great summation of pros and cons
I hope people who pick up 2 enjoy it as much as I did
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What did Dark Souls 2 do that makes it mediocre?
- Thread starter JohnnyFootball
- Start date
great summation of pros and cons
I hope people who pick up 2 enjoy it as much as I did
Phat Michael
Banned
Well I just got home and bought this game on ps4. Installed and got the patch, tried to play and every area is blocked off with fog walls saying "cannot pass". I have no idea what is going on all I know is that I can't leave majula at all even though it says the game is 100% installed.
Any idea on what to do here? I bought this digitally so I'm not sure if more of the game is installing or there is something wrong with the ps4 version of this game.
Any idea on what to do here? I bought this digitally so I'm not sure if more of the game is installing or there is something wrong with the ps4 version of this game.
Lasthope106
Member
People sure like to exaggerate about Dark Souls 2. I got it day one, played it for about 22-25 hours and stopped. Why did I stop? It wasn't because it was a horrible game I can tell you that much. It was a really good game when compared to a lot of crappy games that get released. I stopped because it didn't grabbed me as much as DS1 and Demon's Souls. The downgrade was partially to blame along with the removed features like the torch mechanic. The first boss was kind of boring, and it just felt a little weird. However, I plan to finish the game someday because it's still a really good game.
Lumberjackson
Neo Member
It's a good game, i like the playability/combat mechanics, the weapons/armor variety and character customization.
However, the way the levels are designed is severely lacking, compared to DS1. Each individual area feels very small, linear and confinig, whereas in DS1 it felt more grand, majestic and ... 'vertical'. It made for a more believable, immersive world, while DS2 feels more like a theme park. They did however address that in the DLC areas to some degree.
I also have an issue with the graphics, there are too many angular, featureless rooms with repetitive textures, and some areas really suffer from the flat lighting, and the re-use of certain graphics assets like those poison pots on Earthen Peak, for instance. Reminded me of Everquest 2 in its halfassedness.
However, the way the levels are designed is severely lacking, compared to DS1. Each individual area feels very small, linear and confinig, whereas in DS1 it felt more grand, majestic and ... 'vertical'. It made for a more believable, immersive world, while DS2 feels more like a theme park. They did however address that in the DLC areas to some degree.
I also have an issue with the graphics, there are too many angular, featureless rooms with repetitive textures, and some areas really suffer from the flat lighting, and the re-use of certain graphics assets like those poison pots on Earthen Peak, for instance. Reminded me of Everquest 2 in its halfassedness.
zenosparadox
Member
Phat Michael
Banned
Hey that link didn't work?
I don't think I'm being invaded. I'm in majula. So I read that if you buy the dlc version you start the game with some keys. Since I didn't get these, does that mean it isn't downloaded yet. I put my ps4 in rest mode so hopefully it will download by tomorrow?
Were you invaded? Or do you have a summon with you?
Phat Michael
Banned
Nope. Literally just left the tutorial area, met the woman that levels you up then went to go to the first area. That and the area to the left of it are all blocked off.
Mess, I remember that those areas are inaccessible on the PS4 if the game is stil downloading on the background... but you already had the full game.
Maybe just exit and enter again?
Phat Michael
Banned
I tried. Didn't work. It said the download was 13gb but it was finished...unless there is more because it sounds a little low? I'm use to the xb1 where it shows a bar and percentage so I'm not sure where I'm at now..
I guess its still downloading on the background. You can't get invaded/do coop in Majula, so its the only explanation.
Sticky&Sweet
Banned
I do as well, but I think that's because I know I have the option to 'reset' my stats.
zenosparadox
Member
Never mind. Mobile is the worst.
I was just googling the solution for you, and I found a post on GAF addressing the same issue you are having. Try your luck with a search.
Phat Michael
Banned
Damn. Was it just about waiting till its downloaded? I guess I'll just check tomorrow. I really don't like the whole ps4 o/S for sure.
