When comparing Bloodborne vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Bloodborne for most people. In the question“What are the best co-op games for PS4?” Bloodborne is ranked 22nd while Dark Souls III is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose Bloodborne is:
In the world of Bloodborne you're never safe. Each location is filled with fast and ruthless enemies that will constantly try to kill you. It can be infected humans, werewolves, and even demonic beasts. You'll have to constantly attack and dodge at a very fast pace, and losing focus for even a second means you'll die. It's the type of combat where you'll steadily improve with practice, making it feel rewarding when you get the hang of it.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Frantic combat
In the world of Bloodborne you're never safe. Each location is filled with fast and ruthless enemies that will constantly try to kill you. It can be infected humans, werewolves, and even demonic beasts. You'll have to constantly attack and dodge at a very fast pace, and losing focus for even a second means you'll die. It's the type of combat where you'll steadily improve with practice, making it feel rewarding when you get the hang of it.
Pro Excellent world design
This game takes place in a Gothic, Victorian era (1800s Europe) inspired city. The buildings are dark and tall, instilling in you a sense of awe and fear.
The environments are very detailed, reminding you it was a thriving city before all went wrong.
All of these elements fit the Lovecraftian horror theme really well.
Pro Great bosses
Bosses in most games nowadays hardly ever give the player any challenge. Bloodborne is an exception, with bosses being a test of focus and skill.
You'll have to constantly move around, attack openings, read tells to dodge attacks, and choose proper positioning. Beating one of these beasts after a long and exhausting struggle is extremely satisfying.
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 Incredibly frustrating at times
You'll most likely die a lot, especially while you're still getting used to the game. It can happen on both regular enemies and bosses, with the latter being a lot more frustrating. Dying at a boss means you have to fight your way back to the boss room. If you're too agitated you might even die without reaching that boss again, which adds even more to the frustration. This pattern will repeat many times over the course of the game.
Con Framerate pacing issues
The game engine often produces two unique frames followed by two duplicates instead of one after another. This makes it seem like there are frame-rate drops even though the game runs at a stable 30 fps. The gameplay doesn't feel smooth because of it, which can be quite distracting.
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.