So I’ve Played Dark Souls III Now

To the surprise of no one — gah!

To the surprise of no one, I suck at Dark Souls III. Testament to the franchise's success, I don't mind.

In the 15-minute dem — gah!

To the surprise of no one, I suck at Dark Souls III. Testament to the franchise's success, I don't mind.

In the 15-minute demo, I think I had… seven? Maybe eight deaths? If you told me  my deaths hit double digits, I would want to see a replay to confirm, but I wouldn't be shocked. In true Dark Souls fashion, however, I got a little further every time and the deaths didn't really feel cheap.

The camera control was a little weird, as it would jump in and jump out very suddenly. Rotating it while running looked like it caused the frame rate to take a brief step down, but the bigger problem for sure was that jarring super-zoom. I'm not sure if this was an issue in the recent Bloodborne or Dark Souls II.

The demo's focus was combat, and it felt like I was running a gauntlet of shit that wanted to kill me. All of it was gorgeous to look at, from the stones to the bon fires, to the ghouls.

A classic MP bar is back for magic users, while those who don't do so much magic can enjoy a lot more action-movie, swirly, jumpy, fancy melee moves.

There were some different sets of starting equipment I could choose from, which booth attendants were trying to play up as "classes," but seemed to only be "classes" at the start. From what I understand, the way they develop isn't really tied to what you pick at the start.

Dark Souls III will come out in Japan on March 24, then North America and Europe in April of 2016.