Category: Game

The elements that made The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess so exciting when it launched alongside the Wii in 2006 haven’t aged very well, and that’s not entirely a bad thing.
The experience of playing through Twilight Princess with Wiimote in hand —€” assuming you didn’t hold out for the Gamecube version — was a powerful way for Nintendo to introduce its new motion-sensing hardware. Firing an arrow out of the tip of your controller was exhilarating. Its simulated swordplay was rudimentary, but satisfying. Even its darker, more “adult" (for lack of a better term) world assured me that Twilight Princess was the deep, polished Zelda game I’d wanted for so long, and persuaded me to ignore the many reasons that it was not.
More than nine years later, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD doesn’t have the distracting zeitgeist of a hardware launch to accompany it, and absent that, its flaws are a bit more pronounced. Twilight Princess HD lays bare the decade-old original, but in doing so, gives it an identity beyond gimmicks.
Twilight Princess HD isn’t just dark, it’s bizarre Structurally speaking, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess doesn’t stray too far from the franchise’s time-honored path. The usual routine of dungeon diving, Pieces of Heart-collecting and princess rescuing remains intact, but with a twist: Link is able to transform into a wolf when he interacts with the Twilight Realm, a parallel world to Hyrule which plays hosts to cryptic, shadowy beings. One such Twilight inhabitant is Midna, Link’s constant, smart ass companion throughout his journey.
Twilight Princess in unique among other Zelda titles because of its pervasive darkness, a theme that informs the aesthetic, character design and general feel of the entire game. That aesthetic is at its extreme in the Twilight Realm, but even regular old Hyrule looks half-alive and ominous, and the events that transpire there are equally unsettling.
This art direction isn’t always successful. When exploring a village illuminated by glaring sunset light, or a dungeon where abstract neon lines cut through shifting black fog, Twilight Princess can be a lovely game. But while its subdued palette makes it unique among other Zelda games, many of its environments resemble the lifeless, unsaturated worlds that characterized most of the previous console generation.

The visual enhancements of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD are impressive, where present. A lot of textures — particularly those on important character models —€” have been fully replaced, making Link and the cast he comes in contact with as vibrant as they deserve to be. The more essential change is to the screen itself: Twilight Princess HD’s UI is pared down —” the original’s Wiimote-shaped interface, which took up nearly one-quarter of your TV’s real estate, has been removed.

Twilight Princess HD’s graphical improvements drive home what’s truly unique about the game’s aesthetic: it isn’t just dark, it’s bizarre. Across the various Hylian races, character proportions differ wildly from person to person. Faces drift between realistic and cartoonish, from clown-like to monstrous. Inhabitants of the Twilight Realm aren’t just evil versions of franchise mainstays, they’re tentacled mutants sporting ornate, gigantic black masks. Many enemies, and even some friends —” here’s looking at you, Ooccoo —€” are downright uncomfortable to look at, making them all the more striking and memorable.
That distinction really shines through in the Twilight Realm, which despite what its name suggests, doesn’t feel oppressive or scary as much as it feels completely alien. The game’s soundtrack, which is solid throughout, is at its absolute best here, where every combat encounter features eerie atonal horns that shout over frantic synth arpeggios. It all comes together to give the Twilight Realm a strange, cohesive sense of place.
If only Twilight Princess allowed you to spend more time exploring the Twilight Realm. The game limits you to just a few visits to the parallel version of Hyrule, during which you’re usually performing repetitive fetch quests, like collecting Tears of Light. (Mercifully, Twilight Princess HD only requires you to hunt down 12 Tears in each province, down from the original’s 16.)
The Twilight Realm’s scarcity is a waste: Twilight Princess, like most modern Zelda games, doesn’t always know what to do with you when you’re not exploring a dungeon. Just a few interludes introduce new mechanics and characters — snowboarding with the yeti of Snowpeak is a particular high point. But most involve a mind-numbing amount of backtracking, which was time I would have much rather spent exploring the Twilight Realm in greater detail.
Twilight Princess HD’s transitional sequences can occasionally get pretty clumsy, but unfortunately, the main offender comes right at the very top of the game. The introduction to Twilight Princess is the series’ absolute worst. It’s a laborious, repetitive slog that sticks you with some chores —€” like goat herding, a terrible mini-game that you have to perform twice in the first hour —€” and sends you through the same path of the same patch of woods three consecutive times. The HD remake trims a task or two off the original’s checklist, but no amount of scene-setting or tutorial-distributing is worth the two hours effort that Twilight Princess HD makes you crawl through before the fun can begin.

