It’s tough give a review score to games in From Software’s ‘Souls’ series. For the most part I feel like these titles are either your thing or they’re not, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of middle-ground to be had. Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls both have reputations for being overly difficult and obtuse with gameplay elements that elicit memories back to the days when there was no internet and video game strategy guides came in the form of someone’s older brother. Dark Souls 2 carries on the fine traditions its ancestors have laid forth and while there are changes that make the game both harder and more accessible simultaneously I’d say this is a fine place to start off if you’ve always been looking for an entry point into the series.
Dark Souls 2 once again forgets about the previous entires in the Souls series, choosing instead to take place in an entirely new world known as Drangleic. You find your hero headed to Drangleic with the hope of finding a cure for his bad case of undeath. Par the course for the Souls series the plot is relatively unimportant, the lore is there if you want it, but you can also ignore it entirely while you swat down bosses.
Dark Souls 2 was steeped in controversy long before release, most notably in regard to the game’s graphics. Pre-release footage showed very high res textures and some incredible looking dynamic lighting that really emphasized the value of your torch in game. But such beautiful graphics were not meant to be and although the textures (and even more noticeably, the framerate) are vastly improved in the game’s PC release you’ll still notice that the promised lighting effects are ultimately absent.
That’s not to say that nothing has improved since the game’s predecessor. From Software has taken great strides in improving the overall performance of the game. While you will see some screen tearing and frame-rate dips on the console versions there’s nothing even remotely akin to the horrors of Blighttown in the original game. And perhaps as an even bigger milestone, the PC version appears to actually be playable without some insane fan modifications.
Fans of the series have tended to have a personal preference between Demon’s Souls and the original Dark Souls. Dark Souls removed or shaved down some of the sharper difficulty corners of Demon’s Souls but while it did so it also gave the gift of a fully connected open world, something greatly missing from Demon’s Souls which may as well have had World 1-1 plastered above its entry point. Dark Souls 2 does an admirable job of trying to blend together what people liked about each title. The world is laid out closer to Demon’s Souls while keeping everything attached, in fact, you’ll notice that aside from when you fast travel you’ll almost never see a loading screen in the game.
One of the first big changes you’re going to notice coming into Dark Souls 2 is that you now have the ability to fast travel from bonfire to bonfire right out of the gate. This winds up being very important because now the only way you can level up is by speaking with a character in the hub town of Majula. You’ll likely find that this will also make you more inclined to explore the game’s world, as you never have to worry about retracing your steps or getting terribly lost in the wrong zone.
Now you can laugh at my build.
And what a world you have to explore. Dark Souls 2 is huge, giving you about 34 different unique zones to explore. There are about 9 more places to explore than the previous game although a lot of areas are shorter in length and I imagine your final game time will wind up coming out about the same. Each zone has its very own look and feel. Although often times this means transitioning between areas can feel a bit more drastic and jarring than in the original it’s usually a pretty enough affair that you can put it out of your mind with relative ease.
When I played the original Dark Souls I only wound up summoning a co-op partner once for the Ornstein & Smough boss fight which I almost certainly never would have had the patience to beat myself. This wasn’t necessarily because I didn’t want to play co-op but more because From Software initially released the game with some very poor netcode optimization that made signs very rare unless you were in a very highly populated area. One of the first patches for the game fixed it but by then I was done with my playthrough and had moved onto other things.
Each zone has its own unique look and feel.
Unlike its predecessor Dark Souls 2’s online modes are working perfectly right out of the gate. I enjoy playing this series in a co-operative form very much and I’m sure I will offend some die-hards when I say that I summoned partners in almost every single zone in the game. Playing alongside allies lessens the game’s difficulty pretty substantially though, and I can acknowledge that it does take some of the excitement out of the whole ordeal. Players will likely want to find a happy medium, there are also some zones where you’re simply not going to be able to summon anyone period, so if you’re worried that temptation will get the best of you, never fear.
The game is not without its faults though. Bosses generally feel a little less grand in scope than they did in the original game. You’ll also spot a few bosses who are literally just copied and pasted from the first game, and then to make matters worse at least one of those bosses appears later in the game with just a second clone thrown in to make it harder. It oftentimes feels less inspired and it sours the fact that there are a lot more bosses for the conquering this time around.
Even with some broken promises on the graphics front, and some lazy bosses I think Dark Souls 2 is pretty easily my favorite entry in the series and also the reason why I’ve built up a giant backlog of games to review. I had a blast playing from start to finish and unless 2014 starts pulling some incredible tricks out of its hat I think this will very easily grace my game of the year picks in January.
If you’re a fan of the series, pick it up. If you’ve always wanted to be fan but haven’t dared, maybe now is your time.
