When comparing Metal Gear Survive vs Dark Souls III, the Slant community recommends Dark Souls III for most people. In the question“What are the best action-adventure games for PS4?” Dark Souls III is ranked 27th while Metal Gear Survive is ranked 64th. 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 Base-building is great for those who like to micromanage small details
As you collect resources like metals and wood from around the open world, you'll return to your base where you can improve the structures to better protect you from the zombie invasion. Building more walls and tougher enclosures will be your main focus to help make sure you have a place to escape from the harsh environments filled with zombies everywhere else. If you're diligent about collecting materials, you can build some sturdy additions to your home base to help you have a safe place to return to. It's a solid feature that makes resource collecting feel worthwhile with a payoff, especially if you like keeping track of small details.
Pro Smooth graphics
The Fox Engine used for Metal Gear Survive looks great, with human faces and models that look believable, and great textures for environments. Characters are fine to look at during cutscenes, almost true-to-life in how realistic they seem at times. Even though the open world itself is pretty empty, it's realistic enough with smooth surfaces for the ground and bodies of water. For the most part, everything is pleasing to the eye and you might not notice anything all that jarring or out of place.
Pro Only costs $39.99 USD at launch
The game is a bargain right away, costing less than most retail non-indie games at launch. If you don't want to pay the usual price to purchase other new games, then this is an option for you.
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 Hunger, thirst, and stamina reminders are a pain
As you run around the world, you'll have to manage your hunger, thirst, and stamina, with constant reminders from the game when you need to watch out for these three things. Your AI companion is in charge of telling you when you need to eat food, drink water, or slow down to conserve your stamina. Her robotic voice is monotone and uninteresting, growing annoying after listening to it over and over again. It'll more than likely drag on you after a while, possibly killing your enjoyment with the game.
Con Phoned-in story presentation
Cutscenes are really boring, lacking the inventiveness that the Metal Gear series is known for. There isn't much flavor to the cutscenes or voice acting to keep you invested in the story. Important segments will show slides of dialog with the character's picture while their voice actors drone on as they oversupply you with information about operations. Everything has a staleness about it that feels dated and passionless.
Con Fights against zombies are easily exploitable
At first, you'll notice that zombies do quite a lot of damage to you, but there are a few simple ways to deal with them that cheapens the entire game. Hitting enemies while you're on higher ground from them keeps you from taking any damage whatsoever, making these battles trivial. You'll be free to whack away at them with your spear while they just run into the cliff or bridge or whatever you find yourself standing on. You can also build a gated fence when you don't have any higher ground to stand on, and the zombies will, for the most part, keep running into the gate while you hit them through the wall. These are such boring workarounds, but they're sadly the best ways to deal with enemies and avoid damage altogether.
Con Combat is bland and boring
Whether you're fighting with a spear or a bow and arrow, combat is incredibly bland, with the same repeating animations over and over. Battles with spears are the worst offenders, since your character will do the same 1-2-3 motion over and over again. Combat lacks weight and realism and will probably get on your nerves after a while from how uninspired it feels.
Con Extra save slots locked behind real money purchases
It's frustrating that you can only have one save file for free. If you want to make a new save slot for another playthrough, you'll have to fork over $9.99 USD first. Gating such an integral game mechanic behind a microtransaction is unnecessary.
Con Bare-bones, tacked-on multiplayer
The multiplayer is basically the same horde mode against countless zombies, except you get to play with other people. Nothing feels new or exciting here, other than how easy it is to obtain resources here compared to the tedium of single-player mode. Other than that, it's the same gameplay with the added frustrations from the terrible matchmaking system and long load times, forcing you to wait for minutes at a time to play a single match.
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.