GravityMan
Member
Dark Souls 2 is an excellent game that's one of the top 10-15 best games of last gen. But it's not quite an all-time great.
Dark Souls 1 on the other hand is one of the greatest games ever made.
Dark Souls 1 on the other hand is one of the greatest games ever made.
Dark Souls 2 has:
*better PVP (excepting the player matching problems of Soul Memory)
*slightly worse level design overall
*a less cohesive world
*a story that is greatly enhanced by its predecessor
*outstanding DLC
*better feeling combat, maneuverability
*more build options
*an unfortunate decision to change the behavior of dodge rolling until the player commits to a certain stat threshold
*more in general
*better PVP (excepting the player matching problems of Soul Memory)
*slightly worse level design overall
*a less cohesive world
*a story that is greatly enhanced by its predecessor
*outstanding DLC
*better feeling combat, maneuverability
*more build options
*an unfortunate decision to change the behavior of dodge rolling until the player commits to a certain stat threshold
*more in general
Mr Friend29
Member
Linear levels, broken hitboxes and bosses that revolve around ganking the player instead of offering a fair fight.
Think bloodborne or ds1, but a lot cheaper to make it "hard"
Think bloodborne or ds1, but a lot cheaper to make it "hard"
Relaxed Muscle
Member
tintin1029
Member
Replayability is a big deal to me, so the fact that Dark Souls 2 probably has the biggest amount of Replayability to me, it might just be my favorite souls game.
Sure I absolutely agree with all the flaws the game has, but after beating it probably 10 times because I was so interested in playing it again to see how a mage build would play like, it's a lot easier to simply ignore the problems.
Bloodborne probably has the best of everything design-wise. It has the best bosses, the best environments, the best lore, the best everything. But Since I have no reason to replay it, due to the very little build variety (just different weapons and slightly different armor) I'd might call it the worst of the four games.
Sure I absolutely agree with all the flaws the game has, but after beating it probably 10 times because I was so interested in playing it again to see how a mage build would play like, it's a lot easier to simply ignore the problems.
Bloodborne probably has the best of everything design-wise. It has the best bosses, the best environments, the best lore, the best everything. But Since I have no reason to replay it, due to the very little build variety (just different weapons and slightly different armor) I'd might call it the worst of the four games.
What do I win?
Yeah. You can actually have all 5 of them out in theory, they activate depending on the percentage of total HP among all gargoyles left.
diffusionx
Gold Member
if Dark Souls 2 is a mediocre game, then we are truly living in a Golden Age of a Golden Age of videogames.
And the time. Take too long and another will activate anyway.
I have to admit, Dark Souls 2 is growing on me.
I used to think it was far inferior to DS1, but after having played it almost to the end now, I rather like how much more consistent DS2 feels to it's predecessor.
Majula feels like a safe home base to me, whereas Firelink shrine, you never really knew who was going to show up....and would they be hostile? This feeling of consistency is given to the rest of the game so that there's a kind of language of what you can expect from each zone.
I do miss the super interconnected world of the first Dark Souls, and I'm kind of pissed that they straight up copied bosses from the first game...and pryomancy feels straight up nerfed from DS1...
But I personally feel the voice acting is much better, the stats make way more sense, and the lore nicely builds on what was introduced in the first game.
Kudos From Software B team.
I used to think it was far inferior to DS1, but after having played it almost to the end now, I rather like how much more consistent DS2 feels to it's predecessor.
Majula feels like a safe home base to me, whereas Firelink shrine, you never really knew who was going to show up....and would they be hostile? This feeling of consistency is given to the rest of the game so that there's a kind of language of what you can expect from each zone.
I do miss the super interconnected world of the first Dark Souls, and I'm kind of pissed that they straight up copied bosses from the first game...and pryomancy feels straight up nerfed from DS1...
But I personally feel the voice acting is much better, the stats make way more sense, and the lore nicely builds on what was introduced in the first game.
