DARK SOULS™ III

I'll be straight with you: I usually cover racing games and couch co-op, so Dark Souls III is a bit outside my lane. But when the Scout Team needs someone to talk about whether a game holds up for playing together with friends, that's still my territory - and DS3 has plenty to say on that front. What I found here is one of the most mechanically confident action RPGs ever made, a game that has spent nearly a decade earning its legendary status one boss kill at a time. You pick a starting class - Knight, Mercenary, Pyromancer, Herald, and several more - and drop into the fallen kingdom of Lothric with just enough context to understand you're probably the underdog. Combat is built around reading enemy patterns, managing your stamina bar, and deciding whether to block, dodge, or parry at exactly the right moment. The big mechanical addition over previous entries is the weapon arts system: each weapon carries a unique special ability that costs Focus Points (the blue bar sitting next to your health), so your Sellsword Twinblades play nothing like a Greatsword or a Rapier. That variety makes replaying with a completely different build feel genuinely fresh rather than cosmetic. The co-op works like this: when you're in Ember form (restored by using an Ember item or killing a boss), you can summon other players into your world via White Sign Soapstone. The trade-off is that being Embered also opens you up to invasions from hostile players who can drop in and try to end your run. Up to six players can be in a session at once, which can spiral into chaotic multi-way brawls. Covenants let you pledge to different factions - some focused on helping other players, others on invading them - and the level-and-weapon-upgrade matchmaking system means you're mostly paired with players at a similar progression point. The online side has a known weakness: the PC version's anti-cheat has historically been inconsistent, and occasional encounters with hacked invaders are a real irritant that hasn't been fully solved. Play in a password-matched session with a friend and you sidestep most of that headache, and summoning a buddy for a tough boss is genuinely satisfying in a way few co-op games match. For the newcomer crowd - and I know a lot of you are considering this after finishing Elden Ring or seeing the clips everywhere - the honest answer is that the difficulty curve is steep but fair. The game does not hold your hand, and areas like Farron Keep or Irithyll of the Boreal Valley will punish impatience hard. But the game is not asking for superhuman reflexes; it's asking for attention to detail, pattern recognition, and patience. If you can bring those, the payoff when a boss finally drops is as good as anything in gaming. The two DLC expansions, Ashes of Ariandal and The Ringed City, are widely considered among the best content FromSoftware has ever made and are worth factoring into your purchase decision. Base game alone still runs well over 40 hours for a first playthrough.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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