Its campaign is uneven, but Twilight Princess HD’s high points are exceedingly high. Nearly all of its dungeons are stellar: The aforementioned yeti’s ice-carved mansion is probably the most ingenious location in the whole series. The statue-centric puzzle solving of the Temple of Time forces you to think about the same dungeon in two different, clever ways.
The stars of the show are the tools you’ll find in those dungeons, which pretty wildly divert from the series’ tried and true catalog. Later dungeons introduce the Ball and Chain, the Spinner and the Dual Clawshots, which set the stage for some of the best puzzles and most exciting boss fights this franchise has ever seen. The Spinner, and its corresponding boss fight, is nothing less than a stroke of genius.
The Cave of Shadows, the new "dungeon" that’s unlocked with Twilight Princess HD’s Wolf Link amiibo, cannot (and doesn’t really try to) live up to the standard of the classic game’s dungeons. It’s simply a reimagined version of the Cave of Ordeals, Twilight Princess’ combat-centric, wave-based endurance challenge — but the Cave of Shadows restricts you to Link’s Wolf form for all 40 floors of the cave.

It’s kind of a drag, largely because combat isn’t really satisfying when playing as Wolf Link. Swordplay in Twilight Princess is top-notch —€” sparring against the colossal, armored Darknuts is exciting, and requires reflexes and mastery of your different sword maneuvers. As a wolf, Link’s options are too limited for combat to be remotely satisfying 40 times in a row. Not only that, you have to complete the Cave of Shadows over the course of three dives, and trips two and three will require you to beat the floors you just finished all over again.
Twilight Princess HD’s best new feature is the addition of Hero Mode difficulty, which is nothing new for the series, but is a perfect fit for this particular game. Hero Mode doubles the damage Link takes and prevents recovery hearts from dropping in the wild. With those two simple changes, the systems of Twilight Princess HD click together more tightly.
Hero Mode forces you to thoughtfully utilize Link’s different offensive and defensive sword maneuvers to avoid taking damage carelessly. It makes you take consider your healing potions and inventory before stepping foot into new territories. It gives a good reason to hunt down every Heart Piece you can get your hands on. It fits thematically, too: In Hero Mode, Twilight Princess HD can finally be as dangerous as it looks.

After a delay out of 2015, last year’s Ori and the Blind Forest is finally getting its promised DLC. As discussed in the video above, Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition adds quite a bit to the original game. Most noticeably, the Definitive Edition brings with it an entirely new area, as well as two new character abilities for the titular … moon … cat bird … thing, including a dash move that should be of particular interest to speedrunners.
Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition is making other, more subtle changes as well. The game’s spirit wells, which previously served as static save points, may now be used as fast travel points around the game’s world. Completionists may still wish to take the scenic route, as new secrets and collectibles are scattered about, several of which take advantage of Ori’s new moves.
Most importantly though, Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition is adding more accessibility to a notoriously difficult game. The new easy mode option decreases enemy and environment damage, and it also adds new checkpoints to some of the more difficult platforming sections in the game. For players demanding more challenge, there’s a new harder difficulty setting as well as a new one-life mode. While the limitations here are self-explanatory, the game also adds final statistics from one-life games to a leaderboard for players to measure themselves against one another.
Players will be able to access developer Moon Studio’s new additions to Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition on March 11th, the one year anniversary of the original release. Players who own the current Steam and Xbox One versions of Ori will be able to upgrade, though Moon and Microsoft aren’t talking about pricing yet. Xbox owners will also be able to share their game saves with the Windows 10 Store version of the game.

One of the first sequences in Quantum Break takes place a on university campus where things quickly fall apart, at which point the player is quickly rushed from one building to the next. However, if you stop and examine the scenery, you’ll sometimes be rewarded — like in the above sequence, where we stumbled onto a lecture hall blackboard covered with frantic scribblings about Alan Wake.
If you look closely, all the writing on the blackboard concerns the events that Alan Wake undergoes in Alan Wake and Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. However, the in-game writing seems to be picking apart Alan Wake’s experiences as a work of fiction — making references to things like the hero’s journey monomyth and noting references to English poet William Blake (echoing an Alan Wake ARG that appeared and quickly fell silent back in 2012).
So: what’s the in-universe explanation for all this? For our money, this is most likely scenario: the chalkboard belongs to an English teacher at Riverport University who giving a lecture on Alan Wake (the fictional novelist, not the video game) — or, more specifically, on the autobiographical manuscripts Departure and Return, the pages of which players collected throughout the two previous Alan Wake games.
However, that’s not the only major Alan Wake reference we stumbled onto in our first few hours of Quantum Break. Be warned: below lie spoilers for a pretty incredible piece of Alan Wake fanservice — one we uncovered in a very early section of the game we unfortunately were not permitted to record.
In Quantum Break’s very first playable moments, protagonist Jack Joyce shows up at Riverport University, and from there the player is encouraged to head directly for the campus’ physics building. If you ignore these instructions and explore a bit, you’ll find a small area where a student is tabling for a protest against the demolition of the on-campus library. Walk past her and you’ll find a tent with a large flatscreen television inside of it. Enter the tent and press X to activate the television, and you’re treated to something very special: a cinematic trailer for a live-action Alan Wake adaptation.
Here’s what happens next:

