After hearing about the problems the first Dark Souls game had on PC, I put off buying it until I knew that some of its problems had been fixed by the developers or modders, or that there certainly wasn't going to be any further improvement. I was disappointed to find that it only showed the XBox controller buttons in place of the keyboard commands and it took some rebinding to get keyboard and mouse rebound to a functional set-up but I was ultimately treated to a fantastic game. The atmosphere in Dark Souls, as well as its environmental storytelling and bosses were all phenomenal, and I've sunk many long hours into the game.
I've therefore been waiting with a great deal of excitement for Dark Souls 2. Dark Souls was a rushed port in response to high PC player demand so some problems were expected, but surely there wouldn't be any with Dark Souls 2, which was developed for PC simultaneously ... Wrong! The Xbox controller prompts are back. The default bindings are appalling, and many keyboard buttons can't actually be bound for no apparent reason. The controls are laggy in a game were rapid responsiveness are key. There's also the more minor issue of the massive downgrade in the lighting of the game, which hopefully may be fixed at some point for PC.
In short, this is once again an embarrassingly bad port, and I'd advise waiting for fixes from the developers or modders before getting it. What I've played of the game itself seems great, but it's simply not a finished product and I object to being sold games in this condition.… Expand
What a huge, huge, HUGE, H U G E, H-U-G-E, disappointment!!
It's a bare console port down to the bones!! Controls are clunky, keys rebinding is a nightmare, there is an horrible delay that plagues the mouse's movements, I found at least 3 breaking bugs, and, at times, the game doesn't even start running!!
Beware! Leave it alone. Save your money for something that is worth them.… Expand
I still remember how frustrated I felt when the first Dark Souls came to PC, and it was THE worst port I had ever played on pc (and I have a long history with BAD ports). Luckily for me, there were a bunch of fans that fixed the company work for us gamers without asking for a single penny, so I ended up enjoying the game I had bought (half of my money should have been to those guys who fixed the game), and I remembering me thinking "they wont do this again, right? The backlash was pretty hard on them" well yesterday I bought this game (the sequel) and I'm already feeling like I will need those guys who fixed the first one again! Really?. For starters, it doesn't initiate if I have my controller plugged onto the pc, it just crashes, so I cant play it with my controller (not that I would like it but, It's the recommended way right?), amusingly enough, it doesnt seems to matter if I have my nostromo plugged into the pc or not (I tried unplugging it, plugging it with the controller, plugging the controller alone, etc) and guess why it doesnt matter? because it doesnt recognize it. So that leaves me out with traditional keyboard and mouse, so ok. I try to start the game: CTD!, try it again, CTD when I first move! I'm starting to have a Deja vu from the first game (which had several graphics problems that luckily those fixes from those saviors fixed for me, which made my game CTD), so I use Nvidia control center to deactivate several graphics options (rather force them) and the game stops CTDing. Yay! Who needs graphics, right? well turns out the controlls are a damn mess. Better than the first one, but not by far. So I end up getting really pissed and as a result I come here to warn people that if you buy this and have the astonishing luck that it works like intended, you will have to deal with camera and key binding issues that will have you dead not because the game is difficult, but because you will feel paralyzed by the control system.
So, I'm planning to get a refund on this garbage and move on to something better from another company, a company that doesnt have his fans fixing their games for them... Oops It seems there are none of those nowadays.… Expand
The controls are really, really borked in the PC version. Felt like something that existed 15 years ago.
All hints and tips in the tutorial are for controller players, so unless you use that, you are screwed, or you just have to man up and randomly mash buttons to see what goes where in the mapping... Not very helpful to know that "B" or "LS"-button does something on the controller if you are using mouse & keyboard.
tl;dr:If you use keyboard + mouse combo, don't even bother.
Graphics and general feel is so-so.… Expand
I can't believe I wasted my bandwidth downloading this utter junk. So I plug my Xbox 360 controller in, it doesn't do anything (apparently this is a common bug), all the hints are for a controller so I have literally no idea what to press. I get told to press my left stick, but no idea how to do this on a keyboard. This game is so broken it is a bad joke. This is unplayable on the PC. If I could rewind time to this afternoon I would SO NOT PURCHASE THIS PILE OF EXCREMENT!!… Expand
Game is fine, no word for it. But PC release ? Absolutely garbage. "Stop Working" problems , HDMI - DVI problems , multi monitor problems , standart scaling problems ... etc.
They say "this time Pc version will be good version for this game" ... They did not keep promises.
On steam community page , people want a refund ... pathetic !… Expand
they don't even put the pc controls on the menus. and even if they did i cant even start the game to see the change because of the crashing. this was a bad buy.… Expand
The first thing you encounter is a door. A prompt comes up "press B". This door proves to be a unquenchable bastard. I've tried all the common keys WADS QEFR. Nothing. So I tried attacking the door. Nothing. I can't get past it. I should have listened when then said Dark Souls 2 was just a hard as Dark Souls 1. I find myself puzzled as I look at my Dark Souls 2 for PC box for some clue on how to get past the door. Nothing. No Clue. I have to resolve that his game is too hardcore. Too Hardcore to the point of not being fun anymore. "Atmospheric dungeon, crawling, fearsome enemy encounters". Namco needs to realize that making a game hard doesn't make it fun. Sadly with less money in our pocket and critics giving scores in the 90's the joke is on us.… Expand
Dark Souls 2 is currently an unplayable mess for many, and plagued by bugs such as terrible keyboard/mouse controls that lag pretty badly.
The game gets a 0 out of 10 not only for being unplayable/broken but also for a lack of proper support and communication from the developers, as well as how long it's taking them to issue a fix.… Expand
RainbowPieFiM
Apr 26, 2014
This game don't work.
The game crash everytime you enter, and the company dont launch a fix, 3 days after his launch.
Thanks for stole my money!
Ah, and the game doesn't have a pc controller instructions, is a BAD port from the console version.
$50 for a bad port.… Expand
Dont bother buying this broken piece of garbage, from software should be ashamed... With tens of trials I only managed To play just once... That just Sad for a game that was supposed to go out later than the console version to tune It better...… Expand
The game will not load on my pc, and a lot of other peoples at that. There is no Tech support to call, there is no disclaimer that it may not work, and there is no refund. Its a very shameful process. That I wish I was not a part of.
If you are buying this game, you are gambling with your money.
It may not work, and there is nothing you can do about it.… Expand
Had to spend 4 hours trying to get past the infamous "White screen" which crashed the game at launch - the only way to get past was unplugging the monitor while launching it, replugging when it was in the menus.
Anyways the GAME! I enjoyed Dark Souls 1 but this has clunky Controllers, feels like there is alot of delay and a frustrating camera that does not navigate well - running backwards does not turn the camera round, just the character - falling off a Cliff by accident while "kiting" a boss because the camera does not show where you are running -is not my kind of fun.
Another frustrating thing is that the menus has XBOX 360 (!!) buttons and keys in the menus - so you have to Guess which keys correnspond to those on the keyboard - making it worse if that you cannot rebind all the keys in the game, making the game quite unplesant if you use a keyboard and mouse - thankfully I do have a Controller - but it still feels very clunky when moving, it feels like Your character doesn't have fluid movement but rotates/moves at an 8 axis.
