As I noted earlier, if there was any doubt that From Software was making Dark Souls II “easier”, all one had to do was play the demo build that’s making the rounds (it was a huge hit at this year’s E3 as well as the more recent San Diego Comic-Con) to be shown the error of misreading that quote from one of the game’s directors a few months back. The game isn’t “easy” at all, but more accessible in terms of getting you into the action quicker, getting rid of backtracking yet upping the scale of the maps to an impressive degree. As to the demo, it’s brutal but beatable and although I didn’t make it to the gigantic knight boss, I did stick around for a bit to watch a few fellow editor types step up to the plate, swing and miss wildly, their chosen characters dying in a few not so pretty ways…

Although the demo was fantastic and it was awesome and hilarious playing it and dying horribly then watching others play and also die horribly, I actually hate playing games like this at press events for a few reasons.
From’s two other Souls games require a great deal of personal investment in that you need to be tanned, rested and ready before diving into the fray. Playing standing up at a press event with a few people eyeballing you is somewhat disturbing, as it’s like having a audience at a public humiliation. OK, only the onscreen avatar is getting punished, I’ll admit… but it’s still a bit embarrassing failing so miserably at a game so well designed to do your character in. When I play one of these games, I hunker down with a pot of coffee or tea, a meal already eaten and no distractions whatsoever. I take my time, carefully making my way through a map, running like hell away from some encounters or taking time to dispatch anything that will come after me when I leave a room and try to make it to that next bonfire…

The four playable classes in the build were fun to use and the demo’s brutal level of challenge put down many editors before they made it past the first few rooms of the demo dungeon with only one guy actually able to put enough of a dent in the health bar of that giant armored knight boss. For someone so damned huge and clanking around in a big shiny suit or armor (and equipped with a lightning blasting sword and stupidly large shield that resembled a massive silver serving tray), that knight certainly moved too quickly and required some deft dodging and rolling to survive more than a minute against. Brian Hong, the game’s marketing whiz noted that only one out of a hundred journalist were able to beat the demo at E3 and during the game’s time at San Diego Comic-Con, only six of over a thousand people who played it were able to defeat the boss.

Hong also noted that From was actually really surprised that both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls were so well received by gamers, noting that they only wanted to make a challenging game on their own terms. The thing is, when you’ve been making video games as long as From Software has, the level of quality and dedication tends to creep into your work and players who “get” it REALLY see how brilliant your work is thanks to everything working like a well oiled machine. I’m a longtime fan of the developer’s work since the King’s Field days and the Souls series can be seen as the logical extension of those older titles with superior visuals and even more deadly creatures, traps and environments.

That the Souls games are insanely tough and happen to demand players’ full attention to every detail from eyeballing nooks and crannies for traps and reanimated corpses or listening to the sound design for telltale noises of something newly animated stalking you from behind is also a key to their success. Particularly in an era where too many games toss casual and hand-holding tutorials into the mix as standard issue and barely let up with helpful hints that make those experiences more like guided tours in a darkened theme park. Dark Souls II isn’t letting go of the relentless nature the series is known and loved for at all, so you’ll want to get in some serious meditation time between now and next March or so when the game arrives on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Me, I’ll probably play both games again back to back… but maybe during the daytime on the next few runs, as they tend to give me some pretty creepy dreams (Over-sized rats, bony dragon skeletons and huge gargoyles, anyone?)…

Screenshot Gallery