The trailer opens on a shot of waves, which fade into a dark forest, over which Alan Wake says the iconic line: “It’s not a lake. It’s an ocean." The camera moves through the dark forest, until resting on the face of an unconscious Alan Wake, whose eyes jolt open.
A male voice says "He’s been gone for five years." Fade up on what appear to be two detectives, a man with dark hair and a woman with blonde hair, standing in front of a wall covered in clues — perhaps about Alan Wake’s disappearance. Jazzy noir music begins to play.
Alan Wake’s voice: "Dark matter and dark energy constitute over 95% of our universe." We see the two detectives from the front, eyes furrowed in concentration, as they simultaneously lift mugs of coffee up to their mouth in perfect unison. It’s revealed that the male detective is portrayed by Remedy creative director and writer Sam Lake.
Alan Wake again: "We’re just a speck of light floating in an endless ocean of darkness." Glitchy static noises slowly overtake the music, and we see the two detectives walking through the forest, stumble upon what appears to be Alan Wake’s unconscious body.
"Every story finds its writer." Cut to a brief shot of the male detective flicking The Clicker in his hands, likely taken from an evidence box in the room.
Next we see the detective walking through a dimly lit, empty location with flickering lights. A figure emerges from the darkness, and the detective raises his flashlight to reveal the figure’s identity: Alan Wake, now with a full beard.
We see The Clicker again. A few shots of the female detective lost in concentration. A shot of Wake’s torso from behind, walking, flashlight in his left hand and his pistol in the other.
Back to the detectives’ clue board, where we see the female detective’s hands hang up a new clue: a mugshot of Sam Lake, with the words "ALEX CASEY" written underneath — the name of the protagonist in Alan Wake’s series of thriller novels. A brief flash frame of Sam Lake’s character, now revealed to be Alex Casey, appears — pale, lying on the floor, a trail of blood coming from his mouth. The female detective grabs her jacket and runs out of the room. In the next shot, we see bearded Alan Wake exploring the detectives’ room, examining the clue board and going through the evidence boxes.
Alan Wake begins paging through a folder full of paper found among the evidence, and snippets of Alan Wake voiceover can be heard: "Wake has a bloody knife in his hand." "He smiles a wicked smile." "Casey lies on the floor, eyes staring." He continues to frantically search through the pages, then looks up, horrified.
In the final shot, we see the female detective walking through the forest at night with a gun and flashlight. She walks into a building, then shines her light onto a man facing the wall with his back to her. He slowly turns around. It’s Alan Wake, and he looks scared. The detective looks down, and sees Wake standing over Alex Casey’s dead body, a bloody knife in Wake’s hand. She steps back, gun pointed at Alan.
Then, a title card: "RETURN," the name of Wake’s collectible manuscript from Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. The phrase "WHAT LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE" appears on screen. We hear Wake’s voice one last time: "All of us have two faces. The one we wear for all to see, and the face that lies beneath in the dark."

That’s a lot to take in, right? While it’s too soon to say what the exact extent of Alan Wake’s role in Quantum Break’s universe is, something tells us there’s more to this — and with Remedy recently filing a trademark for Alan Wake’s Return, we have to imagine it’s connected to this in-game trailer. Could Return end up being Quantum Break’s recurring in-game television show, a hallmark of Remedy games since the original Max Payne? Or is it something more? It seems like we’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out.
For more on Quantum Break, stay tuned for more video coverage from Polygon throughout the day. For more on Alan Wake, check out our in-depth video essay examining gameplay from the tragically unreleased Alan Wake 2.

Won’t someone think of the children? Seth Meyers had a very important question for Immortan Joe and his War Boys last night: why not make frequent long drives more environmentally friendly?
In the spoof, Meyers and the rest of the War Boys from Mad Max: Fury Road are getting ready to gear up for another mission for more gasoline. While the other War Boys are ranting and chanting, pumping themselves up for the long drive, Meyers’ character starts to question the way they do things.
Meyers points out that it seems counterintuitive to drive gas guzzling vehicles all the way across the desert just to get more gasoline. His various suggestions for being more economical, including using a wind board to cross the desert sands, doesn’t go over well with any of the War Boys.
The spoof also addresses the white body paint the War Boys cover themselves up in, the random guitar playing and other strange features that occur in the movie that may have seemed questionable.
Mad Max: Fury Road recently landed numerous awards at the Oscars, beating out stiff competition from movies like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant.

