When I screamed as I played Dark Souls 1, its because I had overcome overwhelming odds through cunning, skill, some cheeky strats and some good luck. When I screamed as I played Dark Souls 2, its because despite doing all I could to cheese the game and shift the balance in my favour the game said “fuck you” and insta killed me, forcing me to play more DS2.

Not an awful game and it has some great ideas in the mix, Shrine of Amana is actually a great level and the sections focussed on torch-led exploration are fun. This is definitely a more interesting title regarding gameplay than something like Skyrim. But overall this game is designed around tedium and contrivance rather than actual challenge, with poorly thought out mechanics like durability and limited healing taking front seat in a game with sloppy movement and annoying input delay. Having crappy controls in a horror game is one thing, but very much another in an action-adventure game.

Also whoever approved of the final boss utilising curse can go fuck themselves.