DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin

Lore is great, atmosphere is great, gameplay is beyond trash.

For everything it did right, it did seven things wrong:
Bad bosses, bad enemies, bad levels, and bad mechanics.
And for the people defending this game, you're either so clouded by nostalgia that you'd somehow find a way for rape to be nostalgic, or you're so mentally challenged that you know the difference between a good and bad tasting glass window

Dark Souls 2 gets a lot of hate but this game is great. There is so much content in this game and maybe its not as refined as the other titles but it is certainly still worth playing. Not for the faint of heart but if you are a souls fan and have not yet played this game you should.

worst of the souls games unbalanced and the worst mecahnics. too slow and dumb bosses

This is so much more angering than ds1 and ds3 combined if you hate yourself 10/10 thats why I play it.

this game is good but not as good as 1 maybe its as good or worse or better than 3 i don't know yet i will see but i do reccomend it i like it play it yes i like this game

Not bad. Has a lot of charm. I got this one cuz the normal one was full price. This was on sale. I like it. Its fun.
I mostly picked this up after watching "things only Dark Souls 2 did" video.

My only issues after almost 5 hours, Im still doing 20 damage and everyone got 300 plus health. The starting area is rough. Im finally doing 100 damage per hit so now it doesnt take 10 minutes to take out a guy. My other issue is its extremely confusing but almost in a good way. The level designs are fresh and interesting but the rewards and fights are just not balanced. I know this game has been out for a long time. I beat Elden Ring several times by now. Its really hard to call the game balanced with the starting class and the first area. Still I respect the games hidden secrets and characters. The world design and art is amazing. A lot of this game is amazing. But the actually fighting feels very unfair. I am impressed by how many changes from dark souls 1 to dark souls 2. They really went all out.

Overall, recommend for all the cool unique ideas and world building. The game itself, combat, the price of items, feels very unbalanced. I mostly want to keep going cuz every corner of this game has a secret and Im just blown away by how many hidden areas theyre are.

Anyone who says this game is still good despite its many shortcomings might be mentally challenged. If you're into terrible enemy placement and artificial difficulty (hordes of enemies in tight spaces) this game is perfect for you, ya weirdo. Have fun with the boss run backs!

Clunky combat, terrible controls, the controls fight you harder than the enemies, and the camera twists and jerks like it’s possessed. Invasions while hollowed? Brilliant. Nothing like being kicked when you’re already dead inside.

This game is a huge slog to get through unlike the other games in the Souls Series, enemy placements don't make much sense, bosses are either too easy or a gank squad, hit boxes are questionable at best and all your weapons are made of cardboard. I played both SOTFS and 1.0 and definitely liked vanilla more than Scholar, I don't hate Ds2 and did have some fun but comparing this to the others in the series it's just not as fun.

Bearer of the Curse... Let me say, i did go into this game negative af. Seen a lot of vids on yt on why this is the worse game in the series. I'll say this, while some if not a lot of criticism it true ESPECIALLY how many gank squads in here and some awful hitboxes, and of course leveling ADP, the biggest gripe is if you play on k+m (and i changed all binds to be more like the controls in ds1-3 and Elden ring respectfully) the option for "double click mouse disabled" is a must. It will make attack instant with no delay. The only problem is every time you close app and re-launch it you will manually have to switch off the double click disable and turn it on again because some reason it reverts back to being off even when it still says its activated. Beside this the game was still fun. Majula is probably my second favorite hub in the series. The story is loosely its own thing although there are clear call backs to DS1. There is a lot of cheap deaths but that didnt really make it unbearable or too annoying. The areas are not as well woven and sometimes confusing af, often asking yourself where tf to even go but the environments themselves are pretty cool and the art direction is more dark fantasy this time around imo. The Bosses are hit and misses, but nothing i would call bad except for maybe three of them. The DLC'S are bangers, but the frigid outskirts is dogwater lol. The weapons/Spells/Hexes/Miracles and armor are bountiful and the covenants are still a grind. Its simultaneously the easiest Dark souls and the hardest do to the punishment of having your health taken each death as a hollow, but how many life gems you got can make you invincible non stop healing which makes it kinda cheapened, however flask now take time to heal you and you stand still as opposed to life gems let you walk while using one. Last new game+ is handled a little different along with bonfires and humanities.

