Search This Blog

4 Apr 2016

Dark Souls III review round-up

Soul survivor



Dark Souls III, the final game in From Software's brutally engaging and engagingly brutal Souls series, is finally upon us. Before we gird our collective loins and head once more unto the breach on April 12th, let's take a look at what the gaming press are saying about the end to one of gaming's most popular trilogies. Is it a triumphant swansong, or has repetition finally dulled the series' keen edge?

Given that this is the third time (fifth, if you count Demon's Souls and Bloodborne) From Software has whipped up a Souls game, one would expect them to have the formula down pat. So far, it's looking like they have delivered, with the game sitting on a whopping score of 90 (PS4 version) on Metacritic. It's early days, but for the moment that makes it the highest rated game released so far this year.

At the top of the pile we have a quartet of perfect scores. Gaming site Meristation claims that Dark Souls III "reaches pure perfection", the Telegraph praised the third chapter in the saga for its staunch refusal to bow to popular demand, while Twinfinite called it a "fantastic, no-holds-barred" experience.

IGN awarded the game 9.5 out of 10, calling it a worthy send-off, and Eurogamer labelled it an essential purchase. Of the bigger sites, the outlier seems to be Polygon, who gave DSIII 7 out of 10, currently its lowest score. While the reviewer acknowledges that Dark Souls III remains as gripping an experience as ever, they deducted points for the game's reliance on familiar ideas and mechanics, and some troubling performance problems.

I'm not sure Souls fans needed much convincing, but its good to see that From Software's latest getting such rave reviews. So far, 2016 is shaping it to be a hell of year for gamers and it'll be interesting to see where Dark Souls III ranks once all the dust has settled. As for me, I can't wait to get my hands on this one and see what surprises Lothric has in store.

No comments:

Post a Comment