Dark Souls 2 Review

I am a huge fan of Demon’s Souls and later Dark Souls that came a few years after.  I do not pre-order games often as many nowadays are rushed and I usually wait to hear some reviews before investing my money but I did pre-order Dark Souls 2.  I was only slightly worried hearing that the creator of Demons Souls and Dark Souls moved on and left this project but I honestly think this game has the same feel and atmosphere I love so much.  For the few who do not know the Dark Souls universe is all about exploration where almost anything can kill you.  You never become a god who can just run through the game and kill creatures with wild abandon.  It is a series of games that is about patience as you learn patterns and learn the envierment to progress.  You may have to fight some bosses many many times to find the weakness and to learn how to survive.  You have to watch for dangerous walkways and cliffs, nasty poison lakes and lava fields.  Even the lowly critters can be deadly and sometimes are tougher than a boss as usually bosses have some weakness you can exploit.

The online component to Dark Souls 2 is the same as previous titles in that you can summon help only in certain places and only communicate using a small list of functions.  It is a cool set up though as if you always had a group the game would lose that never ending feeling that death is around every corner.  Summoning some help for the harder bosses does help to get you through areas that might have stopped you from completing this game.  They say you can complete one run through in 60 hours give or take but I am at 90 plus hours and still have a few more lands to see.  I am enjoying taking my time and searching everywhere for hidden goodies and chests of useful loot and trying to gather what I can to improve my character.

Depending on what you are comfortable playing you can focus on melee, magic or a good mix of these and find what works with many different options in armor and weapons, spells and magics to enhance your poor undead soul.  You will play most the game as a hollow and use items to restore your humanity if you want to summon help on bosses.  You can only summon npc or player help while human as a hollow has no help in this world.

The graphics are pretty much on the level that Dark Souls was.  It is good but I would of loved this game get the next gen treatment and come out on PS4 and Xbox One.  It would of make me purchase a next gen system but still it is fine on the ps3. It runs smooth and I have run into no bugs in my playtime.  I have to warn you though…it is seriously addicting to try and learn a fight or find the next area to explore and I have ended up playing for 6 hours at a time with this game.

*Additional info:

I finished my first run now with 130 hours and hit a level of 144 as a knight.  The game is deep and slightly harder than Dark Souls imo.  Remember to summon either npc help or friends to beat some of the harder bosses.

Images come from Gamespot.com.

Pros:

*Vast land, huge game, tons to see do and discover.

*Fun battle mechanics.  Fair system even if you die more in these games than others it never feels “cheap”.

*60-100 plus hours in a $60.00 game to me is a great value.

Cons:

*Takes an extreme amount of patience to keep at it.

*Could of been a bigger hit with a next gen version.

About Barzenak's Game Impressions

Gamer for 40 plus years starting with Pong, consoles and pc gaming. It has been a hobby I have enjoyed over the years for my stress relief and continues to be fun even at my older age. This site is for a lite impression of games I enjoy.