Dark Souls 3

I've been eyeing this game for a long time. After all, like many others, I have heard a lot about this series of games, about its extreme hardcore, first of all, but also about the feeling of satisfaction when overcoming difficulties. And therefore, I had an ambivalent attitude towards this series, on the one hand, I’m not a straight casual, but I also don’t like to screw up the same place in games, and here I was promised endless deaths and replays of the same locations and bosses until infinity, as well as burning of the rear point. Plus, the price for this series of games bites, at least in my coordinate system, so to speak, because it was impossible to buy this game for less than 500 rubles, and if I buy games from 500+ rubles, I want to be sure that I will complete them, and in DS such confidence there wasn't.

But at some point, I watched a video on YouTube about games and there, in particular, there was an idea that it is useful for the brain to try new things, including in video games. Well, I finally decided to try Souls-like.

Initially, my choice fell on Lords of the Fallen, solely because I still wasn’t sure whether it would work for me or not, and the game on sales costs 74 rubles, if I lose that money I wouldn’t mind. Plus, one of my friends on Steam had a review and

the idea was that LotF is quite suitable for getting to know the genre as the first game. And at first it seemed like nothing, but the game got boring pretty quickly and it wasn’t a matter of hardcore, the game just didn’t grab you, but it killed the desire to play finally the boss “rhino”, all the tactics against which were rolled back and hit, and he, the bastard, is fat and the battle was boring and long. In the end, I decided that this genre was probably not for me.

But suddenly I came across the website Plati.ru for DS3 for 280 rubles. Surely many Steam users are familiar with this feeling when you see a usually expensive game at an incredible discount (and DS3 still costs 2000 rubles on Steam) and I couldn’t resist, made a purchase and started playing...

Why did I mention LotF? Because this is the only game with which DS can be compared, in my case and, as it were, they will be repelled in some arguments.

And the main thing that distinguishes these games is the atmosphere, LotF does not have it, but DS is so saturated with it that it cannot be expressed in words. These bare locations of lords versus locations of souls that directly tell you the history of the world, there are a lot of details and if you delve into the lore you understand that everything around is not just stuck around. Then the bosses, in LotF they were just “thick”, plus in fact they were quite the same, in fact everyone I met were something like knights in heavy armor, they naturally differed, but the essence is the same, and red mobs, although they are all different they feel the same way. In DS, the mobs are really diverse, and each boss is unique in appearance and the authors clearly have more imagination, plus many bosses do not take long to kill, the main thing is to know their weak points and this, accordingly, does not tire you. Well, in general, if I don’t go into too much detail, it’s just that on the emotional level, LotF can’t be compared with DS, if I quit that game and don’t want to return to it, then I’m really drawn to continue playing.

Well, so to speak, my feelings, as a newcomer to dark souls who have heard a lot about all these hardcores and burnouts. Yes, you die often, but every time you understand that it’s your fault, and not the injustice of the game. Plus, PES veterans will understand me, since it doesn’t burn anywhere, so I’m immune to Dark Sol). And in general, it’s not that hardcore, that is, you probably won’t be able to beat the entire game in a hurry, but there’s no prohibitive complexity here, the further you go, the more you understand the mechanics of the game and you can easily adapt and enjoy the game.

Nevertheless, as a person who is not used to these games, I am a little irritated by the eternal loss of accumulated souls, the lack of checkpoints, frequent backtracking, especially if you died on the boss and you run to him through the entire area, but there are shortcuts and I found them, but still there was a plus in LotF and these were the respawn points near the arenas with bosses. Yes, I know all this is not an integral part of Dark Souls and without it it wouldn’t be the same, but I would prefer the same gameplay in terms of battles, but more linear with checkpoints and so on, but these are purely my subjective feelings. Another downside is that the game gets a little tiring if you play for a long time, and I would recommend playing no more than 1.5-3 hours at a time, but after half an hour it drags you back).

In short, the conclusion is this, if you haven’t played souls-likes, but like me you’ve heard a lot and want to try yourself in this genre, it’s still better to start with Dark Souls itself, in particular with the 3rd part, the plot there is no such thing here, so there is no particular point in starting necessarily with 1st, and DS 3 is said to be the best in the series and, as they also say, is easier than the previous ones, largely due to the better implementation of the technical side of the game. Because if you start with budget clones, you risk completely discouraging yourself from playing such games, but they are worth it