5/5 ★ – MPT's review of Dark Souls II.

Dark Souls 2 is by no means my favourite FromSoftware game or even Dark Souls game, but to me there’s absolutely nothing holding it back from 5 stars. it takes and alters many of the best aspects of DS1 and adds a lot of its own features (for better and definitely for worse) but it should certainly still be considered an amazing game, and nothing less. the biggest strength of DS2 for me is it’s world. Drangleic is a huge and extremely varied setting; seriously, the aesthetic and creative differences between each area are staggering, and while some may complain it lacks any kind of consistency or gets too videogamey for its own good, it’s the most interesting and visually appealing world in the series. in no way can you say a game with areas like Drangleic Castle, Iron Keep, Heide’s Tower of Flame and the Dragon Aerie doesn’t have a varied and cool as fuck world to explore. it’s certainly the game’s biggest positive. close behind this, though, is the game’s lore. setting the game in Drangleic, with its own unique backstory, provides a fresh setting and premise. lore of individual bosses and areas remain very strong, like that of Aldia’s Keep and the Old Iron King. the feeling of loneliness and hopelessness and such insignificance in a huge, expansive world still applies from DS1 though, and this is the best thing the game carries over from the first: you always feel at a disadvantage, at the mercy of every enemy and system in the game, so that when you finally do come out on top it’s almost euphoric. the immense customisation is also a huge positive the game brings to the table. the weapons and armour pieces, as well as magic, cause the build variety to be immense, so there’s loads of room for having fun, replaying and experimenting. this is an example of a case where the game improves upon the first, another of which being hexes - a new form of dark magic. it just makes the game more varied and fun, and naturally expands the lore of the Dark Souls universe. while it’s by all means a 5 star game, there are certain (quite large) pitfalls which prevents it being on the same level as DS1 for me. the first of these is the game’s overall focus on quantity over quality - more enemies, areas, bosses and an overall focus on trying to make the series bigger rather than better, and capitalising on what made the first game well known at all costs. this certainly shows with the poorer quality of the bosses, enemy placement with the sole purpose of unbalanced difficulty, and more. it’s this focus on the wrong things that make people consider this game the series’ ‘black sheep’. overall, i enjoy DS2 more than enough for it to be 5 stars. it’s strengths far outweigh its negatives, and it carries almost every strength from the first game, even improving on many of them. the main issue of the game stems from a lack of focus on what actually made DS1 a good game instead of just a hard one, and although this is clearly the case, the game never loses focus on what makes video games fun - immensely deep and interesting lore, a huge and varied world, and tonnes of replayability and customisation. a top tier game from FromSoftware for sure (as usual) so once again, thank you Dark Souls.