Dark Souls 2
Welcome to your Death The price of wisdom
by Lein Baart
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it took the gaming community by massive surprise. The spiritual successor to the moderately successful Demon Souls, From Software’s masterpiece seemed to be everything modern gaming was not, a brutal unapologetic throwback that never once held your hand through its countless hours of agonised joy. Not once were you ever spoon-fed, not once did it give you cheap thrills of victory. It was a game that rewarded perseverance through challenge, and because of this it achieved a cult status seldom seen in these times. It was for this reason though, as the release date for Dark Souls 2 drew closer and the whispers of capitulation grew louder, many began to fear that From Software would cave to the expectations of the industry, and the difficulty that had become the hallmark of the series would be lost in favour of accessibility. Rest assured, Dark Souls 2 is every inch
Review
aggedly you draw breath, as the final moans of the vanquished fade away along with their corpses. How many times have you trod these halls, these arteries of a forsaken monument to a past barely remembered? It doesn’t matter. Drangleic is a world of the present drowned by the memories of the forgotten, and no matter how many times you’ve succumbed to the claws and swords and snarls of those around you, things never seem to change. They say that death is a transition, a transformation of being. You’ve discovered otherwise. It’s a place of echoes and knowledge gained through a perilous price. Drangleic is a world filled with death, and there is so much more you still need to learn. Grimly you grip your sword with rotting hands, ready to march towards your next lesson. When Dark Souls first launched in 2011 on the PS3
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