Dark Souls II Reviews

Dark Souls II is ranked in the 98th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9 / 10.0
May 12, 2014

Dark Souls II lives up to the series' reputation for being unrelentingly difficult- but it's worth digging in your heels and spending a lot of time with it. The PC port is just as good, if not better than it's console counterpart, but you're going to want to use a gamepad. Using a keyboard is possible, and there's even a few mods out there to make it more functional and ergonomic, but it's still clunky and unintuitive compared to using a controller.

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78 / 100
May 18, 2014

Another big, deep, engrossing action RPG in the Souls series that is more polished but ultimately weaker due to a fractured world, lack of direction, uneven difficulty and uninspired boss fights.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
9 / 10
May 20, 2014

Ultimately, Dark Souls II adds a lot of new features to the formula, but can't quite manage to match the brilliance of the original Dark Souls. What it does provide, though, is still a challenging and highly entertaining journey through the desolate world of Drangleic, one that is most definitely worth experiencing for fans of the genre. With this likely being the last game in the series to also appear on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it's certainly exciting to think about the future of the franchise and what From Software could achieve on newer hardware, along with all the lessons learned from this game.

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May 30, 2014

While some Souls purists may grumble that the easing of the series' legendary obfuscation strips away some of the sense of accomplishment that lies at the heart its unique appeal, From Software have managed to strike the right balance with Dark Souls 2, allowing more players to get the most out of the game without compromising on the fiendish difficulty that has become its hallmark.

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PCMag
Top Critic
Jun 25, 2014

Despite the finicky hit boxes and a few other flaws worth patching, Dark Souls II is an excellent port of a modern action-RPG classic. Dark Souls fans shouldn't hesitate to enjoy all the suffering in high resolution at 60FPS.

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90 / 100
Jul 21, 2014

Dark Souls II is a very difficult game more than the first one. PC controls still have the same problem: they're complicated. The story and the maps are much more beautiful, graphics seem better than one consoles. If you are a fan of the Dark Souls series, you'll definitely love this one.

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Pixel Dynamo
Pixel Dynamo
Top Critic
8.5 / 10.0
Oct 18, 2015

Feels good to die again

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85%
Apr 14, 2016

The combat is fun, and there's even more weapons now that you can imbue with various elemental powers. The boss fights, though forgettable, are still tense and challenging. The problem is that Dark Souls II must be compared to the original Dark Souls, and it falls flat in every category. By attempting to make both newcomers and veterans of Dark Souls happy, Dark Souls II succeeds in neither, and is an unsatisfying experience because of it.

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Unscored
May 22, 2018
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