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dark souls 2 review

Posted: 3rd January 2018 12:12

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So far i haven't beaten the game yet, but it blows.

For starters:The game is littered with artificial difficulty and just plain bad choices.

The invader npcs feel tacked on and just there for sake of difficulty.

All enemies rotate around 360 degrees instantly and smack you, leaving little room for evades and backstabs, and instead you get smacked to death, and if you run they will all instantly chase you because they got group awareness and fight you 3 vs1 or 5 vs 1 in the most unfair way.Only reason its so bad, is because game is meant to be 1v1 and ds1 was perfect in that way.Also:Poison statues that shoot poison stagger you, and if you get staggered enemies can beat on you and win instantly because "thats totally fair.

I heard that the original game is easier, but the dlc adds extra enemies and all that artificial difficulty.

For items:I can get large titanite easier than small shards for some reason, because "That totally makes sense"

Enemies don't respawn,leading to having to join a covenant that increases damage by 50% and enemies have more hp, just in case you aren't a masochist enough.

The game completely misses the point of why ds1 was great.Ds1 balanced its difficulty to be hard but fair.Enemies had patterns some were weak to some stuff more than others, and even though there was some aritifical difficulty points in ds1 as well, it was far less than ds2.You could go and farm stuff for better armor at the beginning of the game no less in ds1 right at the start if you so wished, and you could stay level 10 forever if you wanted and beat the game.

Here:Items for sale are limited, and they don't start showing up till a lot later in unlimited source.So far i found a large titanite shards farm that always drops shards 100% and a place with 20% drop rate of small ones.Heck:If you wanted, you could go and get titanite chunks early in the game too if you wanted just by emptying the water in new londo ruins and going down and killing revenants if you so wished to level up, and chance for slabs.Thats what made ds1 so great.You also could easily buy spells of all types early on just at the very entrance for a price of course, and if you wandered into the right zone, you could buy most cleric spells pretty early in case you wanted to make a specific build.

Another thing i hated about ds2:The agility stat.You are forced to grind xp and put points into agility to be as fast in drinking and have same immunity frames in ds2 as ds1, and it forces you to grind.It was totally unecessary and limiting the playstyle.

I'l get on more when i beat the game.

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Posted: 10th January 2018 12:35

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More added things:

There are more bosses for sure in ds2 than ds1 or so it seems, and lots of areas.dual wielding weaapons is a interesting combo as you can now have a dual wielding combo attack by holding triangle to make it so you can combo, but it has to be specific weapon types to combo with.

I think the biggest issue with backstabs, is most enemies cannot be backstabbed because they are giants who are immune to backstabs, or groups of enemies, and invincibility frames doesn't seem to save you.Right now i'm in the crypt which is far in the game i think.Not sure how far from the end i am.

I have mixed feelings about how you use branches of yore to get into areas.Its clever but you won't know where the best place is and they are hidden away.

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We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

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Posted: 15th January 2018 10:59

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I thought i finished ds2 apparently what i got up to wasn't the end.

So if you beat nashandra you get infinite titanite chunks apparently.
The game's lack of drops early on of titanite and good spots till half game make it ridiculously hard to upgrade and you just end up with 1 weapon most of the time.Its kinda poor and i heard i had bad luck.

I also found out the school of the first sin added more enemies increasing the difficulty spike unecessarily in most areas, and that does decrease points.

Most bosses were too easy, but a few were only hard with massive difficulty spike because of massive hit boxes and ridiculous amounts of enemies, like the ruins sentinels which come in 3, and when they hit for half your life, it spells disaster for a game like this.

Gems which are used to regenerate health are ridiculously common too, making it too easy to heal on bosses.I do like the idea, but i wish most of these bosses could have more effort put into them.

The majority of enemies are huge knight guys, and there is a lack of variety.I will go back of course to ds2 and stream it today, so whomever wishes can find me on twitch under the name retrogamer5000.

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We are stardust.Our bodies are made from the guts of exploding stars.

Neil Degrasse Tyson.

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Posted: 16th January 2018 15:32

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I understand. It's like the spell in Chrono Cross called Dimish. It negated magic by half but didn't work in all boss battle when you needed it.

It's like Captain Kirk's wasteful wounds or in this case wasteful wards. I will not give a ward to Dark Souls any day based on what you've said about it.

