Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin Review – No Quarter

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

Developed by: From Software

Published by: Bandai Namco

Available for: PS4, Xbox One (version reviewed),  PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

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Full disclosure, I was not a From/Souls fan when Dark Souls II originally debuted on last gen consoles and PC. With only a passerby’s knowledge of the series’ punishing difficulty and obtuse mechanics and systems, the Souls games didn’t sound appealing at all. When Bloodborne hit PS4 in late March, I decided to give it a shot, and by the end, I was a changed man. I absolutely adored Bloodborne from start to finish to New Game + to the Chalice Dungeons. When I was offered a chance to review Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin for Xbox One, I jumped at it, wanting to experience another From game in the Souls franchise/vein. After a rough start–a very rough start–I manged to power through and wound up finding a game that was challenging, confounding, rewarding, frustrating, and exhilarating. While Dark Souls II does suffer from some nagging issues, both objective and subjective, I can safely say I came away a fan of not just the game, but the series as a whole.

The story of Dark Souls II, such as it is, revolves around your created character as he or she searches for a cure for being “Hollow” or undead. Traveling to Majula, a settlement of Drangleic, you meet the Emerald Herald who aides you on your quest and serves as your guide–leveling up your character, pointing you in the next direction in the vaguest way possible, etc. She advises you to collect four Primal Souls which will help you find a cure and restore your full humanity.

Nothing too groundbreaking, and the story really just serves as the impetus, giving the player a reason to visit each new area and take on each area’s unique challenges. There is no true tutorial to speak of, save for some tombstones in the opening area that give you general tips on how the controls work and what some of the items do. Beyond that, it’s up to the player to figure everything out, and good luck (!), because every enemy you encounter has a very good chance of killing you, regardless of location or level. And not only can the enemies kill you, exploration and all around daring-do can fell you just as quickly. I fell off a ledge in the opening section of the game and died for my first Achievement, “This is Dark Souls.”

Yep, it’s that kind of party.

What I appreciate about this seemingly innocuous joke, as un-heroic as falling off a ledge is, is it’s a sign of things to come. Death comes quickly and often in the early portions of Dark Souls II, or at least they did for a newcomer like myself. I was prepared for it and accepted it as almost a rite of passage of sorts, a test of my mettle as a lifelong gamer.

In all honesty, having played Bloodborne just prior, I recognized some things immediately. The way the character levels up being the most obvious, how health and stamina are displayed and work, the fundamental attacks and such; all are pretty similar.

For the uninitiated, Dark Souls II offers a variety of options to choose from in creating your character. Classes range from melee characters like a Warrior, Knight, or Swordsman, to ranged/magic users such as a Sorcerer or Bandit. Or even a mix of both in the Cleric. Braver players than me can also choose the Deprived class and start the game with nothing but their fists. (Because I chose to start as a Warrior, all of my opinions regarding combat are based off of that.)

Warriors hit hard but are slow in maneuverability at first. Parrying is key for certain enemies, and in all honesty, after 85 or so hours, I still never mastered it. I became, instead, much better at timing my dodges and using the invincibility frames (frames of animation where you can’t take damage) to mitigate my lack of parrying skills. At first I went for smaller weapons that depleted less stamina, but because I could swing more, they more or less evened out. That is, until I discovered heavy weapons like the halberd and greatswords, both of which eat up a lot of stamina with every swing but pack a devastating wallop. I also opted for a crossbow for ranged attacks that aid in taking down enemies from afar or at least drawing them away from the mob to make fights much more manageable.

Every enemy you kill, or that basically dies in your vicinity, gives you souls, which can be turned into the Emerald Herald to level up or used as currency with vendors and blacksmiths. Unlike most modern games, where the most severe penalty for dying is restarting from a checkpoint, Dark Souls II (and the Souls games in general) penalizes you for dying by taking away your collected souls, leaving them in a bloodstain right where you died to be retrieved. This also means that all of the enemies that you cleared before must be killed again. If you die before you pick up your souls, they’re gone forever. While this does mean that you could potentially double or triple the amount of souls you had before you died, it also means that you could be starting from zero.

It should also be noted that when you die, you lose your humanity and become Hollow (undead) and each time you die without restoring your humanity, your maximum health depletes all the way down to fifty percent of your maximum as a human. Coupled with the risk/reward of losing your souls upon death, Dark Souls II makes the entire experience much more dire yet that much more rewarding when you succeed. However, in the early portion of the game, I will admit that the penalty of death made me much more risk averse in terms of exploration, which is something these games excel at.

Exploring the world of Drangleic in search of the Primal Souls to cure your curse offers all manner of challenges and discovery. The world of Drangleic is massive and just about the most inhospitable place I have ever encountered. Nearly everything and everyone wants to kill you, and I mean everything. Even statues and pots want to kill you. Not only do they want to kill you, they can. Managing your encounters can make a world of difference between being Hallowed or human and can cost you thousands of souls. On more than one occasion, a seemingly “easy” threat was able to get a killing blow on me before I could make it back to my bloodstain and retrieve my souls–all because I didn’t properly manage the encounters and “aggroed” more than one enemy. Oh, and watch your footing because you can fall to your death just as easily.

