's more enlightening than any futile attempt at an independent, objective look at a game that could never exist in a vacuum anyway.
Dark Souls III is as DARK and HARD and GROSS and GRIM and DIM as ever, but also unapologetically beautiful. The first time I stepped into Irythill, I got a little emotional. The first time I got lost in the marshy swamps of Farron Keep, I felt a manic excitement more intense than anything else Dark Souls had thrown at me prior. This game is Dark Souls at its most refined, devoid of all the halting friction that marks DS1's low points. Maybe it's not fair to write this review in such a comparative tone, but the fact is that Dark Souls 1 is already one of the most singular and impressive games I've ever played... and this one is better. I feel that's more enlightening than any futile attempt at an independent, objective look at a game that could never exist in a vacuum anyway.