They just keep getting worse.

Credit where it is due. The port is actually good this time. There's a good array of options and the optimization is excellent. Unlike DS1's awful port. The 60 FPS does not screw with the platforming, what little there is this time.

The level design was one of the best parts of Demon's Souls, and the first half of Dark Souls 1. In Dark Souls 2, the levels are mostly either overly long hallways with some small pockets or big rooms with small pockets. There is no incentive to activate any shortcuts since fast travel is available from the start, and bonfires are plentiful. The majority of the levels lack any puzzles and traps like the previous two games. And instead rely on enemy ambushes for
cheap tension that wears thin quickly.

The gutter and the three DLC packs are exceptions to this. In the former the player has to rely on carrying a torch in one hand which sacrifices using a shield to give the player some sense of tension, and the three DLC packs are designed more like Demons and Dark 1, with puzzles, clever short cuts that loop back around each other and actual traps. For the most part though barring these exceptions. The player will have little trouble with navigating the levels because of how basic the level design is.

The world geography makes little sense. The elevator from Earthen peak to Iron Keep makes no sense, The visuals of Iron Keep indicate that it should be located underground. Dragons Aerie is similar, you take an elevator up despite the previous area being at what should be a high altitude, but then the environment suddenly has pillars holding up the sky. Coming off of Demon's and Dark 1's cohesive world geography, it shows that yet again, fromsoft rushed this game out.

In an effort to make the game more accessible, the devs decided that enemies would stop spawning after killing them ten to fifteen times. This has the negative side effect of having to constantly change covenants to the company of champions if the player wants to grind for souls to level up or farm items. This is incredibly annoying and is very backwards thinking for a JRPG, as one of the best things about games like this is getting stronger via getting EXP and leveling up.

If you're not into PVP, the game still has no option to turn them off. This led me to ALT F4ing many times as I simply do not wish to engage in multiplayer that is forced on me. The fact that they still haven't given this option three games in is asinine.

The combat yet again isn't exciting or interesting. There is no incentive to play as a melee build yet again because the enemies aren't designed to deal with magic. Again.

The hitboxes are incredibly unfair. You'll be grabbed from several feet away by trolls despite them not touching you, exploding enemies will still hit you even if you roll away twice, and boss attacks are especially egregious, and will pigeon hole you into using a great shield because rolling is near useless. I say near because for some bizarre reason, I-frames on your rolls are tied to the adaptability stat. Why they went this route with such an essential mechanic to survival is incredibly backwards thinking, to say the least.

The boss fights haven't improved from the last two games. In fact they've gotten worse. You can still steam roll them by summoning NPCs and pelting them with magic from afar since yet again the bosses are not designed with Co-op in mind. Some have some interesting mechanics, like Najka being unable to burrow through rubble, but she, like most of the bosses can just be pelted with magic till you win. Executioner's Chariot is the only good one of the lot, as you need to use alluring skulls and pull levers to be able to hit him. And when one out of forty one bosses is good, you'll be bored to death very quickly.

The overabundance of bosses can really wear on you, since aside from Executioner's chariot you'll just spamming magic while your NPC party members distract them 40 times. It will feel like you're fighting a boss every 30 minutes, given how easy the levels are to navigate. There are even recolors. Like Smelter Demon being red in one fight and purple in the next.
The game also blatantly reuses bosses from Dark souls 1. Old Dragon Slayer is just Ornsetin but black.And Royal Rat authority reuses Sif's model and has most of her moves.

Somehow they managed to make leveling up tedious this time. Every time you talk to the Emerald maiden to level up you have to deal with a front load of dialogue before being able to raise your stats. This gets annoying quickly.

Thankfully the game doesn't railroad you into NGP this time, and NGP does have different enemy placement. But the only incentive for doing NGP is some extra spells that are locked to a third playthrough. Unless you really like PVP, I recommend you don't bother.

Visually the game is passable for the most part, it's clear that despite running on the same engine as Demons and Dark 1, this game was made by the B team while the A team worked on BloodBorne. This results in some amateurish mistakes like having poor texture work that doesn't blend well with the lighting (Mirror Knight is a great example of this, there is an ugly moss texture that doesn't need to be there).

Unlike Demons or Dark, none of these worlds are interesting from an artistic standpoint. Instead, given how poor the world building is you get the impression that the devs had to include your typical RPG locations. So you get generic castle, generic forest, generic volcano, generic mine etc.

The music is very phoned in this time. Unlike the experimental brass filled OST of Demons or the Excellent orchestral sound of Dark 1, every boss theme in this game sounds like it's a clone of the Ornstein and Smough theme, this is rather disappointing. Since Motoi Sakuraba was brought back again and is usually one of the best composers in the industry. And the additional tracks by Yuta Kitamura aren't much better, sounding near the same as Sakuraba's phoned in work. I was genuinely shocked that the game had two composers this time since every song sounds the same.

Unlike Demons or Dark 1. Even the story can't make this game worth playing this time. The game takes place in the same world as Dark 1, but several hundred years later. This instantly makes the vague nature of Dark 1s ending pointless because the Chosen Undead decided to link the flame, the game could have done something interesting by having Drangleic be untouched by what was happening in Lordran, but instead it's implied Dragleic was going down the drain at the same time. And once again at the ending the player is presented the same choice. But the existence of Dark Souls 3 means that yet again the weight of said choice was made pointless again.

The world building also isn't great, the rotten for example is a living mass grave, but his area implies that the undead he is kidnapping are being turned into poison. So the area boss should be some kind of butcher or scientist. The old Dragon slayer is also guarded by a dragon, for some reason. This is strange, since Demon's and Dark 1 did this very well.

The NPCs you rescue that head back to Majula are also very one note this time. In Demons and Dark 1 they came and went as they pleased and it made the world more believable. Here they stay in Majula for the rest of the game are just extra vendors essentially.

There's really nothing Dark souls 2 does well. The combat is still bad, the boss fights are still mediocre to terrible, the fidelity and art direction are just passable, the story and world building are bland and forgettable, and the music is phoned in.

If you're a masochist and really want to indulge in a 4/10, be my guest, but there are far better JRPGs out there. Even the other souls games are better than this.

Reviewed on Oct 16, 2021


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