Although the mainstream opinion on the Souls series is that it's something akin to being voluntarily water-boarded, those who can cleanse their mind of a reactionary controller-throwing exclamation of "F**k this!" have found a beautiful extension of one of the most rewarding games of all time. By continuing the general penchant for killing you in one swift blur should you not be paying attention, the tone of DS II is still a very tense one, but there's absolutely nothing like your first journey through Drangleic, hiking up your shield as you wander trepidatiously into a new room before whirling around to block something that would otherwise have taken your head off. Gone is the layout of the world from Dark Souls where you'd accidentally stumble upon somewhere you'd been before, rediscovering an old checkpoint or finding a new angle into a place. Instead it's replaced with a much wider sense of variety, as journeying through the various locales of DS II will take you everywhere from atop a lava-stuffed castle to sprinting cave-to-cave with a swarm of dragons circling overhead. Essentially it's more of the same winning formula from both Dark and Demon's Souls, but with a great many tiny refinements that help make the core experience more accessible. For a completely unique take on exploration in video games, the idea of death being a core mechanic and a sense of peril that doesn't let up until the final credits, there's still nothing quite like Dark Souls.
