DS3 yanks you from your chair to embrace you like a cannibal mother. Thereon, it's tunnel vision. I breathed it, dreamed it, pestered my friends with stories of heroic feats I alone found amusing. As long as I feel such a strong connection with a game I inhabit, I enjoy being poisoned, gangbanged in a corner, and cursed to death. When you learn how to deal with the game's difficulty, you begin to see that it serves as an adhesive which bonds you two by amplifying your agency. And it's not so unfair when you realise how many ways to overcome hardships there are. Being a dunce who died a thousand deaths, fell for every false opening and off every cliff, I still won. Because Souls aren't pedantic about one's playstyle. Likewise, I have my preferences (ugly mug, polearms, no summons), but I don't tell others how to play. Go unga-bunga or barrage the lands with devastating spells. Cheese & exploit. Your choices are respected, and that's the beauty of it.

Visual beauty, too. Apart from the typical soapy texture-popping and random stuttering, I had no issues. The appeal of DS3 is bleak and chambered, isolated to smaller areas unlike that of Elden Ring. Here, in place of the epic scale, the trusty Medieval setting frames an austere Gothic corridor slasher with grindhouse vibes. Timeless. You never know where its implicit beauty might jump you. It can be a corpse mound or a crimson pool of blood in a pantry. It can be a ditch in the slums, a set of armour sparkling in the Sun, a swing of a halberd leaving a fiery trace. Sometimes the light frames a scrupulously crafted scene in such a way it resembles a painting. Or maybe an epic chant suddenly hits you in the chest when you admire a vista, wondering how life here looked before the collapse. Curiosity comes naturally when you traverse a world so atmospheric.

The artistic aspects of the game are interwoven, its lore is inseparable from the sights. In the spirit of the series, even the lore fights back. You'll have to claw pieces of it from obtuse questlines and item descriptions. I wasn't a fan of the opaque approach initially, but it grew on me. I prefer it to the homogenising over-explaining of everything until it's so smooth it's featureless. Games are living things in need of space to breathe. To scoop them out of all enigmas is vivisection. Having said that, the story isn't that murky, for our avatar's goal aligns with ours: you're both here to grant death. Once again, you are a murder hobo destined to clean up the mess or make a bigger one after everything has already happened in a world long gone. Once again, the series reflects the cyclicity of cataclysms, showing us there's nothing more fragile than colossi, more miserable than broken sods buried under their rubble, more pathetic than kingdomless royalty.

In the ex-kingdom of Lothric, every stake is heightened. The ruined world is stuck between planes of existence. Should you choose to give it a push or become another King Nothing, you'll have to face the world's past, buried in castles and catacombs where the forgotten Gods and the Chosen Ones of old dwell in grief. To take their lives is to save their souls. Then exchange those for cool boss weapons, you know what I'm saying? Justly worshipped for the emotions it elicits and the mindset it fosters, the trifecta of exploring, fighting, and looting is king. With the lore permeating all. If you want it! Not everyone needs a reason to smash the wheezing undead, Lovecraftian horrors, and Satanic demons lurking around every corner. Kill them all, find their lords, kings, and gods. Do them in, too. Take their place, spit on it, then move on. But get caught lacking and they'll tear you limb from limb.

ER has higher highs and lower lows, it's a race between the best bosses ever, while DS3 has an evened-out, consistent level of clusterf#ck inflicted by normal enemies, making exploration more tense. Apart from being the scariest Souls I played, what's different after hopping on it after ER is the sense of being gently directed instead of wiggling like a dong in a bucket. Linear at the start, more dead ends and locked doors than usual, the game expands later while staying restrained. Don't expect an open or interconnected world. At the centre of your world, there's a hub where you can cash in your souls to raise stats or upgrade your gear. Right away, you can instatravel between bonfires, often the only things that connect levels together. On a larger scale, the game branches quite a bit, so you can still complete areas and beat bosses on your own accord, but the areas stay separated instead of looping around globally. A step back, but not a deal-breaker.

The levels are varied and expansive; with shortcut porn, secrets to uncover, sights to see. The same sense of discovery, half the overthinking. Unravelling them metroidvania-style feels great. Not being a free bird is fine as long as the encounter design and bosses are so tight and rewarding. Another positive side-effect of restraint is that, without sacrificing the build variety, it's much harder to accidentally overlevel. The resulting solid difficulty curve made me feel powerful, yet not overpowered. I always felt on edge as I conquered each room, unable to stop. How can one resist the Siren call of unexplored dungeons, promising visceral battles and glimmering treasures? In a world where stakes are so high, nothing motivates exploration like violence and the promise of new attire, a spell, or a nice weapon. Give me the gear of kings, the power creep! It's Fashion Souls alright. But it's not all vanity. The lengths you have to go to get the best stuff helps you inhabit your character.

And nothing truly puts you in their shoes like a good boss. Most bossfights complement the deliberate stamina-based combat system perfectly. It's as rigid and simultaneously freeform as ever, playing off commitments and predictions based on pattern recognition. The bosses are fair, featuring merciful runbacks, neat hitboxes, and cool movesets. Enjoy your attempts, don't waste those on entitled frustrations. A few overzealous wombo-combos can be tolerated along with a share of lame guys like Deacons or Wolnir. There are more good ones like the Abyss Watchers. I admire how, just for one example of many, the boss perfectly fits its place on the timeline, presenting the first gentle bump in difficulty that signalises: the introduction is over. It shows how diligently From thinks the player's experiences through. Then the game gives you a breathing room before letting out bangers like Aldrich or Twin Princes. I love a boss that throws you off and doesn't just let you hug its cake, even if it's not as demanding as just interesting like, say, Crystal Sage.

It's also obvious From were obsessed with pairs & phases at the time. They went all-out, primarily in the DLCs. Sister Friede iced me like no one else before her, even Malenia. You barely beat her two phases, heart pumps battery acid... then they throw in a third one! Motherf#ck. And don't get me started on Midir, that worm stumped me for ages. I say it lovingly. Remember, you're never really stalled, for each attempt progresses your comprehension of a fight. Persist! Beating a good boss doesn't only evoke a sense of relief or pride, but also gratitude. Grateful is how I feel. By the uncanny ability to permanently imprint itself on you, Dark Souls turns your brutal struggles and moments of silent admiration into permanent memories to cherish. After all these times I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and vice versa, the pain and the pleasure stay with me. It was so sad to say goodbye. Like many others, one day I shall return to try and recapture the feeling. For now, I shall savour the aftertaste.

My curator Big Bad Mutuh

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I am a 55 year old biker and trucker father, and probably one of the oldest people playing this game. I am a single father to my Son, who is 14 now. My son got this game for from his uncle, so we installed it on his computer and he started playing. By the end of the week he had 24 hours on this game. This was horrible for me, as it was already hard for me to find ways to spend time with my son, as he is always out with his friends or just watching YouTube. So i decided to make a Steam account and get this game to see if I could maybe play alongside him. I loaded into the game and started playing but I was stuck on what you where supposed to do. I asked my Son for help and he hosted a game for me to join. I loved it as it was the best time I had spent with my Son since my wife had died. This game has ever since brought me and my son closer again and now we actually spend time together outside the house together as well. This game reminded me that there's fun to be had in everything, and it has brought both me and my son many happy memories.

thank you Dark Souls