Awesome Wells Plays For You Dark Souls 2

[Awesome Wells]

Here we go.

Some tinkly dour piano music and a warning that I cannot play online mode because I haven't ponied up for XBL. Won't matter yet I shouldn't think.

All very gothic.

I am now a bandit with stubble and an oddly modern JRPG haircut. I look like a pasty used car salesman after the apocalypse riding with the Great Humungous from Mad Max 2!

 

[Awesome Wells]

Terrible tutorial is terrible.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Died twice already. Fell off a ledge that you are meant to cross to learn how to jump, except you can't get back to that ledge. The jump control is horrible; hold down b to dash and then click the LS.

Then a ghoul thing with a club of poison hit me and i died.

Aparently I picked up a torch, but there seems to be no way of telling how to use it since it doesn't show up in the menu as far as I can see.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Made it to a place called Manjula which consists of two people and a giant hole like the one in 300.

One person is a smith who wants a key to oopen his blacksmithery and get his tools. The other is an armourer who sells armour that I have no way of knowing is worthwhile. The game gives no clue as to what the stats mean or how to compare what you have (which is what I started with so probably crap, but it's all attribute dependent), and what you are browsing.

I have died 3 times. It's far too easy to fall off the very narrow ledges and cliffs. I don't really understand why that's possible, it's tedious and of course you can't retrieve your souls. But it's Dark Souls so one is meant to die needlessly.

The setting is so far rather drab. But i guess that's the point.

 

[Sunray]

Dying is an integral part of the game, expect it to happen at all times.

Be better at playing it, you will die less.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Dying I don't care about.

It's just sloppy. The tracking is too loose. You can swing at an opponent in front of you and still miss because you aren't exactly dead on with your arc of swing.

It's very hard to make informed choices about character classes because the game doesn't tell you anything. At all. About how they play. Also they don't tell you that there aren't multiple saves - so you can only have one character active at a time, which is utterly bizarre. As if eschewing sensible game design conventions is a plus! I tried out the cleric and still have no idea how to use her spell (which is limited - 3 heals, and thats it apparently). She seems complete dogshit; no armour, slow two handed mace.

I don't mind retrying the early tutorial part to learn, but why these developers can't be more sensible out things like this I'm not entirely sure.

Also the game is cheap. To say it plays fair would be...overly generous.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Correction: you can have multiple saves.

 

[tommers]

Edit cos I am an idiot.

 

[tommers]

You can hold the mace one handed. Use a talisman to cast her spells.

 

[Awesome Wells]

What talisman? If she has the mace in one hand, it has a red cross appear in the quick menu slot (again something else not explained).

I've tried the sorcerer now. He seems better. But again he has limtied spell uses. Ok, that's fine, but then what? He doesnt do much without them and wearing his wizardly robes makes him even more vulnerable.

Though I suspect, as was the case last time, armour is completely usless. Before I gave upon DS1 (Blighttown, go fuck yourself), i ended up running around in my undead pants because it made stamina recover quicker and made me more agile. Given how much damage everything does, the game shoots itself in the foot here.

I suspect the best class, by a considerable margin, is the sword and shield guy.

But by far the game's biggest problem is that it concedes nothing to the player. Ok, the mobs are hard. That's fine, we can all have a laugh dying over and over, but there is nothing to leverage that against. There is nothing, so far to make me give a damn, and I'm starting to flag already. There is no story, you are a cypher who can't really die (you die you become undead and have less options), the setting is meaningless (so far), there is no narrative, just some obscure stuff about a curse and a place with a bizarre name 'drangleic' which sounds like a brand of whiskey. It's all a little bit 'the emperor's new clothes' so far. Hopefully it will start to draw me in soon, but so far there is nothing properly explained and very little to work with.

 

[tommers]

Yeah. That's kind of the point.

I guess the thing that drew me in to the last one was the challenge. I didn't want to let it beat me. So I stuck at it and there's a point when you suddenly start being able to not die every fight and make some progress.

There's no meaningful tutorial, there's no map, no quest markers. Nobody holds your hand and makes you feel like you're God because you managed to follow basic instructions. You're on your own and if you are going to win then you're going to have to do it yourself.

It's just fundamentally different to any other game. Which is why it is so glorious.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Why is it considered hand holding to make it easier to buy from the armoury? I have no idea if what I'm looking at is any good for my character.

The danger of being so standoffish as a game is that you just put the player off. It's a risky design strategy.

I'm not saying it's a bad game; I'm saying that so far I'm not engaged.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Mdae it to a ruined castle type place next to Manjula (i'm sure that's Apu's wife in the Simpons).

Ruined castles in Dark Souls? Well i never!

There are some large knight type dudes who swing a mean sword. Unfortunately one is right next to the bonfire and has killed me about 5 times. I beat hime once, but another one with a slightly different attack killed me afterward so of course everything respawns.

Each time you die you lose a portion of your max health until you are permanently capped at 50% health.

Frankly this is stupid; they will have to patch this out. It's just ridiculous.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Not really feeling the sorcerer class at all. You have 30 magic bolts or you can issue a stern lovetap with your staff or your offhand weapon (dagger). I don't get it.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Went to the Forest of Lost Giants or something, next to Majula and died about ten times. The lock on system is dreadful and you are constantly flanked or sniped by people you can't see. Cheap.

 

[Sunray]

What DS1 does is let you discover it for yourself, DS2 is more of the same.

