Dark Souls III came out while I was deployed and I thought it looked exciting as I watched people play it. I had never really played Dark Souls before (I put maybe an hour into the first one before deciding it wasn’t for me), but I decided I would buy Dark Souls III to check out once I got home.
When I finally got around to giving it a try I discovered just how brutally difficult it is, especially for someone who isn’t great at timing in video games in the first place and someone who has little patience to repeat sections of the game trying to perfect my combat skills.
So after putting two hours into the game (and barely scratching the surface, at least an hour of that time was spent trying to beat the “easy” boss at the beginning) it’s sad idle in my Steam collection. I’ve been thinking lately about using Cheat Engine to just power through the game so that I can at least get something out of the $60 I spent on it. I know a lot of Dark Souls purists will probably cringe reading that, and many will claim that the experience will be ruined, but what if I don’t enjoy the experience? Am I less of a gamer if I decided to give myself infinite health and roll through the enemies just to see what it’s all about? Sure at that point the game is broken, but I’d argue that at least I’d be getting something for my money, right?
I don’t think it would have been right to ask for a Steam refund, because I had been warned going in that the game would be difficult. It just turns out that I don’t have the patience to really play the game (I’m too old, and too busy really), so I’m justified in burning through it with Cheat Engine, aren’t I?
I know ultimately it doesn’t matter what anyone else on the internet thinks, but I wonder how many other people out there have had a similar experience to mine. If so, did you still enjoy your time with the game? Is there any way I can achieve a middle ground between essentially just “hitting A to win” (with infinite health) and playing the “correct” way?
What do you think?
avideogamelife 
Bro, I urge you to keep banging your head against this game until you succeed. Unless it’s truly not something you are into, that is.
I promise you, there will be a moment when all the lessons learned from failure will align and you will get through it. That’s the beauty of this series. It’s not difficult just to be difficult. It’s difficult because difficulty is integral to the story being told. You are supposed to be beaten down over and over again because you start off as just a husk of the hero you are to become. Think of yourself as one of the trash enemies at the very beginning (no offense haha). Through constantly being tormented by that first boss (and believe me, for first bosses in the Souls series, this dude is absolutely a rough go for newcomers), you gain a new piece of information with every death. “Okay, next time I know the timing of this swing is like this, so I’ll dodge it and exploit how open he is after swinging”.
I sucked hot garbage my first time through these games, but you can’t view defeat as failure in these games. It’s part of the core loop that makes victory so intoxicating.
Without failure, success isn’t so sweet. Keep at it!
If you end up sticking with the game, you should totally do a diary of your experience with this game. It is my absolute favorite series of all time and I love reading stories about everyone’s experiences, no matter the perspective.
Dark Souls, or the Soulsborne series as a whole, aren’t for everyone. If you aren’t enjoying what made the series so popular, the only thing I can recommend is to either do some research in wikis or on reddit and check out some beginner tips or easier character builds. Unless you’re purely playing offline, cheating in Dark Souls isn’t fun for other players who not only play the game the way it was intended, but also partake in everything it has to offer (like online invasions/PVP). Zoning in to someone else’s game and watching them take absolutely no damage kind of ruins that. So I’d say that if you *do* plan on cheating, keep it offline out of respect for the other players. Otherwise, just read more in to it and keep trying. Make every death a learning experience. If you finally decide it’s not for you, do what makes you happy.
Woops! Also forgot to mention that if you’re playing online, keep an eye out for summon signs on the floor. Don’t hesitate to summon in other players to help out with tough zones or boss fights. That’s why it’s in the game =). You can summon two other players to help.