As a start to the Dark Souls II DLCs, it's rather fitting. The contrarian's Dark Souls has a contrarian DLC. The level's exterior is quite beautiful, but once I started progressing through the area, I knew I was in for some shit. Finding bonfires was difficult because after playing through the entirety of the main campaign and not interacting with any puzzle based buttons or switches, this brilliant DLC decided to introduce them without telling me. As a result, I stumbled through the area not finding a lot of the bonfires and eventually giving up and looking up a guide. It's ultimately a new way to design a Dark Souls level, but as with a lot of the things that make Dark Souls II unique, it just isn't enjoyable. The DLC doesn't do a good job explaining how the puzzle mechanics work, which made it a real pain in the ass. Along with that, the enemies are irritating to fight against since they refused to stagger and the mechanics are not explained. Adding to that, classic asshole Dark Souls II enemy placement made the experience quite hellish at times. Luckily, the DLC is saved by having two great bosses back to back at the end of the level. Hopefully the next two DLCs are more conventional.

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The queen was a fun mix-up that does a good job building on Dark Souls II's trademark multi-fight system where you have to juggle fighting summoned enemies, while dodging the queen's dark magic. I found Elena to be my favorite boss in the DLC and possibly one of my favorites in Dark Souls II.

Sinh was a pretty neat dragon fight. It spews poison fire and likes to fly around a lot. The latter making the battle a little tedious at times, but with proper practice and active preparation, the fight becomes pretty fun.