Review of the game dark souls 2. Dark Souls II: review. Theory and practice of repose
Dear fans of deadly extreme sports and hardcore RPGs! Forget about study, work, family and life in general real life. Stock up on valerian (and some, cognac). Dark souls 2 challenges chronic gamers' nerves and gaming skills. The atmosphere of the game is gloomy, the weather is gloomy, the ghouls are gloomy... in general, it doesn’t smell positive.
Today we will spend short review games dark souls 2. To experience the full range of pleasures, you need to go through locations with absolutely no information. And it will be tough. No one will indulge your laziness. Nothing but your hands will help as events unfold. Either try and move forward through the dark world through blood, or turn off the computer and watch TV.
Difficulties will begin from the second boss in the game! Hours of painstaking play, sweaty palms and a bundle of nerves. And this is only on the second boss. Moreover, each of your battles becomes more and more difficult. The nuance of this part of Dark souls is that after each death you become weaker and go towards a strong boss more and more weakened, thereby pushing back the positive ending of the meeting with the boss. And upgrading your life doesn't come cheap. They are hucksters and hucksters in Africa (I’m talking about traders). But restoration items are not lying around on the road and are found extremely rarely during the game and there is nowhere to farm.
It’s a pity that there are still no huge number of guides and video reviews of the game dark souls 2. This is direct discrimination against fans and connoisseurs of this game. Although why dark souls 2 review? No clues. Everything is just on personal experience. But what satisfaction from victories! I pulled the boss in on the hundredth attempt, but what an enthusiastic feeling this event evokes.
As in all modern RPGs, players spend most of their time chatting with NPCs, watching videos of the storyline, guessing with possible answers, and only then taking part in battles. Although dark souls 2 does not have the usual plot. At every corner they will try to kill, fool, and cheat your character. Moreover, the developers are playing cruel jokes on you. For example, in one well there may be a useful item as a pleasant surprise, and in another well there may be a surprise from a bunch of wonderful aggravating dead. Thus, the gameplay allows you to experience a lot of emotions, both positive and not so positive.
Out of hopelessness and constant stress, as the game progresses you begin to notice the smallest details, open doors with caution, check traps and anticipate ambushes. You may even need a diaper to prevent an enemy from unexpectedly jumping out from around a corner, an option for your hero to be destroyed by even the most ordinary enemy. You have to pick one at a time. You will disappear in the crowd and it will be quite a shame.
It is impossible to get used to combat tactics and enemy behavior. Everything is unique. Even the mobs are unique in each location. And they practically never repeat.
With all the abundance of carrion and blackness, the game looks very beautiful and bewitching, especially with the design of the locations. There are no maps for the game, but the very arrangement of buildings, paths, faults, and lights can suggest the path and lead to the final boss of the location.
The levels in the game are not entirely linear, they cause inconvenience, but they make it possible to find secret passages, hidden treasures where it seems they cannot be.
What in other games is considered a bug and causes a lot of dissatisfaction among players, here it is a standard situation. That's how it was intended.
If you want to challenge yourself, don't be afraid of difficulties and don't quit the game after a couple of deaths. Death in the game is a common fact. The game is not easy. For any simplification, a complication is prescribed. Move forward boldly.
For fans of dark souls 2 video review of the game:
It’s also quite long and tedious to describe classes and character generation for novice players. In a nutshell: you can play as a warrior, knight, swordsman, robber, cleric, sorcerer, wanderer and beggar. To do this, here is a video of dark souls 2 class overview:
The hero is surrounded, which means the chances of salvation are minimal. And enemies with shell-like backs, like this one, are unusually tenacious
So in the world Dark Souls II look like zombies. Dying, the hero himself gradually acquires their features, but unlike them, we still have a chance of salvation
Name of the game: Dark Souls II
Genre: Third-Person Action, RPG
Languages: English, Russian subtitles
Developer: From Software
Publisher / in Russia: Namco Bandai Games / "1C-SoftClub"
Similar games: Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Severance: Blade of Darkness, Dragon's Dogma
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC (Windows)
Release date in Russia: March 14, 2014 (consoles), April 25, 2014 (PC)
Age limit: 16+
Official site
The first game in the Souls series, Demon's Souls, was released in February 2009. Unexpectedly for the developers themselves, it received wide support among Japanese players, and many Americans were so interested in the project that they even ordered a version from Asia - it included English language support.
Demon’s Souls reached Europe a year and a half later, in June 2010, by which time it had already become a cult phenomenon for many. The sequel appeared a year later and was called Dark Souls. Unlike the first part, Dark Souls initially had serious commercial expectations, so the project was released in the fall of 2011 in all key regions almost simultaneously - Asia, the States, Europe and Australia. This role-playing action game was awaited with open arms, despite the fact that the developers did not create a direct sequel to Demon’s Souls, but rather a “spiritual successor”.
Hunting for a very large bird. Not a tourist safari at all!
