Was this the biggest bummer for anyone else?

No, the game is awesome it's just not as good as Dark Souls. It's still really good none the less.

One of the best games ever made, easy GotY even with Mordor out there stealing its glory.

Nope, sorry absolutely adored DS2, maybe my game of the year. I LOVE how they were unafraid to change core gameplay mechaics and the whole feel of the game. Such a breath of fresh air compared to so many developers.

It's fine.

I found the beginning of the game to be a really weak part. If you poke around enough you'll find an alternate path to explore. Or get really good at dodging, on my second playthrough I beat that first boss without using a shield.

Certainly not as strong a game as the first but still pretty great and I got a lot more into it when I progressed further into the game. For me in terms of GotY though, Bayonetta and Mordor may have stolen the show.

I mean, it's not better than the first Dark Souls, but by no means was it not enjoyable. I need to go back and finish up the home stretch, but it's definitely going to land somewhere in my top 5 this year. Also remember, the game wasn't helmed Hidetaka Miyazaki. He moved onto Bloodborne and only supervised Ds2. So I wouldn't worry too much about that.

I really enjoyed Dark Souls 2, thought it all well done.

That boss in the first dlc is bumming me out.....

This reminded me that I still haven't finished it. I enjoyed what I did play though. After I got a white soapstone, souls became a non-issue almost instantly.

The first boss is like 3% of that game, so it's a shame that you never get much further than that. Also, the durability thing was patched a long time ago, according to one of my friends. I could understand why you maybe aren't so hot on the diminishing health thing, but there is a ring that you can get very early on in the game that solves that issue. Enemies do disappear after a while, but you can use a bonfire ascetic to revive them all - they'll just be a little tougher. Farming isn't really even necessary in the Souls games, I don't get why so many people get hung up on it. Stats mean nothing if you can't learn enemy patterns and how to react to them.

For me, I wouldn't have said that it was a disappointing game…. It just wasn't as good as the first Dark Souls. It's practically the exact same game in a lot of ways, but I found the boss design to be a little lackluster and I wasn't happy that they re-used the same "Go kill these four big bad guys and then kill the biggest bad guy of them all" thing. Still a damn good game, though.

Also I think that if you're super stuck on a boss because you're holding to some kind of philosophy like "if I summon someone it won't be as legit!" don't be. You gain a sense of accomplishment for beating it without any help but you don't get everything if you get stuck and just put the game down. There's a lot of other games out there, tons of great games coming out and if you drop it now who can say if you'll ever try it again, and try to get to the more compelling parts of the game?

I never played the DLC but everything I've heard is that also they're better than everything in the main game and are possibly better than most/all of the areas from the original Dark Souls.

I pre-ordered DS2 after loving the first, I actually loved all the mechanics changes, however, the thing that really ruined the entire game for was the world design.

DS1 areas all perfectly integrated with eachother, whereas in this it's just jarring and none of the locations or designs I found interesting.

Lol, Mordor was about a 7 tops. Im still mind-blown that game got as much love as it has.

@ghostytrickster: Mild-Mannered Pate, sitting on some boxes or something, in the castle-like area of the Forest of Fallen Giants. There's a gate next to him that closes when you go through it. Once you've gone through that bit, you can drop back down to talk to him again. Just talk to him a bunch before and after going through the gate and he should give it to you after the gate.

I got like, over 2 million souls just by dropping my sign near bosses / bonfires by the time I got the last boss that opens the last area that I never continued on to.

Also there's a stamina ring near Pate through a broken wall and down a ladder, somewhere, if my memory recalls, that was pretty awesome.

No. I still really liked the game. Destiny is 100% my biggest disappointment of 2014. Dark Souls 2 doesn't even make the disappointment list. I found the game to be incredibly easy compared to Demons Souls and Dark Souls but still really fun.

Also, not sure about this Mordor hate. Game is currently one of my favorites of the year. Haters gonna hate.

It's not nearly as good as the first Dark Souls, but it wasn't a bummer in the least. Overall, I was a little disappointed, but how could I not be when Dark Souls is probably my favorite game of all time. Plus, in a year where Destiny, Watch_Dogs, and Unity exist, I think Dark Souls 2 comes out looking pretty good in comparison when it comes to bummers this year. Just my opinion though.

Well I'll say that this is an admirable game. Sadly the more I play it, it becomes more and more arduous the more I come back to it. The way enemies seem to completely spin on their axis to hit and some rather bullshit grabs when you are clearly out of range. Some enemies seemingly free of stamina limits. A bonfire where enemies can attack you or the immense amount of superfluous bonfires in some rather small areas...

Well, I could go on more about my issues about DS2 but it seems generally accepted that DS1 is better than DS2.

I liked it. It wasn't as meaningful to me as the first Dark Souls (which I still can't really explain why), but I enjoyed playing it. Really the only things that bugged me about were the not-interconnected world (like DS1), an inferior sense of place, and a few points where the level design just felt stupid (you have to burn a metal post to set the windmill on fire? That makes sense). The DLC sounds pretty awesome too, so I'm looking forward to getting to that.

