Dark Souls 2

the_spyder

I was just wondering how many forumites like myself play Dark Souls 2 these days and what, if any, your impressions of the game are.

I've been playing it pretty steadily for a few months now and have finally completed my first pass of the game proper. Being a BG and general RPG fan, I much prefer to 'Specialize' my characters and actually role play them through the world, which is surprisingly possible considering it is a console game.

Any thoughts on the game proper would be great. I started the thread here because I know the quality of gamer that frequent these forums and so feel confident in an enlightening discussion.

FinneousPJ

I still haven't finished the first one. Love it, though. The backlog of great games to play is too high!

JLee

I played a sorcerer for ~100 hours, but never finished it. I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and gameplay, but found I didn't have enough time. It is not a game for a casual, impromptu session, at least for me. One day I would like to return to it, but as FinneousPJ stated, the pile of games I want to play keeps getting higher and higher as my time gets shorter and shorter.

I will keep an eye on this thread though, because I really did enjoy it. I might rethink my character choice though if I do pick it up again. I went in without knowing anything about the game and I've read over and over how great the melee mechanics are in the game.

the_spyder

@JLee - I too played a Sorcerer for a really long time. In PvE, they totally rock. In PvP, less so. Either that or I am just not a very good player (a point I concede).

I found the game incredible deep all things considered. And yes, I find the combat mechanics the best of the game, and really the best I've seen in a game. I am currently working on completing the DLC portions and they are TOUGH.

FinneousPJ

Oh yeah, the combat is very good. The game world is surprisingly deep and well built.

EDIT: The first is something I'd expect from a console game. The second one I'd expect less.

CaeDares

I have played and beaten both Dark Souls (beaten an infinite amount of times) and Dark Souls 2 (Only beaten once and haven't explored every tiny thing yet)

the_spyder said:

@JLee - I too played a Sorcerer for a really long time. In PvE, they totally rock. In PvP, less so. Either that or I am just not a very good player (a point I concede).
and they are TOUGH.

Sorcerers as a class are not good in PvP, no. But the Spells are. What I mean by this is that if your character is well built with Vitality, Endurance, you have a good weapon in your hands and your own hands are fast enough, you can simple knock somebody off their feet, wait for them to stand up (don't take long enough for them to be able to roll) and blast a spell at them, it will completely destroy them and make their life miserable. Even if they're not knocked down, spells do a huge amount of damage, it's just about when you decide to use them. Getting them to hit is hard, which is why people tend to lean towards weapon enhancement spells and Homing Missile (which go straight for your target). However, Backstabbing currently reigns as the highest damage dealer in both games.

Back on topic, I cannot enjoy the Dark Souls series enough. It's right up there with the Forgotten Realms game series in my favorites list and the experience is amazing. Best of all, you have no reason to get mad at the game unless it's because of something you did. If YOU screw up, you die. That's as simple as it gets (even though there's the occasional hacker).

SethDavis

Played enough to get all the achievements. Haven't gotten around to the DLCs yet though, probably this summer.

Played through with a spear and shield, cause it's a really safe way to go until you figure out all the enemy patterns, though I never felt the need to switch it out after that.

I'm kinda curious what impression it would leave on someone who hadn't played the other games. The bosses and enemies feel like they're kinda reused with an added gimmick or two, though there's a lot more of them which is nice.

The environments aren't quite as well detailed as in the previous games, are connected unintuitively, and have a few texturing issues but fit a cohesive atmosphere and would probably come off really well on a new player.

The story itself is nice and focused, which is nice as the others kinda sprawled out into world building at the expense of the live situation. It went through a lot of effort to avoid answering questions from DS1 though, and didn't do much for its own questions either. Maybe this changed with the SotFS patch, but I haven't gone back to read the new item texts.

Luckily for me, the game was old enough when I started that there weren't so many PVPers running around. Even the ones that showed up didn't seem used to fighting against spears, so I survived ok. Made it real hard to get the co-op related achievements though. *shakes a fist at the soul memory system*

Real fun overall, even if i sound a bit windgey.

the_spyder

@CaeDares - I think you meant "Sorcerers as a class are not good in PvP,". In PvE, my sorcerer totally rocks the world. So long as I dodge the bad guys, my spells CRUSH the enemies. It's PvP where spells have a particularly hard time landing unless you do stuff like you describe.

@SethDavis - in comparing DkS1 and DkS2, I agree for the most part. I think that they tried to do "Bigger" and largely failed. The levels are inconsistent, some being great at farming and others with almost no Souls at all. Size varies in inconsistent ways and the geography clearly shows that they didn't map it out or work together to make sure that it all made sense. Bosses were re-used quite a bit as well. DkS1 didn't have most of these problems and felt a lot more seamless and connected.

I think that the PvP system needs a major overhaul. I also noticed that there are a fair number of obviously immature players who think that the game's "Main purpose" is to facilitate their bullying. But I put that down to age and the relative anonymity of the Internet rather than anything else.