Also a warning to whoever has a VAC Ban: Dont buy, you will NOT be able to acess the game servers even if you were banned 10 years ago!… Expand
This game might be good, might be. But I can't to play past the first 20 minutes? Why? Because the controls are **** unplayable on keyboard and mouse. I refuse to buy extra hardware i.e. a gamepad because a company is inept at providing a decent service and lied saying that it could. otherwise I wouldn't have bought this piece of **** in the first place.… Expand
The game is a fantastic port, let's start with the worst and advance to the less interesting problems:
-the game refuses to start up (crashes with white screen) for TONS of people
-even when it starts the new game loading screen freezes
-game freezes when intro needs to be playing
-people who got banned in other games received a ban for dark souls 2 (absolutely unheard of)
-the controllers connected to pc refuse to work
-the keyboard+mouse controlls refuse to work
-the keyboard controlls are **** even when they work: holding shift prevents you from clicking etc...… Expand
Pablo_Dourado
Apr 26, 2014
I am here to represent the over 1k players from steam who is not getting any help from developers of the game, we get a random bug that dont let us play the game, we are trying to get attention over our problem for more then 50 hours since the release and nothing at all, we decided to yell our voice to another sites, we are making a critic not about the game itself because we cant EVEN log in, we are here to tell how disappointing is the support from the developers.
We paid for that we deserve the same thing as others, but seens the primary atribute to play the game is have the luck to get a copy without any bug, i will never spend my money on products of your company again!… Expand
This game is so overrated(which i don't understand why) that people can't see how flawed the game is.The only thing good with this game is that it is challenging.… Expand
I imagine this would be a really fun game if it worked. I trust in their ability to make a fun game. The problem is that for many people the game does not work at all. When you try to start the game it pops up as a white screen then crashes within 10 seconds. So far the only workarounds have come from the community and even then they don't always work. Considering they supposedly 'built it for the pc first' this kind of thing is really unacceptable. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to play the game we payed for. We didn't pay $50 so we could troubleshoot/beta test their game. We payed for a product and we currently have no access to it despite it being released. If you're thinking of buying this game for PC, don't. Wait for them to fix whatever they screwed up. There is no point in buying it now unless you want to play 'Waiting Simulator: Broken Edition'.… Expand
I picked up the first Dark Souls on Steam and liked it, the only problem i had with the game was the controls for PC. Now with the release of Dark Souls 2 we were promised a more polished PC version with better graphics and - here is the big one - working controls. So did they deliver? Short answer NO , Long answer NO. Default controls are near unplayable , controller buttons everywhere " press A to this , press B to that" . But dont worry , just rebind your keys , right?? NO. Trying to rebind the keys is painfull at best and once you are done you are left with a half decent experience. I loved the first Dark Souls and plot/gameplay wise Dark Souls 2 looks promising. But as a PC gamer i feel cheated and lied to when it is blatantly obvious that no extra effort was put into making this a positive experience for PC gamers.… Expand
DefiantMaledict
Apr 26, 2014
Dark Souls 2 is all about challenge, they said. Well, the only challenge this game is posing now is how to make it work properly. PC will be lead platform, they said.… Expand
Sell me a Finished product.
Why do I keep wasting money on "just released" games for PC??? Do NOT buy this for PC. Great graphics, but crashed on opening intro and then the first time I tried moving. The PC interface was super annoying. If you assume that it wouldn't be that hard to make the interface PC friendly, you would be wrong. Yuck.
As a first time player of Dark Souls - I had no idea what anything represented. Tutorial maybe? I want my $60 back.… Expand
What a horrible port,its even worse then the dark souls 1 port IMHO .
I would spend my money on something else if i where you.
The biggest problem people seems to have is getting pass the start up crash.
Yeah they promised a better port,the game isn't even working for some people,skip this pile of .... or if your realy hell bound to buy it wait for them to fix all the problems.… Expand
I was so excited to play DS2 this morning but found myself shouting at the screen in under 5 mins.
The graphics are awful - games released 3 years ago look better.
The sound is awful - walk through long grass and it sounds as if you're rattling through your cutlery drawer.
But worse of all; the controls are awful. On screen hints tell you to press the green 'A' or the blue 'X'. Want to go up a ladder? In every other PC game you walk in to a ladder and start to climb. In DS2 it's ctrl-left click. Why would they make it so awkward? I tried to swap weapons and ended up consuming a good portion of the healing stones.
Another bad part worth mentioning is the combat. It's .... awful. You can lock your target by pressing the middle mouse button, but it doesn't really make much difference. I created a cleric and armed myself with a great big metal mace and picked a fight with a little old lady cooking a meal (I'm very brave, I know). She beat me to death with her ladle. Not once but many times. So many times in fact I had to roll a new character to get past the point.
In short this is not worth buying on the PC. For the consoles maybe, but not the PC.… Expand
Sky-Moondrift
Apr 26, 2014
Relative to the time of release, DS2 for PC is somehow an even crappier port than its predecessor, It looks bad, it sounds bad and yep, it plays like utter ****
Funny thing is I saw this coming a mile away, so of course I didn't buy it. A company that knew the original Dark souls was a pathetic excuse for a PC release NEVER BOTHERED TO PATCH IT!! After all this time, Of course they will treat PC gamers like idiots again for the sequel.
Its the exact same deal this time around- What you pay for is the dregs of an average console game, that looks and plays like a ps2 game, even the sound is atrocious, I couldn't stand to play more than an hour of this insulting trash.… Expand
still not able to play due to the problem of the hdmi if I had the tv and monitor connected error, and so far the company has not done anything already nearly 200 pages of complaints on steam and nothing yet. shameful… Expand
It's a great game whatsoever, great playability but I see some flaws in it: sometimes my attack, almost touching the enemy doesn't do any kind of damage on the hollows and the bug that wasn't fixed till now take me away from playing it in my big picture HDMI TV that turns out to be a real letdown.… Expand
Remember those old-school NES games that were insanely difficult, not due to design, but because they were technically broken? That's what "Dark Souls 2" is. Not only is it obviously a terrible PC port despite claims that PC was the lead platform (then why do enemies in the distance only animate at 30fps, why is the UI so obviously designed for console, why is M&K functionality still garbage?), but the game itself plays worse than a "Souls" game ever has.
This is likely in large part due to this being the first "Souls" game that isn't made by the original "Souls" team. If you need more info on this, google it, but bottom line is "From Software" felt that the "Souls" franchise had become successful enough that the people who made it good could do... whatever they're doing now, and the next entry (Dark Souls 2) could be made by "From Software's" B-Team.
Playing as Melee is pretty much broken this time around, as enemy tracking is impossible to outpace. In DeS/DS1, you could see them winding up for an attack and roll out of the way, but now they spin on a dime and do not stop their facing until their attack has landed. So, instead of rolling when you see the attack coming, you have to roll during the window right before the attack lands, which is much, *much* more punishing, and *far* more difficult to execute. DeS/DS1 were punishing but fair, DS2 is punishing for the sake of being punishing.
Gone as well is the tactical one-on-one combat, not just because of the above, but because of the game's tendency to throw entire rooms of enemies at you at once. In DeS/DS1, you could lure enemies off large packs to make them easier to handle, or if you alerted one enemy in the room you would only pull that enemy and *maybe* whoever was nearby. In DS2, if you trigger on enemy, you trigger every enemy in the room. This makes the focus on co-op much heavier, as you're going to *need* two other people around you spamming attacks just to clear more areas.
The vast majority of boss fights are copy-pasted from DS1, and the "new" boss fights are just bosses that look new but use mechanics that anyone who's already played DeS/DS1 will immediately recognize.
There's also the issue of item durability. In this game, your weapons are going to degrade at a much faster rate, and the only way to restore them is to use extremely rare and highly expensive Repair powders, or resting at a bonfire. This means that, more often than not, your favorite main-hand weapon is going to be rendered unusuable before you reach the next checkpoint. There's also a bug in the game that makes it so swinging your weapon through enemies who are in the "dying" animation, or swinging your weapon and having it clip a co-op phantom, will cause it to degrade at 300% the rate as well. These two combined make for a more naggy, OCD melee-combat experience.
