DS2 review script
With most games nowadays being about as difficult as a used dot to dot picture, most people were taken aback when a few years ago from software decided that throwing us in the deep end wasn't challenging enough and proceed to drop us down the Mariana Trench, an idea that worked surprisingly well and became rather infamous as the first triple A game to truly challenge the player for years. So you'd think that its sequel would take the difficulty scale to new heights right? Right?
Well sadly not, not to say this is an easy game. Roughly 90% of players will certainly find this a challenging one but just isn't as tough as the first one. One thing from the first one that is lacking is the famous difficulty spike. Gone are the days of, here's how to do the basic attack, dodge, pan the camera now take on this boss who's clearly got a few too many shares in McDonald's stocks. Which I can kinda understand, I'm well aware that a lot of new player were turned off from the souls series because of its difficulty spike reminiscent of Mount Kilimanjaro. But unfortunately I'm not a noob to the series and being a seasoned souls veteran by the time this game dodge rolled around, I merely found the introduction a little lack luster and left me longing for the soul crushing challenge of the previous title. And another thing that stood out to me was the clear drop in the standards of its level design. Unlike the firelink shrine in the first game your hub in this one, majula, may connect to many different places throughout the world yes but doesn't manage the same level of intuitive design as the aforementioned firelink shrine with shortcuts little details that became opened up and discovered the more you went on, encouraging exploration of the world which in itself was very rewarding. With the focus on the world and its lore placed in view of the player but not thrust upon them like most NPCs from Bethesda games seem to take up as their hobby, standing there shouting exposition at you till you've got more knowledge of the land's past than a local history graduate. Now before I make these next few comparisons let me say this, I like Skyrim to an extent I just don't like it as you do, yes you XxDovahkinFanboy420 so put down your pitchforks and torches and listen. Where as the lore of skyrim was incredibly broad and covered a lot of things, it always felt like it was very surface level and nothing more. Where as dark souls goes for the more in depth approach. With out wishing to go into examples to me skyrim felt like it was the size of an Olympic swimming pool but it never quite got deeper than its shallow end, instead in dark souls it's a pool half the size but it's depth has a kraken swimming around in it somewhere. But it's focus of narrative has clearly shifted since the first game and become more in line with other fantasy RPGs like skyrim no longer being as centered around the world and more aimed towards your player character, such as how a previously mentioned elder scrolls title often felt like half the NPCs were merely there to scream "you are dovahkin!!! You are the chosen one!!! And the sun shines out of your-" you get the picture. That's not say dark souls 2 doesn't focus on its world at all or changed its style of how it tells its tale, which when discovered will make you feel that little bit more intuitive as it's mostly picked up through item descriptions and personal tales told by what few NPCs there are. On the whole Dark souls 2 goes for intrigue rather than intrusion.
One the big pluses for dark souls 2 over its predecessor is the combat. Now the combat from the first is improved upon by fixing a few glaring issues that the first had such as how when locked on to an individual enemy the dodge button swiftly became akin to a teleportation to getting into the optimal position for a back stab, taking rather a lot of challenge away from many enemies, with its improvements the feeling of getting a back stab is all that much more satisfying and the bosses are for the most part well designed and pose a different challenge to the last, prompting the player to think more tactically than most modern boss battles where the key is to go and mash buttons at the boss till you win. Although that's not to say it's not without its glaring issues, such as the collision detection, cause I'll be damned if i managed to get through an entire boss battle without suffering from said bug. Not to say it ruins the game mind you, there have been many an occasion where I've been but one hit away from victory and low and behold the game decides, nope we're not having any of this victory malarkey and sends you back to your last bonfire thanks to an attack from an enemy in a different post code.
But for a game with the tag line "prepare to die" dark souls certainly makes death feel important rather than a slight slap on the wrist for you little scamps you, like say assassins creed does. No death in dark souls has a few effects, such as losing your humanity! Reverting you to your hollowed state leaving you looking like shrek after the Atkins diet, and upon losing ones humanity you will no longer be able to summon phantoms to help you in your ever so slightly challenging journey. On top of that you'll lose all the souls that you have acquired, with souls being the games currency. You can reclaim your list souls should you make it back to where you last died but all the enemies you killed will have respawned so have fun with that! You're max health will also drop little by little each time you are slain, making the already challenging journey even harder, in an obvious call back to a similar system found in demons soul's. Upon your near inevitable death you will respawn at a bonfire, bonfires serve as you check point, and resting at one will refill your healing item "the Estus flask", recover any lost health, restore any weapon degradation and remove all status effects placed upon your character.
The art style too has a very dark aesthetic, reflecting the themes of life's inevitable decline as you look upon the ruins of a once great Kingdom, so an all round uplifting experience then!
Both the visuals, gameplay and sound design help convey an atmosphere of pure dread which suits the game and I haven't felt since the first time I picked up a silent hill game many a year ago though with less being pursed by a dude with his head stuck in a novelty cheese grater.
All in all, it's a fun and challenging game with great replay value, and where not as intuitive as the first in many aspects it's still going to grind you into the dirt for daring to pick up the controller that day, but one final gripe I have is one level in particular, now think of the most generic video game level there is....yep that's in there, and to be honest I was surprised when a little mustachioed plumber didn't run by off his head on shrooms!
A form of
design in game where an image is built up and edited through the use of many
pixel with them being the smallest building block within design, often taking
the form of a 2D sprite or 3D isometric sprites. Often found in older games or
in those created by indie developers some famous examples of these are Mario,
2D Zelda games, Castlevania, and Super Meat boy. 
Like
my earlier example of graphics, objects that build up the location’s scenery
like lakes, mountains, any type of buildings (e.g. a castle) and trees are made
to become part of a background creating depth within the world. Levels that use
things like snow to create atmosphere add things like rain par5ticles giving
the world around the player a more alive feeling immersing the player even
An ingame interface is either an or a set of icons giving the
player information about what is happening within the game, often called a
Heads Up Display (or HUD for short) it shows the player charcter vital
information such as their health bars, objective, any sort of time linit there
may be or any other bars and status ailments. Some games such as Dead Space
intergrate the heads up display into the character themselves to add an extra
layer of immersion with the ammo counter being holographically didplayed by the
gun and the health bar being displayed on the suit.
Print media covers many things such as promotional images and
posters, manuels, game and more. 
