After yesterday’s extremely promising first gameplay look, the first batch of previews for Dark Souls II has gone live, seemingly based on the same hands-off footage, together with some info tidbits from the developers.
Eurogamer:
The first enemy we face is a solid silver turtle-like beast easily double the size of our main player – decked out in a fur coat that’d make Rob Stark jealous. Once again we’re deep in a dungeon, noticeably less dank thanks to a new graphical engine that’s more Skyrim than Demon’s Souls. Our guy rolls behind this overblown amphibian ready to strike. It slams its shell backwards onto us, and we die. The familiar death howl, like a supersonic jet flying just over your head, shakes the room and causes nervous chatter among the journalists. Tanimura shows off more deaths: a bridge collapsing as you cross it; a flaming chariot running you over in a narrow hallway; a pack of wild dogs picking you up and hoisting you over a cliff. By the time the nameless protagonist is batting away flying axes with his broadsword, misses and catches one through his skull, the room erupts with laughter. “YOU DIED,” the screen reads.
“Core to Dark Souls is a sense of achievement – overcoming death in the game,” Tanimura says in a brief interview after the demonstration. “We want to enhance that even further. Learning from mistakes is one thing. Another is simply adding variations to how you can die…[finding] new ways for players to suffer.”
This raises the question of fairness, or the lack of it as I’ve heard people say of Dark Souls. I’ve often dismissed them as not getting it – to be “fair” implies keeping your character alive, a notion that should be foreign to Dark Souls and its sequel. My hipster pride made me stubborn.
Tanimura, once again, demonstrates his thoughtfulness on the topic. When I ask about his personal definition of fairness as it relates to Dark Souls, he leans forward. His face lights up. This is the first and only time all day I’ll see even the briefest flash of confidence.
“Unfair, to me, is a plane crashing into you as you walk,” he says. “Any time a player faces death in this game, I want to give it meaning. Whenever I direct a game, I ask myself what I have to pay attention to-how many hints do I need to evade these deaths?”
Computer and Videogames:
The first enemy we encounter is an Undead Soldier wielding a spear, and the language of combat looks no different from Dark Souls: locking on is smart, staying mobile is essential, pick your moments, and mistakes will be punished severely. The one thing that did catch our attention is a roll which transitioned seamlessly into an attack. In Dark Souls this wouldn’t be possible due to recovery animations after the roll; a new ability perhaps.
Over a bridge above a fire pit and a menacing Salamander, past the sneaky enemy that leaps out from behind a stone pillar, is a pitch black tunnel. Before venturing in we’re shown a new feature: the ability to light and carry flame torches. Torches are disposable items, they’re great for scoping out enemies concealed in shadows, but carry the penalty of not being able to use two hands, which means no shield or secondary attacks.
Although the core mechanics of combat haven’t changed, enemies are far more reactive to player movement and strategies. Emerging from the tunnel, our hero finds himself in a room littered with barrels, benches and pillars. Naturally, also waiting for us a huge, heavily armored enemy with a rather large mace and a shielded back. The knight attempts to circle around and backstab it, but the enemy does a backdrop to crush him and prevent the attack.
Official Xbox Magazine:
The graphical upgrade allows developer From Software to craft far more believable contrasts between light and dark and we get an unsettling taste of this when we enter a corridor shrouded in blackness. Old, traumatic memories of our big brother locking us in a closet and turning out the lights begin to resurface; just as we mentally squirm, Tanimura breaks through our internal twitching: “We want players to feel the emotional fright of walking through areas, unsure if there are actually any enemies present.” Mission accomplished, sir.
When the hero finds a way to light the length of the corridor via a magical stone our fear’s temporarily as we take in the flickering illuminations lining the ceiling. As we push forward, we discover Dark Souls II also utilizes contrasting audio cues to foster goose-bumps: the unsettling silence blanketing our trek is suddenly torn apart by the screams of some unseen beast. Turns out a towering cyclops-like creature is imprisoned up ahead, and he’s none to happy about it; the From Software team member demoing the game decides to aggravate the ugly monster by shooting an arrow at its big, meaty head. Turns out that isn’t the thing to do the big guy breaks free and crushes our armored knight with all the dignity usually reserved for a freshly emptied beer can.
With “You Died” now stretched across the screen, we load a different level. Creeping through a different area that could benefit from a few slivers of sunlight, we discover Dark Soul II’s enhanced illumination tech will have a more significant effect than simply making us squeal like scared grade-schoolers. Players have the option to equip torches, making those long walks through dark dungeons slightly more bearable. The downside to seeing your (unfortunately hastened) demise, however, is that you can’t equip a shield while carrying a torch.
Destructoid:
“In terms of freedom what we mean is Dark Souls 1 had this seamlessly connected world with free exploration, and we tried to enhance that further to provide more options for the players to choose from and decide how he or she wants to play based on their play styles,” Tanimura said.
Such options include environmental tactics, where players will be able to use traps that are laid out throughout the world in order to take down their foes.
From Software is also utilizing a new engine that they hope will allow players to become more immersed into the world than ever before, with feelings of “nervousness” and “fright” flowing through them as they face the game’s challenges.
…
“So one of the things that we’re thinking of doing is, in Dark Souls 1, the warping from bonfire to bonfire, you can only use it in certain locations in the later half of the game. But for Dark Souls II we’re starting to think of bringing that right to the beginning so it’s more convenient for players — to a certain extent — instead of having to walk all the way back to an area to get where you need to be,” he said.
If you’re still not convinced that Dark Souls II will be as excruciatingly challenging as past games, Tanimura assured that the game won’t feature the likes of an easy mode. From Software is instead working toward reaching the fine balance between difficulty and achievement — a primary goal for the team — and will continue to work toward that balance right up to the game’s release later this year.
Finally, Shacknews has word that Dark Souls II’s PC version will be significantly better than the “half-assed” Dark Souls PC port:
“A lot of it was not very well done, sort of half-assed,” Dark Souls 2 director Yui Tanimura told Shacknews via translator (Tak Miyazoe), while promising a much better experience for the sequel.
“Yes, we will definitely put more priority on the PC. Last time, we started working on PC after the console version was complete,” Tanimura explained. “This time, because we are considering the PC from the beginning, you can be sure there will be more care put into PC development.”
Whereas the PC version of Dark Souls came out months after the console versions, Dark Souls 2 will launch simultaneously on all platforms. The hands-off demo of Dark Souls 2 that we saw was also running on PC hardware, as well.
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