Racing title Forza Motorsport 6 Apex launches this spring Microsoft is bringing its 10-year-old driving series Forza to Windows 10 as a free-to-play game.
Forza Motorsport 6 Apex will launch this spring, offering 63 cars across six locations. All cars and locations can be unlocked by playing the game, though in-game purchases will also be available. No details on item pricing have been released.
A trailer (above) was released today showing 4K footage of the racing game, which will be sold through the Windows Store.
Meanwhile, Xbox One Forza 6 players are being offered a new expansion today. The Porsche Expansion costs $19.99 and includes 20 models including the 2015 Porsche #19 Porsche Team 919 Hybrid, the 1957 Porsche 356A Speedster and the 1987 Porsche #17 Racing Porsche AG 962c.

New areas, new abilities and new difficulty modes After a delay out of 2015, last year’s Ori and the Blind Forest is finally getting its promised DLC. As discussed in the video above, Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition adds quite a bit to the original game. Most noticeably, the Definitive Edition brings with it an entirely new area, as well as two new character abilities for the titular … moon … cat bird … thing, including a dash move that should be of particular interest to speedrunners.
Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition is making other, more subtle changes as well. The game’s spirit wells, which previously served as static save points, may now be used as fast travel points around the game’s world. Completionists may still wish to take the scenic route, as new secrets and collectibles are scattered about, several of which take advantage of Ori’s new moves.
Most importantly though, Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition is adding more accessibility to a notoriously difficult game. The new easy mode option decreases enemy and environment damage, and it also adds new checkpoints to some of the more difficult platforming sections in the game. For players demanding more challenge, there’s a new harder difficulty setting as well as a new one-life mode. While the limitations here are self-explanatory, the game also adds final statistics from one-life games to a leaderboard for players to measure themselves against one another.
Players will be able to access developer Moon Studios’ new additions to Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition on March 11th, the one year anniversary of the original release. Players who own the current Steam and Xbox One versions of Ori will be able to upgrade, though Moon and Microsoft aren’t talking about pricing yet. Xbox owners will also be able to share their game saves with the Windows 10 Store version of the game.

Xbox One Roguelike is a minimalist and challenging RPG. Capybara’s Below is a fairy tale among video games. It strips away artifice to deliver an archetype, free from flourish. It says, “this is what it’s like to be small and frightened, alone in the dark woods, surrounded by malevolence."
Pitched as a roguelike and due out this year, it’s an RPG in which the character explores, solves problems and fights monsters. Progression comes through the power endowed by collectibles. All of this is normal for the genre. But Below’s style is unusually stark for a console game. Below is a world of black and white and gray, with the occasional flash of light and splash of red.
Fairy tales teach children lessons about the evils of the world. The also reach into children’s hearts because the characters are almost always vulnerable or naive. Below creates a similar effect through three devices.
First, its overhead camera sits a long way above the action, meaning that the main character is a very small part of the world it inhabits. This is in direct contrast to most modern, big budget RPGs in which the character takes up a significant proportion of the screen.

Second, it offers no clues as to how the character ought to progress. The player begins the game on a beach, alone. There are no signals about where to go, or what powers are available to you. Everything must be learned by experience.
You wander through the world and you encounter stuff and, although the game might give you broad clues about its intention (this is food, that is a trap) you are mostly expected to make mistakes and to pay the price. Certainly in the early part of the game, this makes the player feel extremely vulnerable and weak.
Third, if you die, you die and you return to the beginning. We call these games "Roguelikes" after 1980 dungeon-crawler Rogue. But the concept of insta-death has been the norm in fiction since time began, while save points and saved characters are modern video game conventions.
Below strips away artifice to deliver an archetype, free from flourish.
Video game RPGs took their lead from D&D-type games, which derived from high fantasy, which itself is an evolutionary branch of the fairy tale. Fairy tales are fantasy adventures, but their function is to mirror real life. They teach valuable lessons about the value of being wary and wise. Below is going back to the genre’s roots.
Below does not merely allow players to wander around at will, fighting their way through levels. They must sustain themselves with food. In fact, right from the start of the game, this is an absolute imperative, though the unwary player, like the lazy squirrel, will only find this out when it’s altogether much too late.
In Below the player collects stuff and either it has some ready-made function, or it can be crafted into something new. Some players may be alarmed to find that catching a fish and eating it raw gives only trifling health. They must learn that cooking the same fish with mushrooms and water makes a life-sustaining soup.