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Post #214448
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Posted: 1st May 2018 11:25

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Good review. I also recently wrote a reflective review about this game. With each new part, "Dark Souls" are transformed. Scenery changes, old enemies and traps replace new woes, and some elements of mechanics supplant others. But one thing remains unchanged: the atmosphere of travel among the ruined castles and forgotten sanctuaries of the ancient gods, deeply penetrating the soul. Excellent game that is full of mysteries, challenging not only the dexterity of the player, but also his intelligence.
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Posted: 20th May 2018 09:08

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Oh dear. I check CoN once in a blue moon and find this gem of a topic.
Before I start: I like DS2 the least.

Quote (Magitek_slayer @ 3rd January 2018 12:12)
For starters:The game is littered with artificial difficulty and just plain bad choices.


The phrase 'artificial difficulty' is basically a meme at this point. Souls veterans don't use the term, and only people who struggle with the games do. Funny, that..

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The invader npcs feel tacked on and just there for sake of difficulty.


?? Ds1 had invader NPCs too.
Wait, a game famous for challenging its players has NPC battles. For the 'sake of difficulty' !?
Surely you jest!
I'm not convinced they're that hard, just avoid one attack and mash R1 on them...
Why are they tacked on? if you're going to drop an opinion like that at least attempt to justify it.

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All enemies rotate around 360 degrees instantly and smack you, leaving little room for evades and backstabs, and instead you get smacked to death,


Are you being dishonest deliberately? Or just getting carried away with exaggeration. Saying ALL enemies do it, and INSTANTLY, is simply wrong.

I never understood this criticism of the enemies that do rotate to hit you. If i'm trying to hit someone with a baseball bat IRL I'm not gonna keep the same trajectory if my target is evading, I won't say " oh he dodged that, fair play to him, better give up my arse. " huh.gif

Backstab fishing is a lame way to play anyway, but if one insists on using it, it is still possible in ds2. You just have to time it better, roll out of the way of a 360 overhead just as it comes down and there's enough time to get around there and stick it in, if that's what you're into.

Those attacks generally have big windups, if you mess the timing up that's your fault, not the game's.

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and if you run they will all instantly chase you because they got group awareness and fight you 3 vs1 or 5 vs 1  in the most unfair way.Only reason its so bad, is because game is meant to be 1v1 and ds1 was perfect in that way.


Aha, you're just regurgitating that awful MatthewMatosis video aren't you.
Damn, why did I just realise this.
The game is not supposed to be 1vs1. Both you and he pulled that out of nowhere.
Where the F does the series ever suggest it's about 1 on 1 combat. Think of the first areas in ds1. Hordes of hollows, every time.

Oh no, I ran away from enemies and they chased me. OH THE HUMANITY.
C'mon, if you really wanted to use hit and run tactics, draw single enemies out by running off, you can do it easily. They'll all start wandering back to their spawn points and you can pick them off.

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if you get staggered enemies can beat on you and win instantly because "thats totally fair".


Don't get staggered? Don't allow yourself to be surrounded on all sides? Don't walk into a maelstrom of blades?
I know the grunt enemies do more combos than their ds1 counterparts, but you can escape that by just mashing roll after the first hit. I've escaped mid-combo many a time. Mash roll, don't resign yourself to being hit.

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Enemies don't respawn,leading to having to join a covenant that increases damage by 50% and enemies have more hp, just in case you aren't a masochist enough.


Dishonesty.

Nearly all enemies only permanently despawn if you've killed them around 10 times. You do not need to do the same area 10 times like that, unless you're really dying that much.
It seems like you're being deliberately misleading there.
You can also reset an area/ make them respawn by burning a Bonfire Ascetic. You don't need to join that covenant.

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Another thing i hated about ds2:The agility stat.You are forced to grind xp and put points into agility to be as fast in drinking and have same immunity frames in ds2 as ds1, and it forces you to grind


Agreed that the Agility mechanic is dumb.
You are not forced to grind, you just play the game as normal and put some points into agility along the way.
The game is super generous with XP compared to the others.



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Post #214881
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Posted: 20th May 2018 09:11

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Quote (Eagle Caller @ 16th January 2018 15:32)
It's like Captain Kirk's wasteful wounds or in this case wasteful wards.

lol wut?

Quote
I will not give a ward to Dark Souls any day based on what you've said about it


Hearing what you want to, I guess.

I'm guilty of it sometimes, the MOBA craze passed me by. So I could read an obnoxious article about why League of Legends sucks, and nod my head despite never trying the game myself.
I might've done that before, years ago.

This post has been edited by Blinge Odonata on 20th May 2018 09:15

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