Dark souls 2 is much better game than most released these days, however i cant get over the sense that this game feels like half the game dark souls 1 is, a pale imitation and a shadow of what came before it.
This comes across in nearly every aspect of the game, the exceptions being combat variety and menu design. but for everything else you can tell the development was left to the 'B' team.
Firstly the story is almost the same at its core. i know this was done on purpose to portray the inevitability and cycles, but it comes across as more of a first draft for the story of DS1, which was more much grand in terms of scope, lore and epicness. It seems like the writer where just playing it safe, but unfortunately failed.
The world of drangleic is no where near as consistent or awe-inspiring as Lordran either. The environments don't link together anywhere near as seamlessly and aren't as well design in terms of game play or story. In DS1 you would journey for long distances and realize after opening a clever shortcut that the world is very intricately design and you actually haven't gotten far. In DS2 however the environments are designed in a much more traditional game like manner, where you take one path to a dead end and warp back to the beginning, it really puts a strain on immersion. for example the room where primal bonfire are located are just plain square rooms, there is no reason for them not to have something interesting about them. there are also environmental design choices that leave you truly baffled, like the infamous windmill! its stuff like this that take you out of the experience. Even worse is the transition between earthen peak and the iron keep.
Design can similarly be questioned in terms of the graphics and art. while DS2 is superior in terms of texture quality and sharpness it has no heart. DS1 wasn't as technically impressive in this department but it had a certain styled that fitted perfectly with the bleak world of lordran, it was like a water painting that really made some environments stand out and make you just look for a while. Not many places in DS2 made me do that.
I could talk for some length at what makes DS1 superior to DS2, but it would be better if this review wasn't 5000 words long. I would highly recommend watching a video by matthewmatosis which is an excellent DS2 critique and an entertaining watch. it points out nearly everything that DS2 fails to capture compared to both Dark souls 1 and Demon souls.
Like i said, DS2 is a better game than most these days, but it flops in comparison to its predecessors, this is evident by how most people agree that the DLC segments are vastly superior to base game, which shows how far they went wrong. If your thinking about picking this up, i recommend that you dont, and instead get a copy of DS1, which is a much better game that truly gives you the 'souls experience'.