Dark Souls 2 [360, PS3, PC] Review

[Silvergun X]

Does anyone know why a Phantom's attack breaks through my guard even with 100% physical damage reduction on my shield?

Potentially another type of damage on the weapon. I'm still using the Heide Knight Sword with imbued Lightning, so even if I hit someone with 100% physical block, the lightning damage will still proc.

[S3M]

What I see after clearing what I think is most of the game, you get 5 main paths, 3 "locked" at the start but can be opened up quickly with only a bit of progression down the first 2 routes by finding npc's, adventuring for equipment or buying equipment.

I'm clearly at a much earlier stage and already I'm exploring three completely separate pathways with a further two in sight but currently unavailable and god knows how many locked doors around the place as well. Moreover less than a third of the main locations are available to me - to judge from bonfire warp screen. "One track"?!

I agree on the five route and yes are a tenth search of the dam area in the town I finally found the

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f****** lever tucked away in the corner, I'm assuming there is items in the tower to access the other routes far earlier then, I've not checked anyone else spoiler posts. Five routes I've think I've found are, Pit, Door to giant fort, Dam lever, Unknown device above dam, statue blocking switch and grave in the lake, but can only access three so far. Had I known about the dam earlier I would have done it after the giant boss fight,

so it's not quite a linear as I first thought.

As a result of my one side push through the story I've ended up taking apart three bosses last night in next to know time, due to the power of my character.

In regards to the king door

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I'm guessing you need to kill the four old ones before you can pass through them.

I've noticed a lot of locked door too golgo, but most so far have just been side rooms with treasures chests in them once I've found the key.

In regards to Pharros' Lockstone you can farm them by

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killing the Toxic Rat monsters in Doors of Pharros

just remember to use a rusted coin and equip a travellers hood to increase your luck.

Rusted coins I noticed can be farmed from the troop type of a certain covenant.

Online players is the matching better than the previous game as I once had my level 200 character pitched against a starting Dark Souls player, that ended very badly for him, one hit kill as I recall.

EDIT: Just beat

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DragonRider easier boss in the game so far and I thought Freja was pretty easy.

Anyone noticed how dead enemies seem to move from time to time? I would move around an area, only to make a sharp turn and see a dead body ragdolling its way from where it shouldn't have been.

Yes, I've seen that too in game.

[Tobal]

I hit Darks Soul 2 version of Dragon Bow archers in Anor Londo ..

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Shrine of Amana but i'm having wade slowly through water(not found this game rusted ring yet) and there so, so many magic bullets to dodge and stupid fishmen with high bleed on block, hiding in the water and then a stinking phantom shooting nukes at me...

As far a shield damage on 100% there are 2/3 weapons I've picked up that say in the description they damage through shields.

[Uli]

where is the two-handed power grip? my Knight uses either the shield or if it's unequipped holds up an illusionary sword.

update: ok, i did hold triangle instead of just tipping it...

[briareos_kerensky]

where is the two-handed power grip? my Knight uses either the shield or if it's unequipped holds up an illusionary sword.

update: ok, i did hold triangle instead of just tipping it...

Have you found the one/two handed switch a bit unresponsive? Even with the character standing still, it doesn't register all the time...a bit like the start menu, sometimes it's like the button isn't registered or the menu must be loaded.

[S3M]

I'm trying to keep my ramblings about the game to a minimum so far, but I would agree - criticising the game for being linear seems way off the mark.

Depends what route you take, which said something about the level design this time around.

I went

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Things Betwixt > Majula > Forest of Fallen Giants > The Lost Bastille > Belfry Luna > Sinner's Rise

Then did Majula > Shaded Woods > Doors of Pharros > Brightstone Cove Tseldora > Lord's Private Chamber

Both routes from this side are very one track and a long road to pass.

Where as

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Heide's Tower of Flame

on the other hand (which you guys all did) gives you a three way split of

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Cathedral of Blue, No-man's Wharf and Huntsman's Copse (After killing the DragonRider).

I've put 40 hours into this so far and would say the route I took is very linear up till now.

[Golgo]

Every route is linear at the moment one is taking it. Umbasa.

[S3M]

Haha, that a very philosophy way to describe the game, true as well.

[Golgo]

I've been reading about Dogen, a Zen Buddhist, this morning, and it seemed appropriate.

[Silvergun X]

Dogen

?

Many proverb, much wise.

Sorry.

I still don't understand the linearity side of things by the way. :P

[Tobal]

Broke down and used a guide for the 1st time to find out what Mundane infusions do...

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and wow, they made so truly balanced stats can have any strong weapon. Mundane scales to your lowest stat so having 20 as the lowest stats would give 200 odd damage on any weapon.

I'm thinking this is what i'll do whenever I finish the game and start an with different play style for Hex/dark magic

and seems the cap for infused weapons is +5 after getting lot of twinkling to upgrade my "Thor's" Blacksmith Hammer.

[Uli]

how many hours have you guys put in the game already? from what i read here the game is a lot bigger and longer than Dark Souls, right?

i've just managed to beat the first two bosses in Heide's Tower and The Forest of Giants and already sank in a good 20 hours.

Have you found the one/two handed switch a bit unresponsive? Even with the character standing still, it doesn't register all the time...a bit like the start menu, sometimes it's like the button isn't registered or the menu must be loaded.

controls work mostly fine now that i begin to understand the finesse of it. but jumping remains a pain in the ass. i put it on the L3 button now and it seems to be more reliable now. also i had hoped they would improve the lock on-range but they didn't as it seems.

[Golgo]

Dogen hehe!

[briareos_kerensky]

Got to the

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Bastille's boss...the sentinel trio

. Got killed

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the moment I entered the room. I think you fall down right after entering the fog, and got mercilessy split in two by the first.

This is one example of what seems to be a rather common thing in DS2, i.e. cheap enemy/boss placement. In Demon's and DS1 you had the time to at least understand what's going on, and very few instances where you would be thrown toward a weapon face-first before even seeing your enemy. I feel that DS2 is more about twitch reflexes and knowledge of what's ahead rather than learning while you progress, and a lot of enemy encounters tend to be difficult due the number of hostiles, rather than the methodical combat of the previous games (especially Demon's).
I've found there's less variety in encounters: levels tend to be built around corridors, with a lot of choke points. Thankfully enemies are smarter and don't allow for easy sniping a la Demon's, and the bow isn't as useless as in DS1, but DS2 doesn't feel as unique as its predecessors.
Something I don't like is that weapon/armour degradation has been essentially removed, everything gets repaired the moment you touch a bonfire; only once I had my equipment break down, but I soldiered on with my bare fists; it was fun, but between deaths and reaching new bonfires, it's almost impossible to wear down weapons (maybe higher level weapons degrade faster, I don't know); probably this is to offset the fact that mobs don't respawn after a certain number of kills...something I don't particularly like. You can't grind your way through the game, but it's like the Golden Tanuki Suit in Super Mario 3D World, it's the game pitying you for the lack of skills. In SM3DW you can decide not to use the Golden Tanuku Suit, here it's forced.
I don't know about spells, but between the Estus Flask (I'm aready at four uses) and the lifegems, you have a lot of tools to proceed without interruptions, but the game feels more restricted than DS1...multiple healing items also remove a bit of tension and careful management of resources.
I'm not disliking the game right now and maybe it will open up nicely in other stages, but probably From Software should have waited and refined the game more.

[hudson]

Can't seem to summon since downloading this latest 1.02 patch. Anyone else?