Apple dedicated some of its valuable press conference stage time to a game called Pascals Wager back in September 2019. The goal was to demonstrate the power of the new A13 chip that powers the latest iPhones and iPads. The game was impressive, with its console-quality graphics and intricate combat engine. It also looked a heck of a lot like Dark Souls. Now that the final version is live on the App Store, I can confirm that, goddamn, this game is really just a clone of Dark Souls. Its shameless. Some evidence before we get started:Pascals Wager is a third-person action-RPGIts set in a spooky, medieval settingEvery enemy is super dangerous, and can kill you during any encounter if youre not carefulThe combat engine relies on managing stamina while alternating between light and heavy attacksLight and heavy attacks are assigned to the triggers when played with a controllerYou pick up weird items with weird names and have no idea what they do. (e.g., Anthozoan Bones, Active Sendrils)You must approach altars scattered throughout the map to save your game and heal and healing causes all of the enemies to respawnAnd finally, my favorite:Theres this talking egg that needs helpShameless may actually be an understatement. All that said, Pascals Wager isnt a bad game, as long as you have the proper setup. Youll need a controller, for starters. Imagine playing Dark Souls on a touch screen; there may be no purer form of hell. I tried it, because I was curious, but it didnt take long before I abandoned this approach for the obvious reasons. It just doesnt work very well, especially with a game that demands so much precision in timing and movement. Mercifully, the iPhone and iPad now support PlayStation 4 and Xbox One controllers via Bluetooth, and the game becomes much more viable once youre playing with one. Youll instantly feel right at home if youre even somewhat familiar with the Souls games, because all the buttons are in the exact same place!I used the touchscreen controls during my initial attempt at a boss fight, and you can see the results above. Then I connected my PS4 controller, and was able to dodge roll and parry like a champ. All of the familiar vibes of a Dark Souls boss, like learning attack patterns and avoiding inopportune death stomps, apply here. I was finally able to take out a boss named The Flagellant once I mastered its timing and learned how to get in a few quick hits before rolling away, something Im not sure I would have ever been able to do with the touch controls. The feeling of satisfaction was comparable to taking out the Cleric Beast in Bloodborne for the first time; so the game is at least successful at delivering some of what makes so many of us fans of the Souls series. And delivering on that promise on an iOS device is kind of the whole point of Pascals Wager; I didnt expect anything too blazingly original from this game.To be fair to Pascals Wager, it does try to branch out from the Souls model in a few key areas, for better or worse. Unlike the massive, sprawling, interconnected maps of Souls games, Pascals Wager is set across smaller, disconnected maps that split the game into discrete levels. Youre still following the familiar loop of opening shortcuts and trying to reach the next safe altar, but you wont have the thrill of realizing the dungeon youve been crawling in is directly below where the whole game started.Another major change: After the first area, I unlocked the ability to switch between characters. The starting character, a Geralt-looking grumpy Gus with dual swords, is joined by a masked dude with a big, heavy coffin that he swings around. Switching between the two can happen at any time outside of combat and it does actually introduce an interesting level of variety. In Souls games I always find myself locked into a specific play style based on how Ive built my character. Here its a lot less limiting, and the different characters each work well against different types of enemies. But Pascals Wager fails to deliver the same level of storytelling as the games that inspired it. Dark Souls games have an incredibly complex stories that are essentially only hinted at through item descriptions and visual clues. Players have to be invested, and put the time in, to learn and understand whats going on, and why. Pascals Wager goes another way, with lengthy, horribly-acted cutscenes and dialogue trees that are best skipped. The air of mystery that surrounds FromSoftwares franchise is replaced by an overabundance of exposition that harkens back to the Star Wars prequels. That loss of an evocative setting and obscured lore makes the entire game feel much less interesting. But if youre able to ignore all of that and just focus on the actual gameplay, Pascals Wager does feel like playing Dark Souls on a phone. Assuming thats even something you want to do.Pascals Wager is now available for iOS devices, and will be available for Android devices at an unspecified time in the future. The game was reviewed using a final retail download code provided by Giant Network. You can find additional information about Polygons ethics policy here.