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Dark Souls II- Hands On

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Last month a beta edition of Dark Souls II opened up for a handful of lucky players, giving fans the chance to try out the game without the need for heading along to an expo or having an inside source over at FromSoftware.Playstation Plus subscribers were recently given the chance to participate in another open beta, an opportunity I was happy to grab with both hands. I woke up early on my relaxing Sunday morning, fired up the software, picked my character class, and got down to playing.

Initially, the most striking points are just how good it looks, and how it much it clearly owes to Dark Souls. The graphical overhaul has gotten a great deal of attention since the first images and trailers started coming out. The original Dark Souls is certainly an incredibly beautiful game, with a richly detailed world and a standard of design that few, if any, other titles can match. However many might suggest that it suffered a little from hardware limitations, meaning areas like Blighttown suffered from crippling levels of lag on top of the nail-biting frustration of getting through them in one piece.

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Dark Souls II offers up a nice level of polish, with more detailed animations, smoother motion, and a heap of extra detail. The standard Dark Souls atmosphere is entirely present and correct; in my short time with the game I traversed the crumbling ruin of a fort, and struggled through a dark and atmospheric forest area crawling with dangerous enemies. The new dynamic lighting is suitably impressive in motion, throwing rays of light dancing around a room on igniting a bonfire and making the darkness of some areas seem even more threatening.

It’s difficult to judge how this will play out in the full game, but the areas available in the beta (at least those that I reached in my short time with it) were almost pitch black in parts. The limited line of sight in what I saw of the ruins and surrounding woods reminded me most of the first game’s Tomb of the Giants, with dangerous hidden enemies waiting to rush out if you got too close. A cautious approach when exploring was a must. Estus, soapstones, and humanity (or Human Effigies) made a return as well. So far, so Dark Souls.

Animations have been spruced up nicely too, which leads neatly on to some of the gameplay differences. The animations for rolling, estus drinking et al, are much less forgiving than they were in the first game. More than once I was caught out by enemies when my roll didn’t carry me as far back as I’d thought, or when my knight spent that extra split-second chugging his estus. It meant that the combat didn’t feel as speedy as Dark Souls, instead owing more to its precursor Demon’s Souls.

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Enemies are also far more aggressive this time around, displaying a frightening level of adaptability when it comes to countering your dodges and attempts at backstabs. Carelessly on a lone beast is a dangerous proposition, while battling a group is nigh-on suicidal. The Demon’s Souls comparison is further boosted by the fact that each death sees a certain amount cut off your health bar, making areas even more treacherous until you’re able to revert to human form.

But then combat is much more flexible now. Bows have been given an overhaul, meaning they’re now a fun and exceptionally handy option in fights, while duel-wielding weapons is clearly going to have a transformative effect on the combat system. Tying together combos with different weapons is a speedy thrill, but incredibly risky when leaving yourself unguarded. It’ll be interesting to see what effect that has on the vocal PvP community Dark Souls enjoys.

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Sadly I wasn’t able to sample the summoning side of things this time around, thanks to networking problems on FromSoftware’s servers. Thankfully, the issues mean that they’ve agreed to put on another network test for PS3 owners on the 10th of November, meaning everyone will get another chance to spend some time getting a feel for the game.

Overall it’s clear that Dark Souls II is shaping up to be something special. It’s impossible to read too much into what we’ve played here and what the finished game will end up featuring; this is just a network test after all, and the game isn’t due until March next year. But even after a short period of time with it a lot of initial fears have been allayed. The game remains as hard as ever, as atmospheric as its predecessors, and judging by the amount on show here, will be bursting with content and secrets to discover. This may have just offered a small taste, but it was an almost unbearably enticing one.

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