Dark Souls II – Hands On Preview
“You will lose your souls, over and over again” – The old hag in red said something so painfully true that the old phrase from the first Dark Souls “Prepare to die” seems almost inadequate. Dark Souls II is looking to set a new stage for the word ‘challenge’. In the first game, the main change was the feel to how the game played, it felt like a heavier game, a game of more depth than its predecessor Demon’s Souls. With that said, here are my feelings on Dark Souls II.
The game begins in the Things Betwix, a location found after a soul has fallen into the endless blackness of the abyss. Your main character is cursed, fallen into the abyss and without a soul. The first thing you come across is an old house and once you have chosen your class, either one of the following – Warrior, Knight, Swordsman, Bandit, Cleric, Sorcerer, Explorer or Deprived; your journey begins. The old lady in red who tells you that you you must consume souls, despite the fact that you will continue to lose them over and over as you die. And die you shall. Many, many times.
Before leaving she gives you a ‘Human Effigy’, the symbol of a living being in this game, it also replaces the use of Humanity as an item to turn you into a human. You can use these anywhere, and on the go, but more on that later. Walking across into the next area is the twisting winding path of darkness, full of mist doors and training plaques teaching you the controls, allowing you to test them against zombies much like the initial encounters in the prison of the first Dark Souls.
Following the mist door zig-zag, teaching you jumping, locking on, and blocking, you can make your way forward to the first settlement called Majula. It is here you will meet some of the main characters in the story, as well as finding your second bonfire, allowing you to do something right from the get go, teleportation. Jumping between bonfires is available right from the beginning, allowing for quick travel back to Betwix or future destinations.
The first “ally” you will meet in the town is Saulden, who introduces you to your surroundings and points out that there are others to speak too in the village. Next is the blacksmith Lenisgrast who is locked out of his keep, a key can be bought later from the travelling merchent, Hag Melentia. In the western part of town you will meet Maughlin the Armourer. A stuttering, jittery guy who doesn’t sell cheap despite his demeanour. In a house opposite Maughlin is a talking cat called Shalquoir, who will mock you and laugh at your pathetic appearance, hello there Dark Souls, thanks for punching me in the balls!
Going forward, there are a couple of options for you to take, for the purposes of the hands on preview which ended with a boss, truly staying within the Dark Souls lore, I chose the alternative, as many will, to explore downward. To get there you must venture within the village, past the mocking cat and downward into the depths until you get to a gate, there is a hanging pulley rope on the wall you can very easily miss, despite it being in plain sight. This will lead you down to a realm so similar to Anor Londo, that you will stop and catch your breath.
It’s a strikingly beautiful city on stilts, littered with broken ruin style aesthetic and filled with Stoney Iron Golems wielding huge versions of any weapon you can think of from Sword to Hammer, ready to take your souls away from you. As a Warrior I chose to fight at first, holding up my shield to guard against these mighty foes and do battle as one would imagine a hero might.
After five hammer afflicted deaths, four stabbings with a Greatsword and a Halberd swing off a ledge, I chose to run through the enemies, dying some more in the process before I came across a mist door which was guarded by a huge knight. I chose to dart around and slipped nimbly inside the safe haven of the mist door.
The red bar at the bottom of my screen housed a boss called Dragon Rider, when I looked up at him, I saw a huge knight with red armour, a massive shield. He was not as slow as I make him sound. He nimbly glided across the floor at sprint speed and opened the assault with a huge thrust of his Halberd, launching me backward going straight through any guard I thought I might have. I jumped to his right, diving past him and turned to fight, realising much to late that I was on a very narrow ledge. I blocked the next attack just fine, a double swing leaving him open for a split second, I donned my sword with both hands and swung down hard. A tiny smitten of health fell from him, much like the breath of a baby would affect a tortoise, he threw me off the edge with his halberd and I died.
For me, my experience with the game ended trying to defeat that tough boss, but I never managed it. I did however get a very good feel for the games mechanics and controls.
Firstly, this game feels a heck of a lot like Demon’s Souls. The running is a bit more Linear, less “circular” than Dark Souls with smoother running and turning circles, the jumping especially is much more plank like where as in Dark Souls you had a feel for the weight of the roll. All the movements still seem very fluid, back stabbing has a very nice feel to it with the new mini combo sequence, coupled with the invincibility it brings, but it still has that Demon’s Souls background to it. It seems that From Software clearly have an eye for their old engine, the impression I’m getting is the controls of Dark Souls, mixed with the older system from Demon’s Souls, and the graphical beauty of a well versed mix of the two. Veterans of both games will feel right at home here, but those who came in at Dark Souls like myself, may feel slightly jarred by the style of the movement.
One last point, when taking damage I experience a lack of flinch, unlike Dark Souls that got frustrating with stun lock style moves, the sheer lack of flinching from your character on this game can make it seem like the character has taken minimal damage, but this is not so! Be very careful with your health bar, as many of my own deaths were due to a lack of feedback from the game to give me the idea that “Hey guy, you just took a tonne of damage, heal up quick!“
Aside from the visual aesthetic is the functional stuff; starting with life recovery, there are now a few clear differences from Dark Souls. First is the Human Effigy, the item the character can press into his chest while walking to restore your humanity at any time. This does a few things, firstly when you are hollow, your life total drops with each subsequent death post mortem, the more you die the less health you have as a hollow. The effigy restores your life total to its maximum but does not restore your health, much unlike the use of Humanity.
New healing items will potentially take your attention, such as the wonderful Estus Flask. Lifegems are now a healing item, they are frequent in quantity and vary in size, from basic to radiant and potentially even higher than that. The use of a lifegem is not an instant health increase but more of a gradual restoration. This is a problem during battle because even if you are mid health recovery, it is not instant, the enemy can still kill you just after you use one. Also note that the size of the Lifegem doesn’t necessarily increase the speed of the recovery either, so don’t hold out your best ones for the potential of a faster recovery rate.
Estus Flasks are still here, but they are not intrinsically tied to the Bonfires anymore, no amount of burning items, because you can burn items for effects in bonfires now and that will increase the Estus total in your count. One other thing, Estus Flasks are now upgraded by Estus Shards, which can be found all over the place to increase the number if times you can use your healing pot of wonder. Item wise, the two huge jumps in change from Dark Souls is mainly to do with usage, weapons feel just like Dark Souls for the most part, but blocking seems to feel less useful for some reason.
Overall my experience with the game was a positive one and I cannot wait to struggle, strain, stress and swear my way through this much darker and deadlier prequel-sequel to the Souls Saga. I just have to hope I don’t get back stabbed, or stomped on, or hammered, or run over, or poked off an edge..
Dark Souls II will be released on March 14th in the UK and EU. Prepare to cry and die all over again!