When comparing Tomb Raider (2013) 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 Tomb Raider (2013) is ranked 19th. 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 Lara Croft's origin story feels authentic
This reboot of Tomb Raider tells a thoughtful, personal story of how Lara Croft became a seasoned explorer.
She's wide-eyed and curious at the beginning of the game, growing into a more confident character as the plot progresses. Once she is left to fend for herself on the island she's stranded on, you see her fear and vulnerability over the unknown, and in how she struggles to learn how to hunt and survive. Each of her accomplishments are memorable because of how hard she fights to reach her goals.
By the end, you have a full story of how and why Lara transforms into the iconic character many know her as from the previous games.
Pro Exciting third-person shooting combat
The combat in Tomb Raider works really well and feels great, challenging you to stay active.
You start off with only a bow and arrow, gradually working your way up to guns and bigger weapons like rocket launchers. Shooting with guns or arrows feels satisfying with plenty of feedback, especially the hard kick from the game's many different shotguns. The enemy AI is aggressive without feeling cheap, keeping you moving from place to place as you take down everyone in your path. When an enemy gets too close, you can use whatever Lara's holding in her hand, like her gun or an arrow for a bloody, cinematic finishing move.
Combat is fast-paced and fun, constantly keeping you on your toes.
Pro Stealth sections shine
Instead of going in guns blazing during combat, you can take a strategic, stealthy approach. You have plenty of opportunities to quietly take out bad guys if that's what you'd rather do. You can either rack up carefully-aimed headshots with your bow and arrow, or sneak up behind enemies and choke them out one at a time. Silently traversing tight quarters all while taking everyone out unseen is quite enjoyable.
Pro Great cinematic cutscenes
Beyond Lara's personal story, the overall presentation of the plot is gripping in how cinematic it is. Some of the set pieces are wild, like Lara falling from impossible heights into the sea at the start of the game and managing to survive. The way she thinks herself out of tough situations is also impressive, such as with the way the camera follows her with closeups as she wriggles her way out of traps or takes down enemies who seemingly have the upper hand over her. The direction and acting are similar to those in action movies, telling a grand and intense story.
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 Not enough tombs to explore
It's odd that this is a reboot of Tomb Raider without the tombs. There are a handful of tombs here and there, but you won't find the amount that you may expect, especially if you're a fan of the series. The game mostly focuses on the combat and parkour segments without giving you the chance to go raid tombs for unique treasure. More tombs with puzzles to solve would have been nice as a side activity to break up the regular gameplay from story missions.
Con Generic and predictable finale
The way that the story concludes is disappointing because you can see it coming from a mile away. Throughout the game, you learn a lot about the cool history of the island you're stranded on as you fight for a way to escape and get back to civilization. You might think that the ending lives up to all the historical intrigue in a creative way. Sadly, the finale goes about the way you'd expect it without doing anything new. It's boring and cliche, feeling a lot like a lost opportunity to do something different and unique.
Con Excessive violence and gore
There are times when the violence is way too over-the-top. During cutscenes when Lara gets injured such as by falling and getting brutally impaled, the blood and gore can be extremely uncomfortable. To make it all worse, Lara's screams of pain are bloodcurdling and visceral, really making you feel for her. Even if you're used to violence in games, some of the scenes in Tomb Raider might be difficult to watch.
Con No dedicated servers for multiplayer
The multiplayer is peer-to-peer where your connection depends on the quality of one of the people in the lobby, who is the host. This means that you have to deal with lag, rubberbanding, and frequent disconnects when the host's connection is bad. Having dedicated servers could have drastically reduced this problem.
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.