This is also the first time I've played a "Souls" game and felt like it needed a map. "Demon's Souls" was split into 5 seperate worlds which made it easy to keep track of things in your head, "Dark Souls" was open world but everything fit together very cohesively so again it was easy to keep track of things. "Dark Souls 2" feels like they threw a bunch of zones together and didn't care about how they connected to each other, they just wanted them there. Navigating is an absolute chore. It's entirely possible to be exploring your first time, and find yourself stuck in areas where the only way to get out is to die by jumping into a chasm/pit, or returning to a bonfire (with a spell or item). "DeS" and "DS1" had *some* of this as well, but not nearly to the extent that "DS2" does.
The "Souls" series is all about overcoming unpleasant surprises, but the only unpleasant surprise "Dark Souls 2" delivers is that of a mishandled entry in a beloved franchise, with the only feeling left afterwards being that of wasted time. "From Software" decided they could save money by hiring lesser talent to make a game that'd get success by brand name alone. And sales-wise, it probably worked, but from now I'm going to be far more leary when I look at the next title from "From Software".
It's very disappointing to recognize what "From" has done here, because it means that the "Souls" franchise will never be as good as it used to. Yet for how good the last two games were, there was still a lot of room for improvement, and now we'll never know how good this series could've been. Like everything else, it comes down to the people in charge intentionally ruining something so they can increase their profit by a few percent. Once that starts, there's no going back. If they feel like they have "f u" money after just two big titles, then quality from here on out is only going to get worse for "From" titles.… Expand
Re-review: Dark Souls 2 is by far the best in terms of content and PvP but where it suffers (at the cost of the soul of the entire series) is in the enemies. Basically they are the same and to compensate for this the devs have added more of them, twisting the original Souls formula from 'fair because you learn' to 'overwhelming until you break through the wall or run away'.
Dark Souls 2 is not a worthy sequel to the series and the hardship is not worth the time.
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HOW I RATE: 10-9 score: perfect or near-perfect don't exist; 8 score: one of the best games ever. Top score; 7-6 score: great but not one of the best; 5-below score: serious flaws.… Expand
I'm amazed how can such a bad port receive so good reviews.
I can't even play the first 15 minutes of the game with mouse+keyboard, the game does not respond correctly to any of my controls inputs, is this a bad joke?
Wortst pile of garbage I bought this year yet. If you value your money stay away.… Expand
This game seems like it has a lot of promise but the developers literally did nothing to make this PC playable. They don't give you the functionality of binding whatever keys you want to on your keyboard. For instance, to use an item I cant just change it to a key. They have an array of choices I can change too, none are what I wanted of course. They are all ctr+Left click, alt +Left click, shift + left click... Why wouldn't you just make it completely customizable to place whatever key you want, that is rule 101 for PC. This is apparently meant for a control on PC, which is just stupid, but as someone who doesn't have one I don't want to go spend money to play a game after I already spent $50 bucks for the game itself!!!
The weird console controller layout of the controls for PC makes the actual game barely playable. It doesn't seem that hard yet, the biggest struggle I find is the fact that the controls are impossible to navigate when reacting to enemies. The main reason I die is because I can't control the character enough to react to the game itself which is the worst problem you can have for a game. Another obvious flaw is the fact that when your going through tutorial area in the beginning all of the helpful signs are still in console controls! So you can't even translate to what in the world I'm suppose to do on PC to get that to happen. They even have the menus in the game still on console controls. Obvious this game is not meant for PC yet... Nothing is hard its just lack of responsiveness and control for the user....… Expand
FREAKING AWFUL very overrated game especially for PC do not listen to pro-reviewers that give a 9.0 or 10 to this abomination. The graphics are a joke they are not as bad as the first game but still are bad with a lot of blurry low quality textures and polygon designed animations that even in the highest graphic settings remind me some old games from 2002 as for the gameplay feels lacking and amateur programming work, it is almost unplayable and annoying if you try to play with a keyboard and a mouse (i am not going to waste my money to buy a gamepad just for one title). It is a very very overrated title and extremely overhyped from stupid paid game site and from reviewers that have been paid to promote this as the best RPG in the world do not fall into their hype and into their propaganda or you will regret your money. save them for buying The Witcher 3 or for Dragon Age Inquisition at least or some other future title… Expand
Bobblebeheader
Apr 27, 2014
Wow... Just wow... And not in a good way.
Let me just say this: the game is a very bad port from console (Xbox) to PC. Especially the controls and thus the gameplay have suffered, and since that is the bread and butter of any game it just breaks Dark Souls II. It's clunky, it's non-responsive, it's broken.
That really should be all you need to know not to buy the game at this point.… Expand
I had no technical issues with the game. But it’s not the Dark Souls or Demon’s Souls which we loved and praised anymore. They broke everything that worked so fine in previous installments of the game. Here’s the incomplete list of problems:
1) It doesn’t feel like Dark Souls. First battle zone must have come from Alan Wake. Because you’re not fighting Hollows, you’re fighting F@@king rednecks or firemen. Who are these guys in check shirts with axes? What the hell are they doing in Dark Souls universe?
2) The biggest complaint. Battle mechanics and timings are completely off. I can’t feel my character anymore. Where’s the precision? What have you done with your perfect fighting system. How was it possible to break it? What was a Swiss watch became a Swiss cheese. Now it’s full of holes.
3) Weapon durability is way too low. WAY TOO LOW. WAY TOO LOW. It’s just wrong. Why the hell?
4) Price of weapon’s repair is too high (on par with buying a new weapon).
5) Why the hell they add additional character parameters? Somebody asked for that? Also the healing system is an abomination now.
6) After a set period of time ordinary foes just disappear from the location. You wanted to make the game easier to the newcomers. You failed. It doesn’t make game easier. It just made it worse. So I no longer can grind to my heart’s content if I want to? I should thank you for that, I guess?… Expand
This is one of the worst PC ports I have seen in years. The game can be somewhat configured to use a keyboard and mouse, but the interface does not acknowledge this (which generates a lot of confusion while playing). Many of the bound combinations are geared to console playing. Just terrible. Got sick of playing it after a few hours. Save your money. Wish I had...… Expand
Do not trust any reviews with a 10/10 score. Look at the steam community forum page and you'll see that over 2500 people can't even launch the game they paid for. And there is no ETA for any fix at all. If you feel like playing the lottery to know if you can even launch the game, then by all means, go ahead and spend that hard earned 50$ in cash.… Expand
Andrew_Paterson
Apr 27, 2014
I seldom give games low or high scores unless they are uttlery outstanding in some way.
Dark Souls II is an outstandingly bad console port. I assume. I haven't managed to start it yet as it immediately crashes back to the desktop.
Couple this with feedback that keyboard and mouse controls are broken and that modding the game to fix it is a bannable offence and there's not a lot left.
A sincere pity that Dark Souls II is pile of trash because I really, really, really enjoyed the first one.… Expand
This game is so ****ing hard that i cant even launch it. I guess they deliver the difficulty they promised. Yeah, the 0 goes to the company, not to the game.… Expand
Unplayable with mouse and keyboard. They didn't even take the time to translate all keymapping hints to a keyboard input. And on top of that, when you press a button it litteraly takes ages for your character to actually do something.
Graphics are very bad aswell, yet i wouldn't mind if you could actaully play the game. Getting infos in this game is also a pain in the ass.… Expand
This is the worst game I've played in years,words can't describe how miserable this experience was.
This game has THE WORST hit detection ever.
