The punishing Dark Souls series returns in its second outing.

Here’s our review of Dark Souls II…

The level of difficulty was nigh-on perfect.

The balance was great, but the high difficulty and a notoriously punishing opening put many off.

Has this focus on accessibility robbedDark Soulsof its teeth, though?

At its heart,Dark Souls IIis very similar to its predecessor.

Character types are much the same, as are many of the weapons and environments.

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So, fear not.

It really is the RPG school of hard knocks, and it certainly keeps you on your toes.

This isnt a game where you’ve got the option to run in blindly and expect to succeed.

Try that, and youre doomed.

It takes mastery of combat, parrying, and other skills to survive.

Limited edition

So, whats changed?

The first thing most players will likely notice is the punishment for dying and becoming a Hollow.

When you die as a Hollow youll lose a chuck of your overall health.

Keep dying and youll lose more, until you end up with around half of your maximum health.

This makes for a massive challenge and a punishing death tax.

Healing has also been tweaked.

From Software has balanced this out by adding in other healing items like Lifegems.

Youll have to learn the timings all over again.

And, youll also have to manage your stamina even better than before.

Practise makes perfect, and the careful, wise warrior is the one who survives.

This isnt so much of a problem, right?

Enemies are never ending, respawning after each bonfire use, so theres always someone to practice on?

Defeat foes so many times and youll eventually return to find nothing there.

Enemies soon vanish, never to return, so theres a finite number of souls out there to harvest.

This makes the challenge all the more real, and there are no easy outs this time.

Instead, the game gives you the challenge and says, Come on, then!

No cheating this time.

This can be both a good, and a bad thing.

What if youre only left with places youre struggling with, though?

Is the answer fromDark Souls II, and you just have to deal with it.

Well, thats not entirely true.

A little help?

That said, the new covenant system is still a little cryptic.

A simple description would be nice.

The guy wholl buy items in particular is welcome.

Some areas also present you with hidden ways to make things easier.

One early boss, for example, you have to fight on a small dais over a bottomless pit.

As the boss can easily push you off, this makes for a particularly tough fight.

Those light-fearing creatures bothering you?

Then figure out how to activate that giant chandelier and scare them all away.

That kind of thing.

Another change lies with the levelling system.

What if youre not, though, and come up against a poison threat and have no defence?

Well, at the very beginning of the game you meet three old women.

The covenants, however, change things up.

This time they focus much more on player interaction, somethingDark Soulsalso did, but here its been refined.

Theres even a covenant that lets player summon a blue guardian to deal with invaders on their own.

And remember, this can happen at any time, making it all the more worrisome.

Here, thats not quite so.

Thine eyes!

Usually, Im not one to focus on graphics in games as a major issues.

Its certainly not an ugly game, far from it.

There are areas that are simply stunning, and monsters that are a joy to behold.

However, anyone remembering the games initial reveal in 2012 will surely be scratching their heads.

Only From Software knows.

Is it a result of optimisation to make the game work on last gen hardware?

Was the trade show version of the game an improved PC port to make up for the sloppyDark Souls?

Or, did we actually see the next gen Xbox One and PS4 versions?

Aside from the lack of expected visual polish, though, theres really little to complain about here.

Rating:

5 out of 5