super simple summary of all three games in my experience: 1: best PvE and storyline is top tier, PvP is ridden with twinks and hackers but still fun if you can find a good duel or two. The game is not friendly to new players though as it's difficulty and gameplay are foreign to some, and the UI certainly shows its age. Getting past those things as a new player opens up quite a deep RPG experience. 2: worst PvE and the atmosphere feels almost completely different than 1. I don't mean that in the "ds2 should have been a ds1 clone" sense, but rather in the "it's a different game" sense. It's not bad or objectively worse, just different. Sometimes it feels like it's a different series all together. PvP is the absolute best of the series, and certainly the most fluent yet complex version. 3: best of both worlds. Follows an interesting story kind of stemming from 1; lots of challenging moments and lots of throwbacks. PvP is not as good as 2 but better than 1; though the interesting mechanics from 2 like how not locking on would allow you to play some mind games with people are non existent unfortunately, though I see a higher variety of weapons and builds and the memes are top tier.