(Note: This review is old and likely doesn't match my current opinion. Will likely rewrite in the future)
This game was alright, but compared to the first it's not that great. Some changes are great but some are absolutely horrible and ruin the game in some areas for me. There's a lot I have to say for this review, so I'll make a list of pros and cons.
Pros:
-Great story. It's intricate just like the first game, with so much little facts and details given that can be speculated about for years.
-Combat and Gameplay: Combat was mostly fun. I enjoyed it more than the first game, honestly. I'm not sure what exactly it was, but I just had more fun with the combat.
-Great graphics. The looks of this game are beautiful. Seeing giant buildings in the distance with beautiful, intricate designs and then being able to explore them later is something I will never get sick of in games.
-Music: The OST is great, as always. Need I say more?
Cons:
-Bland world. The story was cool, but the world itself is kind of uninteresting, if that makes sense. It didn't grab me like DS1. There wasn't stuff I saw in the environment and wondered "Why the hell is that there?".
-Linear design. Dark souls 1 in the beginning had a world that was interconnected. You'd go down a path and suddenly you were in an area you were before. Dark Souls is famous for innovating this, so it's odd how Dark Souls 2 completely throws this design philosophy out the window and makes multiple linear paths that all start at Majula.
-Bad boss and enemy design: This game suffers heavily with uninteresting designs for enemies and bosses. The developers seemed to have completely missed why the Dark Souls 1 bosses are so cool and iconic. Half of the designs in this game are humanoids, usually with armor on. There are a few cool designs here and there, like The Rotten or The Last Giant, but for every one of those, you have another Dragonrider, Three Sentinals, and the Graverobbers.
-Health Loss Mechanic: This single mechanic is so fucking bad. I hate it so much. Now, you might be thinking "What's wrong with this mechanic? It didn't make the game that hard", and I actually agree to an extent. However, the thing I hate most about it is what it does to bosses. In Dark Souls 1, a strategy I would do to take down bosses is to try to experiment, learn, and make dumbass mistakes to try and learn a boss before really trying to beat it, and this worked well for me. However, in Dark Souls 2, they introduced this mechanic, which completely threw that method out of the window. Now, if you want a fair fight each time, you have to use a humanity, which is from my knowledge a limited resource. The worse thing about this mechanic however is that it is completely unnecessary. There is no point for it to be in the game. If you took thing mechanic out of the game, the game wouldn't loose anything, besides humanity not being as useful. I'm 99% sure that the only reason they added this mechanic was because they thought "Oh, people liked the difficulty in Dark Souls 1? Let's add something that makes it even more difficult!", but they didn't realize is people liked the fair difficulty of Dark Souls 1, not just the difficulty. You don't see people praising rage games for being super challenging.
-Translation: The translation in this game can be a mixed bag. Watch "Dark Souls 2 Lore > Found in Translation" by VaatiVidya, it goes over why the translation can be bad at times.
That's about it. I will edit this if I can recall any pros or cons I forgot. Overall though, this game was just not my thing. It disappointed me after the wonder that was Dark Souls 1. I'm looking forward to Dark Souls 3 after this, as I heard it improved a lot of the things that made me not like this game, like the HP death mechanic or the bad enemy and boss designs. Overall a good game, but god some of these design choices are bad.
This game was alright, but compared to the first it's not that great. Some changes are great but some are absolutely horrible and ruin the game in some areas for me. There's a lot I have to say for this review, so I'll make a list of pros and cons.
Pros:
-Great story. It's intricate just like the first game, with so much little facts and details given that can be speculated about for years.
-Combat and Gameplay: Combat was mostly fun. I enjoyed it more than the first game, honestly. I'm not sure what exactly it was, but I just had more fun with the combat.
-Great graphics. The looks of this game are beautiful. Seeing giant buildings in the distance with beautiful, intricate designs and then being able to explore them later is something I will never get sick of in games.
-Music: The OST is great, as always. Need I say more?
Cons:
-Bland world. The story was cool, but the world itself is kind of uninteresting, if that makes sense. It didn't grab me like DS1. There wasn't stuff I saw in the environment and wondered "Why the hell is that there?".
-Linear design. Dark souls 1 in the beginning had a world that was interconnected. You'd go down a path and suddenly you were in an area you were before. Dark Souls is famous for innovating this, so it's odd how Dark Souls 2 completely throws this design philosophy out the window and makes multiple linear paths that all start at Majula.
-Bad boss and enemy design: This game suffers heavily with uninteresting designs for enemies and bosses. The developers seemed to have completely missed why the Dark Souls 1 bosses are so cool and iconic. Half of the designs in this game are humanoids, usually with armor on. There are a few cool designs here and there, like The Rotten or The Last Giant, but for every one of those, you have another Dragonrider, Three Sentinals, and the Graverobbers.
-Health Loss Mechanic: This single mechanic is so fucking bad. I hate it so much. Now, you might be thinking "What's wrong with this mechanic? It didn't make the game that hard", and I actually agree to an extent. However, the thing I hate most about it is what it does to bosses. In Dark Souls 1, a strategy I would do to take down bosses is to try to experiment, learn, and make dumbass mistakes to try and learn a boss before really trying to beat it, and this worked well for me. However, in Dark Souls 2, they introduced this mechanic, which completely threw that method out of the window. Now, if you want a fair fight each time, you have to use a humanity, which is from my knowledge a limited resource. The worse thing about this mechanic however is that it is completely unnecessary. There is no point for it to be in the game. If you took thing mechanic out of the game, the game wouldn't loose anything, besides humanity not being as useful. I'm 99% sure that the only reason they added this mechanic was because they thought "Oh, people liked the difficulty in Dark Souls 1? Let's add something that makes it even more difficult!", but they didn't realize is people liked the fair difficulty of Dark Souls 1, not just the difficulty. You don't see people praising rage games for being super challenging.
-Translation: The translation in this game can be a mixed bag. Watch "Dark Souls 2 Lore > Found in Translation" by VaatiVidya, it goes over why the translation can be bad at times.
That's about it. I will edit this if I can recall any pros or cons I forgot. Overall though, this game was just not my thing. It disappointed me after the wonder that was Dark Souls 1. I'm looking forward to Dark Souls 3 after this, as I heard it improved a lot of the things that made me not like this game, like the HP death mechanic or the bad enemy and boss designs. Overall a good game, but god some of these design choices are bad.