Dark Souls II Preview

While playing on god mode probably made the experience feel very different from how it actually would normally, it’s still interesting to read Neoseeker’s thoughts on Dark Souls II, based on some hands-on time they spent on it at E3. Here’s a snip:

Combat is as you might remember it to be in Dark Souls, where attacks and dodging eat up Stamina, forcing the player to really consider their approach to every situation with more careful consideration. No, you’re not allowed to run and hack away until your foe falls. More likely you’ll try that, then end up without any means of escape or proper damage, then get murdered by additional mobs (like these knights).

On the bright side, Dark Souls II does allow you to keep three right-hand weapons handy now, having expanded the slot count from two in the last game. Similarly, left-hand slots might be raised from one to two.

As always, what weapons you choose to equip are an important part of any combat situation, though there are definitely those moments where you wonder if it might be better to just lay down and die. The final boss that awaited me at the end of this demo was, as we called him, a massive Mirror Knight. Why “Mirror”? Because he had a shield with souls trapped inside — souls that would periodically escape to make your life further hell. And while you’re trying not to get hit by the adds, the boss would fire out lightning across the area, and his attacks were so difficult to dodge that I shudder to think how many times I would have died here without God Mode enabled.