Dark Souls 2 a bummer? No.

Its a good game, but compared to the first its dog plops.

The thing that was disappointing about Dark Souls 2 was the lack of things that made 1 so great. The world not being interconnected, lack of memorable or interesting NPC's, lack of original and unique boss battles, and simply placing hordes of enemies to increase difficulty instead of complex level design are what 2 fails at.

However, Dark Souls 2 is still hella fun to play. I played it nonstop when it came out and I enjoyed every second of exploring the world. I vastly prefer the movement over 1. It feels like a much more polished game mechanics-wise. I went back to 1 recently and was really off-put by how janky it feels compared to 2, I guess I just like the more fluid animations better. And say what you want about DLC, but what they added to the game was top-notch. Now if the whole game was as good as the DLC, GoTY would undoubtedly be decided.

Well I think the only thing that made the game not ultra great is the bosses designs .... not as memorable as the ones from Demon´s Soul or Dark Soul , but to say that it is bad game were you even havent seen half of it? Heck you dont even know how cool it is to have power stances etc. Also whats is the problem for not having endless grinding? You find plenty of souls to level up in many ways. Also the health part is not as bad as it was in Demons soul so live with it?

@sammo21: I like Mordor but it's no Dark Souls II. It very much feels like the AC2 of this generation or thereabouts; which is a fine spot to hold.

I still really liked it even though I didn't get really deep into either game like some people do.

I didn't end up finishing DS2 though. I got caught up with trying to find a good weapon in the late game and then slowly stopped playing.

Dark Souls was better than DS2. Demon's Souls was the best.

It's still pretty good on account of being a Souls game, but it's not as good as the first one. That said, the first boss is like an hour into the game, two at most. Giving up before then is kind of a joke.

Also, I hate the health thing too (one of the many things I hated about DeS that they changed for DS and then changed back in DS2 for some reason), but it's pretty much a non-issue once you get the white soapstone (i.e. before the first boss). If you help someone kill a boss you become human again and refill all your health. You can then summon somebody to help you kill the boss because you're human. I went through DS1 without summoning a single person (even NPCs), but DS2 has so many systems tied into summoning other players that it almost seems like they actively want you to.

Dark Souls 2 was a profound disappointment on every front besides mechanics, for me. There are a lot of smart decisions they made regarding movement and playstyle, and the multiplayer is much more fleshed-out and variable. The lifedrain is much more forgiving than DeS while still giving incentive to do better and humanize yourself, as well, and the healing consumables returning was incredibly welcome. As a general feeling, though? Yes, I would agree that I am disappointed with Dark Souls 2. I'm not even going to make this concession that 'it's still a great game,' the fetishization of poorly-designed difficulty for difficulty's sake, the bankrupt reuse of whole-cloth bossfights from DS1 and the absolute manhandling they gave the lore robbed me of any sense of enjoyment by the time the end came around. I was, in fact, so incensed by it that I refused to give the NG+ a chance, despite all the supposed good things that came with it.

Dark Souls 2 might be my greatest disappointment of the year, even in light of Destiny and Civ: BE being also merely okay games.

Dark Souls 2 is my GOTY so far (narrowly beating Shadow Of Mordor). Like many I think DS2 fell short of DS1, but it was a dang fine game.

It was somewhat of a bummer for me, but not for any of the reasons you listed. Those mechanics never bothered me much, aside from durability obviously. You get enough effigies to last a lifetime and co-op was a fun way to get humanity back. Invasions were rare enough that it was more cool than annoying as well.

But yeah, I've only finished the game once and played it halfway a couple of times. I just can't get into it like I did 1. There are absolutely reasons for that in the game itself, but it's also partially that I'm burning out a bit from just the sheer amount of Dark Souls 1 I played.

Dark Souls 1 was a pretty big bummer for me after spending a ton of time with Demons. Dark Souls 2 brought me back around but the formula was starting to get a little old. That said, I did spend a lot of time with it, way more than Dark Souls 1.

I think it is extremely weak when compared to the first game. Counter intuitive in several key areas, not as good mechanics, stats are changed for the worse, dumb story and disjointed zones makes for one of the worst games I played this year. Two stars.

It does seem like people liked this one less then the first, but biggest bummer I don't know about that. There would be an argument for biggest disappointment of the year but then Destiny came out.

@ghostytrickster: While we seem to be in a huge minority here, I'm totally with you. I absolutely adore DS1. Easily one of my favourite games ever. On the other hand, I cannot stand DS2. I hate pretty much everything about it.

In the 28 odd years I've been gaming, I can't think of any other sequel that has disappointed me so much.

I think it's about on par with the first game, which I suppose is a little disappointing for a sequel. It's still one of my favourite games of the year, though.

I got a bit fed up with it

...after 300+ hours or so.

Sadly this was before the DLC came out, I still have only played partway through the first one. Need to get back to that before Bloodborne comes out.

I liked most of the mechanical changes but felt that some of the streamlining hurt the game's...theme? Easy access to lightning bolts made them feel less special for example and Chloanne, as well as many other NPCs, staying in place once they reach Majula was a bit of a bummer. Their stories just sorta stop, even the depressed guy of Dark Souls 2 feels better by the end, and the shopkeep that starts to go hollow never actually does before the end of the game.

