Review: Dark Souls 2

Anyone familiar with Dark Souls knows that From Software designed it to be as challenging as possible, and as such one might have expected Dark Souls 2 to be easier than its predecessor. This is definitely not the case.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This game is hard, very hard, whether it’s the challenging packs of difficult enemies, complex boss mechanics, or being invaded by a player set on killing you. Progression in the game relies on the collection of souls to level up your character and kill bosses. At any time, dying causes you to drop your souls and return to the last bonfire rested at. Die on the way back to your souls and they are lost forever.

Dark Souls 2’s barrage of tricky enemies will delight and frustrate fans of the series in equal measure

In traditional Dark Souls style you start the game with no tutorial, no idea what to do, and no clue as to where you’re going. A bright light in the distance gives an idea of where to head and shortly you come across a pack of dogs hiding in tall grass, and you find your sphincter tightening – a feeling you come to know all too well during the course of this game.  At this point it’s time to experience the combat system which, although mostly unchanged from Dark Souls 1, seems much more fluid and less sketchy. Targeting enemies feels more natural and camera angles are much less likely to impinge on gameplay.

After a quick stop in with some creepy old women and initial character customisation, it’s off into the world of Drangleic, and what a beautiful world it is. Rustic castles, dingy forests and dimly lit catacombs seem like a reward for sticking it out through difficult times. As with Dark Souls 1, the world is completely open and provides a lot of freedom of choice as to where to go. Stuck on a boss? Try a different area in hope of a more successful time. Too much freedom isn’t always a good thing though, and in such an expansive world having no idea where to go sometimes becomes a bit tedious, but exhausting dialogue with the NPCs eventually leads you in the right direction. Plus. there’s always Google if you become too stuck.

The world of Drangleic is beautiful, atmospheric and open to exploration

PvP was a large part of what made Dark Souls a great game, and in the sequel it’s no different. As before, when in human form enemy players can invade your world, kill you and take all your souls. PvP covenants give the player the ability to summon non-covenant players to their world as grey phantoms to be killed. In these areas there are traps that can be set up to make life as difficult as possible, and what’s more enemies in the vicinity do not attack you, but will attack the grey phantom. An interesting boss fight later in the game involves the boss summoning other players to kill you during the fight. Alongside PvP there is the co-operative system, but unfortunately there is still no way to easily play with your friends, even if dropping a summoning sign allows players to summon you to their world as a white phantom to help dispatch a pesky boss.

These game mechanics make Dark Souls 2 a terrific game to play; however, it often felt like there was a tendency to just throw a large group of enemies at you rather than a more technically difficult opponent. It’s this that made the game sometimes feel cheap, as if the developers didn’t want to put more time into making a harder enemy, but just gave you 6 slightly less tricky enemies to bug you relentlessly.

I won’t lie, I died a lot. During my 40 hours of playing through the game, I died a little over 200 times, that’s about once every 12 minutes. At times a long streak of deaths would have me yelling “SHOVE IT UP YOUR C**T” at the top of my voice (search ‘Brian Blessed swearing’ on YouTube and you’ll get the idea), but maybe it is that ability to rile you up that makes Dark Souls 2 the great game that it is. [divider]

Video: GamesHQMedia[divider_top]

Will Dark Souls 2 be the best challenge for hardcore gamers this year? Tweet @BoarGames with your opinion.