Finally if you played elden ring and dark souls 1-3 and avoided this one because of the negatives surrounding it, take it with a grain of salt. It is different and has flaws, but its definitely NOT a bad game at all. This definitely had very fun moments and good levels and enemy designs, the darker fantasy vibe was well done and i had FUN. Give Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin 8.5/10

Decent but worse than ds1.
Playable with 25adp otherwise you have 0 i-frames on roll and you die mid roll animation.
However there is no i-frames on actions like going through the fog to boss or pulling levers, gl with that.
No ultrawide screen support. Game also occasionally breaks display settings and can increase size of all open windows under the game.
Enemy aggro range is entire zone and chasing range is entire game map so you can't skip most of enemies.
Rapiers are balanced but bonk is too later on.
Two handing everything because shields are overrated.
If you plan do souls run - get this one on discount.

this game is one of the best souls games in my opinion but i under stand it is not for every one i would like to say if you are unsure about playing this game because of all the hate it gets i think you should still give it a try and it will probably suck at the start of the game but if you push trough you may end up really enjoying the game (ps great sword and ultragreat sword builds are some of the best builds in the game and they carried me through my first play through)

Even with the weird stamina nerf, the vulnerable fog walls, the really bad health reduction on death system, the extremely slow and exposing animations, the weak final boss, the fact your Hoilow goes bald after a few deaths, and the incomprehensible addition of the ADP stat, I still loved this game.

8/10

I was hesitant going into this one since it gets a lot of hate, but honestly I really loved it.

I think the game is set up expecting players to make versatile builds (e.g. not just specializing in pure melee or pure sorcery) with how may levels it gives. I like this because in other games I usually felt the slightly forced to specialize. However, for players who would not want to do this, the amount of fights with enemy snipers or hoards could become incredibly infuriating.

Additionally, the bosses (with several notable exceptions) were quite underwhelming, even if only compared to DS1. I think focusing less on the quantity of bosses(cuz damn there's a lot) and more on making each feel interesting would have made it much more exciting.

This game offers an impressive experience overall, though not without its flaws. One of the standout elements is its accessibility. I managed to defeat most bosses on my first or second try. While some may see this as a testament to the game’s fairness, it also points to a relatively straightforward boss design. The movesets, while elegant and effective, are often easy to read and predict.

That said, there were several encounters that stood out as particularly memorable. Among my favorites were the Looking Glass Knight, Mytha, Sir Alonne, and the Fume Knight.

The game’s atmosphere is another strong point. Majula, in particular, deserves special praise—it stands out as one of the most beautiful and atmospheric hub areas I’ve encountered in the entire series.

The arsenal of weapons is impressive, but i’ve got the game using only katanas :)

As for the world design, the locations themselves are visually distinct and enjoyable to explore. However, the connections between them occasionally feel disjointed, which can detract from the sense of a cohesive world, BUT some areas left a lasting impression—especially the Shrine of Amana.

For now, I plan to finish with DLC content and then tackle NG+ and NG++ in order to try other builds and get the plat as well.

Dark Souls II is a great game, no doubt. It's beautiful, challenging, and has its own unique charm. However, it's far from perfect and can be pretty frustrating at times. The hitboxes often feel off, leading to unfair hits, and the gank situations—where enemies team up to stunlock you to death—can feel cheap and unforgiving. Compared to Dark Souls 1, the environments, bosses, and story don’t have quite the same magic or allure.

At first, the game feels clunky; the movement and controls can take some getting used to. But if you stick with it, there's a truly beautiful game waiting beneath the rough edges. It's actually amazing when you realize that the developers only had around a year to put this together. With patience, you find yourself adjusting, and the game becomes a memorable experience you won’t soon forget.

One thing that might disappoint some players is how the game’s difficulty curve flattens out as you go along. The bosses become somewhat repetitive, often just big guys in armor or humanoids with predictable movesets. I never really felt "stuck" in the same way I did in other Souls games, which meant that some victories felt less rewarding. However, New Game Plus flipped that on its head and gave me a real challenge that humbled me fast.

Then there’s the ending, and wow—that’s where it truly hit me. The theme that plays during the ending is beautiful, and it’s something I still listen to even outside of the game. It was the best reward I could’ve asked for after pushing through all the frustrations, struggles, and victories. Dark Souls II may have its flaws, but it’s a game worth playing, and one that stays with you.

There's a reason this company has never been in charge of a souls game after this... lets put a thousand enemies outside of almost every boss room. And lets make it so you can be hit crossing through a fog wall. Super smart moves...

Nowhere near as bad as the internet will have you believe. I really think that the people who hate this game are just too attached to the mechanics in Dark Souls 1 (DS1) and 3 (DS3) and failed to adapt. There's also a lot of misinformation regarding its "unfairness", for some reason.

