| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 3 | 9.20 |
| Overall | 9.20 |
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The third entry into any franchise is always a tricky one. History is littered with part 3's that are worse than their predecessor. It becomes a tough balancing act to stay true to what people want from the series and try something new to keep things fresh. I believe Dark Souls 2 falls into the third game trap, it is the "worst" Souls game but it doesn't fall all that far and remains one amazing gaming experience you cannot get from any other franchise. The DNA of Souls remains exactly the same. You will enter a world with little to no direction and die your way to victory. The game remains as brutal as ever as any enemy can easily kill you if you do not pay attention. The game world holds many traps and devious sections designed to kill you at every turn. Combat is still extremely methodical rewarding smart defense and players who stay level headed. I am not going to spend this review describing what kind of game it is you should know by now, basically everything that worked before still works. What is new? Well the enemy AI is slightly improved. Some of the biggest surprises I had was when a group of enemies would team up and use tactics to defeat me, mainly an area where enemies would throw oil at you and others shoot fire arrows at you. There is also an increase in having mobs attack the player which in a game like this is very hard to manage. Sadly the majority of enemies use the same tactics enemies have been using since Demon's Souls but it is nice to see some new wrinkles to keep the player on their toes. Online is one of the most unique and interesting aspects of the Souls titles and I say that without a doubt this game has the best online player versus player the series has seen. Anyone who played PvP in Dark Souls 1 knows that most fights boil down to people flipping around and getting a lag back stab, well that is now gone. Fights rarely glitch; there are no cheating ways to get by which means tactics and sometimes sheer power is the way to win. With the wide variety of sword styles and magic attacks I have seen all sorts of strategies; some that blew my mind. Two of the new covenants have PvP arenas where players can simply battle each other in small stages with no worry of hurting your character. Invasions have been toned down which some may see as a good thing or a bad thing, me personally I enjoyed invasions so having red eye orbs be limited sort of removed the constant fear of the enemy invader. That is replaced with other orbs where players lay down a challenge so the host chooses to have someone invade them. I guess this is more fair and still leads to some great intense battles. Co-op remains mostly the same which is to say works well and allows for players who get stuck to always have an easy way out. The covenant system has some ideas which are absolutely idiotic. The first covenant you join is one where if you wear a ring, members from another covenant may help you in case you get invaded. Well you wont be invaded until many many hours in and by then you will never be wearing that ring meaning those two covenants are totally pointless. Also since invasions have been nerfed having protection for invasions is pointless. Then there are the more interesting location defense covenants which are spiritual successors to forest covenant from DS1. There is an almost odd version of a tower defense game in one of them which is neat but poor in execution. Either way its still fun to have specific areas where you will be summoned into someone else's game to do battle. These areas are mostly optional allowing those that don't want to take part to stay away. The online in general is more balanced but I felt it was less interesting as most of the random occurrences have been removed, which to me lead to much of the excitement from past games. One area I can point to and simply say "that is not as good as the last game" is in the level design, art design and general feel of the world. Possibily the most important part of a Souls game is the incredibly diverse locations and the journey you go through as you explore them. Being the third game in the series it is becoming much harder to surprise series veterans; some of that franchise fatigue is starting to set it as some locations feel like the "x location" of this game. Dark Souls 1 simply had a better more interesting world to explore. For example in DS1 there is a forest where giant waves of energy are being shot at you from a distance, as you go forward you find a gigantic hydra sitting in a lake. Or you cross a bridge and a giant dragon swoops down and rains fire down on anyone on the bridge. There were moments of pure shock that is totally missing from this game. There is no equivalent in DS2 of those amazing moments from DS1. I am not saying there aren't some jaw dropping fun locations to explore; there are and the game remains gigantic. It is just not as interesting as DS1 or Demon's Souls for that matter. I also think the warping system might have influenced the design a bit. Where Dark Souls 1 was all interconnected like a metroid map this game allows you to warp to any bonfire in the world. Meaning shortcuts are not needed and backtracking not really a part of the equation, that is usually a good thing but there was something about having the whole world feel connected in DS1 that was special. Seeing a giant tree in the distance that you later fight your way to, then enter, and eventually end up at the roots is something awe inspiring. Once again there is no equivalent of that in DS2. The Dark Souls 2 map is more like a central hub with tendrils reaching out, each tendril terminating at a dead end. Another major component of any Souls game are the bosses and once again I can easily say the bosses in this game are not as well done as in the last game. Many bosses follow the same pattern with new skin changes. Many giant bosses have familiar patterns of bosses of games past. That is the curse of the third game, we players know all the tricks already so when we see that giant boss that fights similar to one from a past game it is not as interesting. Some boss battles throw multiple enemies at you which feels like a cheap way to increase difficulty and promote co-op. They are still as a whole better than most bosses you will fight in other games but in terms of this series it was a slight disappointment. There is a controversy surrounding the game's lighting system and lack there of. Originally darkness was supposed to play an actual gameplay role forcing players to use torches to light your path. Something major happened in the development side which ended up with a version of the game with a basic lighting system, far worse textures and graphics that look extremely downgraded. Now compared to Dark Souls 1 the graphics are a slight improvement, but it was not what we were promised early on. It is clear which areas of the game was to make use of the torch system as areas that were once to be pitch black are now a bland grey. This blandness rears it's head in many indoor areas. I will say that outdoor locations are STUNNING, but the indoor stuff looks like a step back. On the technical side it runs very well with almost no slow down and a nice steady framerate. The music remains subtle and haunting; it is top notch as usual. I know most of this review is negative but I wanted to focus on what is different. Regardless of all the negatives the positives far outweigh them. This is still a game that will engulf your soul for nearly 100 hours. It remains one of the best gaming experiences you can have and one you will want to play again because there are so many different character builds to try (a new item allows the player to rearrange your stats) and this time new game + has new surprises. The core game of Souls remains fantastic its just with this game some areas are a downgrade from the last one. |
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Posted by Dvader Fri, 11 Apr 2014 03:37:39
Recently Spotted:
travo (7m)
"The game remains as brutal as ever as any enemy can easily kill you if you do not pay attention. "
Does it? Everyone else I've spoken to about the game said it's much easier.
"Well the enemy AI is slightly improved."
What AI???
"100 hours"
I assume this includes NG+? Because the story is like 30-40 depending on how slow you are.
The enemies use fire against you, some try to lure you into traps, there are entire rooms set up where the enemies ambush you. The AI is more aggressive.
The game is the same difficulty.
"use fire" "rooms set up" isn't AI. Luring into traps is, but I never saw that happen.
Weird. I don't know who to trust, then.
Its not just PvP, its doing the coop. Joining every covenant.
It doesn't really matter, though. The game is about patterns, not AI (which you could call AI if you wanted, but it'd be bad AI if you did).
One more question, how were the invasions nerfed?