Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin - IGN review

Dark Souls II is a smart, massive, and incredibly rewarding sequel. It’s crammed with deep systems, tense encounters, and enough clever multiplayer and New Game Plus elements to make me want to restart the second I saw the end credits. Not all of the tweaks and additions worked out for the best, but with such great enemies and levels to fight and explore, Dark Souls II made 60 hours of pain and agony so much fun they flew by in a heartbeat.

[DarkOcelet]

"+Even more content
+Looks great
+Awesome DLC
+New enemies

– Tougher starting point"

Seriously IGN!? What kind of dumb@ss negative excuse is this? This is worse than "Too much water". I expected this kind of stupidity from them. This was the easiest game in the whole series and you complain they upped the starting point?! Kill me now.

[Snookies12]

Haha, if a reviewer gives any Souls (or Bloodborne) game a negative for toughness in any area of the game... They're missing the whole point of the franchise...

[Crimzon]

Maybe the IGN reviewer is referring to the durability bug that's making the game harder than it's supposed to be? Running at 60fps seems to have screwed things up a lot, it's the same bug that affected PC users and From Software apparently hasn't bothered fixing it.

[Articuno76]

They didn't criticise the game for being tough, but being tough to get into, tougher in fact than it was before. That's a different criticism from simply rating the game down for being tough.

[Vegamyster]

He said it may be tougher for newcomers compared to the first version of the game.

[FRAKISTAN]

so that makes it a negative point?

[Vegamyster]

FRAKISTAN

It depends on the person, if someone isn't the greatest at these type of games then they may opt to go for the older/cheaper version, granted the framerate won't be as good. It was only briefly brought up in the review, it clearly didn't bother himself but mentioned it anyway, ignoring everything else in the review because of a minor con shouldn't really cause a fuss.

[d_g]

i think 9/10 is great

[OpieWinston]

No No No No No

NOTHING is worse than "Too Much Water"
That joke will be around for years to come thanks to IGNs awful review team.

I agree it's a terrible con, but nothing's worse than "Too much water".

[younglj01]

"Too much water" what game was that.?

edit:nvm found it...wow just wow

[Femto]

lol this reviewer is so full of shit, he said he played the game for 100+ hours, anyone who invests 100+ in this game wouldn't give a dumbass negative like "Tougher starting point"

not gonna complain too much tho at least he gave it the score it deserves.

[Xer0_SiN]

i know in one of my previous posts, i said i would play ds2 last if i had to rate all of them. i bought this today an have to admit that it feels like a whole new ds2. head and shoulder better than the previous iteration. i like how everything is familiar, yet different. all enemies are placed differently, and there are even new enemies in thought to be safe spots. only con, and thats stretching it is, had to get used to the button layout again since i been playin the heck out of bloodborne. dont worry. it was the same for bb too (getting used to the controls).

[hulk_bash1987]

Read or watch the review. The reviewer says it's a tougher starting point for new comers of the series to get into. Not that the starting point in the game is tougher.

[vikingland1]

Five positives and one negative omg how dare they /s. Smh.

[wakeNbake]

Might pick this up for Xb1 since I already have Bloodborne on my PS4.

[WeAreLegion]

Is that a balancing thing?

[imt558]

Why not for PS4 cuz it is a BETTER version???

[rawrock]

The X1 controller makes the X1 version better. Graphics and framerate differences are minimal, you wouldnt even notice.

[MasterCornholio]

@raw

I actually think the PS4s controller is better.

:I

"you wouldnt even notice."

Eurogamer did say it was noticeable especially during boss fights.

[starchild]

Good game. I still like Dark Souls the best, but this one is still great.

[Umbasa]

Back when i played this last year i started with the Depraved and it was tough. I think i started with a broken dagger?
Anyways i am picking this up tomorrow and will pick the same......

- Tougher starting point"
.........

BRING IT!!

[llxKonanxll]

Won't be getting this. :/ I guess I can wait for Dark souls 3.

[ArnoDorian]

DS III will be a bit too much
but what i would prefer is Sci-fi-esque Dark Souls game with Armored Core style type game from them :)

[Der_Kommandant]

Says it's better than before....Gives same score

IGN logic

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

Was thinking this too. I almost feel like they did this because if it got a higher score than bloodborne people would realize how broken their scale is.

[hulk_bash1987]

IGN's scoring system is horrible at best. Which is why I never put much stock in their reviews.

[magiciandude]

Part of why the score is the same is because this is largely the same game as last year's release. Many reviewers are generally harder on sequels (or prequels), re-releases, and remasters than the originals when they review and score a game, or at least hold them to elevated expectations. This kind of practice isn't overly uncommon.

[darren_poolies]

If Bloodborne only deserves a 9.1 then to me this is like a 7.5.

[magiciandude]

Yeah, because 9.1 is a low score...

[Back-to-Back]

It's more to due with the stupid game mechanics inside of DKS2. I hate to say it again but Bloodborne and DKS2 show how important it is to have the right people on your development team.

[magiciandude]

Bloodborne and Dark Souls II are both reviewed by different reviewers. Just saying.

[darren_poolies]

Never said it was but DkS2 is very poor in comparison to Bloodborne and does not deserve a 9, especially if Bloodborne only gets a 9.1.

[PurpHerbison]

TRUE

[vikingland1]

What's wrong with gamers? They give the game a 9/10 and every one picks up on the one negative. These "gamers" are doing the same thing as the reviewer only worse because there are no positives in thier comments. Get a grip people geez.

[filipakos]

What makes it hard early game is the weapon durability that goes down really fast

[PurpHerbison]

Time to be that guy. If Bloodborne is 9/10... Dark Souls 2 is easily 6/10.

[Bolts]

Bloodborne would need two expansions to be that good. Right now the base game is lacking at higher levels. There is zero build diversity.

[PurpHerbison]

Zero? Really? Come on now... Game has yet to even mature. I refuse to down vote you cause you are a Charger fan.

[Bolts]

I'm on my second play through as an arcane user and aside from the stats I'm playing the same way as my strength build. It's the Holy Blade all day every day. There's no reason to pick anything else. Sure there are a few gimmicks to an arcane build but they're just that. Gimmicks. Unlike Darksouls where the gameplay between a warrior and Mage build are drastic different.

[Ch1d0r1]

Same grate game + better graphics and more content = 10 out of 10

COME ON IGN!