It certainly has its flaws and questionable design decisions at certain points, and visually it's a downgrade from the first game. But I personally enjoyed it more than DS3, which I feel tried too hard to emulate DS1.

If you're a Soulsborne fan, you should play it. Be open to its weirdness, and form your own opinion on it.

It is more linear and has less flashy level design than DS1, but it is a solid soulslike nonetheless. Feels a bit simple compared to newer entries in the genre, but it is still great. The gameplay changes from 1 to 2 feel correct, but the lore is less pronounced this time around.

This is a difficult one to review. The early and mid portions of this game are actually quite fun, but the game drags on for way to long and in the end game the technical fallacies and some design choices (4-directional movement, inconsistent lock-on, loss of health on death, etc.) get really annoying. Definitely the worst one of the soulsborne games. But its worth a try if you played all the other soulsborne games and it is not as bad as many say.

I've never heard a legitimately substantial negative review about this game that's wholly true.

"But adp!" counterbalanced by having the easiest leveling in the series by a longshot, you can effortlessly bang out solid adp basically right at the start of the game

"But ganks!" most of which have to be rallied together manually, you have to TRY to make the ganks unmanageable. Still, that doesn't matter, because this is the only souls game wherein enemy spawns are limited and then manually refreshable whenever you want them back.

"But health reduction on death!" which is comparatively less of a detriment to you than your ability to snuff enemy spawns is to their ranks; you don't need any amount of health when there's nobody left to challenge you.

"But I can't aggro everybody in an area and then make myself vulnerable to them without dying!" What.

"But I don't wanna fight enemies at all! Let alone deplete enemy spawns! That's so boorinnnggg!" Listen Asskickaton Prime, I get that you have preferences, but why are you playing the fight-stuff game?

"But how could we take an elevator up from a tower into a lava lake? Bad level design, much?" Complete oversight. Fromsoft had no clue what kind of vibe they were going for with the flow between environments, and certainly never legitimately intended for there to be any kind of funky dissonance there. You are utterly vindicated, totally gottem there! bad game indeed.

"Nope! Game's too hard, this is all artificial difficulty! >:(" It takes like 4 seconds to kill most enemies, you don't even need a specialised build for that kind of damage. You're literally handed some of the easiest build variety in the entire franchise bar elden ring, while maintaining the ability to completely remove the most problematic enemies from the equation if you focus them down often enough. This isn't even "le funny souls fan elitism xdd", this shit is easier than most games; if you can move, attack, and adapt even just a little bit, you pretty much can't hit a wall.

Not that you aren't allowed to dislike the game, that's whatever, but I'm talking to the people who are hesitant to get into this one because people won't stfu about how "objectively indefensibly bad" the game as a whole is because they got burned for their poor decisionmaking or whatever. Elden Ring's issues run circles around DS2's, but everybody adores that one. DS1 got popular for being anti-gamerbrain; it beats zen into your skull until everything clicks. So did this one, so did DS3. This one wasn't as lenient about running from your problems though, and so it became easy to dogpile as if people never learned anything from the first entry.

Just finished the 3 dlcs along with the main story. It was my first souls experience, enjoyed every bit of it. Had no idea it was hated by the fandom, I wonder if they played the same game as I did cause in my opinion this is a near-perfect game. Highly recommend.

This is my favorite souls-like game.

It has plenty of questionable design decisions (IE: Adaptability) but it has far more redeeming and endearing qualities.

In my opinion, it has many of the best looking armor sets in the series, the most memorable environments, and the single best boss fight in all the FromSoftware games. And while many of the characters aren't as charming or interesting as others in the series, it all contributes to a cohesive experience and a compelling storyline that reflects the core values of the Dark Souls franchise. The gameplay may take a little getting used to, but it is rarely (but occasionally!) unfair.

Negatives include a poorly designed online matchmaking system (known as soul memory), the aforementioned adaptability stat that affects the player's rolling invincibility frames, and occasionally questionable hitboxes (although its predecessor wasn't known for its fair hitboxes either). The hollowing mechanic can be annoying to interface with, especially for newer players. Level design is consistently appealing, but there are certainly a few areas that are a little obnoxious and many areas that are downright confusing. And many boss fights have external factors (occurring outside the boss room) that affect the difficulty of the fight in question, which might make the fight seem unfair if overlooked.

