Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Praise the Sun!



Hello, Internet Hivemind!

I have returned with much to discuss. While I would have liked to branch out into something other than games today, I simply have not had the time or money to do much else. April and the opening of May opened the floodgates on some titles I have been eagerly anticipating, with more still to come (I’m looking at you Doom, with big googly fanboy eyes). My problem is, what do I talk about?

The choice seems obvious, Dark Souls III was released toward the backside of March, and I was eagerly awaiting its approach with all the patience of a 5-year-old on Christmas Eve. While I do have much to say about this title, don’t get me wrong Dark Souls, and I are BFFs (we made bracelets and everything), it is not all positive.

Then, right on the tails of Dark Soul III, Quantum Break was released on April 5th and what I thought was going to be another sad attempt at a Xbox One exclusive surprised me with how innovative the title was – except for one or two MAJOR gripes with the game my wife and I loved it.

The last of the AAA titles I was able to play (and the most recently released) was Battleborn. A title I was very excited to pick up as I am madly in love with all things Borderlands and Battleborn comes to us from the same minds that brought one of my favorite game universes to life. While mainly a multiplayer-based title (something I have come to loathe about this generation of gaming), when played with just my wife and I we had some serious fun – though this fun was swiftly tempered by a few major failings, both technical and gameplay wise.

What about the indie games? Once again, the indie games I dove into over the past month or two outshined most AAA titles with their beautiful art, innovative gameplay, and ability to keep the fun and challenge coming at a breakneck pace. Enter the Gungeon and Hyper Light Drifter are two titles that, while I may not have enough time today to unravel to their fullest potential today, are worth every penny – trust me.

Here we remain with a choice, what do I want to talk abo- screw it Dark Souls III is up.



What has been dubbed the final title in the Souls line of games, something I continue to struggle with after its announcement, is yet another rousing success brought to us by From Software. Players of the past Souls games / Bloodborne will find everything they loved here along with a few tasty new additions. This is not to say that there aren’t a few missteps here, in fact (for reasons I will discuss later) Dark Souls III may be the only Souls title I don’t feel the need to complete more than once…until the inevitable DLC of course.

As is the custom with Souls titles, the story is enigmatic at its clearest points – which is nice for me since spoiling the story is impossible as you need a degree in Demonology and Staring Into the Infinite Abyss to make sense of your mission’s true goal. Keeping in time with past Souls titles, we are placed within the body of an Unkindled (instead of being one of the Undead) on a quest to continue the Age of Fire. I can provide a tiny amount of insight into the overall workings of things in the Souls world, but the fine details still escape me. Each title has to do with a cycle of Dark and Fire, leaving the final choices up to the character to either continue the Age of Fire or plunge the world into Darkness.

Dark Souls III is aware of its roots, so much so that sometimes I felt like things got just the slightest bit lazy. You will run into characters you have interacted with before, such as our lovely asshole of the bunch Patches, and even collect weapons and armor you may have worn in previous titles. Though this left me wondering if, at one point, I was picking loot up off the desiccated corpse of one of my past incarnations. Like other titles in the series, your character has two “forms” – one that comes after you are brutally hacked into bits and are revived as Unkindled and one that provides you with a stat boost and a beautiful smoldering effect to your character marking that you are “alive”. In Dark Souls II you used Humanity to bring about this change, the only difference in III is that you use Embers to achieve the same goal. Being “alive” has its perks, such as more health and the ability to summon players for help before bosses or grueling sections of a dungeon – though with every perk in the Souls series comes a penalty. Being “alive” and summoning help opens the way for malicious player controlled spirits to invade your world with the hopes of prying your life out of your cold, cold dead hands.

A quick aside, as I have grown older I have found that much of the PvP aspects of newer titles do not appeal to me. When I’m playing a game the last thing I want to hear is a 12-year-old spewing racial slur into my ear,  luckily with Dark Souls there is no voice chat – so when I have invaded the fights against my human opponent were tense, exciting, and terrifying. No words, just two people with swords the size of Sedan’s circling each other waiting for an opening.

While the previous Souls titles saw us ascending to a gleaming castle from blood filled alleyways and poisonous swamps, Dark Souls III flips the progression path. This time, you start at the top and work your way down into the world below while hunting for the Lords of Cinder in an attempt to “link” the flame and continue the Age of Fire. The environments are astounding as one should come to expect by the point. Haunting vistas are as much a part of Dark Souls as the heaving monstrosities hell bent on breaking you in half, and there are plenty of each in Dark Souls III. 

Another interesting addition are the Weapon Skills. Each weapon now comes with its own special ability (some buffing up your attacks, some sending waves of lightning arching across the ground) allowing the player to further hone their personal playstyle.

