DARK SOULS II Review
By Dhruv Chopra
After everything I’ve heard about this game, I finally decided to give it a shot. And I can assure you that when they say that this is one of the toughest games out there, they mean it.
Dark Souls 2 is unforgiving, demanding and punishing. At the same time, it’s also fair and amazingly rewarding. You’ll find yourself tempted to break and chuck the cd out your window hundreds of times throughout the massive 60 hour journey.
Despite all of its hardships, Dark Souls teaches you how to learn from your failures. Every time you die is a learning experience as much as it is punishing. From the whats and what nots, to the enemy attack patterns to the signs of environmental traps, you start becoming more aware of how Dark Souls 2 works and that’s what helps in making you better. The high difficulty will almost never feel insurmountable.
The point where I believe that the developers may have gone a little too far is with the penalty that decreases your health by ten percent every time you die until you’re only left with half. Don’t worry; your health can be recovered with help of an item called the human effigy which restores your humanity and also your health (remember how I said it’s tough but fair?). It isn’t a very common item so be sure to use it wisely. Apart from everything else, this penalty was the sole reason I was reluctant about exploring to my heart’s content in the fear of being too harshly penalized for failure. But I pushed through and was rewarded for it.
The sprawling, diverse world of Dark Souls 2 is one right for non-linear exploration and what I loved most was that there were always a handful of routes at your disposal. Can’t beat that big scary dude with the big scary sword to go further? No worries, just find yourself another route and come back here once you’re stronger, leveled up and feeling all badass (that feeling won’t last long).
The combat places a strong emphasis on patience. No, you’re not hacking and slashing your way through this one. You’ll have to learn your enemy’s moves, the tells, the patterns and also be able to block or dodge at an instants notice if you genuinely wish to make it out of that fight alive. Every encounter is puzzle within itself. Some of the most iconic battles will also provide a ton of memorable moments of pain and regret which will eventually turn into triumph.
Dark Souls 2 is unforgiving, demanding and punishing. At the same time, it’s also fair and amazingly rewarding. You’ll find yourself tempted to break and chuck the cd out your window hundreds of times throughout the massive 60 hour journey.
Despite all of its hardships, Dark Souls teaches you how to learn from your failures. Every time you die is a learning experience as much as it is punishing. From the whats and what nots, to the enemy attack patterns to the signs of environmental traps, you start becoming more aware of how Dark Souls 2 works and that’s what helps in making you better. The high difficulty will almost never feel insurmountable.
The point where I believe that the developers may have gone a little too far is with the penalty that decreases your health by ten percent every time you die until you’re only left with half. Don’t worry; your health can be recovered with help of an item called the human effigy which restores your humanity and also your health (remember how I said it’s tough but fair?). It isn’t a very common item so be sure to use it wisely. Apart from everything else, this penalty was the sole reason I was reluctant about exploring to my heart’s content in the fear of being too harshly penalized for failure. But I pushed through and was rewarded for it.
The sprawling, diverse world of Dark Souls 2 is one right for non-linear exploration and what I loved most was that there were always a handful of routes at your disposal. Can’t beat that big scary dude with the big scary sword to go further? No worries, just find yourself another route and come back here once you’re stronger, leveled up and feeling all badass (that feeling won’t last long).
The combat places a strong emphasis on patience. No, you’re not hacking and slashing your way through this one. You’ll have to learn your enemy’s moves, the tells, the patterns and also be able to block or dodge at an instants notice if you genuinely wish to make it out of that fight alive. Every encounter is puzzle within itself. Some of the most iconic battles will also provide a ton of memorable moments of pain and regret which will eventually turn into triumph.
Among Some other details you can appreciate about Dark Souls 2 is the fast travel system. You can teleport between any bonfires you’ve kindled along your journey. The up-to-date engine of the game emphasizes on the role of lighting in exploration. At any bonfire, you can choose to remove your shield in favor of lighting your torch. Apart from just illuminating your surroundings, the torch can also be used to ward off certain creatures which are petrified by the light. It’s appreciable to see such a visible impact of your choices.
The online feature of Dark Souls 2 was my personal favorite. Bloodstains of other players which depict the cause of their death and the messages left on the ground all across the massive world are at times a source of great help. Summons, which bring players of other worlds into yours so you can fight hand in hand against some demonic bosses, also make your job somewhat easier.
The online feature of Dark Souls 2 was my personal favorite. Bloodstains of other players which depict the cause of their death and the messages left on the ground all across the massive world are at times a source of great help. Summons, which bring players of other worlds into yours so you can fight hand in hand against some demonic bosses, also make your job somewhat easier.
With so much content, such great enemies to fight and levels to explore, Dark Souls 2 made the 60 hours of pain and agony so much fun that they flew by in a heartbeat and I couldn’t wait to start again the very second the end credits started rolling.
“GO BEYOND DEATH”
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Minimum
“GO BEYOND DEATH”
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Minimum
- OS: Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8
- Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 555 3.2Ghz or Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo E8500 3.17Ghz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT, ATI RadeonHD 5870
- Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
- Sound Card: Compatible with DirectX 9.0c or higher
- OS: Windows 7 SP1
- Processor: Intel CoreTM i3 2100 3.10GHz or AMD A8 3870K 3.0GHz
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 or higher, ATI Radeon HD 6870 or higher
- Hard Drive: 8 GB available space
- Sound Card: Compatible with DirectX 9.0c or higher