Dark Souls 2: 10 Lessons All Games Must Learn From It

How to make a game that is both infuriating and brilliant...

The long awaited Dark Souls 2 is finally here and it's everything we could have hoped for. Soul crushingly difficult. However, it's also a masterpiece in game design and gameplay execution and there's plenty for games designers everywhere to learn from. As a sequel, Dark Souls 2 doesn't take the great strides that the first game did from Demon's Souls but it does refine and improve a lot on the formula. They've actually made it harder too, thanks to some features first found in Demon's Souls like your character's maximum health shrinking after each death. The extra challenge just makes finishing Dark Souls 2 a greater feat though and the mysterious and exciting world of Drangleic rewards us constantly. That's enough about Dark Souls 2 as a game though; what can it teach other games? Here's ten things that other games should be learning from Dark Souls 2.

10. Side Quests Should Actually Aid Us Later

Side quests have become so common place in games now that we expect to see them popping up everywhere. When was the last time that one really benefited your main quest though? Sure, a side quest may give you an extra piece of gear or some more gold but in Dark Souls 2, completing side quests is far more rewarding. For example, one boss that must be beaten to advance through the game is the Lost Sinner, located in Sinner's Rise. It's a tough boss fight but it's made even tougher by a heavily darkened room (in fact, it's impossible to target the Lost Sinner whilst the room is dark). However, venturing into Belfry Luna and retrieving the Bastille Key (located after the very tough Belfry Gargoyles boss) will allow you to open the side rooms around the Lost Sinner's room. These side rooms contain oil to burn which illuminates the centre room and makes a tough boss fight considerably easier. That's just one example of how venturing into other areas can make your life easier later on in the game. It's something that all other games should look at €“ how can we make a side quest help the player later on? At the end of the day, making side quests more rewarding would result in more players' experiencing everything a game has to offer; isn't that what the development team want?
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