When comparing GoNNER vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Dark Souls III for most people. In the question“What are the best Action-Adventure games on Steam?” Dark Souls III is ranked 10th while GoNNER is ranked 49th. The most important reason people chose Dark Souls III is:
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story. Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you. Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Intense platforming gameplay
While the vast majority of GoNNER's gameplay consists of running, jumping, and shooting groups of mysterious red creatures, two design choices really up the intensity of each playthrough.
First, the procedurally-generated environments are fairly narrow. This means combat turns into claustrophobic encounters where there's very little room to evade and kite enemies. Because of this, most kills will happen at point blank range, making it feel a little too close for comfort.
Second, while enemies and objects of interest are always visible, the level's platforms fade into existence as you move close to them and disappear as you move away. This adds a layer of uncertainty, slowing down the exploration since it's hard to tell where you'll hit a wall and where you'll tumble down into a pit of enemies.
These two aspects combined with the permadeath mechanic, create a very intense roguelike experience that can easily keep you entertained for dozens of hours.
Pro You retain progression after dying
Playing roguelike games can be disheartening, because messing up means all your effort will go to waste. In GoNNER, even after you die, you still retain the gear you've collected, which can be viewed by visiting "Death" in its monochrome domain. There you can select from the collected pieces of gear and head into a new playthrough. As a result, GoNNER is a great choice for players that would like to try a roguelike game, but dislike the idea of starting from scratch every time they die.
Pro Unique visual style
GoNNER takes a very minimalist approach to visuals, using the bare minimum to decorate its levels and portray the on-screen action. There's a solid color background, sketched lines that create the world's platforms, yellow projectiles and colorful (mostly red) characters. Despite the sheer simplicity, it looks really nice while also making the worlds inhabitants more interesting, since you're not excessively focusing on environmental details. GoNNER feels like a refreshing change of pace in an era of games where every developer tries to cram as much into a single screen as possible.
Pro Extensive lore that's presented in unconventional ways
There's tons of lore everywhere for you to discover, but it isn't necessarily told through a conventional story.
Weapons, armor, spells, and items you acquire have descriptions on them that tell you where in the game world they came from, any prominent characters they're associated with, and a bunch of other relevant and interesting information. So when you find examples of the lore scattered around the game, like bosses wearing a style of armor you read about, or an obscure NPC mentioned in a sword's description, you know the history behind the design and their purpose without that boss or character needing to explain anything to you.
Even though the actual story in Dark Souls III is very thin, there's a lot to find under the surface if you're willing to look for it.
Pro Stunning environments
The world of Dark Souls 3 looks amazing, so you may often feel the need to stop and take in the beautiful sights. This can be the sheer size of structures, mountains, or caves. It can also be the decorations, inscriptions, or details in a room. There's always so much to look at, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in its world.
Pro Can give a great feeling of accomplishment
The Dark Souls series is known for its difficulty and Dark Souls 3 is no exception. It's filled with difficult enemies and tough boss battles, able to cause you grief on more than one occasion. However, every time you progress to the next safe spot or defeat a boss you'll often be filled with a mix of joy and relief. Beating this game will almost certainly feel like an achievement.
Pro Unpredictable boss battles
The boss battles in Dark Souls 3 consist of several phases, changing up how the bosses fight over the course of the battle. They will gain new abilities, become more aggressive, or reveal various nasty surprises. This creates an enjoyable experience that is different from most modern games where bosses are just glorified pincushions.
Pro A great variety of equipment for almost any playstyle
You'll be finding new pieces of equipment quite often, giving you many options to choose from. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to pick the equipment that best suits your playstyle.
For example, heavy armor will make you move slower, but you'll be better protected. Greatswords have a wide reach, but you swing them really slow. Conversely a dagger is very fast but it has a horrible reach.
Pro Solid controls
This game feels and plays really well. Your character responds to button inputs immediately and it almost never feels like you're losing control over it. The control scheme can also be customized, giving you the option of a more personalized experience.
Pro Great combat system
Dark Souls 3 is a very fast-paced game but it's not just about having quick reflexes. A lot of the combat comes down to exploiting your enemies. To do that, you have to learn their patterns and attack the moment they pause or perform a telegraphed attack. This creates a combat system, which rewards awareness and patience, and is satisfying to master, even if you don't have extraordinary reflexes.
Cons
Con Might feel a little too cryptic at times
Aside from the intro sequence where you're taught to jump and shoot, GoNNER never provides an explanation about anything, whether it's the gameplay mechanics or its mysterious setting. While the concept of "figuring stuff out on your own" works well in other games, here it just serves to needlessly add confusion on top of difficulty, which can worsen the experience for some players.
Con Poor support for mouse+keyboard control
The default DS3 key/button bindings actually prevent full use of certain weapons by requiring the shift key to be pressed and not-pressed simultaneously. Rebinding is possible, but limited by issues like the left mouse button overriding all others and certain bindings not actually working in game (e.g. Shift+MiddleClick).
Con It's hard
You should try avoiding the trap of great review scores since most of them fail to mention the difficulty. It's simply put - hard. A lot of the combat requires quick reflexes, good mechanics, and the mental fortitude to carry on after failing for hours. If you're new to the Souls-like genre or simply want to enjoy a relaxing evening playing a video game, you most likely won't enjoy Dark Souls III.
Con Poorly tuned dynamic visiblity
You may notice some texture pop in while sharply turning the camera. It can be somewhat distracting if you notice it, but most of the time you won't because it happens in the distance.
Con Occasional performance issues
There are portions of the game that will have noticeable framerate drops, which can negatively affect the gameplay. Most of the fault lies with the game engine, so getting better hardware won't help that much.