Overall, I believe this is the most rewarding experience out of all the FromSoftware souls-like games! But I do concede that its design can appear hostile to many players, so while I would recommend this game it would be with the caveat that it's an experience that improves with understanding of the game. Veterans of the series should feel at home here, and new players should be prepared to face adversity, confusion, and the possibility of making decisions that have unforeseen possibly negative repercussions.

this doesnt get enough hate

-weak ass bosses
-terrible hitboxes
-bad level design compared to other entries like ds1 or bloodborne. they are not interconnected. they are just several branches connecting to the same place (majula)
-boring environmental design
-cant see shit in some areas and they thought this was a good design choice?
-plot is irrevelant to other souls games and side characters are not memorable.
-UGLY ahh graphics. seriously how did you guys manage to make your game look worse than ds1?
-Octagonal movement system.Like...wtf?

its still a souls game, better than your average 3a shit so

7/10...

At first glance, the game can be a lot tedious but if you persist and check the wiki for some guidance (or a friend who has played the game), it can be a nice journey!!

The best of the three souls games. Better graphics than the first, and an original setting and characters (unlike the third). While DS1 has more iconic characters, I felt much more invested in the storylines of characters in this game. The aesthetic of the game is also generally more appealing, as it doesn't feel like everything sucks and is hopeless.

Don't let anyone tell you this game sucks. I am playing it for the first time and I am personally having a blast. I started with Elden Ring then went on to play DS3 and DS1 Remasterd. I am now on DS2 and for me it has been so much fun. Maybe I am missing something since I am not deep into the game yet but so far for me it has been a blast. I would give it a shot if you are on the fence about getting this game or not. 8.5/10 IMO

There is no doubt in my mind that if I played this solo I would've rated it negative. Because I played with friends, I had a good time and was laughing a lot. Also laughing because the game is seriously just so bad at times I can't help but laugh. But everyone who said this game was bad was 100% correct. But, there's also so many good ideas and additions and I genuinely believe that if it got remade and removed some of the awful things it COULD be seriously good. I feel like a good way to describe this game is 2 steps forward, but 10 steps back...

But I can't talk all trash about DS2. This game really did start some of the best QoL features of the souls games like teleporting between fires, the estus flask upgrade system, and powerstancing. They also implemented some other stuff that I seriously wish were in future games like lifegems, bonfire ascetics, pharros lockstones/branches of yore, weapon-unique backstab animations, being able to get some covenant items outside of covenants, small soapstones which allow co-op after the boss is dead, and max heals while in co-op. As well, the level design is fun, the included DLCs are the best part of the game, and NG+ actually changes up some stuff which is very nice.

But, unfortunately, there are way more things that I really don't like. A lot of these are the reason why so many people trash on 2 compared to 1 & 3. I seriously believe that if they fix/remove a lot of this stuff DS2 could've been one of the best souls games:

• The amount of enemies is ridiculous. You will walk into a room and face like 5-8 enemies at once. They also can see you from so far away and will follow you forever.
  
• The movement overall feels awful. Jumping feels decent though. As well, the controls are not great and the fact there's a bug where if you use KBM, every time you launch the game you have to go back into settings and enable double clicking. If you don't, you won't be able to spam click left click to attack.
  
• Soul memory. If you plan to play co-op, you and your friend must be in the same range or your out of luck. No farming allowed unless your friend also is, because then there's a chance you cannot summon.
  
• Having no multiplayer passwords is very inconvenient. Sure, the Name-Engraved Ring ever so slightly fixes this. But why? Also there's a time limit in multiplayer, which the ring also improves, but STILL...
  
• When going back to your world after co-op, you don't get your durability or heals back without sitting down at a bonfire. Just inconvenient.
  
• You have to stand still to use an estus flask like in DS1 but the heal is SO slow that sometimes you just die after popping the flask. Infuriating.
  
• Being able to get invaded while hollow. But you still have to be human to co-op?! Luckily not many people play this game anymore so it doesn't happen as much as you'd think.
  
• Constantly can't get into servers, but there's always under 3,000 people playing. Says they are unavailable. Gotta click retry like 5+ times every time I launch the game
  
• No invulnerability frames while opening doors, chests, or pulling levers. Really infuriating especially with the enemy spam.
  
• Enemies will no longer spawn after a certain amount of kills, and you must use a bonfire ascetic/go to NG+ to farm them again.
  
• Even though I really like the pharros lockstones and branches of yore, there are WAY more doors then keys. Which is a very bizarre decision.
  