Boss fights are really cheap because instead of good AI the morons at namco decided to make the AI balls but their HP and damage infinite so they can instakill you with 1 or 2 attacks.Dodging and blocking is horrible
most of the time dodging will kill you and blocking is even worse,most of the bosses can go through your shield and stagger you.the game is saying ''f**k you'' to everybody who wants to play offline without other dipshi*s coming and killing them,50% of the time you will be getting useless online items that you have 0 use in offline,most of the bosses require you to summon somebody which you can't do wile you're offline, so in 5 (or less) years when they shut down the severs you're pretty much f****d.The port this time around is even WORSE than the last one more pop-in and the lag is even worse i ran the last game at a stable 25-30 fps i run this one at 40-50 but every few seconds the fps drops to less than 10 for a few seconds this gets especially frustrating when fighting a boss ( i surpass the recommended system requirements)and still no keyboard and mouse mappings.It's good that when you kill an enemy a certain amount of time they stop respawning but if you die and fail to retrieve your souls a few time in a row i could spend the whole game like a ginger.So overall is This game worth the money ? Hell no.Not even a rent.Maybe after 10 patches the game could possibly be half-decent/playable but in it's current state you must avoid it at all cost .… Expand
I bought Dark Souls 2 for PS3 on release. I also bought it on PC because I heard that it was suppose to be even better than the console version... What a waste of money on buying this mess of a port... It hurts me to say anything against FROMSOFTWARE as they are my favorite dev but I can't let this slide..
I have a pretty powerful gaming PC so how come I can't play Dark Souls 2... I tried to start the game and I got this white screen... I retried.white screen... FINALLY, I got the game to "work" I get all the way to Majula and right when I sat at the bonfire the game crashed... I tried again...... got a white screen AGAIN.... This game is a POS and was suppose to be better than the console version.. I can see that the graphics are a little better but the controls are ASS on PC... Fromsoftware you lied to us and said that it will be possible to play your game with mouse and keyboard.... OK fine... But most of us are not psychic and know what keys are used for what because you use a xbox controller as a guide.. This game was suppose to be optimized for KB&M.. it's not...
The console version is the better version albeit the graphics are not as good atleast you can PLAY THE GAME.... I know a lot of people will say " they will patch it".... well the game should be finished before release. I like to relax and play a game every now and then, so why the F do I have to F around with stuff just so I can play 5 mins? We pay 60 bucks for a game that is broken? This is not ok and I do not pay money to be a beta tester, you want me to test your game you give me money because the stress I went through trying to start this game and figure out how to control it is work... Fromsoftware... Stick to console games because you suck at PC and that hurts me to say it but ti's true.. I don't want you to become like most other devs and rush though things just for a quick buck... If you want to play this game, play it on PS3 or 360 don't play this garbage on PC......
Very good game on consoles I must say...… Expand
I read a review of DSII before I bought the game. I specifically paid attention to the mouse/keyboard references from the reviewer. He said they were much improved over the original. I am really disappointed. I am 65 and I love playing PC games. I have 177 Steam games. But my hands and a controller do not get along very well. I always play with M/K or I have pain. And man, what a pain this game is. I even tried it with a controller and it takes 3 controller actions to jump. !!3!!! Lazy porting.… Expand
RealCritical
May 23, 2014
And once more time we have the same situacion, metascore : 10, user score: 6.9, so I asked why this and I downloaded the game... the conclusion : 2
Why? Because Dark Souls 1 were very good game, but this... what is this? Boring game, lineal gameplay, and very short... I don't know why these days the games are going worst.… Expand
The game is awful. Enemies moves are too predictable. Maps are terrible too, its just a lot of tight corridors. Your character moves like a snail, it takes two hours for your character to response to a pressed button. Its hard in a way that is unfair which is not something to be praised. DO NOT BUY.… Expand
gregorybaxter
Apr 26, 2014
After working for 40 hours to get this game to launch, the few minutes I played were terrible. Even as the game feels like a PC port, it doesn't even feel like they tried. Sure, the game looks better than the first one, but I wouldn't care if it looked terrible. The gameplay is what matters and that's what they completely broke. BESIDES not being able to even launch the game. GG.… Expand
Broken and awkward! I can't jump, among other things that don't work right. The controls are terrible. I actually am contemplating asking Steam for a refund it is so bad. Betas of other games are better than this "finished" product.… Expand
Worst game i ever bought, they said it would work with keyboard + mouse but that's far from being true. They didn't even take the time to change the menus to show which keyboard button is bound to whatever (you still see Xbox buttons). I consider this game a scam. Very lazy console port. Avoid this game until it's fixed.… Expand
ctrlaltwalsh
Apr 26, 2014
Game Remains Unplayable, Crashes when starting up. Game developers and publishers need to realise they cannot release a product which simply does not work, this is not a problem specific to my (Frankly Standard) computer configuration.… Expand
I think the fact that the game "Goat Simulator" has a higher user score (much higher in fact) pretty much says it all. Dark Souls II is certainly the worst game release of 2014 so far. The graphics are bad - really quite bad, the character design would have been fresh 20 years ago, and the controls feel like you are operating a marionette while wearing boxing gloves. The designers of this game have taken a great concept and have failed absolutely in the execution. I can't blame it all on the port of this game (as bad as it is); mechanically, this game is obnoxious. Here we have yet another fine example of an industry that has too many wins in marketing and too many losses in actual game making.… Expand
The hitboxes are completely screwed, meaning any feeling of accomplishment from skilfully dodging an enemy is quickly lost as they somehow hit you from meters to the side. The controls of your character are also very unresponsive, after attacking you'll have to hit the button five or so times and wait for the animation of your character taking a quick break mid-combat to finish before you can roll out of the way. For a game that required skill and precision timing this just isn't good enough.… Expand
1. AMD graphics card owners (7870,7970....) prepare yourself as you pay to become betatester.
2. When you finaly run the game,you will see tutorial and interface with xbox controller prompts. (press LS and A....)
3.Graphics are average at best.
4. No LAN support.
5. Wait for sale or bargain bin with patches included.… Expand
Such an unworthy sequel, worse in every possible way than the first game. One person leaves the development team and the whole thing falls to ruin. Good job, Fromsoft.… Expand
Извините, но это просто не уважение к пользователям.
Выпустили игру под PC, но управление не додумались нормально сделать.
Примеры:
1) При запуске игры, предлагают нажать на какую-то неведомую кнопку старт. Спасибо, хоть, что можно нажать esc, enter или ЛКМ.
http://itmages.ru/image/view/1637245/1e728a7b
2) Выбор настроек происходит при помощи клавиш "A" и "B" нажимаю на них и ни черта. Какого хрена спрашивается? Спасибо, что хоть ESC и Enter работают.
http://itmages.ru/image/view/1637249/6905f13e
3) Что бы выполнить в игре жесты нужно нажимать "A","B","Y" или "X", которые, опять, не работают
http://itmages.ru/image/view/1637254/8103a2dd
4) При нажатии на esc навигацию по меню предлагают делать при помощи хоткеев LB и RB. Кто-нить может ткнуть пальцем, где на клаве находятся эти клавиши? Я в упор их не вижу.
http://itmages.ru/image/view/1637258/db8f87f8
5) Если там можно еще хоть мышкой елозить, хотя напрашивается вопрос, нафига тогда было делать хоткеи для навигации, но вот когда подходишь к дому и тебя просят нажать на "А", а она нихрена не работает. Вот тут уж извините. Я всю клавиатуру поперетыкал, что бы открыть чертову дверь, но так и не смог.
Не знаю как Вы, но меня такое отношение бесит. И если после игры в ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥у, я бы купил бы ее, то теперь точно нет.
Игра для меня ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥о, хотя может там и супер-пупер эпичный сюжет.… Expand
They did it again, and it's even more inexcusable this time.
Mouse controls are terrible, redefining keyboard is messy and incredible chore, even more so because they didn't even bother to change the keys showed up in the interface, so you'll still see "A", "B", "Y" instead of the keys you're actually using.
