Dark Souls III

2016 · FromSoftware · ~40h to finish

The world is kinder than Dark Souls and the bosses are considerably meaner — almost all of the difficulty has moved into the fog gates.

soulslikeactionrpgPCPlayStation 5Xbox SeriesSteam DeckMetacritic 89

Global—UNRATED

Baseline difficulty6.2PUNISHING

Sustained pressure. Progress is earned.

Price on Steam

$59.99

USD · United States · checked 1h ago

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Part of

FromSoftware, Demon’s Souls to Nightreign3 of 8 to play

The end of the story that began in Dark Souls, and half of it is callback. It is the one entry here that genuinely loses something if you have not played the first.

Before it: Dark SoulsAfter it: BloodborneStart with Dark Souls or Bloodborne or Elden Ring

The fingerprint

12.55.07.510

Reaction

7.4

Learning Curve

6.6

Obscurity

6.5

Execution

6.1

Punishment

6.0

Grind

4.2

Strategy

3.8

Puzzle

1.4

PUBLISHEDHARDEST DEMAND FIRST

Assist options shave roughly 0.6 points off, if you use them.

These are generic numbers. Calibrate and this whole page re-scores around you.

Calibrate

Screenshots

IGDB

Where it bites

SPOILER-SAFE BY DEFAULT

START25%HALFWAY75%CREDITS

30% · ~12hReaction
the duel against three swordsmen who are also each other, midway through the first act
▲ 14
60% · ~25hReaction
the mid-game boss that most runs die to more than any other in the game
▲ 33

Assists & accessibility

0/2 SOURCED

MOTOR & INPUT

Fully remappable controls [unsourced]

HEARING

Full subtitles [unsourced]

Claims marked unsourced have not been checked against a published accessibility review. Nothing here is inferred from genre — where we do not know, we say nothing.

What it is

The last of the trilogy and the fastest: tighter, more linear areas, aggressive multi-phase bosses, and a combat rhythm closer to Bloodborne than to the first game.

Where to go from here

Argue with these asks

Nearest fingerprints in the catalogue. The same demands, a different game.

Bloodborne

2015 · FromSoftware · ~40h

6.6PUNISHING

It punishes the instinct to retreat — the only way to get your health back is to keep hitting the thing that took it.

UnratedREA 7.8OBS 7.2CRV 7.2Not on your platforms

EXE 6.2REA 7.8STR 3.0PUZ 1.2PUN 6.5CRV 7.2OBS 7.2

The Surge

2017 · Deck13 Interactive · ~20h

5.9STEEP

You choose which limb to cut off, which means every fight is a decision about what you want to be wearing afterwards rather than only about surviving it.

UnratedREA 6.5PUN 6.5OBS 6.5

6.2

The Surge 2

2019 · Deck13 Interactive · ~25h

6.0PUNISHING

A directional parry replaces the roll as the answer to almost everything, and the game is markedly better once it clicks and markedly worse until it does.

UnratedREA 7.0EXE 6.8PUN 6.2

6.8

Nearest fingerprints in the catalogue. The same demands, a different game.

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