• Adaptability. A stat that you must pump up to level 24 just so you have the same amount of invulnerability frames like in DS1 and DS3. Why??
  
[*]Last but not least, there's simply just not enough stamina in this game. Avoiding enemies attacks can sometimes take all your stamina after like 2 rolls. Also negative stamina punishes you so hard.

Playing this game vanilla, I have gotten a lot more bs than fun. Playing with overhaul mod from nexus, a lot more fun than bs. Nobody comes to this game for the pvp anyways, its ass. Get on sale. Or don't, you wouldn't miss much.

Played after Dark Souls 1, this game DS2 gives you a respite, starts less violently and more warm. As warm as FromSoftware can be of course. Because there is crazyness everywhere too, sick horror action and amazing character stories. Landscapes and music are gorgeous. Combat and mobility improves from DS1. The game is still quite difficult but less mad than DS1 (for example can warp since the start, and there are more souls in general). You also have the possibility to increase difficulty even further. Not that the basic is easier. It's as easy as Elden Ring I'd say.

6/10

There’s so much to say about what this game does right and wrong compared to DS1, so I’ll summarize some of the best and worst features:

Good:
-Fast travel is available from the start, with the ability to warp to any bonfire
-Upgrading your Estus quantity with shards encourages exploration and offers a sense of power scaling
-Bonfire Ascetic; a consumable that lets you respawn all enemies (including bosses) and loot in an area
-Stat respec is possible, so you’re no longer limited to one build per character; it's also easy to achieve

Bad:
-Each time you die, you lose about 5% of max HP (up to 50%), recoverable by using humanities
-Some of the worst runbacks in Soulsborne history; the longest I recorded was 3:45 in the Ivory King DLC
-ADP: a stat that affects the number of iframes on your dodge roll
-The stamina system had several reworks and feels clunky, leading to slower, less fluid fights
-Many doors you open do not stay open (reset area = closed door); opening doors/chests is also very slow
-No iframes when entering fog gates, opening doors, opening chests, or operating levers
-The lock-on system has limited swing directions (kind of like a unit circle), causing many attacks to miss
-Enemies will chase you for miles before finally de-aggroing
-Overall map and environmental design is worse

Again, these are just what I consider the best and worst features. Though it's objectively the worst Soulsborne game, I don't think it's unplayable.

Pior jogo que já joguei, destruiu meu psicológico, dificuldade desbalanceada, hora muito fácil hora impossível, áreas terríveis com dificuldade absurda pela quantidade exagerada de inimigos, queria destruir meu computador no santuário de amana...adorei, recomendo!

Imagine a masterfully crafted work of art, in which the experience was embedded with countless morsels for the player to embrace; each moment serving as a small love letter from the developer.

Now replace "love letter" with "fuck you."

Fuck this game.
Don't play it.

worse than the original DS 2. "Improved" enemy placements = lazy ganksquads to artificially increase difficulty. A ton of artificial roadblocks via statues that will frustrate new players to no end (fragrant branches of yore). Additionally none of the problems that the oG DS2 had were fixed (awful Hitboxes, lazy designed bosses especially in the DLCs, awful controls and sooooo much more)

After beating the dlcs and finishing the game, I can strongly recommend this game to people who played dark souls 1. It is very similar in design and is double the length of dark souls 1. Although this game has constant hate and people saying its "bad", they are just flat out wrong. While some of the bosses and areas are extremely frustrating and lack polish, I still believe its an enjoyable experience. It might not be a bloodborne or an elden ring, but it is still a masterpiece.

I find it shamful how 10 plus years of this game being around. It still has horrendous bugs where you cannot connect your controller to the game. It happens randomly. Sometimes you can sometimes you can't. Same goes for dark souls 1. as well.

Dark Souls 2 is a good game. I don't think it comes close to reaching the heights of the other games, but there's still a lot to like here.

Well it is not as good as dark souls 1 but it still is a very good game and worth the money it has its flaws but also some very good parts

Praise The Sun

The game is very nice! Very good lore, weapons, armor, spells etc. Also, it has very good looking areas! It's still remains the weakest souls out of the trilogy, but it is worth to play it. Just have adp stat at 30 and you'll be fine. It's very hard but not for good reasons unfortunately (i-frames and enemy placement). If you are a souls fun, you should play it. Have fun!
P.S.: The dlc's are the hardest part. Good luck.