Still, for all that I have had a LOT of fun in the game.

SethDavis

well, to a certain extent they seem to have done the bullying thing on purpose.

most of the covenants are PVP based, with most of those being non consensual for one party or the other. that was pretty much the same in DS1, but they upped the ante with areas that are more or less dedicated to unfair invasions.

Belfry Luna is designed to facilitate 2v1 fights, Pharos' area is built around the idea of abducting people into an area full of traps that only affect the victim, and Belfry Sol... there's not even a boss or good loot, it's an evil trick! the bell does nothing!!!!!!

*side note* Demons Souls is on sale on the PSN right now for $13. really worth it for anyone who hasn't tried it yet.

the_spyder

@SethDavis - to a point I agree with you. And I don't have a problem "per say" with the invasions. It's when people are invading, not for the purpose of fighting you but for the purpose of breaking your equipment and killing you that I have a problem. I've encountered several players who brag about such escapades. They've posted how they invade someone and then kill them regardless of if they fight back or not, and if they DON'T fight back, they throw acid on them till their equipment is broken.

I get that the game allows for this type of behavior, but I don't agree that it was intended to breed that type of attitude. Or maybe I am naive and have totally missed the point. I'd prefer to believe that the ones who partake of that attitude are simply immature and don't know any better.

The Belfry Luna is a totally optional side quest. You are told going in that you are likely to face multiple defenders and are even given the option to join their side should you want. It is the definition of a PvP area. I've not tried Belfry Sol, so I don't know if it is the same thing. And the Rat Coven area is easily avoided, merely by playing that section off line.

Edit: But yeah, the PvP design could use another look.

Thanks for the side note.

SethDavis

yeah I get ya.

funnily enough, joining the bellkeepers does not prevent bellkeepers invading you

the_spyder

And being a member of the blue doesn't always summon help when you get invaded.

Which are both yet more reasons why I think the whole PvP mechanic needs to be re-vamped.

For all of that, it is still a fun and addictive game to play. I can't tell you how many hours I've socked into it. Well, I could do, but that might be embarrassing for me so...

And now Blood Bourne is coming out... What is a game junkie to do?

ChildofBhaal599

I played it. What I would call my main character is my divine magic guy that I did the no deaths and no bonfires thing for the invisible weapon rings. Personally, though, I think I may have preferred DS1. DS2, however, definitely had the better feeling combat, which came a lot for me in the form of rolls that aren't just up, down, left, or right.

btw I don't know about sorcerors, but I find divine magic really good for PvP. i have a ton of attunement, faith, and whatever increases you agility. these allow me to cast fast for high damage, and also dodge roll with ease. you also need to think about having a melee weapon no matter what you take in my opinion. my guy is using a heide sword enchanted with lightning and imbued with lightning from a spell before bosses and PvP. although i don't have much str and dex, i still do a ton of damage in melee do to my faith scaling, which also helped my divine magic. i then have my sword on the opposite hand of my chime so I can use both at once, and what you have is that I'll be super buffed for melee and go at you, but sometimes I'll pull some spell from a huge arsenal and you are often times left guessing. using that huge arsenal I use a bunch of different spells that I am rotating between to keep the enemy on their toes, and eventually they guess wrong and some of these will instant kill them, like my sunlight spear the key is to not spam. if you spam for a while, try something different that might completely catch them off guard, and also don't ignore the power of melee in this game. no matter what you do, you can find some way to fit melee into your character as a viable option, and it is very viable in DS.

oh yeah, and invasions. I really don't like the way some players actually mess with you and your experience, but overall I don't have a problem with invasions. even if I don't want it at that moment, like reclaiming lost souls, I am glad it's their. at least the last time I played DS2 it wasn't as bad when it comes to hackers as DS1 is... and that is where the problem of a multiplayer that I can't opt out of is. honestly, I am not too sure about Metal Gear Phantom Pain having those motherbase invasions. if they don't come down hard on the hackers, then that could ruin my single player experience. if things are fair and I can't lose hours of progress to a player then it could be a fun distraction...

element

so how is this game? its sitting in my library. I platinumed dark souls and demon's souls but some how haven't found time for this one yet

the_spyder

If you liked Dark Souls, DkS2 is more of the same. They did tweak the combat a fair bit, and it is MUCH bigger, but it is very similar also. As stated above, in my view, the attempt to make it bigger lead to some disjointedness of the geography. It also left some balancing issues related to some zones being heavy grinding areas while others were quite sparse.

With all of that having been said, I've been obsessing about it almost to a fault for the past few months, so it is absolutely fun and worth playing. Now that it is no longer "New", a lot of the PvP nonsense has died down. And with Blood Borne coming out on Tuesday, I bet we lose more community. That's actually a benefit in my book.

Just don't fire it up unless you are ready to sink hours into it. Quite a lot of the visuals are stunning. And as stated, the combat is more fluid and more fun, so....