When comparing inFAMOUS Second Son vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Dark Souls III for most people. In the question“What are the best single player games on PS4?” Dark Souls III is ranked 50th while inFAMOUS Second Son is ranked 84th. 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
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Gameplay is full of fun, action-packed destruction
There is a huge emphasis on blowing stuff up and obliterating bad guys in creative ways, so if raw carnage is your cup of tea, you'll find a lot to enjoy and have fun with here. Using your superhero powers, you can blow up cars, fry enemies, and otherwise cause mayhem and destruction wherever you go. Among your arsenal are powerful cinder blasts and phosphor beams which leave explosions, charred remains, and smoldering rubble in your wake. There is even a skill tree which focuses on using concrete to your advantage by encasing your foes in concrete or lifting larging cinder blocks and smashing everything in sight. Almost all of your abilities have the central theme of destruction baked into them, so finding things to destroy and fun ways to do it is an easy task.
Pro It's exciting to get around within the massive world
Traversing the huge open world offers plenty of opportunities to climb and jump. Almost everything can be scaled in one way or another, so you'll be free to climb buildings and jump across rooftops in some true parkour styled action. With some impressive superhero powers like a long range double jump that leaves a trail of light behind it, almost nowhere is out of reach. Using a special dash you can even pass through fences or other obstacles. It's easy to get lost for hours, climbing and exploring around the city, while you perform death defying leaps and jumps that only a superhero could pull off flawlessly.
Pro Beautiful, polished graphics
The graphics are downright beautiful. The particle effects on abilities are colorful and have a fiery glow. Explosions look devastating and rubble smokes in the aftermath. Streetlights reflect in puddles of the water on the ground. Even the textures used for the buildings are heavily polished. Character models are refined and almost photo realistic.
Pro Really easy to become attached to the main super hero
It's incredibly easy to jump into the role of Delsin Rowe. While some of the writing in the game is poor for the side characters and antagonist, it never really feels that way with Delsin. He's constantly smiling when unleashing his super powers or scaling the urban landscape. Unlike other superheros, he never feels like his powers are a burden. Instead, he basks in them, oftentimes providing commentary to us about how cool his newfound abilities are. While he always strives to do good, he enjoys every bit of the destruction he causes, which allows you to easily enjoy it right along with him.
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 The evil morality path doesn't make much sense
There's nothing in the writing or story itself that would suggest Delsin is an evil character, so the evil morality choices really make no sense in the grand scheme of things. It feels tacked on to give a sense of replayability.
Con Weak delivery in some dialogue
During some scenes, the voice acting is poor and the writing itself is a bit on the generic side. The voice actors try their best, but some dialogue is so poorly written that it's hard to act it out with any conviction or meaning. It ends up sounding a bit forced.
Con The morality choices feel restrictive
You'll be making some morality choices which can affect the story and the powers you have access to, but the choices themselves are very black and white.
Once you start down a path (basically good or evil), the game pigeonholes you into your choice due to the fact your powers become increasingly better the more consistent you are in your choices. Some interesting decisions will only have 1 "correct" choice if you want to keep your powers strong, as meandering from your path too much will result in a weaker 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.