Drangleic has plenty of secretsįrom there, instead of being immediately thrown into an overwhelmingly gigantic world, you're only given two real paths forward, each extending from a hub town whose population will grow as you progress. The traditional half-hearted tutorial ending in a boss that's meant to kill you immediately has been replaced with a simpler, more effective and completely optional zone for learning the ropes. But the heart of the game is clearer and easier to grasp. For all that it did right, the first Dark Souls was full of unnecessary obfuscation - core gameplay concepts like 'humanity' that the game never fully explained, or points where the single path forward was obscured and easy to miss.ĭark Souls 2 still contains plenty of secrets people will still be picking apart its systems and level layouts and discovering new things for a long time to come.
From Software has cut down on the small annoyances that often tripped up new players in previous releases. It helps, as well, that progression in Dark Souls 2 is almost always determined by skill. In Dark Souls 2, figuring out how to progress is the reward. In a different game, I might be frustrated dying at the same part over and over again, because I want to see the next cutscene or get the next upgrade.