The early environments around Majula are all fairly similar (wooded, stone buildings, and so on), but venturing deeper and further away means seeing some truly interesting architecture and level design. One particular standout is Heide’s Tower of Flame, a ruined city constructed on the sea with whole sections having collapsed, leaving narrow walkways and few structures. You can see the remnants of what was once a pristine and beautiful civilization now inhabited by soldiers of death and ruin.

I should also mention that I feel I arrived at this location entirely under-leveled and underprepared for its challenge, so much so that I nearly put the controller down for good. Had it not been that I was committed to this review, I would have. Instead, I used the game’s mechanics to make the area more manageable: Killing an enemy 12 times stops them from spawning in the area and only by using an in-game item at a bonfire–a Bonfire Ascetic–can you reset them. Doing so also irreversibly makes the enemies, including the bosses, harder. Keep that in mind should you choose to farm souls and such.

After my tedious wearing down of the Heide’s Tower of Flame’s spawns, I finally got help from a friend who aided me in one of the tougher portions of the section. Doing so enlightened me to an aspect of the game I hadn’t even considered and wound up making it infinitely more enjoyable for me–co-op. Yes, I know there are dyed-in-the-wool Souls fans that would rather die in real life than play these games co-op. Even I never used the feature once in Bloodborne. But for Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, I found it to be crucial and quite fun. Standing on a glowing glyph and calling in a random player to help felt every bit as rewarding as doing it solo, even if only because you know the other person was a cool enough individual to want to help.

And it’s not just playing with real people. The in-game NPC summons proved to be invaluable in certain situations as well. Be it clearing out a particularly tough area (and there are many) for a limited time as a Shade or running through an entire level, including the boss fight with a Phantom (Phantoms remain with you until you or they either die or kill the boss), summoning was the secret sauce to my overall enjoyment.

You can restore your humanity by either using a Human Effigy, which are limited in quantity, or by successfully aiding another player in co-op. A particularly smart decision regarding summoning is that it helps both parties. Successfully completing your time as a Shade or Phantom will restore your humanity should you need it to. It’s also a great source of souls. Plus, I often received a great deal of satisfaction in helping a fellow player. It’s a great feature, and I used it often throughout my main campaign playthrough.

Just as you can join other players to aid them, you can also invade them to kill them. I found this to be a truly obnoxious portion of the game every time it happened, even if I successfully vanquished them or not. To me, this is the ultimate trolling experience–to purposefully invade someone’s good time and attempt to ruin it. If that sounds like a good time to you, cool. I, however, never did it once in my entire game and never would. I’m just not wired that way.

Bosses are the main attraction in these games, and in all honesty, I found many of them to be disappointing from an artistic perspective. Far too many are armored, oversized humanoid enemies that swing a sword or a spear. Only a handful stood out as truly unique and inspired, which is surprising given my experience with Bloodborne and the reputation these games have for their bosses.

It should be stated that while I do like a great deal of the level design, graphically, Dark Souls II isn’t a looker, even on current gen consoles. Textures and lighting leave a lot to be desired, and more often than not, the game looks like what it is: a last-gen port with better resolution and framerate. I grew used to it over time, but aesthetically, Dark Souls II didn’t make a great first impression.

Sound, on the other hand, is top-shelf. The voice acting, as sparse as it is, is all quite good, and each voice actor definitely gives each NPC a unique personality. Ambient sounds are also stellar throughout, with each unique environment having a sense of place enhanced by both diagetic and non-diagetic. Each portion of Drangleic sounds unique.

While combat is more often rewarding that it’s not, some of the controls feel sluggish and wonky. For example, dodging feels like there is a latency effect between pressing the button and the action on screen, even when wearing lighter armor. Understandably, this is a design decision, and once figured out, it becomes much easier to pull off, but in a combat-heavy game like Dark Souls II, I would have preferred a slightly more precise and responsive control scheme. Targeting can be problematic as well. Clicking the left stick will target a visible enemy and the right stick will switch targets, but at times, targeting would grab an enemy much further away and lock on, pulling my character in the wrong direction. This led to a few unnecessary deaths. Like dodging, it too became easier to manage over time, but it never felt intuitive.

As I mentioned earlier, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin offers a sizable chunk of world to explore and challenges to face. Towards the end of the campaign, I was actually anxious to end the game. So much so that I skipped two optional bosses and only attempted the first section of the seamlessly-included DLC. This could be in part that many portions of the world seem closed off and not one gigantic, sprawling world where everything is connected. Many times it felt like From kept adding ideas and sections to the game simply because they wanted to. Some judicious editing would have made the game tighter overall, because by the end, I felt like Dark Souls II was overstaying its welcome.

All in all, these are relatively minor gripes when so much of Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is so enjoyable. The game offers a significant challenge for patient players, frustration for those less patient players, a surfeit of content and world to explore, and some truly memorable boss encounters. Uncompromising in its ideas, systems, and design, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin truly is a remarkable experience that only those willing to meet it on its own terms should play, but those that do are in for a good time.

(A digital copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes)