Review

The black sheep of the family for some reason. Dark Souls 2 gets so much totally illogical hate. There was a lot that this game did right that we never ever returned to and I cannot tell you why. Definitely not my favorite of the bunch, and that's owing a lot to just the overall feel. But there's stuff to like here.

Lifegems are a great idea. Being able to save your estus for the boss by using these out of combat between encounters allows for more expansive levels. You can space things out a bit more and trust that your player is good for it. Additionally, I like that new game plus is actually worth doing. Adding in little weird things on a second run like the extra boss souls from the lord soul bosses or additional enemies is fun. It takes minimal effort, but adds on a reason to play through the game again (with your endgame build that took so long to set up).

My biggest negative with this game is as I said before, it just does not feel good. Dark Souls 2 feels weird. Weapons do not have any heft and you move in a weird way. This is something you can kind of get used to after playing it for a while. But when I first played the game and any time I've returned to it, I feel so icky playing. There's just a basic wrongness with the movement and combat that really should have been ironed out much earlier in development. It feels like we're trying to be a bit faster than Dark Souls, but we're not doing it well at all. Again, it's the sort of thing you can sort of just account for after playing for a while, but it's a clear negative to me. And the Adaptability stat does not help with its whole existence. It desperately needs to be shot out of a cannon for its crimes.

The illogical world is not good and I know that's a belabored point but it must be talked about. The elevator up from Harvest Valley is sinful and deserving of mockery.

I do think this is a worthy sequel to the first game in the plot department. I really like that we're ages and ages after what we did in the last one. To the point where it's faded nearly out of myth. There are nameless gods that still have some effect on the world, but their stories have been totally lost. This is significantly more interesting than the trash of Dark Souls 3.

I really like most of the DLCs. It's generally a clear return to form in the overall level design which is much more mixed in the main game. I do hate that they each have the shitty multiplayer areas where we crank the encounters way up. Feels shit man, feels shit. But if you discount those, we've got a pretty high batting average. Sunken King is my personal fave. Really love the aesthetic and the looping layout. Side note: do you remember when Fume Knight was considered the hardest of the hard? I remember...I remember.

I have Dark Souls 2 pretty firmly in the middle of my rankings. It's got things that annoy me, things I like. My overall feeling is just one of credulity that it seems roundly hated.