Dark Souls II (PlayStation 3) Reader Review

The first Dark Souls was quite an enjoyable game, it was moody, creepy, and hard. Dark Souls II... still good, but not amazing. Read on why that is.

STORY (6.5/10)
As with the previous Dark Souls, there's not actually a story -- not really. You're the chosen undead, and you need to un-undead yourself. The rest of the story has no relation to the character you play, it is just a little background information on the world you are meant to traverse. Honestly, that is why it is hard to figure out why the info is relevant; it does not concern you, and you really have no personal connection to it. You as the player have no connection to the places you traverse, and the info you get does not actually explain why the world is consumed by darkness. Or rather, it does, but it is very matter of fact about it. The story never amounts to more than a nice little story about a kingdom that was once great, and then fell. Sometimes you will go 'aah, this is connected to Dark Souls's plot!'', but that seems to be the only appeal of the game.

It is unclear why you do the things you do. In Dark Souls, at least you had a simple goal that was meagerly explained. Now you just wander around aimlessly, hoping to get some guidance as to what you're supposed to be doing, and why. The background story (of the realm) only comes from item descriptions and NPCs.

Overall, it is decent, but it would be nice if it had more relevance to your character, and if your character were fleshed out more. As it stands, it seems the story is about you, but then does a 180 and starts talking about the kingdom itself.

GAMEPLAY (8/10)
The gameplay is very similar to the first Dark Souls, there isn't much different worth mentioning. What is annoying though, is that the game is far easier than Dark Souls. There is no penalty for using bonfires or anything like that, you don't need to expend humanity to light them. You can also fast-travel right from the start, which I think makes death less of a problem, since you can just fast-travel back to a bonfire near where you died. There is no dilemma anymore between playing it safe by going back, or taking a chance by progressing.

Areas are now often connected by elevator shafts, which feels strange. Not only is it a boring and lazy transition from one area to the next, it also makes no sense sometimes. One moment you are at the top of a tower with normal sky above you, and the next you are in a castle with lava underneath it and a different sky above it (even though the elevator went up, if I recall correctly). Almost each area is a single cell that is not connected to other areas.
That makes the geography of the game very illogical too, and the areas have little verticality.

Powerstancing is a nice new feature that allows you to dual-wield weapons, and receive extra combos, if the attribute required is 50% higher than it needs to be.

Your health is now reduced each time you die, which is an odd feature, in my opinion. Not only do they punish you for dying by making you hollow, they also reduce your health? Seems like a cheap way to increase difficulty. You also cannot grind for souls anymore, with enemies actually despawning and never returning. That means the game could actually be mostly empty eventually, and that is pretty boring.

Enemy A.I. seems more aggressive than before, which is nice. That said, some bosses are very cheap and can one-hit-KO you. Some bosses were copied and pasted from Dark Souls, and many bosses can track your movement by 180 degrees within a second, and still hit you if you evade. Others try to overwhelm you with the sheer number of enemies. A few other bosses are quite nice, but they are mostly humanoid, which gets old after a while. With all that said, bosses are very nicely designed visually, and they do have logical stories behind them.

Overall, the gameplay is still quite good, though. It is very comparable to the first Dark Souls, but it all plays a bit faster, more fluidly. Nonetheless, I wish the bosses required a bit more skill to defeat than just 'dodge or block their attacks, then counter'. It is too much of a waiting game for me, and I wish the bosses would adjust their tactics in accordance with yours. I died many times in Dark Souls, but I only died about six times in this game.

GRAPHICS (8/10)
The graphics are quite nice, and they are certainly an improvement over the first Dark Souls. Textures are sharper, colors seem a bit more vibrant, and the general contrast is acceptable. That said, the contrast is not on the same level as that of Dark Souls, and sometimes it felt as though the game was not dark enough, not enough focused on horror or grittiness. The atmosphere was not always as awe-inspiring as that of Dark Souls.

The visual effects are nice too, they are a slight improvement over those of Dark Souls. Magic still looks far too weak to me, or at least not impressive. The last spells you get will finally be grand, but every other spell just looks as though you might as well throw a bucket of water over the enemy. Why hexes and sorcery continue to look so uninspired, so bland, I have no idea.

The environments are all very grand, just very nicely and imaginatively designed. The sense of scope is amazing too.

SOUNDTRACK (6.3/10)
The soundtrack is alright, but I actually cannot remember any of the tracks except for the one that plays in Majula. It seems most of the songs just follow a certain formula of bombast, that makes very few of them stand out. However, the tracks are still all nicely dread-inducing, though they mostly just get your blood pumping. The bombast did get in the way of the choir singing sometimes, though, drowning it out. There are still at least a few that fit the themes behind the bosses.

Overall, it's a bit too uniform for my tastes, but it does set the mood pretty well.

CONCLUSION
Overall, Dark Souls II implements some backwards gameplay ideas, and much of its difficulty actually comes only from the fact that the bosses can track your moves too much. That, and sometimes you die from environmental effects that did not show themselves well enough beforehand. The story is not much to write home about either, though if you are interested in a story that does not really relate to your character, you will see the value in it. The graphics do their job, and the environments, though sometimes ripped from the first Dark Souls, all look decently impressive. The soundtrack does not seem as diverse or emotional as that of the previous installment, but it still sets the mood well. I can recommend this game for anyone who enjoys simple gameplay with horror themes and a story that plays out like a great fable.

The final score is 7.4/10.