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[PS3] [360] [PC] Dark Souls II

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[PS3] [360] [PC] Dark Souls II

Unread postby void » 23 Nov 2014 00:02

For this review, I tried a more conversational style than my Dark Souls review, which I emailed to icy a long time back.

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Dark Souls II ***

If there's one thing I can count on a Souls game for, it's putting my emotions through the ringer. Each one has caused me serious grief (to the point of taking an extended break) and elation, for various reasons. With Dark Souls II, From has refined the mechanics to an unprecedented level (there's the elation), but lost some of their creative drive in the process (grief).

I don't know if it's because the series' former director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, stepped down from his position, the studio lost talent otherwise, or what, but the enemy designs, levels, etc. are, on the whole, far less inspired than those of the previous games. At times it almost seemed like I was playing some generic Western knock off, like Lords of the Fallen.

Things improve about halfway through the game (which, in true Souls fashion, is a MONSTER -- including all three DLC expansions, I beat the game in 102 hours!). The ethereal Drangleic castle and the Shrine of Amana, the spectacular Dragon Aerie, the haunting Brume Tower -- these are all pretty cool areas which wouldn't be out of place in Demon's Souls or Dark Souls. That said, none of these areas reach the bar set by the many truly inspired levels the series has already given us, such as the Tower of Latria (still the coolest level of the entire last generation, hands down), the Boletarian Palace, Anor Lando, even Blighttown. And 30+ hours in, it feels a bit like "too little, too late". I've already trudged through WAY more overly-generic levels than any one game has a right to possess. The Souls games often had understated enemies and areas in the past, visually speaking, but this was a good choice as it allowed the spectacular areas to stand out even more. In other words, the previous games were like a well-seasoned and balanced dish, where each spice and ingredient stood out and made itself known when you bit in. Dark Souls II's high points are overwhelmed by too much tasteless sludge.

I mentioned the improved mechanics earlier, well, let's elaborate a little:

1. While you can still circle-around and backstab enemies too easily, things have improved A LOT in this regard. The enemies are faster and more aggressive in general, and far fewer of them can be trivially dispatched with parries and backstabs.

2. The much dreaded "increased accessibility" of the game turned out to be a non-issue. Yeah, I realize this point isn't much of an "improvement" per se, but stuff like limited enemy spawns didn't turn out to be so bad. For those who aren't familiar, Dark Souls II introduced a spawn limit for most enemies in the game. Ordinarily, they respawn whenever you do. Kill them 15 or so times, however, and they’re gone forever. When From announced this feature, panic broke out, but the end result was that your 15th time running back to the boss is going to take a few seconds less. Let's face it, after dying two or three times, you just run past all the enemies anyway. Which leads me to my next point...

4. The “boss runs” seemed to be less annoying, on the whole. Maybe still not to the extent that I'd like, but I didn't find myself as frustrated as I had been in either of the previous games during these parts. Stuff like "let's put 45 seconds of trivial-to-evade enemies, but then drop one last guy with a fast attack RIGHT in front of the fog gate, who will hit you 100% of the time and give everyone else a chance to catch up" has been kept to a minimum.

5. Here we have hands down, the fewest "broken" bosses of any game in the series. You won't see any Moonlight Butterflies, Hydras, Gwyns, or Ceaseless Discharges here. That is to say, you won't see harmless bosses, tedious bosses, otherwise well-designed bosses with a single flaw that trivializes the whole encounter, or find yourself in a just downright poorly programmed mess of a fight.

On the other hand, From achieved this consistency, in part, by playing it safe. You'll see a lot of similar bosses (giant humanoid with a [sword, mace, axe, etc.]) requiring similar tactics to beat.

As a last word on the subject, the Brume Knight was my favorite boss in the game. This guy smashed my face into the floor over and over, really forcing me to study his moves, come up with a strategy and hone my execution. After finally eking out a hard-fought victory, I sat back in a sublime state and reflected on just how awesome this series really is... amidst a landscape of brain-dead button mashers like Shadow of Mordor (which I played right after DSII), it really seems indispensable. One the other hand, this boss looks almost as stupid as possible! Talk about uninspired, it’s like the artist based him on the scribblings of a bored twelve-year-old.

That just about sums up Dark Souls II, actually: the same fun, challenging game we saw in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, but less inspired. The refinements are nice, and some of the problems of the previous games (under-aggressive enemies, long, boring runs back to the boss) have been partially addressed. To balance out (and really, more than balance out) these improvements, we now have to deal with long treks through bland, ugly environments and repetitive, unambitious visual and mechanical design.

Speaking of the visuals one last time, it's really a shame that this game wasn't released on next gen consoles. The engine gives everything an odd look, as low resolution textures and models are intermixed with slick animations and fancy lighting effects. It looks and feels like a strange beast, stuck in the past, trying to claw its way into the present, in this regard. While the Souls games have always been a bit janky on the technical side, but this didn't stop the awesomly designed game world from ultimately shining through. The same can't really be said for Dark Souls II.

It's time to wrap this review up. It's not as long as detailed as my Dark Souls review, but Dark Souls II just isn't worth spending as much time on. The former significantly expanded on its predecessor and was a really great game, the pinnacle of the series. True, it had a lot of problems of its own, and after playing it I had a lot of mixed emotions, but it left me thrilled about the future of the seres. After 100+ hours of Dark Souls 2, I'm mostly just worn out.

But while I'm tired of Souls proper, I look forward to Bloodborne. I wasn't too thrilled by the initial reveal or the setting, but recent trailers have given me more hope. The game looks like it might bring back that missing creative spark. I already know it's a next gen exclusive (amazingly detailed visuals), has some really cool monster designs, and features faster paced combat... yes, please!

Let's see what you can do with a fresh start, From!
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Joined: 05 Dec 2011 03:04

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