Hundreds of people fell to their death while carelessly descending this well. Main character DS II is annoyingly fragile
In August 2012, the Windows version of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition appeared, which quickly became one of the popular games in the Steam digital catalog (a review of this version is available here). The main moral of the story is this: the series has found its niche and audience, proving to be even more in demand than the developers dared to hope. Thanks to two DS entries, the third game in the Souls action-RPG series has become one of the most anticipated projects of 2014. And the expectations placed on Dark Souls II were fully justified. We got a hit.
Previous DS titles gained popularity due to their highly imaginative bosses, extraordinary difficulty comparable to I Wanna Be The Guy and Mega Man, and truly unusual approach To network game. Local multiplayer made it possible to arrange PvP duels in the worlds of other players, breaking into them and imposing an armed conflict. It was also possible to leave hints and traps for other players in the form of text messages scattered underfoot and scratched into granite.
Wizards are not very popular due to their inability to clearly fight in close combat
In these halls you will find death, despair and the desire to delete the game from your hard drive
Dark Souls II takes the best of the previous Souls games. The third game was not just “the most interesting and varied”, but finally diluted the series with a full-fledged plot, which can be followed not only by scraps of notes and mysterious dialogues.
DS II takes place in a new realm for the series - Drangleic. This kingdom has fallen into decline, and the hero witnesses the decline of Drangleic. Something similar happened in previous episodes, where the heroes traveled through the ruins of Boletaria and locations of Lordran inhabited by the dead. By the way, there is no direct plot connection with the previous parts - along with the new world, the players were entrusted with a new protagonist who is neither a relative nor a follower of the previous “chosen ones”. It is known, however, that Lordran and Drangleic share the same general setting.
The hero arrives in Draglik in order to be cured of his own curse. The character gradually loses his humanity along with his memories, risking becoming “hollow”. To be hollow in the world of Dark Souls means a heavy burden - to drag out the existence of the living dead, that is, a person without memories, purpose and any meaning other than killing people who have not yet gone crazy. Only the souls that the nameless hero will need to collect as the game progresses will help change this fate.
Against the Demonic Berserker
Pay attention to the detail. A frame from the PC version; the console versions of the DS II, alas, are not capable of such graphics
At the beginning of the game, the hero meets the soothsayers - three old women in red. They help the protagonist remember parts of his past, including name, gender, class and race. The game implements the character generation process in such an elegant way. Of the 8 character classes presented, six were carried over from the previous part: warrior, knight, bandit, healer, wizard and dispossessed. Two classes are completely new, and they are the “swordsman” and the “explorer”. The sword master is able to fight with a weapon in each hand without experiencing penalties or restrictions, and the traveler starts with a lot of useful basic items that will give him a good head start.
You should carefully consider the process of creating your character - for example, by taking a swordsman, players will give up the full ability to use shields. Picking them up is still allowed, but the effectiveness will be significantly reduced. And without a reliable shield in the world of Dark Souls, it’s oh so difficult to survive... In the previous part of the DS at the start you were allowed to choose from 10 different classes, but the differences between the 8 types of heroes in DSII are felt much more strongly.
A little later, the hero arrives in the half-abandoned village of Majula, located on the edge of a cliff, and learns about the opportunity to save his lost soul - to do this, he needs to preserve his humanity, collecting the souls of fallen enemies, and find the Four Great Souls, which are guarded by dangerous bosses. And even later in the story, the hero is destined to meet with the former ruler of Drangleic, King Vendrick, who has turned into a zombie giant who has lost his mind. And it is the souls that will help the character become stronger, as they are used as currency for purchasing weapons and armor, and as points for improving parameters.
We rush into the thick of the battle full speed ahead, so the screen is slightly blurry
Bonfires are hotbeds of safety and save points in the game. And now they are also allowed to teleport between them!
The gameplay basis of Dark Souls II is an action game with a third-person view, almost the same as in the Gears of War or Dragon's Dogma series, but created with an eye to medieval weapons and magic. The hero wanders through vast locations, fights a huge number of monsters and looks for sparsely scattered objects. Key Feature The game has remained absolutely uncompromisingly difficult. It has been supplemented with new mechanics - from now on, each death reduces the maximum health reserve by 10% and disfigures the hero’s appearance. If you die often, your health bar will drop to 50% (to half!) of the total supply, the character will be indistinguishable from “hollow” zombie enemies, and it will become even harder to play.
Some items help minimize the amount of health lost or increase the minimum penalty for deaths, but any death will still cause discomfort. Having died, the hero loses all earned souls, but they remain at the place of death. If you can get there and pick them up without incident, you will return them, and if you die again, the entire supply will disappear forever. The rules of Dark Souls II are harsh, and you won't be able to cheat them.
A human-shaped doll, first given as a gift by one of the soothsaying witches, is another novelty in this part. Dolls allow you to instantly return humanity and restore damaged health, but they are rare, so they should be protected until an urgent need arises.
