VideoGame Not a horrible game, but honestly a letdown.
note: this is based on the ps3/360/dx9 version of the game.
Dark Souls 2 is my least favorite game in the Souls series for a number of reasons. The previous games were never perfect, and indeed had many flaws, both small and large. the main thing was that they were legitimately excellent in a number of areas, leading to games that were more than the sum of their parts.
dark souls 2 has a few improvements and quality of life changes but is often worse in areas that the previous games excelled in, which makes it difficult to forgive its shortcomings.
The enemy balance is often horrendous. Many strong, tough enemies, with way too much HP grouped together in tight spaces to force you to fight them all. this is a huge misstep since souls combat is very geared towards one-on-one encounters. areas like drangleic castle, the undead crypt and the brume tower suffer a lot because of this.
The level design is often sloppy and poorly thought out, with bonfires that are right next to enemies or which are just unnecessary thanks to shortcuts. many of the areas feel like they were made separately and then just sitched together without much care for whether it would make sense or not. again, something that was far better in the previous two games.
The soundtrack is bland and feels completely phoned in. pretty much none of the battle songs are memorable at all, the only exception being alonne's. some of the area music is alright (like majula), but on the whole it's a terrible, uninspired score.
For some reason, it was decided that the agility stat would govern the number of invicibility frames in rolls. The main problem with this is that low level characters end up with very clunky and inconsistent rolls that are very difficult to get used to.
Most of the bosses are also forgettable and uninteresting. Pretty much all of the best ones are in the DLC, like alonne, fume knight, and ivory king. the biggest offender here is probably nashandra, which is by far the worst final boss in the series in terms of the emotional engagement one has when fighting her. While they fixed this now with Aldia, imagine my disappointment with her on release, before he existed.
I could go on and on, and honestly DS 2 is not a bad game, but it was not the game it could or should have been.
VideoGame I Might not be Part of the Target Audience...
... But I still find something about Dark Souls 2 to be enthralling. Maybe it's the nonstop challenge, maybe it's the large world, maybe it's the expansive RPG mechanics and equipment choice, or the diverse combat... perhaps it's just the drive to explore, to press on and see what else is around the corner.
Is it difficult? Oh most definitely. Even the most bog standard enemies can ruin your day if you're too cocky and not watching your surroundings. And often it feels that the game always chucks something at you just to rub dirt in your face. However at times I feel difficulty comes from areas outside of combat.
For example, the game is very conservative about telling you things. It wasn't until my third hour playing that I found out how you level up, by talking to a character that blends into the scenery if you're not looking for her. And during my first run I wound up missing the tutorial area entirely because I had no idea what the mist portals were supposed to be. In addition for a game that apparently calibrates more than Garrus Vakarian, it sure lets wonky shit pass through the net. Usually by helping enemies. For example, any enemy wielding a club seems to have some invisible forcefield around their weapon, allowing it to hit you even if it looks like you dodged it by a factor of two feet.
In addition it's entirely possible to just slam into a brick wall and not progress any further. Say you meet a boss that royally kicks your ass and you die there. Your souls stay in the spot you died at, unless you die again without retrieving them in which case they're gone forever. As you need souls to level up and/or get new equipment, this can be problematic. It would be fine if you could grind off enemies, but if you kill the enemies of an area enough times then they stop respawning. Particularly painful early on, as there only about two routes you can take. One of which is a colossal pain in the ass.
But can I really critique a game on being obtuse when it's sole reason for being is to be difficult? It's still an impressive and oddly enjoyable game, and definitely worth the money if you want a challenge. Technically it's quite stellar too, remarkably smooth frame rate and some rather good textures.
VideoGame An Awesome Game That Takes Time To Grow On You.
Coming off of playing Dark Souls Remastered and loving it, I bought Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin and had a terrible first impression. The combat was really off, enemies felt more cheap, and I wasn’t having any fun. But I kept playing, and playing, and playing and eventually I started getting the hang of it. I found the Ring of Binding (get that as soon as possible), I got a hold of better weapons, I got a handle of the game’s slower paced combat. Then I beat the game and I slowly, over several repeat playthroughs came to enjoy the game as much as the first (but Bloodborne is still the series champion).
The biggest improvement, bar none, is the ability to warp to any lit bonfire from the very start. This is a godsend and alleviates the backtracking that plagued Dark Souls 1, even after getting the Lordvessel. They also made the inventory much better and you could use Souls without closing out the window (a change Dark Souls 3 reversed for some god forsaken reason). Other than that there are so many weapons and potentials for varied builds, the level design is the best of the series and has several secrets to find, and the visuals are my favorite of the series. That’s not even getting into the tough as nails but fun Lost Crown Trilogy DL Cs that have (mostly) excellent bosses.
However in terms of negatives the game’s enemy placement can be quite bad with the designers often substituting creative enemy combinations that complement each other’s abilities or nearby hazards with placing 5 mooks to stunlock you to death. The game forces you to put many points into Adaptability to roll or use your Estus Flask properly (not that bad considering you level up really fast however). The bosses, while not bad overall, aren’t as good as the other games. Oh and equipment degradation being so fast is a pain.
I do feel that the game’s strengths outweigh the negatives overall and the game is just as much fun to play and replay as the other games in the series. Dark Souls 2 gets a bad rap, which I can see, but I feel that if you give it time the game will grow on you.