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Prior to its April 12 release, we had to the esteemed privileged of getting an advanced, hands-on preview of Dark Souls III at Bandi Namco’s London offices. The previous two installments were meet with critical acclaim and even earned Dark Souls II the coveted ‘Game of The Year’ award at the 2014’s Golden Joystick Awards. The series is notoriously (in)famous for it’s excorticating difficulty—a real gamers game in every sense as the reps at Namco told us. Admittedly, some us in the office never got a chance to play the previous Dark Souls titles—you know, life and stuff— so we definitely weren’t prepared for the barrage of relentless attacks and unfair boss battles. But if the truth be told, we really enjoyed the frustrating challenge, it’s rare to find a game that pushes you to your limit and is constantly keeping you on your toes and that’s what we found in Dark Souls III. Too many times we’ve found AAA titles spoon-feed you about what you need to do but that’s not the case here.
By the end of our preview session we came out more than satisfied—and a tad bit smarter if we do say so ourselves. With that in mind, if you are looking to pick up Dark Souls III when it drops you better bring you’re ‘A-game’. So here are five things you need to know before playing Dark Souls III.
Dark Souls III is Hard
Have we mentioned the difficulty already? I’m sure we have, but just reiterate—this game is hard. We’re not just talking the ‘highest settings’ hard, this Tyson Fury, Brock Lesnar, young Mike Tyson hard. If Dark Souls III was a human you could kick it in the nuts and smash a brick over his head and it will still say to you “Is that all you got?”. Why yes, that is all we’ve got in us at the moment.
Rarely has there been a game that is constantly working against you. But that is where the beauty of the game lies; in it’s incredibly difficulty.
This Not for the Easily Frustrated
If you’re the kind of gamer that throws hissy fits, chucks his control pad at the wall and blames everyone around him except his own lack of skill, then take this as heads up—stay TF away from this game.
It’s the equivalent of your unimpressed in-laws who are attempting to trip you up at every turn, naturally your bound to be a bit ticked-off when you died three times in the space of 5mins. But if you have no problem with that then we encourage you to keep plugging way. Which kindly leads us onto the next bit…
Patience Is It’s Own Reward
You’re bound to die in Dark Souls III, that’s much is a given. But if you learn from your mistakes, watch your enemies’ movements and look for openings you’ll discover that this is an enjoyable game with so much to offer.
If you fancy yourself a ‘top Donny’ when it comes to the control pad, and you find that games such as Call of Duty and The Division aren’t as challenging, then this game will be right up your alley.
Button Bashing Is a Bad Idea
When we first started playing Dark Souls III we were frantically bashing the light and heavy attack buttons to no end. A decade of nonsensical games has that effect, so imagine our surprise when we found out that that technique does you no favours.
Why? Because it drains you’re stamina bar, that’s why. We didn’t even notice there was stamina bar in place, upon realisation we learnt that we had to time our attacks and chain our combos with precision and grace. Couple this with the intense boss battles and you’ll find that it makes for highly engaging boss encounters.
There’s No Satisfaction in the World like Beating a Boss
Okay that may be an exaggeration but really when you do beat the main boss after 10 excruciating attempts you’ll discover a sense of joy and accomplishment that you probably wouldn’t have found since discovering how to beat Pyscho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid. Some have argued the idea of end of level bosses is a dead concept and outdated. But tell that to the Dark Souls III development team and they’ll prove you wrong.