"Roguelikes are the most lifelike games," says Creative Director Kris Piotrowski, "Every time you start a Roguelike, you’re jumping in at the deep end. You’re always one mistake away from death. Every time you play a game, you think, ‘Is this potion going to kill me? Am I going to try it?’"
Potions and scrolls and magical items are just one analog that connects fairy tales and Roguelikes. In most role-playing games, potions are named and marked for their properties. So, this purple one gives magical boosts and this green one restores health but don’t drink the red one.
In Roguelikes, the fun is not knowing what you are drinking. The player who is close to death will find a potion and will often indulge in belief that the lottery is worth a spin, and will take the potion, often with unpleasant results.
Below is very much about being alone, underground.
Compare this with fairy tales in which items often promise some alluring outcome — like the porridge pot that keeps on giving —€” only to end in disaster. The juicy red apple looks tasty, but in fact it leads to instant death. (Actually, not death for Snow White, but a restart, after a significant cooling down period.)
Death in Below is a blow, but there is some relief. Players discover shortcuts back to the starting point, so they can re-enter at convenient points. The bodies and leavings of your previous corpses add to the variety of things that can be plundered.
Below is a game that demands that you work stuff out. "There’s something nice about approaching a game and being able to butt up against it and figure it out as you go." says Piotrowski. "We’ve seen a lot of hand-holding design in triple-A design. Now there’s a hunger for games that let you just get into the game world and figure it out on your own."
In fairy tales, central characters are often alone. Red Riding Hood does not set out into the woods accompanied by a party comprising a mage, a healer and a tank. When there are parties, they are often comprised of fools, and quickly trimmed, as in the Three Little Pigs. Below is very much about being alone, underground and far from help.

"I love games that let me be alone in a place," says Piotrowski. "Below is really about that kind of feeling. You’re a tiny little character in a big mysterious world. It feels like a very solitary journey."
Combat in Below is about being smart and avoiding danger. The player wades into battle and swings a sword and finds that each and every hit received brings serious damage. Enemies are not so-much bested with brute force, as with measured timing and guile. But the player can become stronger.
"You’re super fragile at first," says Piotrowski. "Whenever you take damage, it’s always a big deal. And so part of the game is about preparing for that and getting familiar with all the little flora and fauna in the world, so you can get yourself ready for the inevitable moment where you do take a hit."
Fairy tales deliver simple pieces of information to millions of people across thousands of years. It’s interesting that Below has been designed with meme-like info exchanges in mind. Players who just can’t survive in this world won’t be able to turn on an "easy mode" but they will be able to find a helping hand elsewhere, by turning to the warm nuzzle of the internet in order to live happily ever after.
"When I get into a game, I love being able to chat with friends about it," says Piotrowski. "’Where did you find this? What’s that?’ I love jumping on the forums and learning all this stuff that other players have figured out and put in places to help other people.
"I hope that happens with Below. That’s what we’re trying to create, a game that you get to lose yourself in, but also where the community can unravel it the way communities do. They tear games to pieces and figure out every little thing that’s initially completely hidden."

The eighth Sherlock Holmes game from Ukranian studio Frogwares, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter, is a few short months away, but we’re only just now seeing a trailer for the game. The first offering, a gameplay-free cinematic take on the consulting detective’s new adventure, was revealed today by publisher Bigben Interactive.
Aside from conveying a darker tone, the trailer doesn’t offer much additional insight into what the latest interactive adventure for Holmes might entail. But, if you’re curious what the detective sounds like shouting “Katelyn!" with every possible inflection, this trailer has you covered.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter will be released May 27 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

From Software’s latest is full of devious new challenges and many fascinating changes When we were first able to play Dark Souls 3 late last summer, it was a very early, clearly unfinished and unbalanced version of the game. Whole systems were missing, and we were left with almost as many questions as answers.

Last week, we sat down to play four hours of a new, near-complete build of From Software’s latest from the beginning, and we’re feeling a lot more confident in our image of what the game is and how it compares to previous titles in the series.

While Dark Souls 3 is obviously a Souls game and reminiscent of what’s come before, it has some major differences and tweaks to the formula. We’ve compiled a list of everything new, different and notable from our first hours with the game.