Terrible, terrible, terrible port.… Expand
Terrible port is terrible and doesn't even run. Do not waste your money on this until after it's been patched. Seriously, don't do it - even if you think that maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones. Don't do it. It's not worth your money.… Expand
Did the critics actually play the released PC game? or did they get some other version? because if they actually played the PC released game on steam, and still think the graphcis are "rich", then they are clearly delusional. Huge graphical downgrade. game looks nothing like the e3 footage. Game was clearly rushed and not tested. GUI is clunky, controls are trash, gameplay is choppy, graphics are unbearable. Hey from software, THIS IS 2014, why does your game look like its from 2005? Completely unacceptable to have a game that is 10x worse graphics than its previous game released in 2010. what the **** were the developers doing? why release a game this horrible? dark souls 1 was a masterpiece, Dark souls 2 is a get rich quick scheme from FROM software to take advantage of the tremendous legacy of Darksouls and the dedicated fan base. they completely disappointed me, and many other people with releasing this pile of ****. Critics are either bribed from the software companies, or they clearly havent played the Steam released version of the game at all.
DO NOT BUY FOR PC.… Expand
Critic Reviews plz find another job ...
This game... Lets keep it short because this game is not even worthy of huge review.
The story is bland as hell, same as the graphics and the gameplay ohhh my goood...
You have a jump key but you cant jump, is a lazy "jump the puddle " feature, the game is Awesome because is so HARDDD , of course is HARDDDD is a Broken Mess, over sensitive camera even with the lowest settings, awful controls layout and beyond stupid Mechanics, customizations... a lot when you can figure it out.
To sum up one horrid port that should stay in consoles, one of the worst Sp experience in years and the Mp ... well good luck with that. Avoid this crap… Expand
Please do not trust the low user score, this flawless game is a solid 10. The haters of this game are assembling their force around several famous forums. They are going to pull down the score of this potential GOTY 2014. Dark soul warrirors, hold your position! Prepare for the impact!… Expand
slauterhause
Apr 28, 2014
I am SOOOOOO stupid for trusting the 'professional' reviews on this one, I should have looked closer at the user reviews.
This is perhaps the worst port of a console game that I've ever purchased. It's beyond dreadful. If you care about anything like key-bindings, windowed Full screen or any of an endless list of normally available options, keep walking - nothing to see here. I suppose that yes, technically it works on the PC, but that's it, you won't enjoy it. It's criminal that they charge $$ for a horrendous port that looks like it was done in about 5 minutes.
0/10 - Easily one of the worst games I've bought in recent memory.… Expand
This game is a biggest disappointment in 2014. It is a DIRECT CONSOLE PORT.
Controls are terrible, the tooltips are telling you to press joystick buttons (!!!) and interface is worse then anything I've seen in last 2 years.
I recommend not to buy this game. It's not even worth downloading, save yourself some time.
Don't trust the bribed reviewers who give 9.0+ score. This game isn't even worth 2.0.… Expand
I heard from friends that Dark Souls II was pretty good - and the metacritic scores were pretty good so I bought a copy, downloaded it on Steam and found that it's basically unplayable. The tutorial says to hit buttons that plainly don't do anything. It says to hit "A" and I hit A and it does nothing. I finally figured out how to open a door but then it says to hit "B" and that does nothing.
I am completely perplexed by trying to play the game... it's like it's broken. The mouse works ok, and I can move around like I always do with W, A, S, and D but any sort of move or action doesn't actually work at all, and I can't figure out how to do anything. I've spent some time reading reviews by users and apparently, it's all using the console controls - which is ridiculous. It's a PC game sold on Steam - PC's come with keyboards and mice.
I don't understand how it's even legal to sell a game which doesn't work. I'm going to try to get a refund from Steam... but since I've never heard of anyone getting a refund on Steam, I'm thinking that I have a hard struggle in front of me... but likely easier than trying to learn how to play Dark Souls II on the PC.
I'm totally disappointed and the company should be embarrassed that they released this mess.… Expand
Another zero just because of the horrible control setup. How they can call this a PC version is beyond me. Shameful. Didn't even get past the tutorial. These clowns need to know PC gamers use keyboard and mouse, not a gamepad.… Expand
How the hell are people enjoying this abomination of a game? They go around telling people it a 10/10 game, do they even know what 10/10 stands for? It means a perfect game with no flaws, apparently theres no flaws with Dark Souls 2 then? Get real and open your eyes. The graphics suck and are so dull for a 2014 game, it looks like a dog **** on a disc.
Here are facts about lazy gameplay mechanics that you cant deny out of your ass. Any kind of decision you make in this game when in combat, stamina is consumed based on what you do, which is great because it secures that decision, but when you make a decision realistically, for example to correctly dodge an enemy or boss's attack and that boss/enemy's body is auto aiming towards your every exact location your going to dodge and land in in precisely, Its like the developers didnt want you to dodge, so shield yourself right? then your stamina gets destroyed and enemy can hit u even more easier. How can you honestly have fun in a game that has every enemy/boss's attack animations land with 100% accuracy (even the slow swinging attackers) in every move you make and leave you with 1-2 hits at most before you get clobbered by the enemy ?
its not the difficulty, its the lazy mechanics, you 12 year olds that are giving this 10/10 wont understand what the difference is between correct and well thought out hard mode difficulty and lazy hard mode. Here ill summarize in the following scenario:
Well thought out difficult setting: A boss has made the decision to attack, he attacks me and its too late for him to swing in your exact direction since I dodge right on time, he has left his back vulnerable therefore i can attack more then twice before i back off, so the boss turns around and does a different attack making me wonder how to dodge but i try anyway and just as he attacks, i roll and his attack hits the area that was originally targetted.
Current lazy difficult setting: A boss has made the decision to attack, so right as he does, I dodge but his body is still auto aiming towards me as hes landing his attack instead of landing it where he should of missed originally. His back is almost never vulnerable, after he ends his attack animation, i have 1 or 2 attacks at most to do to him, as he recovers fast enough to repeat the combo again while auto aiming his every move towards my dodging points, so really all I find myself doing is running from him so much im too busy to notice when to attack.
Oh yea real fun difficulty you got there, have fun with these cheap gameplay mechanics which you are too blind to understand the clear differences in.… Expand
This is crappy console port from a lazy developer. I'm a PC gamer with keyboard/mouse and the controls are clunky. They can't even bother to change the controller pad prompts onscreen. with the game working against you prepare to get frustrated as you will die often. The graphics, even at ultra high settings, are nothing special. Terribly disappointed. Erased it off my hard drive after a few hours.… Expand
I can't connect online for some reason, thousands of others reporting the same on the forums for a few days straight, no fixes. I prefer to use the keyboard and mouse to play the game, but the interface keeps telling me to use Xbox buttons? Right away the level design and the pointed lack of atmospheric graphics, I immediately regretted my decision of buying this game. Such a lazy PC port to an otherwise mediocre game.… Expand
Crap port for PC. To open door press "Green X Button". Don't have a green, red, yellow, or blue buttons on my keyboard. Hate games that exhibit this kind of laziness. User interface is confusing and settings don't take (sometimes).… Expand
Crap port for PC. To open door press "Green X Button". Don't have a green, red, yellow, or blue buttons on my keyboard. Hate games that exhibit this kind of laziness. User interface is confusing and settings don't take (sometimes). You have to do some mouse gymnastics to get them to take. Graphics are poor and dated. For console standards this might pass but for PC this is 5-7 year old tech. Story is confusing and nonsensical and expect to die all the time. This game is nothing but frustration. I don't see how anyone can enjoy this unless you have hours of time to waste and like to inflict pain on yourself.… Expand
When I first played Skyrim, I thought it was pretty hard. Boy was i very wrong about that. Skyrim scales to the way you play. Dark Souls is for hardcore players and masochists only. In Skyrim you can build a damn good stealth character and beat the game. If it is too difficult you can always turn it down. Hardcore is the only setting for Dark Souls 2. Another thing Dark Souls 2 does is penalize for everything. Die and you lose all of your souls. Don't die fast enough and you break your weapon. Give Dark Souls 2 a bad review. A From Software employee bad mouths you and gives Dark Souls 2 a perfect 10.