This is a good game overall but it is not without its problems and is inferior to DS1. Main issues for me was the enemy placement and numbers which is where the difficulty would mostly come from. Often 3, 4 , 5 or more mobs will attack you simultaneously or snipe you from distance or stand in hiding around corners or appearing from behind etc. The bosses are mostly easy or moderate in difficulty with only a handful giving real problems as long as you manage your levels appropriately. Aside from that it was fun to play which is the main thing, I enjoyed it and just accepted its limitations.

Recommended but the price needs to come down to be fair. 7/10

A bit janky but still a great souls game. Def better than a lot of modern day titles.

Dark Souls II has been my very favorite game in all Dark Souls series. I already beat this game on PS5 and I beat it again on PC. The more I play this game, the more I discover. I plan on unlocking all achievements. I'm 30/38 atm.

If you read this up to this point, like this.
If you already beat this game, like this.
If you still play this game, like this.
If you recommend Dark Souls II, like this.
If you like or dislike Dark Souls II, like this.

I want everyone to play Dark Souls II. It's totally a different story. Everything about DS2 is just unique and lovely. DS2 is a top and is a must-play game. I'd never stop loving this game. I'd never stop suggesting this game to the everyone. LET'S DO THIS

I originally played this game on the 360 when it first came out and I may have been blinded at the time to what it really is. Just recently I went back to 100% every souls game available on steam and this one was the one that was the least enjoyable, it feels clunky and slow. Hit boxes are absolutely awful and this is remedied only by investing into a particular stat but even then it can be dodgy at times. The PvP is absolutely abysmal for the same reasons. If you wanted to co-op this game with a friend it's very tight and unforgiving, should you decide you want to play for a bit without them your chances become more and more slim to be able to play with them.

Overall I would still recommend this game as a fan of the series, don't listen to the weird cult following this game in particular has. It's not GREAT, but it's passable.

Most horrible boss runs ever in the history of games and these level designs will probably haunt me in nightmares for the rest of my days, but still would recommend this game to others

I have played through the entire game and have yet to find the game in it. All I see are bad hit-boxes, bad game design and no bonfires in sight.

people love to yap, this game is amazing. i walked through a fog gate and got jumped by the entire rat population of nyc. i had to fight off hordes of rats with no escape until a very specific rat with a mohawk dropped from the ceiling and i had to kill only him to have every rat scurry away in fear. no other game has an experience even close to this. peak

scholar is great. if you wanna play dark souls 2, this is the one. the only thing worse in this version is iron keep, but even then it sucks in og as well, just a bit less. the rest of the changes just make the game more interesting and less boring (although with a side effect that a lot of areas are slightly harder).

the downsides of dark souls 2 are it's troubled development making a lot of levels and bosses kinda bad and the whole "this game is really hard" buzz ds1 had affecting how they built this game (this is probably the meanest souls game tbh). also covenant requirements suck, which functionally locks a lot of good spells behind new game plus 2 (essentially you will never see them online). the upsides are a ton of very interesting mechanical changes from dark souls 1, the general slowing down of game & bringing it more in line with older from soft titles like kings field, and it's just chock full of secrets. also the dlc's are the best they've ever made and a reflection of how the levels in the base game should have been if they didn't make the decision to try to make this game open world and with crazy lighting on a ps3 and had to rush the game a ton. pretty much only like lost bastille & no man's wharf in the base game feels like a well put together level with everything beyond the shrine of winter feeling like fake dark souls levels.

still though, in spite of all that, this game is peak. just did a ng+ playthrough of og and I'm gonna do halfway to ng++ on this version (on ng+ now) to hundred percent it. online play still works, it's just that soul memory kinda sucks, so dont equip silver serpent ring or jester gloves if you wanna online play. also seems like saturdays are the only reliable day to get multiplayer in my experience. not a ton of invasions, but getting summoned or summoning isn't the worst.

This game was far too overhated. Yes, it's visuals are lacking compared to the other two souls games but people must understand that this release was sandwiched between the release of the ps4 so sacrifices to graphical fidelity had to be made. You can restore the proper visuals with the DS2Lighting Engine mod anyways. But overall gameplay wise, this is arguably the best in the series. The difficulty is great no matter your experience with the series and the the PVP is more intense and tactical than any other souls game. The world design is so great and a nice change from being linear. The music is solid too, but I do think its the weakest in the series.

I loved DS1 / DS3,
i didn't like this game (at the beginning). after giving it a real shot (3rd attempt) i realized what this is. it's just a weird souls game that is souls enough. it's not my favorite, but it's got some cool stuff. the rolling is weird, but level up adapatability and it's okay. the game is fun and has that 'souls' loop.