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Introducing FP

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Where Dark Souls predecessor Demon’s Souls used a traditional role-playing game magic points system for determining how many times you could cast spells, the first two Dark Souls games got rid of that system. You only needed to track hit points and stamina; spells could be cast a set number of times, which refreshed whenever you rested at a bonfire.
Dark Souls 3 goes back to basics in some regards with the newly introduced FP stat. Between your red health bar and green stamina bar is a blue bar that shows your total FP. You drain this resource by using spells, but it’s also used for a new type of melee ability.
(Note: If you’re wondering what FP stands for, well…so are we! We weren’t able to find an explanation during our demo. We reached out to Bandai Namco for clarification, but haven’t heard back as of the time of publication.)
If you dual-wield any melee weapon and hold down the left trigger, your character will move into a new stance. From there you can hit the regular melee or strong melee attack buttons to perform a weapon skill. Weapon skills are new super-powerful melee attacks that require a long wind-up and drain your FP bar. You’ll need to figure out the proper timing to use them, but they add a strong additional strategy for melee fighters.

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More estus options

Since the first Dark Souls, weary adventurers have learned to love their trusty estus flask, an HP-restoring potion with charges that refill at bonfires. With Dark Souls 3’s new FP system, the estus expands as well.
Shortly into Dark Souls 3’s tutorial zone, you will find an ashen estus flask. This blue flask restores FP and, as with the regular estus flask, is refilled at bonfires.
In addition to giving you options for regaining FP on the go, the ashen estus flask is also a source of new strategic decisions. At Fireside Shrine, Dark Souls 3’s hub area, you can choose how many charges of estus are devoted to each flask type.
Don’t find yourself using FP much? You can shift all of your estus over to the traditional, HP-restoring flask. Have a build that’s all about slinging magic and never taking hits? Dump all your estus into an ashen estus flask for maximum FP potential.

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No more hollowing

Both Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 featured a mechanic where your character became hollow upon dying. In the first game, hollow characters could not summon other players for co-op nor be invaded by enemy players. In the sequel, hollowing reduced a player’s maximum hit points up to 50 percent total. In both cases, the effect could be reversed by spending a special resource (humanity in the first game; human effigies in the second).
Dark Souls 3 has done away with these complicated and under-explained systems. It’s possible that a replacement mechanic was just disabled in our demo, but in that build the game doesn’t track humanity, we found no items to reverse hollowing, and there’s no special penalties for dying beyond dropping the number of souls you’ve collected.

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Transformation

There seems to be a sickness of some sort spreading through the lands of Dark Souls 3, and it’s having a pretty gross effect on boss encounters and regular enemies. During fights with certain enemies in the game, they will explode with a gross, black slime-like substance and change shape once lowered to half-health or below.
This slime bursts out of enemy skulls and takes a horrifying, almost dragon-like shape. Once this happens, affected enemies become much more powerful, gaining buffed health and significantly increased attack range.
As noted above, this isn’t just for bosses. In at least two scenarios, we walked into a random enemy along a regular route who went through this kind of transformation. This turned a weak normal foe into essentially a mini-boss of sorts — albeit one that returned to life whenever we rested at a bonfire.
Whatever the story behind these transformations, they provide a cool effect and lend an increased sense of danger to every battle. The only problem we ran into came when an enemy who’s been changed in this way gets you into tight quarters. Because the shadowy protuberances are so huge, they take up most of the screen and make it hard to find a workable camera angle, much less escape from the enemy. Depending on the level design and frequency of this type of enemy, it may be less of an issue as the game progresses.

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Firelink Shrine

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One of the more controversial elements of Dark Souls 2 was the game’s use of a central hub area that you had to return to in order to level up. Some fans considered this a step back from the freedom of the first game, where you could level at any bonfire. Bad news for those fans: The hub is back and more important than ever.
After defeating Dark Souls 3’s first boss, you’ll open the door to Firelink Shrine. This circular set of ruins is visually reminiscent of the Nexus hub area from Demon’s Souls. In the center of Firelink Shrine is a woman who refers to herself only as “a Fire Keeper." You’ll need to return and talk to her any time you want to spend souls to level up.
The Fire Keeper isn’t the only reason to return to Firelink Shrine, though. Deeper into the shrine you can meet an unnamed Handmaid, who will sell you various items and spells and purchase anything you don’t want. Beyond her is Andre, a blacksmith who can upgrade your weapons and armor, repair equipment, improve your estus and allow you to tweak how much estus of each type you carry.

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Returning faces

Keen-eyed Souls fans may have noticed something important in that last section. Andre? The Andre? Yes, as far as we can tell, the Andre in Dark Souls 3 is the same Andre of Astora who served as a blacksmith for your hero in the first Dark Souls. Or at least someone who looks identical and has the same name.
He’s not the only familiar character, either. Later in our play time, we ran into a large knight wearing a recognizable, onion-shaped helmet. He identified himself as Siegward of Catarina, a jovial character presumably tied in some way to the first Dark Souls’ Sieglind and Siegmeyer, also of Catarina. If there were ever any doubt that these games take place in the same world, that should be cleared up now.

