Friday, March 14, 2014

Dark Souls II First Impressions

Dark Souls II launched in North America on March 11th, 2014 and I was eager as hell to get my hands on my copy and collector's edition package!  This thing comes with a 12" high statue of a warrior knight figure from the game, dual wielding swords while wearing one of those old style hoodies.  The thing looks cool, is built solid, and is the center piece of my resurrected gaming goods collection since losing much of my shit due to a couple of dishonest people involved in moving my possessions from my previous home.  This is cooler than my Fallout 3 lunchbox, and that is no shit!

But I didn't just pick this up for the statue, no sir.  There is a deviously masochistic game buried within the box of goodness, and I cannot wait to dive into it head first.  In normal fashion for myself and the Souls games, I start several characters and fiddle with them each for about two hours or so trying to see which one fits my play style the best.  I am not sure if I yet have my go to guy, but it is looking like my second soldier is tuning up nicely.  His bonus Estus Flask is nice as well.  This game has an unforgiving system in place once you die repeatedly.  Your total health is decreased by like 5% each time you croak until your total health rests at 50% when full!  It's just like catching the curse in the Depth's for fuck sake!  The way to regain your health, use a Human Effigy to restore your Humanity which takes your health bar back to 100%, resetting the penalty.


I have three hours with my character now, and about seven hours total with all three that I have created to fuck with.  I have fought the first boss, dwindling his life bar to about 5% when I took my final blow and again succumb to this damn game.  That was with my first character, so heading into my next bout with "The Last Giant" I will be utilizing number two.  While his mobility isn't as smooth as I'd like it to be, his stamina and strength compensate.  I am hoping I see the same results in battle as on paper.  I still have some exploring to do before I arrive at the boss fight, but I wanted to jot a note down on the blog here since I haven't in ages.  Dark Souls II gives me something gaming related to be excited about again, and I am going to hopefully use this forum to share my triumphs and setbacks that I endure along this new journey.

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