izigame.me

Late to the party for Dark Souls 2 also, and the general anthem I'd been hearing about it is general negativity from the community. So maybe it's because I went in with those sorts of expectations, but overall it's been a very solid and enjoyable playthrough for me. Plus it also had the benefit that I knew very little about it, compared to DS1, for which I saw plenty of footage from various areas, basically having a lot of the content spoiled for me.
There is the caveat that I have only finished the main campaign, and haven't started any of the 3 expansions. Which I hear are massive in size, probably close to the main campaign itself. But I'd been so immersed in FromSoft games lately, that I'm very close to being burned out. Though I would like to note down some remarks about it, so far, since I'm likely to forget some of the current context. And after this I do need to take a break before attempting the rest of the DS2 content. I guess too much of a good thing can be bad. Plus, the constant stress of these games surely can't be good for a long time. And it's been a pretty consistent emotional roller-coaster with this as, as was with DS1. I'll update this review after clearing the DLC content.
In terms of mechanics, I think I probably enjoyed the slight deviation in DS2 over DS1, or maybe it's just that it's the more recent experience. Overall combat is still as tight, responsive and rewarding as it was in DS1, but in part 2 they do expose more stats (ex, ADP) that you can control to make your character more to your liking. And I also particularly liked what they did with not allowing you to trigger attack swings when you don't have the stamina. In DS1 they used a sort of command queuing, so actions triggered when the character couldn't do them would queue up, and be performed on the next opportunity. This had the unfortunate effect of constantly having your character do something later than when you actually needed it. They seemed to have done away with this in DS2, and if you spam actions your character will not do anything. Which forces you to learn to pace your actions. And be attentive to your stamina bar.
World and level design is generally still good in this one, and while the level design is still solid, with plenty of stuff to explore, hidden areas and all that, the world design is significantly different to DS1. DS2's world is much more sprawling, and you very rarely return to previous areas. And as is probably well known by now, DS1 is much more interconnected and constantly winds down on itself, making exploration that much more intimate and meaningful. Plus, the first half of DS1 you play without the ability to teleport between bonfires, thus forcing you to learn the world that much more, and contend with the difficult areas a lot more. That is a feature that sadly probably wouldn't work as well in this one, but it's something I do miss none-the-less.
But even so, exploration and combat were still the best parts of this game. Making slow methodical progress in multiple directions and finding all the cleverly placed items throughout the world was still as fun as ever. And they're still as courageous as ever with level design, even hiding bonfires behind secret walls. Some of which I couldn't find on my own, had I not had a guide that I would consult after clearing an area to what I would call fully, and then still be surprised at the hidden stuff. Some of which you do wonder how exactly were found initially.
Generally, a lot of the positives and negatives of DS1 still apply, but I'm not sure I should rehash those any more.
In terms of negatives, the only other one I could mention is the fact that, the world being so spread out some of the areas do seem like they weren't given as much attention as others. And some do feel downright empty and hastily put together. Unless that was an intentional design decision.
I also did feel some unevenness in terms of balancing, but the game being as complex as it is and punishing as it is, you're not really sure if something is intentional or not. I'll do say that the Iron Keep and the Giant visions were the areas where I got pounded into the ground the most, even after feeling somewhat overpowered before and in-between those two areas. And I keep hearing the DLC areas have some of the most punishing content. So I have that to look forward to.
The last significant positive, but maybe with some negative accents, was the change in how respawns work in DS2. I was surprised to find this out, but all enemies that usually endlessly respawn in DS1 were changed to a maximum count of 10 respawns in DS2. I hear this was to curb endless grinding. I did make great use of this new mechanic in one or two areas where I just couldn't have a consistent run to the area boss fight (looking at you Smelter Demon in Iron Keep). So I just buckled down and cleared that path 10 times, both gaining a good chunk of souls and making my path easier. Besides giving you an ultimate solution for particularly difficult areas this also helped reinforce the fact that souls were ultimately a limited resource, and easily exploitable enemies could only be exploited for a limited amount.
All in all a pretty solid experience with DS2, with plenty of grief and trolling from the developer. I think I'll remember the ambush by turtle knights that I suffered in the narrow corridor in Iron Keep for a long time. Not only did it take me a while to get through it, but then ultimately when I thought I was done they pulled off another troll on me right at the end. That stung a lot and plenty of expletives were thrown around. Not to detract too much from the other sections that pulled their own punches. But ultimately, that's one of the flavors that these games have that no other manages to pull off. A very intimate relationship, even bordering on Stockholm syndrome, with the game and the developers trying every which-way to screw with you. Not always pleasant but you do remember it for a long time.
Update: In the mean time, after finishing the main campaign, but before getting too deep into the first expansion, I had restarted and replayed through the whole game with a dex-build using two rapiers in powerstance. A fantastic experience was had. So much more fun and even manageable than as a tank.
After replaying it, I can honestly say I loved it even more than DS1. Though DS1 still has the better intertwined world design. You can't beat that. But in everything else, I loved DS2 considerably better. Of course, I'm also biased since a lot of the content in DS1 had been spoiled for me before getting to it, since it's so present everywhere.
So, an updated score: 9.2/10. Just so it's slightly ahead of DS1. :)
Review for the Sunken King expansion: very solid, on the same level as the main campaign. Plenty of great exploration and puzzle solving. It even introduced some new mechanics, both in combat and puzzles. One very annoying and difficult boss fight, and the other were serviceable. Great fun was had, that's a definite!
Review for the Iron King expansion: also very solid in terms of exploration and combat, but also had some of the most difficult fights I've come across in Souls games. Fume Knight and Sir Alonne in particular.
Review for the Ivory King expansion: it was decent and I still liked the exploration and combat loop. The bosses were significantly easier than the other expansions. But I just refused to go into the Frigid Lands, or whatever they're called. I'm just too tired to continue. I'm officially done with DS2, even though I would normally still have Aldia, Vendrick and the two cats at the end of the Frigid Lands. But fighting Aava, the other feline, was such a pain in the ass that I really don't want to imagine fighting two of them. Had it not been for the NPC summon I probably wouldn't given up on Aava.