Humanity has been restored!

User Rating: 9 | Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin XONE

When dark souls 2 was first released it was a few months after the release of next gen consoles. I held my breath and... What, no xbox one version? I was soooo tempted to buy the xbox360 version but instead opted for other titles. Despair and darkness overwhelmed me at the loss... For all intents and purposes, my gaming soul was lost. But in time, the fires grew a little brighter and in April 2015 my humanity was restored when a next gen version was released.

GRAPHICS

I had heard reviews on the last gen that graphically the game was lacking in places, if that is the case, it certainly isn't true of DS2 on the XONE. You get a real sense for atmosphere from the music and graphics. A sense of depth when peering at a far off tower a sense of wonder and amazement watching your brutal foes unleash unholy hell on you frail brittle body.

GAMEPLAY

Like its predecessor, DS2 is mainly unforgiving, frustrations abound when your life bar max decreases every time you die. This can be undone however by restoring your humanity with one of the human efforgies found throughout the lands. This harder difficulty is offset by the easier travelling and that you can restore your humanity at any time, you don't have to wait until you are at a bonfire. The combat is improved, slicker, less glitchy. The jumping mechanism has also been made more reliable. Deaths are more often through poor judgement rather than poor gameplay.

STORY

The storyline seems more understandable this time around. I not bewildered by the jargon and lingo used by the many unusual characters I have so far encountered.

OVERALL

This has become a must have for a hardened gamer, and by that I mean one with patience and appreciation for the many years of hard work put into producing a modern day masterpiece. Well done FROM SOFTWARE, you've done it again. Now where did I put that Estus flask?