Dark Souls III: The Ringed City Review (Stromboli)
I loved base DS3. I loved Ashes. This is too much.
Everything the base game did poorly at times is amplified to an almost comical degree here.
Gank squads? Check.
Enemies that just spam really high damage attacks? Check
Ladders that take forever to climb for no reason? Check
Sections that make you legitimately wonder how you're supposed to complete them without cheesing them or running past? Check check.
The best part is the enemies that spam high damage gank squads endlessly, and also take a ton of damage to kill.
Also they respawn. Brilliant.
There is one particular section that has you solve a riddle.
This riddle is very obtuse, and something that hasn't been seen before.
Good luck solving it without a guide or a helpful message.
Behind it is a ladder that takes almost 20 seconds to climb. Why?
And at the top is one of the worst gank sections (IMO) in all of Dark Souls.
The saving grace is possibly the best boss in the series.
That one final boss that everyone raves about?
Yeah it's excellent. Exactly what the series should be. Easy to learn, difficult to master.
Very minimal dumb gank or camera nonsense, just you vs a total bad**s.
The other bosses are a very mixed bag, depending on your tolerance for aforementioned gank and camera nonsense.
The online boss is great in concept, similar to Looking Glass Knight from DS2.
Your experience there will obviously vary greatly, but twice in a row I got a player who appeared to be AFK.
Overall, besides a truly excellent final boss, you're not missing a lot if you skip this.
There's no achievements to be had, but the +3 ring that buffs item discovery is a good get if you're trying to farm drops for achievements in the base game.
There's a few miscellaneous spells as well, but I wouldn't recommend you let this sour you on the excellent base game.