Best game in the series, easily.

9.5/10

Almost every enemy and boss in the base game is helpless against circle strafing. This leads to boss fights that are slow and painfully repetitive.

For no acceptable reason, starting characters have an abysmal amount of I-frames when rolling, even when their equipment is well below their carrying capacity. If you want to reliably dodge roll through damage in this game, you are required to dump several levels into the new "Adaptability" stat to gain the necessary amount of I-frames.

The animations for pulling levers, opening treasure chests and passing through fog walls are roughly two seconds longer than they were in Dark Souls 1, but those animations don't come with I-frames. So unless you take the time to clear the area leading up to a boss fight, you will receive cheap damage from the enemies you previously outsmarted and evaded as your character needlessly takes several moments to walk through some fog. This gets old fast.

Button presses to roll or drink from the Estus flask would often be ignored by the game, leading to unfair deaths. This has never been an issue for any other game I play with a controller.

The majority of levels in the base game lack visual detail or artistry. They feel like impractical, linear, video game hallways rather than settings in a fantasy world, and they don't even look good. Most of the levels in this game are just ugly and bland. The DLC levels do better in this area, but I was admittedly too frustrated with the base game to finish them.

But it gets worse. The whole point of Dark Souls is learning how to overcome difficult situations and rise above them. Failure in these games is inevitable, but that's not a problem because failure is an excellent teacher. Sadly, failure IS a problem in Dark Souls 2, because every time you die in this game, your character's max HP gets slightly reduced. The only way to restore your max HP is by consuming a "Human effigy" which thankfully isn't a rare item, but it's certainly not common either. This gradual erosion of HP discourages the player from taking risks and needlessly punishes them for failures (Which again are inevitable as you explore hazardous landscapes or engage with new enemies). It's a change that contradicts the core philosophy of the series, no matter how interesting it is thematically.

There were parts I liked about Dark Souls 2. This was the first souls game to feature a twin blade as a weapon and it is very fun to wield! The Blue Flame, a sword that can cast spells, is also a great addition. I enjoyed having to keep a close eye out for invisible enemies in the misty forest, and the challenge of managing a limited torch supply while carefully spotting and navigating to fire sconces in the Gutter is one of my favorite experiences in this game. Unlike most Dark Souls 2 levels, Doors of Pharros is such a beautiful and visually interesting space that I'm genuinely sad it isn't longer. It was fun to battle Ornstein in a one-on-one duel, and I especially enjoyed the skeleton-chariot boss fight!

And those are the positives. Those are the bright but scattered moments that stand out against a 30-hour backdrop of unpolished and underdeveloped potential. I wish I liked Dark Souls 2, and I wish I could recommend it to you, but I can't.

I mean, they replaced Patches with some dry loser! The nerve!

this ♥♥♥♥ is turds and the recent revisionism of it is crazy