Battle with the Mirror Knight on top of the castle during a thunderstorm. One of the most memorable bosses in the game, believe me
It would seem that the most popular part of Dark Souls was to become closer to the mass player - for example, add difficulty levels with support for “easy” and “normal” modes. Instead, the developers have made life even more difficult for players: monsters in locations are reborn a limited number of times, so it has become impossible to “farm” souls ad infinitum, as in previous Souls games.
Already in Majula, the first difficulties begin - miniature pigs beat an unprepared player to death, and a nearby altar, to which the hero can pray if desired, will make the game twice as difficult and force the bosses to kill the player with one blow. How do you like this arrangement? The game quickly makes it clear that weak, inept and impatient warriors have nothing to do here, they say: “Get lost to other games with customizable difficulty.”
Despite the hardships of the gameplay, which even at the starting location manages to throw up many times stronger troll opponents, you don’t want to quit the game right away. Even despite the large number of deaths. After all, Dark Souls II is a story about overcoming difficulties, such as a room with five ballistas aimed at the entrance to a room, or a chariot that instantly kills in the narrow corridors of a dungeon. The game always teaches accuracy in small things - we learn the types of attacks of bosses, like in old 8-bit platformers like Mega Man 6, so that we can then defeat some Dragon Master in a fair 1-on-1 fight, earning a nice “achievement” at the same time.
Demonic Statue Knights combine high survivability and solid speed. Simply put: damn dangerous!
The dual sword wielder fights with style! Also in DS II, double-edged blades appeared in the style of Darth Maul from Star Wars
And if the bosses don’t give in, you can always use the help of other players - set an option in the settings that allows you to invite other players to your own world. True, they are not always ready to help and are often more interested in killing your character. By the way, the game has maintained a system of hints for other players since the first part of Demon’s Souls, which can be left on different surfaces in the world of DS II. The most useful messages can be “approved”, increasing their in-game rating and keeping them undeleted. Although the benefits of them, for the most part, are quite doubtful - the skill of “scanning” blood stains looks much more useful. They show the last seconds of the life of a hero who died in this place. From the mistakes of others, you can draw a couple of valuable conclusions about traps or monsters waiting ahead, while keeping your earned souls and humanity intact.
Game tested on PlayStation 3
“Abandon hope, all who enter here” - this is the line from the well-known work that comes to mind to your humble servant every time you start Dark Souls 2. One of the most hardcore series of the last generation of consoles has returned, but something happened to it in the intervening time. Small, almost intangible details have been lost that made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls the way we know them. Perhaps the little things have gone away along with Miyazaki, the main inspirer of the “soulful” series, receding into the background. However, not everything is as terrible as it might seem at first glance, let's begin a walk through Drangleic - a kingdom that does not tolerate the weak.
⇡ Dive into the underworld
Come in, come in. Have a seat. Now we will tell you very interesting thing- the game has become easier. Of course, within the series, but the difference between releases is noticeable. The developers promised to make the new part more friendly to newcomers - and they succeeded, but who knew that the changes would affect the entire story campaign? Where Dark Souls and even more so Demon's Souls gave out heavy kicks and slaps with wild laughter, mocking the player from the very first minutes, Dark Souls 2 only lightly taps on the frail armor of the created character. If you are already familiar with the mechanics of the series, then the first few hours will seem like a walk through the resort area.The location of the fires - local respawn points - has also become more convenient. You no longer need to spend ten minutes on the road to the boss after death, since now the parking lot for the soul is located in comfortable proximity to a dangerous place.
An island of serenity in a stormy sea
It seems we've been sitting too long. Let's take a walk around the locations. Look at those wide floors and transitions. Look up to the ceiling - it is pristine. Look at the walls - not a single one acute angle. The second noticeable “feature” of Dark Souls 2 is that the levels (with very rare exceptions) do not pose any threat, do not try to kill with a cleverly placed trap or an unexpected abyss. What kind of feeling of constant danger can we talk about when there is not even a potential threat to the character’s life? Although, I must admit, the author did get caught once - his hero happily devoured the chest. To be honest, for some time this discouraged me from opening suspicious boxes, especially when I had several thousand souls under my belt. However, there is one trick that helps to avoid such incidents in the future. Once you master it, you can feel completely protected from all the misfortunes with which the game already does not shine.
Are you gaping? Receive, sign
We'll end our joyride by meeting the bosses. Damn, they look good. Hatred burns in his eyes, and his hands are shaking with the desire to squeeze the hero in a deadly embrace. It’s just that the adversary has become smaller today. It’s rare that an opponent significantly outstrips your character in height. This is not the Tower Knight from Demon's Souls, the very sight of which caused sadness and hopelessness. Dark Souls 2, unfortunately, does not suffer from gigantomania. There were a couple of pleasant (read: multi-meter) exceptions, but in general the battles do not require the use of any With special tactics or preparation, you can “swing your sword” at almost any serious opponent without much effort.
⇡ Wonderful, wondrous world
Everything described above may seem like just the grumbling of a lover of entertainment that challenges the player, but without these components Dark Souls 2 feels different. The game deviates further from the sadistic ways of previous releases than we would like. The adventure turns from extremely difficult to simply difficult. This will probably please beginners and people who didn’t find the strength to get close to the early parts.
