5 Reasons Why Dark Souls 2 Is Becoming 2014's Most Anticipated Early Release

2. The Story

There isn€™t one. Or rather you are not told the tale as you hack your way through the various locations. You are drip fed bits and pieces by those that direct you, but what you are given is truly minimalist. Shreds of information are given when you need a new objective, so rather than dumping a weighty chapter of lore into your codex whenever you glance at an object, each character, each item and each place will give you a scrap of information. Virtually meaningless on its own but when you piece it all together there is a rich tapestry depicting a story of both depth and breadth. The main storyline can be told in literally under one hundred and fifty words. I have just tried it, and it fit easily without leaving out any major plot details. I€™m not about to put up spoilers but if you are curious drop me a line. This apparently straightforward simplicity belies a great deal of complexity. It is anything but straightforward, and all of the many other details do not detract or distract from it, they accent, compliment and colour it, but still very little is explained to the full. Virtually nothing is defined outright, much is left shrouded in mystery and open to the interpretation of the player. No one ends up with quite the same story in their head as anyone else. So what does Dark Souls II have in store? Is it going to tie up the dozens of questions and mysteries Dark Souls left us with? On the one hand that sounds appealing, but on the other it would, in many ways, ruin the fun. Put simply, no. Dark Souls II is not a direct successor, whilst it is set in the same world, it has been set apart from the original game, in an entirely different location, with little to no tie-in. This means we are going to have a whole new tapestry to stitch together, and undoubtedly another bottomless box of mysteries to bug the hell out of us.