This review is a personal opinion.
I have played Dark Souls 2 Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin enough to be able to compare it to Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition.
PS : will be mentioning Darksouls as DS and Darksouls 2 as DS2.
I have Reviewed DS before and it was a stunning game even after 4 years still is, it is a game that captured many souls of players and dragged them into the abyss, screaming in pain and agony after every death.
if you are interested in the old review here is the link ( http://tinyurl.com/
DS2 when I started the game the 1st time and my mother was watching as well, the beginning cut scene! My God! very capturing! even my mother got captured and it is very hard to get her attention in such things.
The opening reminded me a lot in Berserk and I can see there is a lot of influence just like DS1 which makes it more awesome.
the cut scene gets you introduced to the world and what is happening and how it is happening ( the hollowing ) and pulls you right into the atmosphere, it was very well done.
Once you get to the game play you feel the drastic difference between DS and DS2, the controls, the animation, and the item inventory system, at 1st I felt really uncomfortable specially with the combat, but the plus side was they added a jump action which makes life easier to get into far places and keeps and open mind to exploration.
Combat felt very different, it felt stiff at first but once got used to it, it started to feel good to pull moves, specially with two handed weapons.
and there is a bigger area for backstabbing which makes it a bit easier to back stab, some hates it and some loved it, I personally liked how it works since there are places where I died a lot! and I have to get through a herd of strong enemies to get to the point that I want to reach and the back stab made things a bit faster, but I loved the DS one accuracy of back stab because it gives that satisfaction and sense of achievement when you pull one and make you scream YEAH!, DS2 it felt like a normal move.
Now I understand why people felt upset with DS2, it is kind of short comparing to DS1 ( in a way ) and without the DLCs which all came together in Scholar of the First Sin, the game isn't complete, bosses didn't feel as epic as DS1, but with the DLCs or ( Scholar of the First Sin edition ) ouh it feels like DS1 because those areas, enemies and bosses they added, by God they made me scream, rage quit and even to the level that I felt desperation which means it brought the spirit of DS1 into it.
PS : one thing that I thought I might not like was the player was able to transfer from one bonfire to another right from the beginning but after seeing how big the map was it felt it was needed, the map design could have been pushed more like DS1 where it felt all connected but that was the only thing that was not pulled right, at least the Bonfire travel was there to fix such issue and later on in the game it gets handy, really handy, so I started liking it when things gets desperate.
talking about Desperation! AHA! here is the Major punishment of DS2.
When I get killed in DS1 and turn Hollow, I was like ouh eh, okay nothing so bad but I always scream in pain when I lose 20k soul when I get killed without reaching the Bloodstain ( restoring the souls you lost from the previous death ) but DS2... let me take a deep breath here before writing the next sentence.
Phew okay! every time you get killed you turn Hollow and when that happens your MAXIMUM HEALTH! is reduced...
yes your Maximum health is reduced and if you run out of Human effigy ( Humanity ) ( and Item that restore Humanity from Hollowing ) you are doomed, and if you are stuck at a tough boss...good luck brother.
That punishment felt so painful and I never screamed so loud at a game in my life from dying... THAT! made the punishment of dying even more painful.
so you have to be as sharp and fast as Mongoose in reflexes while watching your enemies moves, Stamina bar and health and pay serious attention to your surrounding.
Overall DS2 Scholar of the First Sin is Fantastic game and stands very well from combat to story to impacting imagery and visuals, it does take you to a new world, a world you want to explore and find everything in every corner and makes you want to be stronger to deliver the same punishment to your enemies as they delivered to you, which is something I loved about DS1.
now am really looking forward to DS3 and see how it is going to be, releasing April next year, so if you never played those two games I recommend you spend your Christmas into the Abyss of DS1 and DS2 and you will love it.
And here is a link to my finished DS2 fan art, one moment that I won't forget. Heide Knight Encounter by Zaid Al-Shaheed
And Have a good day :)