However, once you enter the world of Dark Souls 2, it draws you in with incredible force. Even though the locations have become lighter and are almost less oppressive with gloomy architecture, exploring them is a pleasure. Find out what's around the corner. Talk to characters who are always melancholic or crazy. Try to extract at least some meaning from their words. Understand what's going on in this world. At the head of the table sits undisguised Freedom. We, as in the first part, are free to go in all four directions. Naturally, taking full responsibility for further consequences. The enemies will tell you if you have wandered into the wrong place - they will kill you instantly. This is how the game teaches you not to meddle with particularly strong creatures without proper leveling.
If you are tired of adventures, you can look at the beautiful sea
The project also inherited from its predecessors a hatred of careless researchers. Do you like to pretend to be a medieval Rambo? Prepare for a blade entering your unprotected back. But accuracy is fully encouraged here. Attentive players will be able not only to acquire useful items, but also to save a fair amount of nerves. After all, Dark Souls 2 may have stopped blatantly mocking, but it has not lost the features of the series. A couple of missed hits are almost guaranteed to send you to the last respawn point. Death here results not only in the loss of humanity, but also in a decrease in the life bar. Even if they don’t take away as much as before, but a hero who often dies has an excellent opportunity to be left without a good half of his health, which will automatically complicate progress. You can become human again with the help of special artifacts, but they are too rare to allow yourself the luxury of using them after every failure.
Since the core game mechanics did not need to be improved, the most significant changes were made to the systems for moving around the world and leveling up, as well as healing items. Now it is proposed to improve the hero’s characteristics in the manner of Demon’s Souls - for a certain character in the main location. The movement system has been tailored to this need - any fire now works as both a supply point and a teleport. Once you light the fire, it will appear in the list of places available for movement. You might think that this is just another indulgence, but believe me, given the huge size of the game world, this function comes in very handy. Finally, in order to increase your supply of Estus flasks, the local version of first aid kits, you will need to find their fragments and give them to the right hero. You will start out without any possibility of treatment at all, so search as much as possible more healing items is no less important than pumping.
The game will teach you how to cope with such difficulties
⇡ Prepare to die
Believe it or not, Dark Souls 2 was an exemplary sequel. The game develops the ideas of the first part, supplementing them with targeted, but extremely important inclusions. Even though the difficulty level has been lowered, and the bosses no longer force you to throw your gamepad at the TV, the project has added in attractiveness and sophistication. After dozens of hours, you can still find something new. The outgoing generation of consoles received one of the most powerful and interesting RPGs of recent years. She is loyal to newcomers, but does not forget to entertain veterans. It throws up difficulties, but teaches you to overcome them. It surprises and sometimes makes you tear your hair out. Welcome to the world of Dark Souls 2 - a place where you are not welcome.
Advantages:
- the size of the world is amazing in scope, and each of the many locations is unique in its own way;
- a fair challenge to the player's abilities;
- addictive atmosphere of adventure;
- It will take dozens of hours to complete.
Flaws:
- the most simple game in the series, which may not be a drawback at all.
| Graphic arts | After all, this generation of consoles has already outlived its usefulness. A well-designed character model is adjacent to muddy environment textures. In some places the game looks really cool, but still there is nothing visually surprising. But the frame rate practically does not drop. | 7 |
| Sound | The clanking of armor and the blows of swords are the main soundtrack of the game. However, in some locations there is very pleasant music that helps you relax and take your mind off the difficulties of travel for a while. | 9 |
| Single player game | Although with some reservations, this is a continuation of the Souls series. The most powerful combat system, a well-developed world, and a fair challenge to the player's abilities. Do you consider yourself a veteran of the series? Dark Souls 2 has a couple of arguments against this claim. | 9 |
| Group game | Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review, European servers were unavailable. However, we hasten to assure you that you can invade other people’s worlds, so you won’t be able to relax. | - |
| General impression | It’s a “sit down for an hour and sit all night” kind of game. She bites into the heart and does not want to leave it until all enemies fall and the secrets are unraveled. Well, after that you can launch New Game+ and continue to enjoy. | 9 |
Dark Souls 2
Video:
At the same time, one should not criticize the developers for copying themselves, much less expose “cheap copy-paste.” All these parallels have, among other things, their own plot background. And in terms of the execution of the game world and the escalation of the atmosphere of despondency and doom characteristic of the series From Software turned to the experience of a more subtle and graceful Demon's Souls- more details, small but significant “touches to the portrait”: abandoned huts of the village Majula, located on a picturesque cliff in the heavy light of the setting sun, melodic - funeral - chants of nymphs Shrine of Amana, church Brightstone Cove Tseldora, full of possessed parishioners and clergy (at the same time a beautiful allusion to the beloved Tower of Latria from DeS), bell ringing calling to the guardians of the tomb Undead Crypt, spectacular rainy Drangleic Castle and incredible mountain Dragon Aerie with a truly epic panorama and so on and so forth.