While I could prattle on about the successes of Dark Souls III as they are legion, I feel that if you are reading this then you probably already know why Dark Souls III is great. Sure, a new player could pick up the third title in the installment and have just as much fun as a series veteran – but I personally would recommend spending some time with the previous titles to fully enjoy what is being offered here. 

Before dipping into the “cons” list of Dark Souls III allow me to make a bold statement, Bloodborne (and its absolutely fabulous DLC The Old Hunters) still remains my favorite title by From Software. Something about the frantic, bloodthirsty combat of Bloodborne left me feeling…slow in Dark Souls III. Bloodborne taught me that relying on a shield is folly, and the only path to victory is through agile dodging, attention to your foe, and the ability to do damage whenever possible. Being brought back into Dark Souls saw me returning to my old ways – find the biggest shield and pair it with the longest range, hardest hitting weapon I could carry. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my sword and board approach and relished feeling like a 3-ton ball of enraged steel throughout my journey – but gone was the feeling of frantic nail-biting fights that relied on my ability to dodge. As an experienced Souls player, I knew that after I found my first shield that could absorb full damage from a blow I was on the path to victory. Patience becomes your truest ally. When you can absorb a few hits from a towering boss with no repercussions, your fighting style changes drastically. You have time to feel out their move-set, know which attacks are blockable, and then formulate a way to dismantle your opponent.  This is still VERY fun and VERY challenging in places – though that feeling of being tossed into an arena with only your ability to dodge is gone.

I still have yet to find a boss fight I enjoyed more than Maria of the Astral Clock Tower in Bloodborne. A straight up warrior vs. warrior sword fight in a beautiful clock tower with arguably my favorite music track to be used in any of these titles so far. There are still boss fights that are truly epic in Dark Souls III, but I won’t spoil them for you here – better for you to be disemboweled a few times as I was. 

While I am reticent to place this next topic in the “con” section, my personal feelings compel me to. There are sidequests in Dark Souls III as there were in previous titles, and unless you have the wiki pulled up in front of you – you are going to miss out and ruin most, if not all, of them during your first play through. This irks me slightly, as some of the conditions for completing these can be ruined completely by accident. For example, I got lucky my first time through and actually pushed a sidequest to its second to the last step – all I had to do was find a character out in the world, talk to her, and then finish the final step. I hacked my way to her and prepared to talk to her and move things to the final stage of the quest. At this point, my cat jumped into my lap and caused me to hit the dodge roll button – throwing my plate mail covered from tumbling into the poor woman. This was apparently enough to convince her of my treachery and my sidequest ended there – taking away one of the options for an alternate ending. Frustrating? Yes. Game ruining? No. I simply do not feel compelled to replay the game and chase down the same vague sidequests again. Sure, seeing all of the endings would be great – but I was actually happy with my choice at the end of my first playthrough.

My only impetus to continue with a New Game+ would be to further strengthen my character to carry even larger weapons – I can’t get enough of swinging a sword the size of a building at things. This is not enough for me to whip myself through some of the most difficult areas, however. Perhaps this is just the completionist in me dying a slow, casual death. 

Before we reach the end of our discussion, let us return to some of the things that made this title a fantastic experience. Gone is the infuriating travel system in Bloodborne. No more traveling back to a hub to travel somewhere else in the game. The hub still exists and remains your source of leveling up your character and equipment, but you can travel from any unlocked bonfire to any other bonfire you have come across. Also, the Estus Flask has returned doing away with the Blood Vials of Bloodborne – something I loathed having to deal with. Blood Vials were a finite resource, and once you lost to a boss a few times you would be faced with the inevitable need to spend time either farming up souls to buy more Blood Vials or hunting them down from enemies that are known to drop them. The Estus Flask fills up whenever you rest at a bonfire, but carries finite charges. These can be upgraded with Estus Shards (I can currently take 10 swigs before running dry), and the amount healed can even be boosted further by using specific items you will pick up. There is also now a mana bar, and a separate Flask used to replenish your spell casting ability (this is something I wish did not exist and only pushes the title toward the usual fantasy approach to games, mana bar health bar stamina bar, etc.). 

Until the DLC comes out and I can give my FINAL impression of Dark Souls III as a complete entity, the final title of the Souls series will have to remain second to Bloodborne. Do not let this dissuade you from playing, however, as Dark Souls (regardless of which one) games are still some of the most enjoyable titles you can pick up. There is no feeling that you wasted money on a 3-hour flashy gimmick like so many of the other larger titles today. 

Face your fears, do battle with nightmares, help your fellow sufferers, and most of all – Praise the Sun!