By TYLER FLOOD
Contributing Writer
The Souls video game series has always been infamous for its no-holds-barred mentality when it comes to challenging the player. This mindset of the developers has always been off-putting for some and encouraging for others who reveled in the extra challenge of the game. When it was revealed that the game would be more “accessible” to new players, many fans of the series were put off. But hardcore series fans can rest assured—more accessible does not equal less difficult in this journey of death through the Kingdom of Drangleic.
The combat in Dark Souls II is as robust as ever, with slow and methodical battles in which every maneuver you make is the difference between life and death. New additions to combat include Hexes, a new dark magic type that requires both investments in the intelligence as well as the faith stats, as well as the power stance, a new dual wielding mechanic that allows the player to wield two weapons of a similar category (sorry, no power wielding a spear and a claymore) with great force, provided the player has one and a half times the pre-requisites of the weapon.
This addition makes dual wielding much more viable. Archery has come back to the franchise with much-needed improvements. It’s been enhanced, with characters now being able to holster two different arrow types at a time and fired arrows traversing the map much quicker than their Dark Souls counterparts. That being said, it’s still not viable enough to focus a character build on. Fans may be mixed to hear that backstabbing is also much easier to execute on enemies than in the previous games, but be wary this works both ways. The variety of ways you can fight in Dark Souls II adds a lot of replay value to it—the rewards of pumping up your strength enough to wield a great sword in one hand to cleave through enemies or bumping your intelligence enough to decimate enemies with the lightning spear miracle are both exciting ways to play, and it’s too enticing to pass up on either.
One of the absolute best parts of Dark Souls II is the level design. The way all of the environments intertwine is genius. An early example is blowing down a wall from the outside of a fortress through explosives that allows you to go directly back to the bonfire and rest, the five minute trek reduced to a five second walk. The entire game can be traversed without loading screens as with previous Souls games, but in addition you have the option from the very beginning to fast travel between bonfires that you have been to. Enemies will respawn every time you visit a bonfire, unless of course, that is, you’ve killed that foe enough times that it won’t. Considering that the enemies are eventually all wiped out (which is a method implemented by the developer to prevent grinding for souls) it is a preferred option to fast travel rather than to traverse the empty environment. That being said the environments in this game range from haunting to gorgeous and are quite memorable. Through the players journey in Drangleic they will traverse misty forests, cliff sides, and a volcanic fortress, among other locales.
The plot of Dark Souls II keeps the vagueness of previous iterations, with lore filled into you by armor descriptions, weapon description, and conversations with the eccentric NPCs, for a game that challenges you to push forward slowly filling in the player along the way is an excellent way to progress the plot. Dark Souls II has a simple plot, yes, but it is not a game about the plot, but rather the experience of playing, the gameplay and the interactions with the players you encounter online.
The online interaction is one of the key features of the franchise. Other players can leave messages, such as warning, reassuring or tricking each other, invading their world to try and kill them, or offering their help so they can join each other to take on bosses in jolly cooperation. In addition, covenants can be joined that are integrated with the online experience, each with a different aspect whether traveling to another player’s world to kill them, or to protect them.
Dark Souls II has certainly made some changes to the franchise, but the accessibility has not hindered the challenge. Overall, Dark Souls II is an improvement upon previous titles in the series and the best yet.
Grade: 9/10
