I just finished Dark Souls 2 the other day and I fucking loved every second of it. A few things were initial turn-offs for me, but almost all of them were eventually mitigated in one way or another, or they ended up not being as big of a deal as I thought they would be. For instance:
- The fact that you can be invaded even while hollow - When this first happened, it was a major wtf, and it made me extremely nervous, but it didn't end up happening very often, and most people who did it usually waited until I was done doing whatever it was I was up to before dueling me (and probably remotely executing code on my system).
- Progressively losing health each time you die, up until 50%, and looking like a rancid, festering piece of shit as you decay - This sucked initially, but eventually the item needed to reverse hollowing became more frequent, and you get rings to limit the health loss to 25% (and even a ring to make you still look human)
- Needing to port back to the main hub to level, instead of being able to do it any bonfire - This never got better, but I was already used to it from Bloodborne, and at least the load times were faster.
Areas/Levels
I read a few complaints online about the lack of cohesion between area themes, but that never really bothered me. While many of the areas were a bit lackluster, there were some incredible standouts for me.
Majula - I love the dreary majesty of it all--it feels like a cloudbreak in an otherwise near endless sea of gloom. It's a respite from the oppressive themes in other areas, and it's easily one of my overall favorite areas in the series I've visited so far.
Dragon Aerie - Holy shit. I felt like I accidentally warped onto the cover of some AD&D 2e supplementary rulebook. This is one of the best areas I've seen in a game. My only complaint is that it is criminally short.
Drangelic Castle - Standing at the foot of that winding path leading up to the castle was pure Castlevania. I felt like Simon Belmont, right up to the point where two heavily armored mammoths romanced me with their girthy tusks.
What really struck me was the sheer volume of levels. I know quantity is not necessarily as important as quality, but one of my favorite parts of the series so far has been exploration, and this game has a massive amount of new areas to journey through and ferret out secrets in. As soon as I finished the main game, I was excited to see that I did not automatically roll over into NG+, so I began backtracking and exploring areas that I did not spend a lot of time in earlier in the game.
I'm done with the main game now and before I even begin the DLC I still feel like I have a ton to do. Here's a little sample of what I've been doing, just to keep myself in the world and not end the experience yet:
- Figured out how to open the locked door in Majula
- Leveled up my faith & intelligence so that I can use the sacred chime hammer
- Traveled back to Pharros to farm lockstones & unlock the rest of the doors
- Sought out all the keys necessary to access DLC areas
- Sought out remaining optional bosses I unknowingly skipped
- Talked to any merchants I had missed to get them to appear in the Majula hub
While I can understand why people may be turned off by some of the more punitive systems in this game, and by the sort of haphazard menagerie of levels, I was absolutely obsessed with this game. It feels like DS1 blown out on a bigger scale, with more of everything. I haven't even touched on the bosses, lore or many new systems either. This just feels like a world I can live in for a really long time, and I'm not even in the DLC yet. Well, other than a little peek...
