Dark Souls II review

[SAV1OUR]

well its been 3 weeks now after the console release so i think its time i write up a review
 

so ill be covering a few things

stats

new mechanics

PVE
PVP

co op

 

Stats

so ALLOT has changed this time around especially the players stats. so ill go though each one

Vigor - its the new vitality each point invested will increase your overall health

Endurance - determines your over all stamina eg how long you can run for before your endurance bar runs out

Vitality - this used to be your players HP in the previous 2 games new it works out your equip load before you slow roll
(side note rolling. as long as you stay above the 70% load you will fast roll over it you will slow roll)
Attunement - same as the other games this govens the slots you have to have spells

Strength - same as it was in dark souls and demon souls govens if you can use a weapon that requires allot of strength and effects damage scaling

Dexterity - like strength but works out how much of a dex requiring weapon you can use and effects its damage scaling

Adaptability - now this is a bombshell in pve and pvp. if you ever played dark souls 1 this is the new dark wood grain ring and poise all in one. while pose may not work most of the time if you were to stack 20+ in this stat you will be able to roll though ALLOT of attacks due to the increase in inadvisability frames 

Intelligence - effects how much of a int requiring spells you can use and effects int scaling weapons and increase magic deference

Faith - effects how much faith requiring spells you can use and boosts miracle deference

more detail into the stats below

New mechanics
lets start off with agility. increasing this stat will increase your I frames during your rolls, if you were to stack 20+ into this stat you will be rolling though most attacks depending if you time it right. (in my opinion needs to be fixed)

poise nothing much to say here it scales with your agility and like dark souls 1 still doesn't work  (needs to be fixed) 

life gem(s) if anyone played demon souls these are the need grass but not as broken there's no dark moon grass

equip load. this has changed allot now as long as your above the 70% mark you will be fast rolling below this you will be fat rolling

re specing. be happy people no longer do we have to run though the game to make a new build, once you find a item (sorry slight spoiler) called the soul vessel you can give it to one of the ladys at the start of the game in re turn she will allow you to re allocate you builds stats but only to the same soul level you were.

soul memory. this effects both co op and pvp. this is a total of all the souls you have collected over the game so you can only connect with people with around the same soul memory as you but once you go the ng+ soul memory no longer matters you can connect to anyone that's above you soul level and a few levels below. from what i understand this was put in place to prevent twinking (people with over leveled gear at low soul levels)

 

PvE

AMAZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZING. if your a pve person you will be having nerd gasms for days. few things that have changed are you can only kill any mob 12 times before they stop respawning also in ng+ red phantoms red phantoms everywhere. bringing back the demon souls style

PvP

now this is coming from a big pvpers perspective

welp its broken lets get that out first. the fact that you can stun lock people to death with your fists is a good example. im not going to list everything thats broken because the list just goes on and on, last sad news about pvp i want to mention is remember when namco sad they were working on making it almost imposable to back stab well you still can just as easily and now you can 1 shot with a strength weapon (woot).

what has changed is how you get to invade. when you join one of the 2 pvp convents (not going to spoil their names) you have to fight another player in a arena to earn your cracked eye orb in order to invade another world. sadly there's no point to doing random invasions if you have no form of healing like life gems etc now you either have to use your stash of effigys (new humanity) or spec into faith healing spells.

 

Co op

few things have changed. now summons can heal with estus and gems. also there are 2 types of white signs a shade were you only have a limited amount of time in the hosts world and large white sign where you stay for a longer (currently unknown period of time) until you kill the areas boss

 

my opinion

as much as love the pve (currently have my main sitting at ng++) the games broken like every other game they have made. i know it has only been 3 weeks but i am willing to place some faith in namco in fixing the games pvp and i cant wait for pc release i hope we are in for something special

feel free to leave some feed back as this is my first review

 

 

credit goes to brandon505 (http://www.twitch.tv/brandon505) aka orborotheninja for the video

[One Who Craves Souls]

Nice review. I'm a huge fan of the Souls franchise, this one has a few features like Demon's Souls and I like that. Can't wait to get my hands on the PC version, I got the collector's edition pre-ordered. You gonna update this review when you get your hands on the PC version right?

[SAV1OUR]

Nice review. I'm a huge fan of the Souls franchise, this one has a few features like Demon's Souls and I like that. Can't wait to get my hands on the PC version, I got the collector's edition pre-ordered. You gonna update this review when you get your hands on the PC version right?

already played the game (playing on xbox) ill make a second one in a few months when most people have played is so i dont spill the beans on the the story

[Guest]

On the Coop you might want to mention that it's much easier to play with friends now.

[SAV1OUR]

not all the time soul memory has f*cked most connections 

[One Who Craves Souls]

Well, at gamespot they're showing off the PC version and supposedly the only changes are going to be full HD and higher fps(60). No higher textures like From Soft said... I really wish that the final version includes at least the lighting system they showed us at E3.