Dark Souls 2 [360, PS3, PC] Review

[Goemon]

I have to play this game offline. Does this mean I'm screwed for ever having my health bar above half?
Sorry, I have no idea what reverse hollowing is...

[Zaki]

I have to play this game offline. Does this mean I'm screwed for ever having my health bar above half?
Sorry, I have no idea what reverse hollowing is...

Not at all. Go to your item inventory -> select Human Effigy -> use. This will reverse hollowing and make you human again.

[H-Man]

I caved in, mostly for the dlc, and am enjoying DS2 all over again. The PS4 version looks just as good as it does on the PC, better probably given how smooth everything runs. This time round I'm going pure, glass cannon sorcerer. 4 bosses in and no points in vitality - things either one shot me or get melted instantly!

[Zaki]

I caved in, mostly for the dlc, and am enjoying DS2 all over again. The PS4 version looks just as good as it does on the PC, better probably given how smooth everything runs. This time round I'm going pure, glass cannon sorcerer. 4 bosses in and no points in vitality - things either one shot me or get melted instantly!

This is a good build. I've only had trouble in

->Open Spoiler<-

Shrine of Amana

so far.

[H-Man]

This is a good build. I've only had trouble in

->Open Spoiler<-

Shrine of Amana

so far.

I'm not there yet - something to look forward to. Or not!

I caved in a little last night and put a few points in str and dex - enough to hold the fire sword you get early in the game. More to make things interesting. A staff on its own was getting a little stale - dual wielding a staff and sword, especially with very little health, is exciting stuff! The fire scaling means it hits surprisingly hard too.

[J0e Musashi]

I love this game. I just have the last boss to do now with 48 hours on the clock. I've been quite lucky with the RNG too, as I've amassed six Katana on my first game (including 2x Washing Pole), which apparently is extremely rare. I'm now just going round unlocking all of the bonfires that I couldn't get to before, and farming to level up my stats and my gear.

[PaTaito]

You playing Scholer of the First Sin joe?

I have it on pc, but am just wondering if its worth throwing myself into this as dark souls took my life for the best part of 2-3 months, and i hear this game is not on same level...cheif amongst complaints is its actually cheap for cheaps sake?

[Supergoal]

I don't know about other people but I'm enjoying it more than the first time round on PC. The ps4 version holds up really well, and combined with the changes makes it interesting. If you like dark souls you'd be a fool not to get it again. This is my 2nd double dip for a dark souls game. No regrets.

[J0e Musashi]

I never played the PS3 version, so I don't know how this one compares to that. It's a high-quality title, though no way as brutal as Demon's. I don't find this one particularly difficult. Annoying is a better word for it.

It is cheap in that you can farm the entire game for hundreds of thousands of souls. Basically clear out an area, return to a bonfire and kill yourself. Then collect your souls and repeat until enemies stop spawning. As long as you don't die twice in a row, you can become godly very fast.

[briareos_kerensky]

cheif amongst complaints is its actually cheap for cheaps sake?

Enemy placement is considerably cheaper than the vanilla DS2, which already had the biggest level and pacing problems of all Souls games. I think that even the original DLCs had this problem, but Scholar feels like a rebuttal against those who thought that DS2 was too easy. Problem is not the number of enemies, but how predictable they are: just increasing their numbers makes the game suffer, further enhacing the problems DS2 had.

That said, DS2 is not bad, but compared to the other Souls and Bloodborne, it comes out as dry and uninteresting.

[PaTaito]

Enemy placement is considerably cheaper than the vanilla DS2, which already had the biggest level and pacing problems of all Souls games. I think that even the original DLCs had this problem, but Scholar feels like a rebuttal against those who thought that DS2 was too easy. Problem is not the number of enemies, but how predictable they are: just increasing their numbers makes the game suffer, further enhacing the problems DS2 had.

That said, DS2 is not bad, but compared to the other Souls and Bloodborne, it comes out as dry and uninteresting.

Thanks for the thoughts on this, i will give it a go and see anyway...sounds like it might not click the same way the first game did.

[ItsThere]

Got a weekend to myself so will be starting this tomorrow.

Looking forward to it. Is there a pilgrim's pendent to choose as a starting outfit?

[H-Man]

I'm actually enjoying DS2 more second time round and, surprisingly, more than Bloodborne. Bloodborne looks lovely and was pretty much great from start to finish, but it never felt like I had the option to build the character and play how I wanted. You can in DS2. I'd finished it two or three times first time round and playing now as a casting character is just as different and rewarding as my previous dual wield dex and walking tank strength builds. The trippy, fever dream atmosphere certainly helps too. As good as it was, I really hope the series doesn't carry on in the direction Bloodborne has taken it and goes back to its roots.

Now we need remakes of the first two!

[J0e Musashi]

I've got one more optional boss to go, then I can hit the final boss. I'm level 180 at 74 hours. Not bad.
This game is almost on par with Demon's. It smacks Bloodborne into next year.

I've amassed every katana, and my favourite armour. I've almost +5'd and +10+d everything I use. NG+ will be easy enough I reckon. It's all about power-levelling the first time. I'll probably take a break for a short while as The Order 1886 should arrive tomorrow, and I'd like to platinum Bloodborne.

This is my second favourite game on PS4 after Ground Zeroes. Everyone should give it a try IMO.

[Brad]

Borrowed PS3 version off my mate. Didn't realise just how much was missing from Bloodborne til I played this. It might not be Miyazaki but it's still Souls and I'm loving it. Coming from Bloodborne the controls feel awful for the first half an hour though! Also not difficult yet. First boss first go (a first for me in a Souls game). Can't wait to get back in there.

EDIT: To provide some balance (I've completely agreed with J0e twice in a row now) I think 1886 looks like total garbage and have no interest in it at all