Dark Souls 2: 10 Reasons It's Your Ultimate Test As A Gamer

4. Combat Is Incredibly Deep

At the core of Dark Souls 2 is one of the finest combat systems ever put into a game. The combat is both meaty and satisfying with a simple to learn/impossible to master ethos. Simply enough, you equip weapons and shields in each hand, the right shoulder buttons control your right hand attacks, left shoulders are your left hand. Simple? Not quite. You see, the combat in Dark Souls is all about timing. Every single enemy - even in the early game - are deadly and will kill you if you aren't paying attention. You need to observe their movements and attacks, bait them into giving you an opening and take your chance. Button mashing will always get you killed, no exceptions. You need to exercise restraint, making sure to do damage but also making sure you have enough stamina left to roll out of the way or block once your attack is done. Changes have been made to balance out the combat from the previous games. It used to be the case that you could strafe around enemies and easily land a devastating backstab animation that would take huge amounts of damage from them. This isn't the case any more, as the new critical hits have much narrower execution windows. They're not impossible to land, but they're significantly harder, as you can now be interrupted in special attacks, forcing you to work out if the critical hit is worth pursuing. Parries and ripostes have been altered too. Again, the timing for them has changed significantly and they are more difficult to execute. A successful parry will now knock over most enemies allowing you to go in for a devastating attack, but again this animation can be interrupted and you can take damage. Lastly, invincibility frames (that short, exploitable period while your character rolls and the animation prevents you taking any damage) have been reduced. You can roll through some attacks and avoid damage but your timing has to be even more exact than before. All of these changes do make the combat harder but they are a good thing. They encourage players who have been through the first game multiple times to try different tactics and actually think about their fighting style, rather than rely on muscle memory alone.