Another thing that upsets me: the team DS2 she aimed at a scale that, perhaps, was not quite within her reach. The saturation of locations is not uniform; sometimes they simply lack variability. There are moments when the game simply can't support its own weight - some fragments and even entire stages are too long or not varied enough for their length: Shaded Ruins by the nth hour of the game it begins to naturally tire you with a gray-green mass of identical textures; some segments of the mines suffer from the same disease Brightstone Cove Tseldora, not to mention another forest location, Huntsman's Copse, the tormenting endless clearing of a boring mountain forest.
Exactly the same problem with a huge number of bosses. Many of them lack character and personality. However, I am sure that players will appreciate a gigantic dragon, terrifying in its size, a “mirror” knight or a chariot from the Underworld. Giants, spider Freya and King Vendrik - some bosses, fortunately, are able to evoke emotions, as in previous parts.
Contributing to the emotional aspect is the so-called Lore, traditional for the series: the body of knowledge about the in-game plot material. Here Dark Souls 2 again, she did not change the tradition and scattered numerous hints about the role and place of the characters in the story through dialogues, lengthy descriptions of souls and objects. The world is so huge that to piece together its entire complex legend is the work of many weeks and months: war Drangleic and giants, the relationship between king and queen, the history of the creation of the kingdom and the origin of the curse are just the most obvious of questions. As before, each location keeps its secrets and its own little history.
However, the plot component in the games in the series Souls never stuck out, didn’t get into the foreground: this is confirmed by the minimum of in-game videos, and the lack of need to know the history to complete the game. Plot Dark Souls 2 is presented through text and is reflected in the gameplay - in the environment, in battles with bosses, in numerous secrets. But it is the gameplay - heavy, combining exploration of the world, leveling up weapons and character and, of course, battles - that has always been the cornerstone of success Souls.
Without making any changes to the basic game principles, it was important for the developers to rid the game of the problems of the previous parts and at the same time not change what already worked well.
We are still moving from checkpoint to checkpoint, from bonfire to bonfire, killing enemies and bosses, collecting souls to level up and purchases, as well as resources for crafting (upgrading and changing weapons). At the same time, we have the opportunity to move to the worlds of other players for different purposes: either to help pass a stage, or simply to kill a fellow sufferer - everything has its own reward.
Mostly From Software made spot changes in order to correct the lame balance of the first part Dark Souls. To increase difficulty, enemy control zones have been increased - and now the hunt for a player caught in the field of view can go many hundreds of meters. In addition, the fog separating segments of locations, as well as items lying in chests, no longer make the player invulnerable while interacting with them, which in itself makes suicide runs in order to obtain the right thing or get to the checkpoint. In addition, the restoration of health when using any “first aid kits” occurs gradually, and not as before - instantly. From Demon's Souls The developers adopted a system for reducing health with the death of a character. IN Dark Souls 2 each death results in a reduction of several percent, with a minimum of 50%. Farming (collecting) stones and other items has been limited along with the number of lives of enemies: now they will not endlessly appear in their places (the so-called respawn) with each location loading - they actually die. After 15 deaths, the enemy disappears until a new game or until the use of a special item that resumes resurrection and increases the difficulty of the location.
With each new part, “Dark Souls” transforms. The scenery changes, old enemies and traps are replaced by new troubles, and some mechanical elements displace others. But one thing remains unchanged: the atmosphere of a gloomy journey among ruined castles and forgotten sanctuaries of ancient gods, penetrating deeply into the soul.
Myths and legends about the former power of a kingdom that succumbed to darkness envelop the traveler who sets foot on its poisoned lands in a funeral shroud. The gift of immortality becomes a curse. Die, pilgrim, die. Lose the last sparks of humanity, time after time, until your body becomes a fief of darkness, and your soul the prey of greedy demons. Or - absorb great souls yourself and become a new legend for a world that has lost hope.
Pilgrim if you can, if you can.
Remembering your face
Dark Souls is not what it used to be. The number in the title could easily have been sacrificed, and it would have been even more correct to call the new product Dark Demon’s Souls - the ideas of the previous two games are so closely intertwined here. On the lands of Drangleic, everything lives according to its own, newly invented rules. And even to experienced travelers they will appear as a sort of ancient tome, each page of which has yet to be deciphered.
When plunging into darkness, don't forget to take a torch with you. Perhaps its light is the only thing that will scare away the voracious creatures and help you not go astray.
Little remains the same about the series' plot. Those who followed role-playing games from From Software, they know well that each of them has its own fallen king - a great ruler who led his kingdom to prosperity, and then, succumbing to madness, plunged into darkness. A two-handed sword shining with moonlight, wandering from game to game, you will definitely come across in your travels. There will be other items and spells from Dark Souls, but they are all shrouded in the web of time, and no one remembers the faces or names of those to whom they once belonged. Drangleic is simultaneously similar to Boletaria from and Lordran from. Or maybe Drangleic are these kingdoms that have gone through centuries-old metamorphoses, turned inside out by cataclysms and transformed by ancient magic and curses?