But the combat is very tight. Do not be fooled into thinking it's loose because I know it's not. There are a lot of things to consider. E,g, If you remove all your armour for instance you will be very agile indeed. Dodging is a lot easier.

Enemies are always in the same places. Sometime you can run past them to a place when you can fight them one on one. Don't do this on new areas if you have lots of souls. Properly explore areas till you know them inside out. Lots of things to find.

 

[tommers]

Frankly this is stupid; they will have to patch this out. It's just ridiculous.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I have collected 3 human effigies hich undoes this and transforms ou back into human form. I just can't be arsed to use them.

This is the probleem with making a game where the mobs hit you dead in one ot, there's no dynamics to the gameplay. It's set to 11 all he time so why bother changing back when five minutes later I will be dead and penalised anew. Might as well just take the hit, which given how much damage they inflict on my persons, makes no odds whether i'm penalised or not. But really it is a step too far that serves no real purpose, much like the item durability.

The problem with DS is that it uses tediousness as a design choice. That's a risky proposition if you want people to remain interested in your game.

 

[Awesome Wells]

What DS1 does is let you discover it for yourself, DS2 is more of the same.

But the combat is very tight. Do not be fooled into thinking it's loose because I know it's not. There are a lot of things to consider. E,g, If you remove all your armour for instance you will be very agile indeed. Dodging is a lot easier.

Enemies are always in the same places. Sometime you can run past them to a place when you can fight them one on one. Don't do this on new areas if you have lots of souls. Properly explore areas till you know them inside out. Lots of things to find.

Disocvery is great - when it is rewarded and incentivised; when you have a world and a narrative or even just a character to care about. This is not the case here. If you leave every aspect of the game, not just the setting but the mechanics, to be discovered then you risk penalising the player if he makes a mistake (and picking sorcerer is a mistake I think).

Combat is looser; DS had better combat from what i can see so far. The tracking is not quite tight enough at times (not all the time), and you get ambushed constantly from behind. This is cheap. The lock on system is horrible; far too short a range.

 

[Awesome Wells]

I didn't kill the ogre near the start, so I went back and killed him, though he got me a couple of times.

Made it to the first bonfire in Forest of Fallen Giants, past the knight guy with his annoying ambushing mobs who are placed in the most piss awkward locations (round the corner at the top of a narrow winding stair case so you have no time to cast spells or lock on properly).

The game ever so slowly starts to move. I have the blacksmith key, but i still have no idea about buying better gear or how close i am to levelling up. I brought a hat, but it won't let me wear it. I guess sorcerers aren't allowed nice hats.

The lock on system is in dire need of a patch. Honestly if this game was any other franchise it would never have gotten the high scores it has. I predict closer to 70-75% rather than the 90%+ it gets from fanboy journalists.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Moving on i clamber down some narrow (everything is narrow) wooden scaffolding to a courtyard with petrified warriors/statues and more zombie milita guards (i'm guessing they are undead, it's hard to tell who isn't). I am getting proper annoyed with the lock on system, it's dogshit. It cannot target properly or quickly and the game constantly ambushes you which is monstrously cheap. Also becaus eyou both move and change targets with the RS you have no end of hassle keeping one target locked.

i got as far as a cave entrance with some thing at the end, just past a gated room with a flaming longsword (no good for a sorcerer and you can't sell stuff, inexplicably), that spews fireballs. I'm back to being 50% health capped as well. I used one human effigy.

I've no idea how to get past this thing, or even if you're meant to, or even if it's a monster and not a static trap. It's impossible to tell which is frustrating. Dying is one thing; punishing the player for trying to learn is quite another. There is no room to dodge out the way of the fireballs in the cave either and no way to tell if you can push forward to alter the state of play somehow. It doesn't look it.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Some notable progress at last, though I had to look it up on tinternets.

Found some guy who gave me the key to the locked house in Majula and near the bonfire some lady person now can level me up and fix my estus flasks. I don't know what that means or what they are.

The blacksmith is now in residence.

Still no way to deal with all the vendor trash I find. Given that encumbrance is a thing it would be hand to do something with it.

Must, just, stop, dying.

 

[Awesome Wells]

fought the last giant, wasn't too hard.

come up against the pursuer who is just cheap.

this isn't fun at all. i'm losing the desire to play. they ought to have put bonfires next to the bosses.

 

[Awesome Wells]

Muy enjoyment has bottomed out completely. I'm in Bristol tomorrow morning, CEX are probably offering a good price on this.

It's not fun at all.

 

[Sunray]

fought the last giant, wasn't too hard.

come up against the pursuer who is just cheap.

this isn't fun at all. i'm losing the desire to play. they ought to have put bonfires next to the bosses.

The repetition of fighting to somewhere and then dying by getting mullered by a boss is one of the reasons I have to stop playing Dark Souls. Far too tedious.

 

[Awesome Wells]

The repetition of fighting to somewhere and then dying by getting mullered by a boss is one of the reasons I have to stop playing Dark Souls. Far too tedious.

Unfortunately, that's all the game is. There's no reward except having to do it all again!

 

[Disjecta Membra]

Fair enough to do a review of a game (even if u don't like it) but this thread is a little lackluster in all regards review by all means but just a moan ??? if ya don't like it, don't play it. All the things you've talked about are the reason others like it and find it rewarding, but.....anyway.

 

[Awesome Wells]

It wasn't intended as a review. It was just my experience playing the game. Which i have subsequently sold. I maintain it's a dreadful design; I just don't think it workls at all.