I REALLY like the system where you loose a bit of your maximum life when you die, though especially after it was changed so summoning was an easy way to get it all back. I recently played through most of The Wind Waker HD. Having played it before I decided to play it on Hero mode, which means enemies deal double damage and you won't find health drops outside of a couple of fairies. You'll have to rely on potions. This sounded interesting but actually dying didn't really set you back more than sending you to the start of the dungeon, forcing you to run across a bunch of rooms that were already cleared. It was more of an annoyance than anything else so I wasn't incentivized to avoid it as much. It also made collecting health pickups to avoid death feel kind of meaningless.

In Dark Souls 2 though, even if you have no souls you have a bit of a reason not to just throw yourself at a problem, so long as you haven't hit the diminished health cap already that is. In that situation though you have a reason to get it all back, either with an item or through summoning, and you're back in a position where dying means something. I like it a lot.

ive said this already in the countless dark souls 2 isnt any good or is a disappointment threads.dark souls 2 is the best game in the series,its one of the best games this year and its one of the best games ever.if thats a bummer i dont know what is.

I don't feel as strongly as you do, but I'm liking the game a lot less than dark souls. I'm only just getting to the first boss in the Last Bastille but I have a few gripes. First, I agree that the changes to the death system and max health suck. Second it's disappointing that they haven't been able to seamlessly link up all the areas like they did in the original. The Aha moments I had when I realized two areas butted up right next to each other were some of my favorite moments. Dark Souls 2 short cuts this by making warping available from the get go. Also not being able to level outside of the far fire seems needlessly restrictive. Lastly the combat in general just feels less satisfying. They are too stingy in the early game with a variety of decent weapons to try.

But it's mostly good. It still is a Souls game so it can't be all bad. Also the graphical are gorgeous at times and the soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful particularly in the main area (Muhajala or something?) and Things Betwixt.

Maybe it is disappointing considering the original is one of my favorite games of all time and Dark Souls too isn't even my favorite game of this year. This wouldn't have exactly been a tough year to be a GOTY either.

@lilman1101: That is exactly why I didn't enjoy the game. The random areas made the world feel very shallow. And the world basically being built with several long spokes instead of feeling like a massive open world bummed me out as well. The item descriptions were incredibly uninspired and often went out of their way to reference the first game in a way that built up no lore for it's own world.

I really did like some of the mechanics changes and different items they added although I wouldn't necessarily call them better, just differently good.

i enjoyed it but every boss fight was way too easy not a single one made me try more than 2 times

@shaolinspade: The game definitely felt better, but, quite ironically, the main thing that the game felt it was lacking was any kind of soul that the first one had.

Nope, had a lot of fun with the game. I prefer it over Dark Souls 1.

On health loss after death, that's simply a halfway point between what Demon's Souls and the first Dark Souls offered. There is the cling ring analogue in this game to make keep your max health at 75% as opposed to half, and the ability to repair rings of sacrifices means you can potentially never lose anything upon death outside of a 3k souls repair bill.

On 60 fps causing more durability loss, no comment since I assume that is a PC version only thing. Otherwise, I've never had any issue with weapon breakage outside of acid damage.

On enemies no longer re-spawning, it is theoretically possible for you to kill everything and lose all souls enough times to run out of potential exp sources. In practice, that chance is incredibly remote. Enemies disappear after being killed 15 times, and enemies give more exp / you require less to level up compared to Dark Souls 1. You will not fall irreparably behind unless you actively attempt to do so. Also, refer back to the earlier ring of sacrifice comment.

Most of your listed grievances seem easily resolved by other game mechanics.

This is like the 5th Dark Souls 1 vs 2 thread.

Nah, game was a great addition to the series, even if it maybe wasn't the best yet. For me the biggest bummer was probably that I was able to use the same sword the entire game. I killed that first Heide Knight you run into, got his sword and just kept on upgrading it. I never found anything significantly more powerful enough, and I got so used to the way it felt any other weapons just felt weird, so I used the same weapon for 95% of the game. Even the Drake Sword couldn't take you that far in the original.

A vocal minority share your opinion, but there's also a vocal minority who think dark souls is trash compared to demons souls.

I like each game better. Maybe Bloodborn will break the streak.

It's the same with the first two games. The Long Sword is effective through all of Demon's and Dark Souls. On my last playthrough of Demon's Souls, I used a Broad Sword and a Spear (later a Winged Spear) to the end of the game. It was a dex build. In my over thirty playthroughs of Dark Souls, I never used the Drake Sword, except maybe briefly to see what the fuss was about. I'm glad you don't have to use the bigger, uglier weapons.

Lol, Mass Effect was about a 7 tops. Im still mind-blown that game got as much love as it has.

See I can authoritatively present my opinion on a game also!

Mordor felt incredible to me as both the batman games and the AC games never were compelling to me but I liked their mechanics; behold a game that takes the best parts of both games and makes them better.

This game was just fine. I thought it was just as good as DS1.