The first thing you learn in computer 101, is that the keyboard has 105 keys. It is unnecessary to hit Ctrl+Alt+Right mouse button. You only need the space bar for this action. Yet somehow From Software did not Know this. Even worse is they did know and did anyway. You know to make the game even harder. Thank God you can rebind the keys.
The worst thing about Dark Souls 2 is the storytelling. Apparently everyone has to talk very, very, very, very, very slowly. They have to do it in a cryptic voice. If they have a quest they have to give you little to no information on how to complete the quest. I talked to a guy to see if he had a quest and this is what I got. BLACKSMITH: I........ need ........ to ....... open...... my....... store......... I ........ lost ....... the ......... key.
Okay can you tell me where you lost the key. BLACKSMITH: I ......... need....... to ..... Oh my God just shut up. There is no quest log and area map. So there is no quest tracking system.After an hour of searching I found out you have to buy it from a witch living in the middle of nowhere. That will be 300 souls please. After all that and completing quest. I am pretty sure I was not rewarded for my efforts. I could not level up because I was 300 souls short. That's when uninstall became my next action.
Overall Dark Souls 2 feels like an unfinished game. The graphics are from 2005. Which is why FPS gets 60 plus. There is no quest log and there needs to be one. It would have been helpful to have an area map, but there isn't one. It would have been nice to keep the money system and XP system separate. So you don't have to spend souls on repairing items. It would been nice to select your level of play. Wait I forgot who I was ranting to. We are From Software. We are hardcore gamer snob. We do not make games that can be enjoyed by everyone.… Expand
DS2 is RPG game but this game is not very hard.but most people say this game is very hard Rather this game is Slag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do not waste your money for this game.because dark souls 2 is the most bad console port game Ever.
The only good thing is playing music.In some areas it is!!!!!!!!!!
I can not stand that the game would be completely empty. Detailed level the playing Disaster All times playing video games on the shoulders of graphic art spread.People who say that this game is only for certain people are completely wrong.This game is not only a map, not a mission to be spun like crazy on the environment that you are looking for a monster first half with a shot to the back. Skyrim does not even have the game in terms of graphics is more like Dragon Age.
I'm glad we enter the next generation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!… Expand
This is, by far, the worst game I have ever played. Even on max settings, the game looks like it was made on the GameCube. The grass looks like it's from Nintendo 64. Hell, some of the grass is so flat that it looks like it was a cropped, low-resolution Google Images picture. Almost every texture has really weird blur and your screen "dims" every 3-5 seconds. The shadows appear and disappear randomly in caves. Character creation is limited. The controls are for an Xbox 360 controller, my controls are all messed up even for my Logitech controller. Mouse and Keyboard, lol... The camera movement is awkward.
I see why they used those crappy movie trailers. This game is a joke. First, it was not being able to launch and now all of this.… Expand
Lies, lies everywhere. this was gonna be a good port they said.... what a load of crap. Dont believe those critics that score this game 10/10. You've got to be blind to score this game 10/10 or time traveled from 1990s.… Expand
This gaem is to hard.
It's really, really hard, I can't enjoy a game this hard
this is liek, japan levels of hard.
Nope, this gaem is to hard, it's bad because it's hard.… Expand
This game was so horrible that it made me create a meta critic account to share.
* Graphics - mediocre at best
* User interface - HORRIBLE... tooltips for consoles everywhere and it took be 10 minutes just to figure out how to save the video settings.
* Movement/Keybindings - Terrible... no thought into porting to the PC. You can't execute all actions flawlessly with the mouse and keyboard. The camera was clearly not meant for the keyboard as it gave me slight motion sickness(something I've never had a PC game do.)
Worst console port I've ever seen... don't waste your money.… Expand
Ridiculously bad hit detection, no way play with friends (white soap stone + name engraved ring is a JOKE), random pauses and glitchy attacks/blocks/movement. Terrible controls (you have to press space+shift+middle mouse to jump WTF?). The game suffers from consolitis (TERRIBLE porting on this game) no time was spent polishing this into a PC game. Dont waste your time and money.… Expand
Do you wanna witness how we were lied with your own eyes, then check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOmWf4oSav8
This is the biggest scam in pc world gaming of our time, you fooled millions but not me 'Fom Software' ! No buck from me !!… Expand
PS - To Bandai and the paid for marketeers flooding this site with reviews. You might want to pay for native English speakers first. If your going to do it then at least make a proper effort. Then again, at least your consistent with your scam of a game as this probably took about the same amount of effort to create as some of the pidgeon English reviews they have been posting here and elsewhere on the net.
The first portion of the game is a long intro in which your mean to create your character. Unfortunately being an utterly **** console port (one of the worst I have seen) it is unplayable for me as try as I might the game will not recognise the letters on my keyboard so I cant create a character. Simply gives character unrecognised errors for everything. This in itself is not so bad if I had not been ripped off, spending 50 Euros on this terrible example of just why console games will never be as good as something designed for PC specifically. The field of view and aspect ratio during play is absolutely awful making it look like your watching everything through a small slot like a postbox.
So I sent a message to Steam where I brought it. Despite UK and EU statutory law concerning sale of goods they sent me to Bandai. Bandai just do not respond at all. So not only did this game cause me to drop it, it cost a long term relationship with steam as well as they treated my with utter contempt for asking me for my money back ignoring the fact that the contractual relationship for sale of goods is between us. Passed it to the consumer protection agency and they are dealing with it. Also passed the story on to UK independence party campaigners to use if they see fit to indicate how corporations ignore EU law.
There are claims that the game is beautiful etc.. Well, while your looking through that little slot it is a bit hard to tell as your characters arse takes up quite a lot of the screen real estate and there is little room to gauge how nice it might look. The quality of the art work reminded me of the witcher 2 but the field of view here was unplayable if your not limited by playing on a console.
Perhaps some PC gamer modders will make this playable someday but it is not worth paying for as it is.
So, this game was actually so bad, and the company behind it's support so poor that it cost me a 6 year relationship with a vendor I used to like.
Sorry to digress but the outcome indicates how poor the game actually is.… Expand
I really want to play this game but it's just a total garbage on PC. I don't know how first one worked (as far as I know it was nearly unplayable) but the second one is really bad. I don't care so much for graphics (yet it could be something more than a decade old looking and without shadows from beta trailers) but interface is just total crap!!! nearly no support for mouse, no auto-tooltips, even ESC key works like ♥♥♥♥ - most of the time it doesn't move you to previous screen. But even this is not so critical. Constant lag from when I click mouse button and I see action on screen.
In shot words - game is probably good but is extremely crappy port. Maybe after tons of patches it will became better.… Expand
I rarely come to Metacritc to do reviews but I had to warn all PC gamers out there. I can't believe I bought into the hype. My friends who have consoles were raving how good Dark Souls 2 was. WRONG. This game is a terrible PC port filled with bugs. The graphics are chunky, the voice acting sucks, and most of all it's really hard to play with a mouse + keyboard. I spent my first hour rebinding keys over and over to get them to work somewhat. I would rebind the keys and game would still be somehow be mixing up the old bind with the new binds WTF. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
The game is hard not because of the monsters but because it's very hard to control your own character. More than half of my deaths were caused because my character was not responding properly to the keybinds. If the enemy gets too close my character would sometimes swing his weapon through him and miss. WTF Too many clipping issues to count. I gave up after 5 hours of sheer frustration. Save your money and avoid this piece of garbage PC port at all cost.… Expand
JamesTheThird
Apr 29, 2014
I'm a huge fan of RPGs, but this one is a misunderstanding. Forget about technicalities such as controls, graphics and so on. These are minor issues. The main thing is that this is 2014 and the main character is mute. Did you like brilliant dialogues in Mass Effect series or Dragon Age? Well, you won't find them here. There are no such options like choosing an answer, because the protagonist just doesn't speak at all! This is a total killjoy for me. R.I.P. Souls.… Expand
I really wanted this game to work. I went and purchased a controller specifically for this game. Dont bother if you plan on playing it on a PC. Maybe its great on a console but its not playable on PC. Ill check back to see if updates are made, but for now its unplayable.… Expand
HunterKiller945
May 8, 2014
this game is a slap in the face of pc gamers! they didn't even replace the button icons with keys! and the landscape graphics look really bad. 2004 bad.
this port is just lazy! i don't recommend this game be bought on pc at all.… Expand
DaveTheJackal
May 15, 2014
Forget what others are saying about the console port re controls, that's the least of this game's issues.