« Drangleic. So that's what this place is called now“, - the magician who has woken up from a long, long oblivion will say. Well, what difference does it make if one day another civilization grows on its ruins, experiences its heyday, and then certainly perishes? From Software created their own final fantasy, only dark and cruel. The games in the series did not have common storylines that flow into each other. There were no strong bridges connecting with the first part and in. Only general ideas, similar characters and significantly redesigned, but still familiar gameplay.
The dead keep their secrets securely, but even they can be solved. The main thing is not to deviate from the path.
Giambattista Vico, an Italian philosopher, in his 18th century work, identified three eras of development of civilizations: divine, heroic And human. In Dark Souls 2 we find ourselves in the last, third era - the era of darkness, strife, madness and death. Ancient times, when the golden seed of prosperity was sown and gods wandered the earth, gave way to the era of heroes who, under the protection of the gods or against their will, built their legendary kingdoms. And then came the era of man, a creature subject to the curse, who destroys the seemingly unshakable greatness of civilization.
The world of Dark Souls 2 can hardly be called alive. It was as if he was suspended outside of time and space, between life and death, when beyond that there was only complete oblivion and emptiness. And your hero is no better than those who destroyed once great castles. You are a man, you are the damned, you are the one who almost became hollow. It is possible that this, coupled with the harsh gameplay, creates the atmosphere of a gloomy heroic epic. Your character, like a hero from half-forgotten myths, begins his journey from filth to greatness, to overcoming a cursed fate and, perhaps, to the revival of legendary times. But to deceive fate, souls will be required. Many souls.
You are one of those who have come to Drangleic, drawn by the whispers and light of this precious substance. But by devouring the lives of others, don't you yourself become the demon you hunt on your journey?
Drangleic will lure many, many people to its cursed lands. Some will be happy to help you on your adventures, while others will want to be avoided. But they will all be able to tell you their story and lift the veil over the past. If you were afraid that, to please the general public, the developers would make concessions and sort out the plot twists and turns, you can exhale. As before, the plot background remains open for search and knowledge, and simply defeating all the demons is not enough for disparate events to form a coherent picture. You need to talk with other inhabitants of Drangleic a lot and often. And they will begin to accustom you to this in the first village. Majula is what they call it. An island of calm and serenity flooded with light. Perhaps the last in a fading world.
Stepping into the abyss
The damned begins his first steps wrapped in rags, without weapons, without anything, not even a name. And only after meeting with old women in red, he begins to remember who he is. By answering their questions, you gradually create your character, remembering the name, class and your face. Who will your hero become? warrior, knight, swordsman, robber, cleric, sorcerer, wanderer or left to the mercy of fate beggars? You will have to choose wisely. Each class requires a specific playstyle, and starting stats will limit your mobility, ability with swords, shields, bows and spells - from the very beginning and for a long time.
Talking to old women in red is unlikely to add optimism to you. They will promise you nothing but death and oblivion.
Having remembered yourself, it is better to immediately go through the training location. We do not advise even players who are well familiar with the series to run past, because the combat mechanics have changed a lot, and it is better to get acquainted with the changes right away. But then you can safely rush towards adventure, until inevitable death cools your ardor, forcing you to act more carefully and prudently. Death will pursue you, it will become your faithful companion and teacher - it is with its help that you will explore this world.
You can only catch your breath in Majula. Illuminated sunlight village, a kind of echo of the Nexus from Demon’s Souls. All the key characters will eventually gather here. For now, it seems empty - only a few sad pilgrims have chosen the ruins of houses, and the Emerald Messenger, a girl in a hood, is waiting for you at the main fire. You will have to return to her again and again, because only she can bestow new power, only from her can you spend souls to increase the level or get a healing flask from collected fragments.
Gloomy crypts, ruined castles... What awaits you ahead is anyone's guess, but still you are unlikely to be ready for everything. Dark Souls 2 loves to give surprises.
Majula is the starting point of all your adventures. Several paths originate from it, like the Firelink Shrine. At first glance, it seems that there are no alternatives, and the initial route for most will turn out to be almost identical. Only later does it become clear that the linearity of the passage is due to ignorance of all the key items and features of the game.
Alternative roads require a certain skill and dexterity from the player, and therefore are hidden from beginners by small obstacles. The developers no longer allow unprepared travelers to encounter transparent ghosts or immortal skeletons at the very beginning of the game. Is this a simplification or insurance for those who could quit the game in the first hours without understanding what to do - decide for yourself.
Even though the torch plays important role, there are a lot more bright locations in the game.
The locations themselves have become shorter, but wider and richer. You no longer have to run through the same places just to get to the right corner of the world. All you have to do is sit by the fire and choose a destination that you have already visited. Dark Souls 2 takes less time, but at the same time the feeling of completeness and scale only intensifies. Around every turn, in every corridor there is a waiting for you something new. Secret passages, hidden treasures, barely noticeable paths, strange statues of unknown purpose - all this only fuels interest and makes you dive deeper into the game.
