Dark Souls II

Available on: PC, PS3, and Xbox 360
Played it on: Xbox 360
Played it for: 60 hours

RATING: 7.5/10

Dark Souls II is the first direct sequel in the Souls-borne series... and it's fantastic. It builds upon what the original Dark Souls crafted, and makes certain purposeful decisions that, while controversial, ultimately help the game to shine where it needs to.

Now, I will give you lovely readers a disclaimer about my experience with this game. When I first booted it up... I hated it. I came to Dark Souls II very shortly after beating the original Dark Souls, and a lot changed between the two games. In order to explain some of the reasons behind that, I'd like to talk for a moment about the troubled development cycle of this sequel. 

The series as a whole is directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, but unlike Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, he didn't have direct oversight on Dark Souls II. Instead, that control was shifted to the people who are now lovingly referred to as, "The B-Team." Originally, the directors for the project were Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura. Now, the game was at first going to focus a lot more on the light and dark themes that were inherent to the world, and play a lot with heavy shadow and the tension of limited torchlight. A lot of this was even showcased as gameplay prior to the sequel's release, but was surprisingly absent from the release game, which featured toned-down graphics and an almost entirely bright world. FromSoftware has remained surprisingly quiet about the whole thing, but it would seem as though Shibuya was taking the game in a completely wrong direction, and was eventually taken off the project entirely. He hasn't been seen since. Tanimura took complete control of the B-Team and tried to fix all the issues before release, even asking Bandai Namco to push back the release date. But they refused, and thus Dark Souls II was released unpolished and unfinished.
After my first several hours, I had to put it down because I was so frustrated. And it sat on my shelf for a good several months. However, what the unpolished exterior was hiding underneath made this game very interesting. When I came back to it, I made a concerted effort to understand it, to not make snap judgments about the game based upon its predecessor. And I'm so glad I did.

The stats vastly changed between the two Souls games. The functionality of Endurance is split between Endurance and Vitality, the former governing raw stamina and the latter controlling the weight of items that can be carried. The addition of Adaptability also shakes up how players are forced to level, as higher Adaptability grants more invincibility frames during rolls and allow a faster swig of healing estus.Using estus and the healing rate itself are also considerably slower. Even if one gets a heal in, it takes a decent amount of time to take full effect. At least in comparison to Dark Souls. And, most notably, Soul Level itself no longer matters. Matchmaking, both in summoning and invasions, is now based upon Soul Memory. Any souls collected are recorded and boost your SM, which prevents players from constantly invading at low level and scumming out rewards because any kills bump up Soul Memory and will eventually push players out of the low range.

These mechanics are coupled with a heavy focus on netcode. Granted, this also comes with a simplification of modeling and texturing, but the real functionality of a Souls game is within the mechanics. And boy, are the mechanics smooth. The game is built around steady frame rates, both in PvP and general world exploration. The disgusting frame dips in Blighttown and Lost Izalith are a thing of the past. Even in the most expansive areas, it's extremely rare to see any impact on the engine. And despite the simplification, the game is by no means ugly. Merely different.
The game is also the longest Souls game to date, and since Hidetaka Miyazaki has stated that he doesn't want to make a new one after Dark Souls III, it will likely remain so. There are both benefits and drawbacks to that, admittedly. The length is wonderful, and the game contains a massive amount of areas and enemies to contend with. But the world construction does suffer, as some areas are stuck together without much care for continuity. Thankfully, this problem fixes itself after reaching Drangleic Castle about halfway through.

The game isn't without its problems, and these stem from the incomplete nature of the game. There are ganks, enemies who deal too much damage, and nonsensical enemy placements that make certain areas clunky, and this continues throughout the whole experience. Some locales are something of a chore to deal with, though that's not exactly new for a Souls game.

At least the rewards for defeating bosses are highly varied and useful for all kinds of characters. This is especially and uniquely true in Dark Souls II, which allows almost any weapon in the game to be infused with elemental enhancements. While this was the case for the regular weapons in Dark Souls, even the vast majority of boss weapons can be modified in this sequel. Just pick a weapon and have fun!

Is it perfect? No. But that doesn't mean that it's bad. It's different, but those differences are crucially important to allowing this game to distinguish itself from the other games in the series. It's smooth, it feels good to play, and it's just fun. However, one caveat I have is that you shouldn't buy it. Because the next review will cover the far superior re-release, Scholar of the First Sin. And that game, every Souls fan should play.