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The plot

If you watched the game’s opening cinematic, you already have a taste of Dark Souls 3’s story, which we’ve previously been told by localization producer Brandon Williams will "bring certain story elements of the series to a close." Upon playing it, we’ve been able to piece a bit more together.
Upon entering Firelink Shrine, you meet a morose knight who is the first to fill you in on your quest. You are what the game refers to as an Unkindled (or Ashen One), and you have been risen from the dead to hunt down the Lords of Cinder, four big bad guys who have deserted their thrones in Firelink Shrine.
Within Firelink Shrine, you can actually see five thrones, four of which are empty and tell you the names of the enemies you seek: Yhorm the Giant of the Profaned Capital, the Watchers of the Abyss, Holy King Lothric, Last hope of his Line and Saint Aldrich of the Deep. In the fifth spot rests Ludleth the Exiled, the only Lord of Cinder who has not vanished.
Upon talking to Ludleth, he fills in a bit more of the back story. He informs you that all of the Lords of Cinder are people who, at some point long ago, linked the fire, a process we’ve seen repeated time and again throughout the Dark Souls series. That ritual has left Ludleth as little more than a charred corpse, though presumably the other Lords of Cinder are not in such a sorry state.
Ludleth further explains that all five Lords of Cinder must be present on their thrones in order to link the fire again. And the fire must be linked in order to "preserve the world."
Curiously, when you try to talk to Ludleth, the game opens a menu. This suggests that, at some point deeper into the game, he may offer further services beyond just talking — other "talk-only" characters will speak immediately rather than making you select the command from a menu.

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A connected but divided world

Much has been made of whether and how much Dark Souls 3’s world will connect and intertwine after what some deemed a world too random from place to place in Dark Souls 2. While we have yet to see any unbelievable leaps in setting in the early hours of Darks Souls 3, we were also surprised to discover that the world isn’t a huge, continuously connected thing.
Upon entering Firelink Shrine and lighting the bonfire there, you’re given the ability to travel from bonfire to bonfire. In the first four hours, our travel options were split between three distinct areas: the Cemetery of Ash, the High Wall of Lothric and the Undead Settlement. These all appear to be in the same general location in the world, often visible from one another, but as far as we can tell, you can’t actually just walk from one end to the other. You’ll need to use bonfires to get to different locations.
Whether you’re disappointed about the locations being so distinctly split up or not, take heart that each one of these locales is massive. By an hour into the game, it felt like there were a dozen possible paths to take, some leading forward, some leading to treasure. One path in the Undead Settlement allowed us to circumvent a boss fight. Others opened up shortcuts or led to hidden characters with special quests. There is, as always, a ton to discover here.

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Even the new is familiar

Dark Souls 3 brings plenty of interesting tweaks to the series’ formula, but unlike in last year’s Bloodborne, long-time Souls fans won’t have to completely relearn the game. While we died plenty of times in our first four hours, we were able to defeat the game’s first two bosses, Iudex Gundyr and Vordt of the Boreal Valley, on our initial attempts.
While some could read this as the game being easier, that doesn’t seem like the case. Rather, it’s just the nature of this being the fifth game in this style that we’ve played (including Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne). Those skills are clearly carrying over from game to game, and that feels really good.

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We can’t wait to play more

Surprise! Our early impressions of Dark Souls 3 were largely very positive, and we walked away from this taste eager to play another four hours. And another after that. And maybe four more, just for good measure.
As From Software’s third game of this style in as many years, we were concerned that the developer couldn’t keep up the high standard of quality the series has become known for. We’ll have to wait until we get our hands on the full game closer to its April 12 release date to know more, but so far, we’re happy.
In the meantime, we also got a look at some of the nitty gritty elements of Dark Souls 3 that hardcore fans might care about — the starting classes, starting gifts and revised stats. Take a look at all the details below.

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Starting classes

When you create your character in Dark Souls 3, you’ll have a choice of 10 starting classes, three of which are new to this entry. As in previous games, this choice will not lock you into a certain route — you can still develop your character however you’d like as you level — but your class will determine your starting stats and what you’re best at in the early hours.