Kudos From Software B team.
I love DS2 but the Vigor/Vitality divide and the Adaptability mystery definitely rubbed me the wrong way. And Attunement is still lame.
I enjoyed it and definitely would not call it mediocre. One of the best games of the last few years. It's just that DS1 was probably game of the generation for me. I've played through it once and am not as hardcore as others are, so a lot of the little things people point out in this thread I never really noticed.
People calling it mediocre are the pitchfork GAFers that can drive people crazy.
People calling it mediocre are the pitchfork GAFers that can drive people crazy.
It's far from mediocre in comparison to the other AAA RPG games released. It is however my least favorite among Souls and Bloodborne mostly due to world isn't as memorable for me, from level layouts and enemies to bosses. However it does PVP best in the series has a lot of options for weapons and gear especially compared to BB (which isn't a plus or minus for me but it certainly is for many.) Having Platinumed BB, I am not as compelled to even complete DS2 yet but it's certainly a class above anything else I can be playing until MAYBE Witcher 3?
The Incarnation
Member
The problem with the game, is that it lacks the starkness, and sense of desperation compared to Demon and Dark Souls.
Raging Spaniard
If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Not mediocre, its an amazing game. Better than 90% of any game out there.
What makes it different from DS 1 is the real conversation.
What makes it different from DS 1 is the real conversation.
thewhitehawk
Member
I don't think it's a mediocre game, but I think it has some mediocre aspects.
Level design was mediocre in comparison to the first games but as an action RPG, it was sufficiently good.
In terms of graphic quality, the new lighting system while more advanced from a technical standpoint decreased the ambience and feeling that the previous two games. Quite a few areas in the game seem dull and lifeless and empty and while there are certain locations that could have used more assets to decorate them, I think that the lighting, or lack of ambience in the lighting helped make that more pronounced.
Another thing that is worse than the previous game is the boss design and encounter design. While the previous two games tried to bring interesting or memorable encounters with a lot of diversity, Dark Souls 2, for the most part, feels like it tries to mimic some of the previous encounters in a worse manner.
A lot of the game's difficulty spikes stem from the fact that the game throws multiple enemies at you at once and they are designed in a way that makes it hard for you to fight them without being punished for doing so. The combat system simply isn't well suited for encounters with multiple enemies at once but there are ways to make encounters with multiple enemies without punishing players severely for it. You can do so with a lot of weak enemies, or having so that they don't attack you at once, move at differing speeds... but Dark Souls 2 takes little, if any, of these considerations in most of them.
After playing Bloodborne and seeing how they handle encounters with multiple enemies at once, Dark Souls 2's encounter design flaws became even more glaring in my mind. Bloodborne never feels punitive, boring or unfair in its design and Dark Souls 2, many times made it feel like the game was trying to be hard by attrition, by force, rather than by merit of smart design choices like in the previous games or its successor.
But even with those mediocre aspects in mind, I think it says a lot that when the Souls series is at its worst, it's still immensely better than all of its competitors and games that try to clone its gameplay and mechanics.
Level design was mediocre in comparison to the first games but as an action RPG, it was sufficiently good.
In terms of graphic quality, the new lighting system while more advanced from a technical standpoint decreased the ambience and feeling that the previous two games. Quite a few areas in the game seem dull and lifeless and empty and while there are certain locations that could have used more assets to decorate them, I think that the lighting, or lack of ambience in the lighting helped make that more pronounced.
Another thing that is worse than the previous game is the boss design and encounter design. While the previous two games tried to bring interesting or memorable encounters with a lot of diversity, Dark Souls 2, for the most part, feels like it tries to mimic some of the previous encounters in a worse manner.
A lot of the game's difficulty spikes stem from the fact that the game throws multiple enemies at you at once and they are designed in a way that makes it hard for you to fight them without being punished for doing so. The combat system simply isn't well suited for encounters with multiple enemies at once but there are ways to make encounters with multiple enemies without punishing players severely for it. You can do so with a lot of weak enemies, or having so that they don't attack you at once, move at differing speeds... but Dark Souls 2 takes little, if any, of these considerations in most of them.