What it does right: better usability in some ways, with improvements to game-play BUT:
Not only is an xbox controller mandatory and there are xbox prompts on the screen AND the graphics are way worse than in previews but the fact that this is the barest of bones port is revealed in terms of how spell durations, invulnerabilities, even some actions are timed in the game.
They do it by using counters decremented each time a frame is drawn on the screen. Not this is a dubious method of programming anyway (haven't these people heard of timer interrupts?) but at least on the consoles, which are locked to 30fps, there's not much of a problem. On the PC however, where frame rates can vary immensely and you have a massive problem. Especially in PVP. It means the way spell effects, melee moves etc work depend on how fast your PC is. Appalling.
Also: the game world is trash. Unlike the original dark souls none of it fits together, you can't see most areas from most others, even when you clearly should have. They even have the inside of a volcano you go upwards to get to from a tower above which is open sky! So many rough edges I can only think they rushed things and needed more time to finish but instead decided to release what they had.
So, it isn't just a poor port but the whole game smacks of a quick cash in too.
Also: They have now removed VAC secured multi-player support so good luck tackling cheaters.… Expand
So first off, I played a total of 15 minutes and probably killed 4 enemies, this review has NOTHING to do with gameplay.
I just could not get myself to play this game, everything about this screams of port. First off, the menus, they almost made me quit the game within a minute of launching it, they are probably the worst I've encountered in a game to date, nothing more to it. The options are for some reason even worse, to get to half of them you need to load up a save or in the case that you don't have one, start a new game. The UI has the buttons of a 360 controller yet the game does not work with mine for some unknown reason (yes it works in Steam big picture mode and in other games).
The graphics are overall also quite "meh", lighting effects and some textures look good but a lot of animations are horrid and as I got to the character creation menu I was seriously doubting that I was playing a game released in 2014.
Overall this just feels like an unfinished product and I am legitimately sad that I spent my money on it.… Expand
Those who play this as their first souls game....It's fun
But compared to the previous two games this is just a cheap,uninspired imitation...end of story.
Really surprised that so few people are saying this....It's soooooo obvious if you are a hardcore fan of the series.
Looks like some completely different team tried to copy dark souls and demon souls without really understanding what made those games different and interesting.Huge dissapointment… Expand
terrible like the first one, ...except for the good weapons and armors....user score is the real score and thats a little overrated because the critic reviews affected this one.........problems could be minor, but lets not ignore the crap combat.....and dodging 4 times to attack one time is called a challenge?? thats skyrim a.k.a dark souls 1 crap!… Expand
I've played a lot of video games, and I'm okay with a degree of difficulty but after four days of trying a melee character and just dying over and over and over with no progress this just wasn't any fun. No easy mode to get to learn the game the first time thru, no way to sell gear gathered during repeated deaths to get some better basic gear. No real way to warm up to this game, disappointing waste of money for me. Can see how hard core gamers might enjoy the challenge but would think some form of difficulty scaling so others who buy the game and just want of play in offline mode could get something out of it would be a nice feature.… Expand
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
Worst RPG of my life, definitely. Maybe this title has impressed Kevin VanOrd, but I hate it. The most important thing that pains me is that there's no friend or companion and there are some silly cat-like merchants! I didn't like the concept of the game. Enemies walk like zombies and in the first look you think you're playing Resident Evil. The is difficult insanely, and it's not a merit. You will die and die and die til you drive crazy and for what? You die for nothing cuz this game doesn't deserved to be played hours and hours. Gameplay is not that good. Voice acting is terrible and there's no lipsync in game (except cutscenes which are terrible too). At least Skyrim (The Great RPG) with that buggy visuals looked great and entertaining but this one ... I don't know what to say. To be frank the game didn't make me pleased. I felt all alone in its dark world. Enemies don't look alive, they're like puppeteers. Boss fights are insanely hard and you'll die before than it has withdrawn its weapon. Every critic pans Bound by Flame but I found it far better than this Sick Souls. Don't squander your time. Play Child of Light for a second time instead of this. I can't believe I bought this game.… Expand
I really enjoy hardcore games sometimes.
But...
Don't say a f*****g word about hardcore when talking about this game! Control on PC is totally broken!
After all - average graphic, terrible interface,bugs, poor amount of ingame information - what, you call THIS hardcore?! You'd better try to win ADOM, you know.
Hardcore and stupidity isn't same thing.… Expand
Everyone seems to be talking about the controls and other technical issues on the PC, so I will instead talk about the actual game.
The game itself is bad enough to deserve poor reviews. As others have mentioned, the open, interconnected, beautifully woven story and world from the original is gone. Instead, you get a very closed in, maze like, and contraption filled mess that barely stitches together a world.
The "quests" are just a mess, because there is almost no required order for anything. While I enjoy the open world and found that the ambiguity of the first one really helped pull me in, that isn't the case with Dark Souls 2. Ambiguity is replaced with obfuscation and plot holes. This means that even pouring enough into the game to play through it multiple times (100+ hours, easily) will still not lead to the results one might expect for some of the quest lines. I hate using spoiler sites, but when you have a game that hinges every bit of story progression with the NPCs on minutiae, you can't help but go looking for a friendly helper to make sure you're not having to start another new game because you didn't talk to the dwarf at X first instead of at Y....seriously? He doesn't even tell you where he's going at any point, just a "see ya around".
As for difficulty, there really is none. The bosses in DS2 do not show nearly the same level of challenge as Artorious, Kalameet, Furtive Pigmy or even 4 Kings. They are all much slower fights. They can all be easily beaten by anyone choosing to play a caster spec. Melee players may have a little harder time, but definitely nothing on par with even Ornstein and Smough from DS 1.
I could go on, but I will end this with my complaints about the online aspects of this game. First, the PVP isn't PVP. It is mostly griefing. Getting jumped by some random guy who comes in completely healed, completely geared for PVP, and has many other advantages, every 5 minutes while you're trying to progress the story line is just not fun. Disconnect so you can save yourself from possibly losing all your souls and the game will punish you. FromSoft relies on their famous ambiguity here as well, not telling you jack about this punishment until it is too late. Hey FromSoft...I paid for your game, let me play it how I want. If the PVP is so amazing and so desirable to such a huge amount of your fan base, you should have no issues finding enough people to voluntarily join in without also forcing those of us that enjoy the coop to participate in said farcical PVP (read: griefing).
So another option is to play offline, right? Not really. You play offline at all during a play through and you can kiss achievements for that play through good bye. Start over time, again. And again, FromSoft does a horrible job of notifying people about this.