Here are your choices:

Knight – This hardy class begins with high vitality (for increased defense), a full suit of armor and a strong shield.
Mercenary – Mercenaries are the starting class with the highest dexterity. While they begin with a single sword and shield, they’re built for dual-wielding blades.
Warrior – Though similar to Knights on first look, Warriors are more focused on strength than vitality. They start equipped with a powerful, heavy battleaxe and a wooden shield.
Herald – A jack-of-all-trades style of class, Heralds carry a spear at the start and have a healing spell available as well.
Thief – A Thief begins the game with higher luck than any other starting class. They have lighter armor but also wield a dagger perfect for backstabs and a bow for picking off enemies from afar.
Assassin – An Assassin acts as the middle ground between a melee-focused character and a magic user. They have very middle-of-the-road stats, with bumps for attunement and dexterity, and they begin with a low-power sorcery spell.
Sorcerer – Dark Souls 3’s classic caster class begins with low stats all around, save for huge buffs to attunement and intelligence. They also carry two spells from the start.
Pyromancer – Where Sorcerers focus on high-damage single-target spells, Pyromancers wield destructive fire spells that tend toward area-of-effect abilities. In Dark Souls 3, Pyromancers begin with high intelligence and faith, and they can generally handle close-range combat as well.
Cleric – Clerics have high faith and attunement stats and begin with two miracles, spells focused on healing, buffing and shielding. They also carry a mace for combat.
Deprived – Dark Souls 3 is already a tough game, but playing as Deprived is basically the hard difficulty. All stats begin totally level at 10, and your character has no starting armor. You’ll begin with a club and a junky wooden shield, and that’s it.

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Burial Gift

In another tradition carried over from previous Souls games, you get to choose one gift to begin your game with. There are nine to choose from, though note that you can also decide to start with no gift at all.
Here are the options:

Life Ring – This equippable ring is a great choice for making the early game a little easier, as it slightly raises your maximum hit points.
Divine Blessing – This single-use potion restores your hit points to full and cures you of any poisons or other ailments.
Hidden Blessing – This new potion type fully restores your FP.
Black Firebomb – This is a powerful weapon you can throw at a troublesome enemy, but as with many of these choices, you’ll only be able to use it once.
Fire Gem – This seems to be an upgrade material that will be used for enhancing fire-based weapons. The description suggests that Warriors should strongly consider grabbing it.
Sovereignless Soul – For those looking for a boost to early leveling, this single-use item will grant you a bunch of souls which can then be spent to level up.
Rusted Gold Coin – Using the Rusted Gold Coin will increase the number of item drops you get off of enemies for a short time, including the possibility of getting rare drops.
Cracked Red Eye Orb – For the player-versus-player fans in the crowd, the Cracked Red Eye Orb will allow you to invade another player’s world and hunt them down. It’s single-use but should help keep your bloodlust sated until you find an item allowing for constant invades.
Young White Branch – This new single-use item allows players to blend into the environment. Presumably it will be most useful for defending yourself or stalking enemies in player-versus-player scenarios.

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The stats

Despite using similar, generic fantasy terminology, both previous Dark Souls titles had slight differences in which stats your character could build up and what those individual stats determined. Here are the numbers you’ll be juggling in Dark Souls 3:

Vigor – In addition to raising your max hit points, vigor will also determine your total frost resistance. Frost attacks can cause a new status effect, frostbitten, that slows your character and prevents stamina regeneration.
Attunement – As in previous games, attunement will determine how many spells you can have equipped at any one time. Now it will also tie to your max FP.
Endurance – This stat will primarily be used to raise your stamina, increasing the number of rolls, melee swings and shield blocks your character can perform before they’re winded. Endurance will also increase resistance to lightning attacks and bleeding.
Vitality – Vitality is the attribute that most greatly affects your total physical defense (although other attributes will improve it as well). Upping vitality will also increase your poison resistance and your maximum equip load, allowing you to wear heavier armor and weapons without slowing down.
Strength – The fairly self-explanatory strength will increase the overall power of your melee attacks. It also ties to your resistance to fire magic. A certain amount of strength will often be required to properly wield large weapons.
Dexterity – One of the most versatile attributes, a higher dexterity will improve the strength of attacks, reduce the time it takes to cast spells and reduce the damage taken from falling. As with strength, you’ll often find a minimum dexterity requirement to wield certain weapons — in this case, faster or more agile weapons.
Intelligence – A stat for spellcasters, intelligence will determine the overall power of each sorcery or pyromancy spell you cast. It will also increase your total magic defense.
Faith – This one bumps up the power of miracle-based spells as well as pyromancy. Faith also improves your defense against dark-based enemies and attacks.
Luck – Raising luck increases your odds of getting item drops from each enemy you kill. It also improves your resistance to curses and your ability to cause bleeding and poison on enemies.

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