After playing Bloodborne and seeing how they handle encounters with multiple enemies at once, Dark Souls 2's encounter design flaws became even more glaring in my mind. Bloodborne never feels punitive, boring or unfair in its design and Dark Souls 2, many times made it feel like the game was trying to be hard by attrition, by force, rather than by merit of smart design choices like in the previous games or its successor.
But even with those mediocre aspects in mind, I think it says a lot that when the Souls series is at its worst, it's still immensely better than all of its competitors and games that try to clone its gameplay and mechanics.
SamusPrime
Banned
As a disclaimer, I've only played the PS3 version on release. Part 1 might be one of my favorite games of all time at this point but 2 honestly enraged me the further into it I got. I ended up giving up around the disgustingly ugly Brightstone (??) cave area.
It simply feels cobbled together to me and lacks coherence on all fronts. The art design vastly varies in terms of quality and intent, the level design went from pretty cool in the initial areas to pure shit and back up at random intervals, the entire world layout/progression is nonsense and so on. The frequent hit-box debacles and the massive downgrade didn't help either...
I think objectively it's still a fun game, but it feels like listening to some lame comeback album by a once amazing band rather than the classics.
It simply feels cobbled together to me and lacks coherence on all fronts. The art design vastly varies in terms of quality and intent, the level design went from pretty cool in the initial areas to pure shit and back up at random intervals, the entire world layout/progression is nonsense and so on. The frequent hit-box debacles and the massive downgrade didn't help either...
I think objectively it's still a fun game, but it feels like listening to some lame comeback album by a once amazing band rather than the classics.
DustyVonEric
Member
Boom. Great post.
Lots of good posts in the thread and most everything I would say has been said but I'll summarize my own thoughts here.
Disclaimer: I'm almost done with DS1 (in Oolacile) and am at Shrine of Amana in DS2.
What I like about DS1
What I don't like about DS1 (very little)
What I like about Dark Souls 2
What I don't like about DS2
Anyways, overall I feel like they both had their strengths and weaknesses. I'm enjoying both games but the world of DS1 has totally consumed me and I already am thinking about what I want to do with another build. I'll eventually go back and finish DS2 as I've heard the DLC is awesome but I'd honestly rather play through DS1 again.
Disclaimer: I'm almost done with DS1 (in Oolacile) and am at Shrine of Amana in DS2.
What I like about DS1
- The world feels very cohesive and well put together. It feels believable and the variety in locations really makes each place special/memorable. No two places really feel alike.
- Each area sometimes also has it's own unique strategies that are needed to stay alive
- The boss fights are all memorable, unique and different and it seems like there is great lore associated with most all the bosses so they have a reason to be there.
What I don't like about DS1 (very little)
- Not much explained about the lore but that's not isolated to just DS1.
- Not knowing how to get to the DLC (seriously From...)
- Technical issues like having to use a rendering fix to play the game at proper resolutions. Even with DS fix, there are still graphical glitches like the UI scaling flickering between small and default size and several boss intro cinematics (seath/daughter of chaos) are horribly smeared.
What I like about Dark Souls 2
- Proper techninal port but I overall feel like DS1 is a better looking game... The lighting is not as flat in DS1 as it seems in DS2. Seems like taking out a torch in DS2 makes the lighting turn really good or something weird.
- Voice acting is good and the tutorial area helps more thorougly explain the mechanics of the game vs DS1. Seriously.. 4 or 5 tips from DS1 and then a big ass (literally) boss fight.
What I don't like about DS2
- Here's where I should say the fast travel system you get from the beginning of the game but honestly, the world is not really built to facilitate the back tracking and overlapping paths that DS1 has. DS2's wagon wheel type hub and spoke world design isn't necessarily a BAD thing to me but the big separation between the 2 games when considering this is that I became intimately familiar with every area as I trekked back and fourth before getting the lord vessel.