I loved Dark Souls 1, even on the PC, and even with GFWL. At least with GFWL I could chat with people I played with without being required to use creepy and invasive voice chat. I'm not letting some random stranger 12 year old into my home, FromSoft. Are you out of your mind? The best thing about GFWL summoning not working all of the time was that I actually got to enjoy the game. Being invaded once an hour or two wasn't a big deal. Being invaded literally every other group of mobs in NG+ is just harassment, and quite frankly shows the maturity level of those developing this series.… Expand
The game is not as hard as fanboys would like you to think. It's just total crap, with "high" difficulty that "punishes" you when you die. The graphics is almost the same as the first game of the series. The sounds are crap also. You don't even have to play much to notice it, from the first interaction with the world, you can hear how **** the grass sounds like. This isn't a scary game either. Encounters are crap. This is a 2009 game, made for console players, those are the ones probably kissing their asses & the paid people who post "critic" reviews. The combat is slow and dull, the controls are bad considering a PC user can use a lot of keys to do whatever he wants without complaining of the assignments.
Oh yea, let's not forget the "hentai" look that characters have, my harvester of souls, my warrior, my murderer looked like a f***** Japanese kid from FF or Lineage. I'm sure most people consider those awesome, I don't. It's not even an appropriate look for someone who is taking his victim's soul.
My advice, if you're not a console fanboy, used to bad/old games, stay away from this game.… Expand
Just to reiterate many other peoples views, this is the worst game I've played in a long time. If you ignore the fact it looks over 10 years old the game is still terrible.
There is no real customization over the unbearable control system, you can swap a bad key binding for a worse one, in fact no effort has been made what so ever to port this to PC, all the on screen control hints have xbox symbols.
The voice acting is OK but the terrible graphics make it hard to watch.
I feel lucky I had a chance to try this before buying. What a heap of s**t.… Expand
To begin with, the first Dark Souls was a great game, and I liked it very much. I was hyped for the sequel, but after playing it a hour or so I've changed my mind about it. I've spent about 30 minutes to figure out where to go in the first place. In the first game, there was only 2 ways where you can go - up and down.
Combat system from Dark Souls? Excellent. Combat system from Dark Souls 2? Freaking garbage. Now you **** if you ran out of stamina in mid-fight, and if there is more than one enemy -- then you are **** twice. Only one life flask, level up only from that girl, decreasing health when you die too much and so on. If you call that "more difficult" - you're wrong.… Expand
CharcoalBurst
May 11, 2014
This game has great reviews, it's the hype of the moment. It has ugly graphics for a 2014 PC game. Even Bound By Flame that just came out and is developped by a small studio looks way better. We won't even talk about the interface that is ugly as well. The physics engine is a disaster like the other game I mentioned and brings us back to Morrowind. It just doesn't feel right, polished. Looks like the only good thing this game has is its high difficulty, allowing it to last for hours and hours. Pretty sure that you'll die a ton of times due to the horrible physics of the game and not to the monsters' skills.
There is a 150 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content.… Expand
I tried so hard to actually play this game. I got pretty far, but what bugs me in this game is the poor graphics, the lack of fighting controls, the slow movement of fighting. The game play is like trying to teach a down syndrome math. I wish this had a negative score rating, because this game would be the top -100. If you have a hard time sleeping, play this game, it will put you right to sleep very quick. I gave it a zero mainly because it helped me sleep.… Expand
Bare bones fantasy role playing/fighting game, with ugly graphics and no story or characters worth mentioning. Some people like it purely for the very challenging combat and character creation elements, but there is absolutely nothing else going on in this game to make me want to come back to it after dying a few times. Most negative reviews focus on the poor quality of the work done to optimize this game for the PC, but its not worth buying on any system unless you just want to grind through some gratuitous fantasy combat.… Expand
Screw this game. I'm dying not because it's hard, but because of terrible controls.
Oh wow you want to just edge a little to the left? Let's fall off this cliff.
Also it's never a good sign when you have to spend the first 20 minutes of the game actually configuring your controls. I think 'jump' was something like shift+click+click mousewheel. The hell is this, a flight sim?
0/10. Unplayable.… Expand
I really do not understand the praise this game gets. Don't kid yourself: this isn't a PC game, it's a console game that's been ported to PC, and not particularly well. While most people talk about how difficult and "hardcore" the game is, I found most of the difficulty to come from the awful controls, not the gameplay. Let me repeat that because I can't stress it enough: the controls are -awful-. Awful. Ranged combat is a joke - their idea of making it "difficult" is that you aim without a reticle and unless you get the game to "click" and recognize the target you are trying to aim at - which is difficult and random, and has no visual queue to let you know you've done it - you miss wildly, wasting ammunition/spells that are rather precious in a game like this.
If you can get past all that, you'll probably enjoy the game. And if you are a sadist, you may even praise the terrible controls and aiming as somehow making the game "hardcore". As for me, I just wish I could get my money back.… Expand
This is the most overrated phenomena in video game industry to this day. Don't get me wrong: I prefer to play games on high difficulty, I appreciate the challenge, but only when the game is decent, fair and rewarding. This game is neither of that: terrible controls, off-key hit detection, clumsy combat system, lack of any balance, and, of course, the infamous "hardcore difficulty" set by default, rendering any newcomers helpless and confused - even if you'd like to learn to play better, it just doesn't let you.
It is an unpopular opinion, but I've got to spill it out: this game is awful. It's not worth it. The cult created around it is just hipster kids trying to go hardcore. I'm afraid you are doing it wrong.… Expand
I played for over 70 hours because I was on vacation, but were the most wasted hours in my games. The game has no natural difficulty, but it's programmed to annoy you. The jump system is ridiculous (and you need it), the enemie blows cross the walls, their arrows are guided like a rocket, some enemies seem to have unlimited stamina. The game forces you to take full rounds by scenarios because the character does not climb one rung at 10 cm. Anyway, there are so many absurdities that people confuse with difficulty. But it is not. It is an artificial difficulty, programmed to kill you compulsively, with a annoying and unfair manner. Technically, same the others. Almost no music, no character voice and personality, minimum story, outdate graphics, and believe: NO HDMI/TV SUPPORT!!!… Expand
My friend constantly raved about how this game was so great because it is challenging. I agree that it was very challenging at time. What the developers of this game forgot to put in this game was fun.
I beat the game (minus the ancient dragon) and other than a sense of achievement in over coming the challenge, it was not fun. I do not feel relaxed. If anything the more I played this game the more despair and stress I developed. When it was over I was happy. Not happy because the game fulfilled me but happy that I can uninstall it and never play this game again.… Expand
3/10 - but in that case i do not claim to be very objective at all, because i knew from the start that this was not "my kind of game"
so why did i test it? - well to see what all the hype is about. - but more to the point...
presentation is a mixed bag. setting and atmosphere is decent, graphical fidelity is average but does look outdated in parts. the player character model is horribly aweful despite plenty customization options. however enemy models range from average to excellent.
the idea and difficulty is nothing that really influenced my rating, because i reckon people only pick that title up when they expect a gruesomely hard game and would be disappointed if it did not deliver that nearly frustrating degree of difficulty.
what i did not like ( PC version )
- a horrible UI - character management is aweful. UI and management is geared towards consoles and there has not been a single efford ( or so it seems ) to streamline it for PC
- bad controls - and by that i mean controlling the character felt unintuitive. for a game that punishes every mistake you make, i d expect having a character that reacted instantly to any player input.
- bad camera ( sometimes ) - again, for a game where precission and timing is vital, i felt like i d need a much better overview of the situation.
so i cannot subscribe to the mantra "hard but fair" - because it was ( for me ) riddled with controlling and UI problems. i am quite certain that players who play on consoles or are used to a controller ( i am not, i never got the hang of it, i use mouse+keyboard ) have a greatly different experience.
i can see the great potential of challenge and achievement there though, but it is not for everyone, that is for certain.
postscript:
if they fixed the UI for PC keyboard players to actually do the PC justice, it would be a 5/10 - if the controls and reaction time was improved, certainly a 8/10 - even for a more casual gamer.… Expand