When comparing Destiny 2 vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Dark Souls III for most people. In the question“What are the best co-op games for PS4?” Dark Souls III is ranked 35th while Destiny 2 is ranked 48th. 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 Free to Play
As of 1st of October 2019, everything before Forsaken and Shadowkeep DLC went all totally free with its 'New Light' addition. You can still access the whole world except for certain quests, items, etc tied to the DLC missions.
Pro Really fun gameplay
Destiny 2 is all about killing aliens and destroying massive robots. To do this you have a wide variety of weapons and abilities available to you. This includes hand cannons, shotguns, assault rifles, chain lightning grenades, and many more. Each weapon and ability feels great to use, making destruction and mayhem that much more enjoyable. It's a well-rounded and enjoyable experience, which will keep you interested for dozens of hours.
Pro Solid controls that don't detract from gameplay
Your character's movement, aiming your gun, and even driving your hoverbike feels really fluid and responsive. As a result, you can make very precise movements, jumps, and shots in any situation, allowing you to land a headshot with your sniper rifle from far away while strafing with ease.
Pro Excellent co-op multiplayer
Even though Destiny 2 doesn't have strict class archetypes like most MMOs, each class/subclass has its role in a group setup. So whether you're capturing control points in a PVP match or fighting a tough boss in a raid, you still need to cover for each other's weaknesses. This can be providing support to surrounded teammates, taking the attention of groups of aliens or just picking off troublesome enemies from afar. Because of this you learn to rely on each other and working together feels rewarding.
Pro Massive environments that feel alive
The open-world environments in games usually have a lot of empty space, so you spend most of the time traveling without doing much else. Destiny 2 has large areas filled with enemies, world events, and activity in general, eliminating most of the downtime. Because of this it feels like you're actually visiting a planet inhabited/occupied by aliens, which considerably adds to the immersion.
Pro Improving your character is addicting
One of the main aspects online titles like Destiny 2 is character progression, which is done through leveling and collecting new equipment. Your character gets stronger and when you revisit missions/bosses that gave you trouble before, you can beat them with ease, which feels incredibly satisfying. This will push you to play just a bit more, collect a few more guns and armor pieces, defeat a couple more bosses, and before you know it, many hours will have passed.
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 Content that was available at the start of the game ended up locked behind DLC
When the expansion Curse of Osiris was released, Bungie ended up preventing players without the expansion from being able to access the prestige versions of the first raid and nightfall strikes, as well as the PvP Iron Banner and Trials of the Nine. For the people who like to hunt achievements/trophies, this move effectively blocked them from earning them. Bungie has since patched things so players are not locked out of the prestige mode of the first raid, as well as nightfall strikes and Trials of the Nine when not using Curse of Osiris maps, making the achievements earnable again. Still, it was an extremely poor decision to lock player out of content they paid for and leaves the question as to will Bungie make another mistake with the next expansion.
Con Inconvenient customization
While most online games usually give you permanent color packs for customization, the shaders in Destiny 2 are divided into single colors that can only be used once. You can preview your new color scheme though. You shouldn't use shaders on leveling gear since you're gonna replace it anyway. As a result most players don't bother with creating unique appearances and everyone looks nearly identical sometimes. The sad part is that even though the shaders can drop randomly in the game world, they can also be bought from the in-game store. You can easily get a lot of shaders more in quests or public quests though, compared to the store. Some interesting shaders can only be purchased in the store, but it's kinda still reasonable.
Con Guns and armor do not feel unique like in the prequel
In Destiny 1, the guns and armor felt more unique when compared to Destiny 2. In Destiny 1, a gun or armor could drop that had one set of perks or stats boosts, and then it could drop again with a different set of perks and boosts. Weapons and armor from the raids also gave unique looks as well as perks that helped for that raid. In Destiny 2 those raid perks are gone, making the gear feel no different than what could get from anywhere else. The lack of variation in the guns and armor just make it hard to care about what you get and kills the urge to try to find the best gun and armor for your character.
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.