Dark Souls II

In so many ways, Dark Souls II is a return to form. This can mean different things for different players, though. The original Dark Souls introduced its inhabitants to a desperate land filled with aimless, shambling hollows that echo the failure and futility of other would be heroes as well as unforgiving guardians faithfully protecting the often awe-inspiring demons who now rule each realm. The only solace in such a woefully dark kingdom were the lights cast by scarce bonfires dotting your journey. These ideas and mechanics return in full form in Dark Souls II and provided a much needed sense of comfort when getting your behind repeatedly handed to you by the denizens of this mad world.

Most of the mechanics that seem new in this sequel also present a return to old concepts. However, they draw from Demon's Souls, a Playstation 3 exclusive title that serves as a spiritual predecessor to the Dark Souls games. The ability to only cash in your souls at a sort of hub world location as well as a health bar whose maximum value gradually drops to half with each successive death hearken back to the very first Souls game. The return of these older elements can be both good and bad. Requiring players to level up at a central location instead of just any bonfire serves only as a nuisance from a gameplay perspective. However, it helps narration and world building by encouraging you to frequently check back on the village of Majula. The few inhabitants of this small plot of crumbling land are the individuals that you have met and aided in your journey. The exception to this is the Emerald Herald, a mysterious woman who serves as both your guide and the gatekeeper to your character's progression.

The main pull of any Souls game is the punishing and immensely rewarding nature of both the combat and exploration. That is no different here. Every fight in Dark Souls II requires the player's attention and respect. You may have gotten to the fog door outside of a boss encounter unscathed with medium effort, only to die at the hands of the demon on the other side. Now you are caught up in the game of getting back to where you failed before dying again, lest all those hard earned souls disappear forever. The path to the boss was easy enough, so you arrive at the door, traverse it, claim your souls, and survive a little longer before dying again. As this pattern repeats you are simultaneously increasing your chances of success and the cost of your failure by learning more of the boss's patterns and adding another run's worth of souls to your blood stain. It is at this point that toughest enemy in Dark Souls II sneaks up behind you. Impatience. You start rushing your way back to the boss, and eventually you die to a small group of the game's weakest enemies. You stopped respecting Dark Souls, and it let you know your place.

This combat loop has been at the heart of all three Souls games but is kept fresh here with a few tweaks. The durability of weapons decreases way faster than it ever has in the past, but is also now replenished whenever the player rests at a bonfire. This means that you will never have to pay for weapon repairs unless you fully break them, but it also requires that most play styles utilize a backup weapon (in my case a weapon for the run up to a boss and a separate weapon for the boss). Additionally, you start the game with only one Estus Flask (healing item) use per bonfire. However, there are now plenty of consumable health items called lifegems that can be both found and purchased. Another major difference is that enemies will only respawn about 10 or 15 times before leaving the world completely. This can be good if you systematically despawn the enemies in an area to make boss runs more manageable. It can also be really bad if you despawn them, but have consistently lost souls without cashing them in. An item can be used at a bonfire to bring back the surrounding enemies, but it respawns them back at a higher difficulty, including the area boss.

Exploration relies heavily on jumps that keep your anxious toes tightly curled and careful examining the environment. Not all the chests or the terrain in the game are as they appear, and the rewards aren't always as valuable as the risk that was taken. As such, the player is not rewarded for each individual act of bravery and observation, but rather rewarded overall for the persistence of both these traits. The newest form of exploration in Dark Souls II comes in the form of walls that slide away to reveal secret rooms when the player presses the interact button in front of them. There is never any prompt to do so, and these instances are not always readily noticeable to even the most discerning eyes. Luckily other players can label these secrets with messages they leave on the floor in their own worlds, one of the many ways players can assist one another.

The entire suite of odd and interesting multiplayer features of the previous Souls games is back in Dark Souls II. Players can leave messages, bloodstains that show the last 5 to 10 seconds of their life, summon signs that allow them to be brought into your world as allies. The player versus player elements also return with various covenants that allow interesting ways to invade other player's worlds and try to kill them. The use of other players cooperatively is actually better in this installment. You can still summon random players to join you silently, but you can also now find your friends far more easily than in the past. One of the merchants sells a "name-engraved ring" that allows you to chose a god when you equip it. You will then only see summon signs from other players who are within your experience range and wearing the ring with the same god selected. It's not a perfect system, but it worked dependably enough that I was able to have one of the most enjoyable cooperative experiences in the past few years with two of my friends.

Dark Souls II represents a lot of different gameplay philosophies. In this endeavor, I feel it mostly succeeds at taking the best parts of its two slightly different predecessors. The combat feels as tight as ever, the exploration is more fun than it has ever been, and cooperative play has never been more convenient in the series. However, the world building is a little lacking compared to the first Dark Souls. The first game gave a sense of connectedness between all the realms of Lordran that just isn't established in this new kingdom of Drangleic. That may change once I finish "new game +" as the developers have populated it with new enemy types and configurations, as well as expanded lore in the item descriptions. The original Dark Souls is one of my favorite games. Full stop. This worthy followup exceeds the original in many aspects, but also falls a little bit short in a few areas. What results is a game that feels both fresh and familiar at the same time. But most important is this: Dark Souls II is more Dark Souls. And that is more than enough for me.