"Bearer of the curse, seek misery" this latest and greatest Dark Souls 2 trailer warns, right before showing the main character getting badly slashed, slammed, and generally put to death in a huge variety of ways, by all sorts of horrific creatures. The name of the trailer is 'Cursed" and it shows just how bad you have it as one of the cursed. There's no way you're getting out of this one alive.
The story of the series has never been an important aspect of it but this game is set in the "tormented kingdom of Drangleic" where there's a cure to this curse that you have, although you'll have to die time and time again to get to it, of course.
Dark Souls isn't exactly a series known to be accessible to casual gamers and Dark Souls II is destined to be no different. This is going to be just as difficult, just as punishing as the last two games. Hopefully it will be just as satisfying as well- I don't think there's a gamer alive who can deny that Demon's Souls and Dark Souls aren't two amazing titles, with the latter being one of the finest examples of this console generation. The action RPG may be tough but once you start to get a hang of things and learn to take the game at its own pace there's no experience quite like it.
This sequel is doing the appropriate thing and offering more- more- more!- an upgraded combat system, more characters, more customization options, weapons! Dark Souls II will also offer an improved version of the great multiplayer modes, which allow for both co-op and competitive play in your own game world. Which is good, because there will be all manner of things that can prey on your phobias by offering up all sorts of hallucinations along its twisting labyrinths and dungeons. The game will look better than ever thanks to the completely new game engine, too.
Of course, Dark Souls II isn't a next-gen title- this bad, cursed boy is coming out for Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 14th, with a PC version coming soon afterwards. Prepare to die, perhaps by stopping by the Dark Souls Cafe for some Estus Flasks filled with beer first.
