I was a pretty big fan of Dark Souls 3 when the game hit PC and consoles back in April. It was one of a handful of 2016 releases to get a five-star rating from iDigitalTimes and the only game in recent memory I enjoyed enough to finish twice. So you can only imagine how excited I was to receive a Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel code this week. Sadly, the game’s first expansion doesn’t quite live up to expectations. It’s good. But not quite what I was expecting for one of my favorite games of the year.
Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel includes two new bosses, several armor sets, new weapons and a map designed specifically for player-versus-player combat. The game’s publisher, Bandai Namco, says it’s designed to be endgame content and suggests heading into The Painted World of Ariandel after finishing the base game. An in-game message even goes as far as suggesting players spend extra time taking on some of Lothric’s optional challenges. For what it’s worth, I was two-shotting most of the smaller enemies with my level 97 sword-and-board character. But your mileage may vary, particularly on smaller builds that prioritize speed over damage.
Ashes of Ariandel does everything it can to overwhelm the player. One-on-one combat is rare, especially if you’re not good at pulling, and players will find themselves fending off attacks from three to five enemies so frequently it’ll begin to feel normal after an hour. Even a group of 10-12 doesn’t feel particularly malicious after a little while. Naturally, exploring Ariandel requires careful planning, and traversing the environment can be frustrating enough to make you nostalgic for Blighttown . I lost around 100,000 while completing the DLC. To be fair, the Dark Souls 3 servers were also inaccessible, meaning outside help wasn’t available during the hardest portions of the expansion. But it also meant not having to worry about being invaded by other players. So it was probably a wash, as far as my lost fortunes were concerned.
Overwhelming odds aside, there’s plenty to love in the new Dark Souls 3 expansion. The icy region of Ariandel stands in stark contrast to anything we saw in the base game, ditching the dusty and dilapidated corridors of Lothric for snow-covered hills and mountains. There are some indoor areas, many of which force the player to engage in close-quarters combat, but most of the time in Ariandel is spent exploring frozen paths up and down the mountains where the tiny village is located. There are new enemies to fight, including some fire- and ice-breathing trees, a bunch of dudes who look like Vikings and some of the strangest looking birds(?) I’ve ever seen in a video game. There are also so. many. wolves.
Unfortunately, Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel also preserves some of the worst traits from the base game, too. Many criticized DS3 for abandoning the labyrinthine level design of previous games, particularly the first Dark Souls , in favor of a map that must be tackled in a heavily linear fashion. Sure, there were little shortcuts and hidden chambers to discover, giving the player new (sometimes faster) routes to new bosses and/or treasures. But nothing like the honeycomb we saw in the first game. And the same is true in Ashes of Ariandel . The new expansion doesn’t exactly hold the player’s hand but it doesn’t leave much question about where to go next, either.
The paltry number of new bosses in Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel is also disappointing. Only two new top-tier encounters have been added to the game, one of which was even shown to the press prior to launch, which doesn’t make much sense given that boss battles helped make Dark Souls a household name. Sure, they're pretty rough. But nothing that you won't be able to handle with a little help from a summoning sign. Solo endeavors will be harder but that probably goes without saying. My other big gripe about Ashes of Ariandel is that none of the new equipment is very good. Granted, I may just be looking at the gear through sword-and-board-tinted glasses. But I couldn’t see any reason to get excited about adding weaker armor and weapons to my collection. Even the oversized, earthquake-generating axe that feels like the real trophy of the Dark Souls 3 expansion wasn’t good enough for me to abandon the sword and shield I’d used to beat the base game.
All things considered, the first expansion for Dark Souls 3 is kind of a letdown, particularly if you don’t enjoy fighting other players. If all you’re looking for is a new region to explore, enemies to defeat and bosses hard enough to make you swear at the TV (or monitor), it might be worth waiting for the next round of Dark Souls 3 DLC to emerge before diving back in. There’s no guarantee the second expansion will include any more solo content than the first. But at least then you’d have twice as much to explore when returning to the game. There’s enough in Ashes of Ariandel to keep PvE players entertained for the better part of a day, maybe a weekend, but anyone with a decent build and some patience will overcome its challenges pretty quickly. You’ll get extra mileage out of the expansion if you enjoy PvP, thanks to the new PvP map and team battles, but even then I’d imagine most people will uninstall Dark Souls 3 again within a week or two. What’s present is enjoyable. I just wish there’d been a bit more of it.
Full Disclosure: The PC copy of Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel used in the creation of this review was provided by a representative of Bandai Namco; however, the publisher did not retain any editorial oversight/privileges.
Dark Souls 3 is currently available on PS4, Xbox One and PC. The game’s first expansion, Ashes of Ariandel , debuts Oct. 25.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Dark Souls 3 coverage throughout 2016 and however long Bandai Namco supports Dark Souls 3 in the months ahead.
