note: this is based on the ps3/360/dx9 version of the game.
Dark Souls 2 is my least favorite game in the Souls series for a number of reasons. The previous games were never perfect, and indeed had many flaws, both small and large. the main thing was that they were legitimately excellent in a number of areas, leading to games that were more than the sum of their parts.
dark souls 2 has a few improvements and quality of life changes but is often worse in areas that the previous games excelled in, which makes it difficult to forgive its shortcomings.
The enemy balance is often horrendous. Many strong, tough enemies, with way too much HP grouped together in tight spaces to force you to fight them all. this is a huge misstep since souls combat is very geared towards one-on-one encounters. areas like drangleic castle, the undead crypt and the brume tower suffer a lot because of this.
The level design is often sloppy and poorly thought out, with bonfires that are right next to enemies or which are just unnecessary thanks to shortcuts. many of the areas feel like they were made separately and then just sitched together without much care for whether it would make sense or not. again, something that was far better in the previous two games.
The soundtrack is bland and feels completely phoned in. pretty much none of the battle songs are memorable at all, the only exception being alonne's. some of the area music is alright (like majula), but on the whole it's a terrible, uninspired score.
For some reason, it was decided that the agility stat would govern the number of invicibility frames in rolls. The main problem with this is that low level characters end up with very clunky and inconsistent rolls that are very difficult to get used to.
Most of the bosses are also forgettable and uninteresting. Pretty much all of the best ones are in the DLC, like alonne, fume knight, and ivory king. the biggest offender here is probably nashandra, which is by far the worst final boss in the series in terms of the emotional engagement one has when fighting her. While they fixed this now with Aldia, imagine my disappointment with her on release, before he existed.
I could go on and on, and honestly DS 2 is not a bad game, but it was not the game it could or should have been.
Not a horrible game, but honestly a letdown.
note: this is based on the ps3/360/dx9 version of the game.
Dark Souls 2 is my least favorite game in the Souls series for a number of reasons. The previous games were never perfect, and indeed had many flaws, both small and large. the main thing was that they were legitimately excellent in a number of areas, leading to games that were more than the sum of their parts.
dark souls 2 has a few improvements and quality of life changes but is often worse in areas that the previous games excelled in, which makes it difficult to forgive its shortcomings.
The enemy balance is often horrendous. Many strong, tough enemies, with way too much HP grouped together in tight spaces to force you to fight them all. this is a huge misstep since souls combat is very geared towards one-on-one encounters. areas like drangleic castle, the undead crypt and the brume tower suffer a lot because of this.
The level design is often sloppy and poorly thought out, with bonfires that are right next to enemies or which are just unnecessary thanks to shortcuts. many of the areas feel like they were made separately and then just sitched together without much care for whether it would make sense or not. again, something that was far better in the previous two games.
The soundtrack is bland and feels completely phoned in. pretty much none of the battle songs are memorable at all, the only exception being alonne's. some of the area music is alright (like majula), but on the whole it's a terrible, uninspired score.
For some reason, it was decided that the agility stat would govern the number of invicibility frames in rolls. The main problem with this is that low level characters end up with very clunky and inconsistent rolls that are very difficult to get used to.
Most of the bosses are also forgettable and uninteresting. Pretty much all of the best ones are in the DLC, like alonne, fume knight, and ivory king. the biggest offender here is probably nashandra, which is by far the worst final boss in the series in terms of the emotional engagement one has when fighting her. While they fixed this now with Aldia, imagine my disappointment with her on release, before he existed.
I could go on and on, and honestly DS 2 is not a bad game, but it was not the game it could or should have been.