However, to complete the picture, you will have to visit places that have already been passed, because the characters you meet do not waste time and also travel around Drangleic. They may well appear where you have been more than once. And if you miss the opportunity to communicate, you will miss part of the plot, or even get stuck in the passage.
Previously, a player in a panic could accidentally (or intentionally) kill an oncoming character or merchant - this did not lead to anything good. Now this hole has been patched up too. Over time, tombstones appear in the place of the travelers you killed. After sacrificing a certain number of souls, you can talk to his ghost and even buy some little things, but you will no longer know his story.
THIS IS NOT IRON TARKUS: as before, in front of the bosses you can find the marks of various heroes and call on them for help. But they behave simply inappropriately and are only suitable for diverting attention to themselves for a while. There is no trace left of the legendary knights who could have dealt with the boss without your help. Although... perhaps we haven't searched everything yet, having played more than sixty hours.
The strange tree ahead will still play its role, but for now such places are worth remembering.
Getting stuck finding your way is now quite common. For too long and too often, the games in the series have been merciless arenas, from now on you will have to keep in mind all the suspicious dead ends, return to them again, look for options and think. The solution may lie in a single phrase of conversation, in a description of a recently found ring, or even in the scenery itself.
In Dark Souls 2 there are almost no useless places, and pounding rocks with a sword in search of a hiding place is no longer necessary (and weapons break too quickly), hidden passages open at the press of a button. And if the walls cannot be probed, it is worth taking a closer look to see if there are large and strong opponents nearby who could break through the passage, or if there is a barrel of gunpowder nestled nearby that could be blown up. Some caches are even visible only with the help of binoculars.
Sometimes you can see strange niches on the floor or walls that resemble screaming faces. If you insert a special stone key into the recess, the location will be transformed, but you never know what will happen until you try. The first such “switch” is already in the ruins of a castle in the middle of the Forest of Giants.
The developers have been closely monitoring the players all this time. They did not ignore the attention with which they explored the locations; they noticed that, for example, on the stairs in Anor Londo the steps were of different heights and widths - some for people, others for giants. How players compared the location from the DLC and the dark forest from the original, how they made guesses around the destroyed buildings about what shocks destroyed the kingdom... In Dark Souls 2, the architecture is also a story in itself, and over time the player will even be able to see with his own eyes the earthquakes that shook Drangleic cataclysms and brutal wars.
THIS ALREADY SAYS: Players, as before, will be able to leave hints for each other. They have been significantly reworked, and now you can even compose more or less intelligible sentences from a set of words. In a world filled with secrets, this is an invaluable tool to help, but beware of pranksters! Some clues can kill you.
The enemies have a new habit - attacking in packs. Get used to it. This is Dark Souls.
The spaciousness and interactivity of locations, of course, heats up the iron of consoles. While building the mazes, the developers had to make compromises to maintain a stable 30 frames per second, so technically the game does not look as good as we would like - we'll see what happens on PC (Dark Souls 2 comes out there on April 24).
However, the work of designers and artists will not go unnoticed: the landscapes that open up are breathtaking, and some places can easily make you euphoric, and God forbid you get to them before bed—it will be difficult to fall asleep.
Straightening your shoulders
The developers themselves seem to be fed up with rumors and speculation surrounding the game's difficulty. In one of latest interviews Brian Hong , Director of Marketing for Bandai Namco in America, admitted that changing the difficulty of Dark Souls is tantamount to killing the entire series. But nevertheless, the Japanese studio allows itself some flirting with complexity.
The first such experiment is revealed when you run to a boss that just won’t give in over and over again. Now each ordinary enemy has a limited number of revivals, and the more often you kill, the more deserted the corridors become. In the end, it may turn out that not a single damn soul will interfere with you on the way to the boss.
But don’t panic: the developers have tested this point well, and the monsters begin to disappear just when they’re already getting pretty annoying. And within the framework of the mythology of the world, where the damned lose the last shreds of their souls with each death and even those doomed to eternal torment sooner or later cease to exist, this move is quite appropriate. And most importantly, the player is deprived of the opportunity to endlessly extract souls and precious objects from monsters. If in the first parts it was possible to “grind” experience for hours and thus develop your hero, now this loophole has been mended - accidentally losing souls or mediocrely wasting rare stones is now a really expensive pleasure.
Even such giants tend to disappear.
Don't like this twist? Well, throw the embers of hostility into the fire and return all opponents, along with the boss, to their place. However, their strength will noticeably increase, as if you had reached the same place on a new round of passage. Along with old acquaintances, new ones will appear, especially red phantoms generous with malice. Will all this be too tough for your character? It’s better to think again - there will be no turning back.
Online in the game and game without online
During our playthrough, the game servers only had time to work for a few days, and the journalists who received early access were scattered throughout Drangleic, so we haven’t been able to really try out the online innovations yet. A little later we will definitely tell you about all the sorrows and joys that await players in the online game. Let's try out voice chat, see how filtering by region works, and see how easy it is to search the right person special personalized ring.
