Dark Souls 2 Review

Be prepared to frustratingly die again in another Dark Souls release. Dark Souls 2 is out and gamers are pumped to learn new lore and take on the challenge of defeating clever enemies.  "If it bleeds, then it can die".

So what makes a souls game?  Demon and Dark Souls games are known for their intense difficulty using a mixture of role playing and action base game mechanics.  The important difference that makes Dark Souls stand out from similar games is the combat does not consist of button mashing combos.  In Dark Souls games, players have to carefully time attacks or even the weakest enemies will own you quickly.  

In souls games, you start by picking a base class which is a starter package of items and statistics.  Dark Souls 2 story revolves around the pilgrimage of an undead character seeking a cure to its curse.  As you journey across ancient realms learning about its Lore and history, you must kill hordes of enemies in order to gain souls that increase your powers and open doors to new realms.  Hollow form vs humanity form play a factor in gaining allies to aid in battles or effectiveness of combat and magic.  

In Dark Souls 2, there are many important new changes that impact your gameplay.  The minor change that developers added were consumable healing items in efforts to reduce the use of the Estus flask. That minor change would not bother most gamers, but there are two big changes that will makes the gaming experience different from the first Dark Souls.   

First major change in Dark Souls 2 is a restricted re-spawn rate.  Once an enemy dies enough times, the game will stop re-spawning those enemies.  This restriction of enemy re-spawns will cause two results for gamers.  First, the re-spawn restriction prevents farming souls from certain enemies in order to level up or purchase items. Second, the re-spawn restriction reduces the difficulty of getting to the plot related bosses if you have restarted numerous times. 

The second major change in Dark Souls 2 is the non-linear open world  increase.  In the first Dark Souls, there was an obvious path that players must take that had increase enemy difficulty as the game came to a resolve.  This time around, players will feel a less confined and controlled journey. This new non-linear path gives players more choices in exploration but creates an inconsistent difficulty curve.  If you choose the wrong path, then you will have challenges early or late.  Also, you don't have to stay on the same path in order to defeat the game.   If one boss is giving you too much trouble, then you can pick a new path and start a fight with another boss.  The choices are boundless. 

Another change in Dark Souls 2 was the multi-player receiving a needed enhancement with the covenants being a factor to increase your survival rate.  There are nine covenants with all having different abilities.  Also, developers included a new ring that allows you to join a covenant and summon a co-op friend.  Covenant summoning lets you co-op with friends rather random co-op encounters.  Still a friend will not be enough to save you from invasions and powerful enemies.  If you rest on your loins, then you will die often.

Overall, Dark Souls 2 has new additions like healing items, multi-player covenants, and restricted enemy re-spawns.  These additions give Dark Souls 2 its own identity and prevents it from being an expansion to its predecessor.  Dark Souls 2 storyline is not connected to Dark Souls 1, so old and new players will appreciate a refined game experience that makes the challenge worthy of taking.   I give Dark Souls 2 a 9/10.