The Impact Factor

TIF’s 2014 Game of the Year Awards: Day 4
Article

TWO

Dark Souls II: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco (PS3)

I am a huge fan of the Souls series. I decided to bite the bullet and buy my PS3 when I learned about Demon’s Souls. From the eerie atmosphere I saw in trailers to the talking points of its brutal difficulty and high-risk-high-reward combat style, Demon’s Souls seemed like my kind of game. I was not disappointed. Perhaps this is for another article at another time, but Demon’s Souls was one of the most forward thinking games of the PS3 generation—and it’s influences have shaped what we now view as current gen experiences (seamlessly integrated online features that contribute to the single player experience in meaningful ways). I played through the entirety of Demon’s Souls with a hunger for more. So, when Dark Souls was announced, I instantly pre-ordered the game. FromSoftware and Hidetaka Miyazaki did not disappoint, again. In fact, Dark Souls improved upon every foundation established by Demon’s Souls: the combat, the lore, the character progression, the checkpoint system, the boss fights, and the (brilliantly) interconnected open world. Dark Souls is a seminal experience in gaming, and is my third favorite game of all time. To sum up this long preamble—I had high expectations for Dark Souls II. Really high. For most games, this is the kiss of death. In 2014 alone, astronomical expectations killed games like TitanFall and Watch_Dogs. Not to say either is a bad game, but they are not the exceptional games everyone wanted. But for Dark Souls II, my expectations did not work against the game at all. In fact, by both meeting my sky-high expectations and subverting them in interesting ways, Dark Souls II earns its place in the phenomenal Souls series and this game of the year list.

Dark Souls II's desolate landscapes all hint at a rich
history, all but lost to the sands of time.

Let me unpack a little of why I loved Dark Souls II (DSII). First and foremost, DSII checked off all the boxes I expected it to as a Souls game. The combat was brutal, quick, and unforgiving. The character progression was smooth and left you with interesting trade-offs when it came to balancing health and attack, speed and armor, magic or heavy weapons. The lore was deep and rich, but not shoved into your face with overly-long or overly narrated cut-scenes. The boss fights were challenging and memorable. The game offered enormous value, with my first play through chalking in at about 80 hours. And finally, nailing the desolate and depressing world rife with hints of its long forgotten history. DSII is a proper Souls game, and it no way felt like a cash grab like so many sequels do these days.

DSII was not content to just check boxes, however. Almost every system from Dark Souls that made it into the sequel was tweaked and, in most cases, the game benefitted from these changes. Enemies no longer endlessly respawned, which prompted the player to keep moving forward, rather than grind in an “easy” area for quick souls. The skew of player stats was improved. DSII removed the useless luck and resistance stats and added adaptability, which acted as a resistance + roll-speed stat. With this simplified, and other player bonuses more spread out between categories, you had to make tougher decisions when leveling up your character. For example, DEX was pretty powerful in Dark Souls as it modified DEX-based weapon damage and improved attack speed and roll speed/invincibility frames, and this was reduced in DSII. Boss encounters were tweaked to avoid “lame” strategies from working (like hiding from the Flame Lurker in Demon’s Souls) or bosses that felt unfair to the player (Bed of Chaos in Dark Souls). Combat was made more challenging in interesting ways, too. In Dark Souls, the play could just chug the very-quick healing Estus Flask. Here, the flask was much slower and required managing dodging while healing in ensure survival. The game world also offered perhaps an even greater diversity of zones & monsters to encounter, as DSII felt more a hybrid of the previous two Souls games. It was open world, but zones were relatively discrete i.e. one zone was connected to only one or two other areas, usually. Bonfire ascetics added a new layer to the gameplay as well, allowing you to up the challenge in certain areas and reap tremendous rewards. This was great, because it also let you re-fight bosses you particularly liked, avoiding the need to enter NG+ mode. And finally, magic was smartly rebalanced, making it the first Souls game where spells were not completely overpowered compared to traditional melee combat.

Boss fights are a highlight of the Souls franchise, and Dark Souls II is no exception. 

Despite being a sequel, DSII is very much its own game. There are a couple direct nods to its predecessor (the chapel fight in particular), but DSII doesn’t spend too much time reminding you it is a sequel to one of the best games of all time. It proves itself through its gameplay and world. By improving many of the Souls game systems, DSII also gives hope that the IP is not likely to get stale anytime soon. FromSoftware is not resting on its laurels, which is even more apparent when looking at their upcoming title, Bloodborne.

In a world without Dark Souls, DSII would make my best games of all time. The game is only hindered by being exactly what we want it to be: more Dark Souls. What I hope I got across in this article, though, is that DSII smartly tweaked the formula to create a standalone success and establish and even more solid foundation for Souls games to come. I put over 150 hours in DSII, and I’m tempted to reroll a new character just to go through the DLC. Much like Dark Souls, number two should not be missed. Period. Go play it.