However, we were able to find all the covenants available in the game (something like guilds from MMOs) and can get an idea of what awaits the player who decides to devote himself to one of them.
Heirs of the Sun
The famous covenant of the Knights of the Sun changed its name, but remained true to its principles. Players who join it will come to your aid in boss battles. And their golden silhouettes will pleasantly illuminate the darkness around and instill at least some hope for a bright future.
Way of the Blue
If you're tired of being invaded by enemy phantoms, it's time to take a closer look at this covenant. Upon joining it, the player has the opportunity to call upon a player from the brotherly covenant to help him every time a bloodthirsty guest invades his world.
Blue Sentinels
Knights who protect other players from invaders. They devote their service to the fight against dark phantoms that have encroached on the lives of members of the Way of the Blue covenant.
Brotherhood of Blood
A covenant for those for whom staining a blade with blood is not enough. Members of this society long to bathe in it, listening to the dying curses of their victims. All the greedy brotherhood is interested in is battles and victories, and it doesn’t matter who gets in the way - a random victim or a fellow covenant member.
Bell Keepers
The Covenant that replaced the defenders of the forest. As in the previous part, the goal of the order members is to kill all unfortunates who dare to enter the possessions of the covenant. And there are now one more such locations in the game.
Rat Covenant
Another group of players will unite under the auspices of the rat king. Like BellKeepers, the covenant is tied to two locations, initially simple. But members of the order can change them at their own discretion, adding traps and strengthening the monsters, and then lure other players into their world to arrange a hunt in the labyrinth of death they assembled with their own hands.
Dragon Remnants
The legacy of the old dragon covenant from the first part has survived all the hardships. Having joined this society, players will fight among themselves for the precious scales of ancient reptiles, so that one day they themselves will be transformed into fire-breathing lizards.
Company of Champions
Almost unrelated to the online covenant. It will be useful for those players who always lack complexity. You can join it at the very beginning of the game, and then the passage will become more difficult. Opponents will become stronger and angrier, and the chance that a red phantom will invade you will increase.
Pilgrims of Dark
A mysterious covenant, the path to which is not so easy to find, but once discovered, the player will be able to discover the darkest places of Drangleic. And in the finale, perhaps, he will meet an unknown enemy and old acquaintances - those whom time has spared.
But even without any additional bells and whistles with difficulty, Dark Souls 2 is completely fine. The cornerstone of previous games - backstabbing and parrying - are no longer a panacea; while rolling, you can easily get hit, and opponents no longer waste air and attack much more accurately, preventing you from getting around from behind.
Meanwhile, the bosses learned to change battle tactics on the fly. The closer you get to triumph, the more difficult it becomes to resist the great demon. In the vastness of Drangleic, there is also a demon who will chase you throughout the kingdom if you do not immediately finish him off in his own lair. There is also an optional boss, whom, judging by some statistics, none of the journalists have killed yet. Maybe you can do it?
Unsheathing the Blade
Understanding the intricacies of character development and learning how to master it perfectly has not become one iota easier. Free advice: before upgrading, be sure to take a closer look at the updated parameters. Having spent souls for old times sake, you can end up with a completely different character than you would like. For example, we started the playthrough as a swordsman armed with two blades, one of which later had to be replaced with a shield, and towards the end we ran around holding a huge sword with both hands.
We had to get used to the changed parries and rolls throughout the game, and only towards the end did our character’s evasions reach the level where we could forget about defense. We left the statistic that increases the character’s health at all. basic level, fortunately now other skills also increase its maximum reserve, although not so significantly.
Pirate Bay will greet you with a crowd of monsters reminiscent of Dovahkiin from Skyrim. There will definitely be a pirate ship too.
It has become much easier to create hybrid characters that combine magical and physical skills. The lack of intelligence or faith (it is needed to perform miracles) can be compensated for with a ring, and the required spell can be reduced to the required level of skills with special items. At the same time, pure magicians or “siloviki” still remain head and shoulders above hybrid characters. Spend your souls studying magic and you will weave spells faster and more powerfully. If you follow the warrior's path, you will gain an advantage in attack speed and movement. We have already talked about combat mechanics in more detail in. By release, the general concept remained almost unchanged, except that magicians were still deprived of the ability to shoot fireballs with precision, as if from a bow.
But the undead in new game not so dangerous anymore. Even the necromancer... smiles.
You will also have to reforge and improve your weapons according to new rules, which, perhaps, you can only rejoice at. From now on, any weapon in the game can be endowed with elemental properties, even those created from the souls of defeated bosses. At the same time, a blade that causes damage with fire, lightning or divine and dark magic does not completely lose its original properties. Let's say, if you had a sword in your hands with a bonus to damage "S" from agility, the bonus from the characteristics does not disappear, but will only fall a step lower, turning into an "A" class. And the damage caused by the elements is also enhanced by faith and intelligence indicators.