- In DS2, I would plow through an area and never see it again and honestly forget pretty much most of what that area had, how it was laid out, etc. Only areas I died a lot in remain familiar to me. On the other hand, it does make the world feel MUCH bigger.
- Having instant access to a torch removes the ability to craft fun (lol) areas like grave of giants. Sure it helps new players but Grave of Giants simply couldn't exist if the torch were available to all players. I got incredibly lucky that a necromancer dropped a skull lantern in the crypt as I didn't have the stats to use the light spell and didn't have sunlight maggot by then. It was still really fun with the skull lantern but watching Vinnie try to play through it with nothing seems like it would have been a fun challenge too.
- Bland boss fights! My biggest gripe! I can't recall really any boss fights in the game that have truly grabbed me yet. If someone names a boss in DS2, only a couple of them remind me of the actual fight. Sentinels, looking glass night and to a slightly lesser extent, lost sinner... if you gave me names, I'd be hard pressed to decribe them or the fight or anything like that. Most of the encounters were totally forgettable. Contrast that to DS1 where EVERY. SINGLE. boss fight was something fun and unique and each one I can recall in detail. The Artorias fight in particular was incredible and had me on the edge of my seat.
Anyways, overall I feel like they both had their strengths and weaknesses. I'm enjoying both games but the world of DS1 has totally consumed me and I already am thinking about what I want to do with another build. I'll eventually go back and finish DS2 as I've heard the DLC is awesome but I'd honestly rather play through DS1 again.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Just picked up Scholars of the First Sin on PS4.
We will see how it goes....
We will see how it goes....
Golgo 13
The Man With The Golden Dong
Dark Souls 2 definitely isn't "mediocre", to me that's a strongly hyperbolic statement. In the hype surrounding Dark Souls 1, most people forget the nosedive in quality in the last 1/2 of that game.
Dark Souls 2 is just a different game, to me that's the best way to describe it. Truth be told, I'd say it's a more consistent, deeper, more replayable experience that may not have the wow factor that Dark Souls had, but overall a stronger game. Dark Souls definitely had better bosses though, there's no comparison there.
Dark Souls 2 is just a different game, to me that's the best way to describe it. Truth be told, I'd say it's a more consistent, deeper, more replayable experience that may not have the wow factor that Dark Souls had, but overall a stronger game. Dark Souls definitely had better bosses though, there's no comparison there.
Moon_frogger
Member
Even assuming it's the worst in the series still go for it. It's an awesome game. Pvp is the best.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
I don't get how people forget that Drangleic is basically an amalgamation of Lordran and beyond. A nightmare, a curse of Manus.
Consider how you got to Drangleic. You wandered far, and fell into a vortex. To the best of my knowledge that vortex was in the ruins of what "Drangleic" was, and of the people there nobody had any knowledge of how they arrived in this place, only that they did. And of those people none were residents of the land, all came from abroad and in fact how many people do you meet that were actually locals? I can't think of a single one.
That the geography of the land was messed up is indicative of a land where reality holds no influence. Think of the Dragon Eyrie where the skies are filled with dragons, yet in Dark Souls there is only one true dragon remaining lore wise. Seath betrayed them all. And if you consider the rope bridge in this area as complimentary to the Painted World there are more similarities, and twisted ones at that than at first meets the eye.
I think that Dark Souls 2 intended to spin up the idea of a forgotten realm that was constructed as part of a curse but it was executed poorly.
PensivePen
Member
I feel the same way, I think it has a lot to do with the new animation system they used. It was the first time they used mocap for the series I think and the difference between the other Souls games shows greatly. Things just feel 'off' sometimes.
I agree. Movement in DS1 feels much better. Strangely, I think rolling feels better and less rigid in DS2.