Dark Souls II, brought us back to the unforgiving world of Drangleic. A world where your only hope is to kill the now insane remnants of people now known as hollows and collect their souls to try and regain whatever you can of your frail humanity. Now with Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, you can play through the full game plus all of its extra content, improved graphics and even more players in online play. Prepare to die, again!
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Games
Release Date: April 2, 2015
Consoles: Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
Genre: Action RPG
Rating: T for Teen
The first games in the series, Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, took the gaming world by storm. These games showed gamers not only a scary new world but also that a difficult game was by no means a bad thing. I will never forget realizing that the tutorial was supposed to kill me, but shortly after you realize that death is a huge part of these games and that its a mechanic that makes the very unique. Dark Souls II, initially released in March of 2014 and received much praise and continued the tradition of the games set before it, high difficulty and an unforgiven horror filled world.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, not only brings Dark Souls II to the latest generation of gaming consoles but it also packages all the previously released download content as well. These 3 downloadable episodes are The Crown of the Sunken King, The Crown of the Old Iron King and The Crown of the Ivory King. Each episode features new areas, bosses, items, weapons and spells. Please keep in mind though that each of these episodes still need to be found and unlocked in game.
So far we have the whole original game and 3 full episodes of extra gameplay, thats a lot of Dark Souls if you ask me, but wait thats not all! Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin also includes a brand new boss, a new NPC(non player character), more items, improved visuals on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and finally numerous lore changes.
Thats right lore changes, at first glance that doesn’t seem like much but to seasoned players they know that in the Dark Souls world of Drangleic the lore is where all the story and most of the games background comes from. Upon reading many of the games descriptions for items and weapons most of it just feels like flavour and added to give the game a bit of atmosphere (like this game needs more atmosphere in all honesty), but some items reveal very specific facts that can be pieced together not only for small snipets of story but also hint at the more complex metagame within the game.
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, is a great way to enter the series for first timers and a great continuation of the series. With all the gameplay tweaks, improved graphics and changed enemy placement this is a must have for any who have played the game before but want to experience it on the next generation of consoles. As much as the game frustrates and is constantly killing me, I can’t help but keep coming back for more!
Dark Souls II: Sholar of the First Sin is available now on Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
