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Dark Souls II

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“F**k!”, “S**t!”, “B**ch!”

ARGH!

NOOOOOOO!

– Sam while playing Dark Souls II

Not content with just torturing gamers for a second time round with Dark Souls, Bandai Namco and FROM Software have once again teamed up to deliver gamers just what they have been wanting… another torturous gaming experience in the form of Dark Souls II on the now last generation video game consoles. While it may deliver some new gameplay features that sweeten the deal, the charm of Dark Souls II is once again the challenge that rewards logical thinking, punishes cockiness and then takes out your character for logic anyway. It is a fifty hour experience that will be filled with blood, sweat and tears, and certainly not for someone who is not going to hurl the controller at the television screen everytime they find half-an-hour of soul hunting and progression lost.

Retaining the same action RPG system as the original your job as the custom player character is to make your way through the Kingdom of Drangleic, collecting souls from enemies and the deceased in order to find a means of lifting the curse that has inflicted you. The game world is even more expansive than before and the foes that stand between you and salvation are even more cunning than before. That is perhaps the more charming thing about FROM Software’s “Souls” series three games in… after the tutorial both newcomers and veterans alike will be faced with challenges from a seemingly innocent room that has a swarm of enemies waiting to ambush you to a foe that lurks just around the corner and out of sight with a pointy spear ready to impale you. There is a high likelihood you will die several times in the first hour and potentially hundreds of times during a single playthrough.

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While the foes you defeat in each of the areas tend to be the same group of foes put in different positions, the world of Drangleic has a conglomerate of tough bosses that each have a distinct battle approach and way of tackling them. Similar to the Old Monk in Demon’s Souls, they also made good use of the online functionality by having one boss being able to summon another human-controlled player to aid him in battle. This was a particular highlight and something I would have liked to have seen further delved into (Perhaps forcing the player to face several human-controlled characters alongside several summoned human-controlled allies). That would be one way to really entice players to consider checking out the online functionality afterwards…. or just piss them off which is the games primary goal anyway.

As one would expect from any “Souls” game, enemies are only half the challenge with the environment posing an almost equal number of risks that could see your character plunging to their deaths with the lightest touch of the analog stick. From the simplest dark cavern with a not-so-obvious drop to a gate that will deviously close and lock you in with a swarm of deadly foes with no means of escape. Constant diligence is your only friend in the cruel, unforgiving world, where not every path leads you to somewhere you necessarily want to end up. Heck, how often do you expect scenic views to be a ploy of a game to drop your attention before stabbing your character in the back? While there are still a few issues from my experience, for the most part each area has been articulately designed and given the attention to deliver the best possible gaming experience.

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The character creation system from previous instalments is back, this time with an option of eight different character classes with different starting equipment and stats distributed over ten different fields from Vigor (Health) and Vitality to Intelligence and Faith. Almost everything regarding equipable items and skills relies on the values of these stats, as unless you meet the requirements then weapons, armour and skills will either not be available to you or at a much lesser proficiency. This time around there are options to respec your character, meaning if you screw up in the early parts of Dark Souls II then you aren’t necessarily forced to reset.

Appearances on the other hand matter little, as for the greater part of Dark Souls II your character will be undead rather than in the human form that you spent hours painstakingly creating at the beginning of the game. Similar to the system present in Demon’s Souls, in trade for having walked out of becoming “Hollowed” a little wiser, the game takes small chunks of your hit points away up to 50% each time you die (Demon’s Souls automatically took away 50%, so it is still not as challenging). The only way to restore your character back to being human is through Human Effigies, a rare commodity that you most probably won’t come across too often on the field. There are very few other negative impacts for being Hollowed asides from the hit points and appearance.

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Fast travelling also appears from the start of the game rather than mid-game, allowing you to access any of your kindled bonfires at any point in time. Therefore you don’t have to trudge half-way across the world to return to the hub area, one of those conveniences from Demon’s Souls that I really appreciated FROM Software choosing to include. Floor messaging also makes a return, and while still requiring the use of pre-selected words, offers quicker posting and greater control over what you write than before. The return of covenants and online multiplayer were also welcome, both retaining their charm and appeal from Dark Souls even if (mostly) optional.

Ultimately Dark Souls II delivers a pretty average action RPG battle system that doesn’t test the waters at all – you fight with swords, defend with shields and cast magic on your foes for varying effects. What makes it so appealing however and stand out from other similar titles is the extreme challenge that few games even attempt to deliver, the diverse options available to those who don’t simply want to do a single speed-run of the game and the replayability options that make even going through the same levels at a higher difficulty intellectually and mentally challenging.

I still don’t think it Dark Souls II stands out as much as Demon’s Souls first did on the PlayStation 3 back in 2009, but it is nevertheless a game I can happily recommend for the more mature gaming audience.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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