Hollowing is a gradual process now
Even though Dark Souls’ story featured NPCs who were slipping gradually into a hollow (undead) state, you as a character were always either living or hollow depending on whether you’d used humanity points to revive at a checkpoint bonfire. It was very much a binary heads-or-tails proposition. Dark Souls 2 does a better job of capturing the gradual nature of the hollowing process by both reducing your pool of HP and degrading your visual appearance with repeated deaths. I started out playing as a beautiful female knight, but after a few deaths, her eyes started to glow. A few deaths later, her skin became grey and wrinkled. By the time I finally reached the 50% limit of health reduction, only straggly tufts of hair remained on my scalp, giving the appearance that I’d ripped most of it. I found this slide far more emotionally compelling than the living-hollow light switch of the game’s predecessors.
There’s almost co-op this time
The game’s producer Takeshi Miyazoe gave a brief presentation before the hands-on time and offered a few clarifications about some of the game’s online features. Even though there’s still no straightforward co-op option, there’s an item called the Name-Engraved Ring, which allows you to choose which of the game’s gods you’ll pledge fealty to. If you and a friend playing online both revere the same god, there’s a much better chance that a summoning sign will pair you together. When I followed up with Miyazoe after the presentation, he assured me the ring would break after a limited number of uses.
Griefing others will cost you
Dark Souls 2’s invasion system has been refined to make it fairer. If you choose to grief other players by invading their worlds, you will now automatically accrue sin points, which will make you a more frequent target of invasion. There’s now a hierarchy in terms of your chances of being invaded. High-sin players have the greatest chance of being invaded, then players currently engaged in co-op, then living solo players, then undead solo players. Even though the shocking news that hollow players could be invaded is accurate, the chances of it happening are fairly remote.
The world’s more populated
The world of Dark Souls 2 feels much more lived-in and populated with NPCs. In the opening minutes of the game I encountered a brightly lit cottage within a dark cavernous space – unnervingly echoes of Hansel & Gretel. Inside were four different characters, three elderly retired Firekeepers who fixed their milky, disgusting cataracts-covered eyes on me and opined on the curse I bore, and a serving girl with multiple snippets of dialogue. I had to engage certain NPCs in dialogue three or even four times to hear all of what they had to say.
Then just outside the tutorial area, I stepped out into bright light where I found a sun-kissed coastline, lapping waves, and an honest-to-god settlement. There was a chatty merchant in one shop who told me about his journeys. There was a sorrowful adventurer sitting by an obelisk who shared his tale of woe. And there was a woman who provided me my first Estus Flask. Then I found a Scottish knight who was sitting on the ground, stumped over how to enter a nearby locked door which another poor wretch had apparently been turned to stone while trying to open. Dark Souls 2 feels less lonely. And I can a larger and chattier NPC population bringing the story elements slightly more aggressively to the fore.
There’s investigation as well as exploration
There’s a detective element to Dark Souls 2 that feels new to the series and offers a more explicit reward for player exploration than simply finding a bit of loot on an out-of-the-way corpse or treasure chest. When I inspected the reverse side of the aforementioned obelisk, there was a worn etching that I was invited to press a button to investigate when I stood in close enough proximity. Even though my attempt to read it was unsuccessful, it seemed pretty obvious that there was some item I needed to be able to elucidate the characters and would uncover later in my quest. Finding special items and combining them with environmental features could add a host of novel interactions to this game that go beyond the core combat. When I created my character in the Firekeepers’ cottage, I had a chance to select a gift from a list of options. One of those options was a petrified lump. I want to know what that item does. I wonder if I needed to rub it against that obelisk inscription
It’s had a huge make over
Dark Souls 2 is an incredibly beautiful game. The lighting is exquisite and far more dynamic than previous Souls games. Characters look far more detailed. The game’s opening cinematic is itself a marvel of pre-rendered CGI theatre. Namco Bandai has clearly poured a substantial amount of cash into the development of this game and it shows. Miyazoe assured me that it was the company’s biggest and proudest hope for their 2014 lineup. High stakes is what Dark Souls is all about.
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