Looking at: Dark Souls 2

The Old Guard

The odds will often be stacked against you, you'll need patience to get through.

The first Dark Souls has been called a masterpiece, one of the most important games ever released, and one of the best RPG games ever made. Accolades have been heaped on it for nearly every aspect, from the brutal difficulty, open ended nature, interconnected world, and sparsely told plot threads. Indeed, between the PS3 version and the PC re-release (which was recently FINALLY moved off of the terrible Games for Windows Live) I've put dozens up dozens of hours into fighting and dying in Lordran. Clearly a sequel was inevitable, and early 2014, Dark Souls 2 was released upon us. Is this a dungeon worth delving, or was this death in vain?

The Darker Soul

occasionally you'll have a chance to indulge your inner firebug to solve puzzles.

Like it's predecessors, Dark Souls 2 is a game about dying, fighting, and dying some more. You've come to the land of Dranglaic to seek treasure and fortune and have instead become cursed to stay there forever, trapped between life and death. To heal yourself you'll need to kill the four guardians and rekindle the primal fires before slaying the land's monarch and claiming the throne. In order to do this you'll suffer through a series of challenges killing all sorts of monsters and bosses along the way in your campaign of destruction.

DS2, like Dark Souls and Demon's Souls before it, keeps it's plot purposely obfuscated, and likes to deal out small amounts of plot or lore through background osmosis, rather then hand it to you straight up. It's easy to miss the entire plot of DS2 and you'll often need multiple play throughs to understand some of the finer points of the lore. It's not that the game is poorly written, quite the opposite as there's a wealth of backstory to be found if you go looking for it. Rather DS2 is content in letting you piece together the world yourself, giving you the ability to do this and letting you figure it out. It can be disorienting at times, as you try and figure out what your goal is, but it's oddly refreshing in the face of modern games that just give you everything without leaving anything to the imagination.


Killing in the Name

Fighting with others can make any challenge just that much easier to handle.

This idea of letting you figure things out extends out to the gameplay. DS2 is a tough game, but it's a malleable game as well. Theoretically the entire game can be beaten with the starting equipement, as long as you get good enough to work within that parameter. That's one of my favorite things about the Dark Souls games, is that despite their intense difficulty, you really can play whatever way you want. For instance, one of my characters was named Punchy Joe. He never wears shirts and only fights using a pair brass knuckles. Using this hilariously underpowered character I've cleared about a quarter of the game with minimal issues, all because I adapted to how to play differently.

That's the trick of DS2, is that you'll need to adapt to win. Every fight is memorable, from your first zombie swordsman at the start, to the elephant man I just killed 20 hours in. All of these are constantly fresh in my mind because they have to be if I want to succeed. I learned quickly that the elephant man's pike has a long range, so I learned to stay even further away, just like I learned that the swordman slashes twice then stabs. Learning from your mistakes is the only way forward in DS2, and lord knows you'll make a lot of mistakes.

There's another reason the fights in DS2 are memorable, and that's because like it's predecessor they often lean towards quality and less to quantity. A level might only have a few enemies in it, and some of the areas are so small you can see the end of them from the beginning. The trick is that you'll suffer for your finish, and while there may only be five enemies in your path, it'll take you forever to chip away at them. Fights like this are often the norm and it's rare to see you facing a crowd, save for one particular boss fight. You'll need to conduct fights like an opera, making sure to only fight what you can handle at any given time and leaving room for a quick pull from your healing flask or breaking open a slow-acting life stone.

Accidental Death 

There are some truly gorgeous vista, but they often hold untold horrors. 

DS2 is a bigger and more ambitious game then the first one, and while this means that certain aspects have been improved upon, there are also numerous parts of the game that just don't work as well as the first one did. There are more then a few issues that didn't come up as much in the first game and, while none of them are necessarily game breakers, they do dampen an otherwise fantastic experience.

The first and most notable issue is the enemy AI. Dark Soul's AI has always been problematic, ever since the first entry Demon's Souls. The enemies only know to charge you and use their set of attacks, and don't bother with self preservation. While that means you can occasionally draw enemies into traps meant to kill you, I noticed that their AI was particularly inconsistent in DS2, often teetering between devious and dumb, flanking me one minute and walking into my obvious attack the next. Even more inconsistent was how the enemies fought me, lunging straight past me with one attack only to stun-lock me with the next three strikes. The simplest foe became a mini-boss fight when he managed to get me into a corner with attacks I couldn't block.

That brings me to DS2's biggest issue over the first one: your ability to avoid damage. In Dark Souls avoiding damage was all about dodging or blocking. You either had to be quick with a roll or carry a good shield. Either way it was possible to make it through much of the game while avoiding damage, making the few times you did get winged all the more strenuous because of how much they hurt. In DS2 something feels... off with the whole ordeal and it's largely due to some tweaks to the hitbox detection. More then a few times I've noticed the game subtly adjusting enemy attack patterns just so to make sure their hit lands, and the dodge-roll seems to have far fewer invincibility-frames then the previous game. You'll get hurt a lot in DS2, and sometimes it doesn't feel like a fair fight because of it.

Japanese Gothic

Each new area is introduced as you step into it, inviting you to explore it's secrets. 

Levels in Dark Souls had this interwoven feel to it, like the whole world was slowly unfolding before your eyes as you explored. Even with the most bizarre areas there was a logical progression to it all and there were plenty of secret passages and shortcuts to uncover. The world wasn't all that large on reflection, but what it lacked in size it made up for in spades with it's detail.

DS2's world is bigger sure, and there's a lot more to do, but all of this comes at the cost of logic and reason. There's an abundance of pointless areas that serve nothing more then to transition you from one dungeon to another, and the flow of the game often doesn't make much sense. Why does a ruined tower lead me to an underground shipyard? Why does a mining town lead me to a volcano fortress? It's confusing and seems much more piecemeal then the first game, like the levels were designed separate then made to fit regardless. The individual levels themselves are great, offering challenges and puzzles galore and are often a joy to explore, but getting between them often feels boring and it's a good thing fast travel is unlocked from the start.

Graphically DS2 is impressive, albeit not as good as it's own E3 trailer some time ago. The lighting does a good job of selling the somber and dark mood, while obfuscating traps or enemies. The texture work is decent, although falls apart upon closer inspection, and everything has a purposely ugly and ruined look to it. The various pieces of equipment all look fantastic and unique from each other, and there's a myriad of ways to make your character stand out, from the crazed jester to the noble knight and anything in between.

The audio work is similarly well done, with a great soundtrack of dark and moody music, just quiet enough to fit any scene while just loud enough to be heard over the clang of weapons. Weapons all have a distinct sound to them and everything from tearing through flesh and armor to smashing down doors sounds weighty and bombastic. Enemies often have their own unique soundbites letting you know their around the next corner, but rarely giving them away.

There's only a small handful of friendly NPC's to talk to, but the voice work is decent enough. They manage to sell their lines, often with an air of uncertainty, either about you or their current predicament. More entertaining are the souls completely lost to the madness who really just have fun with their characters. There's no one as charming as Solair or Patches, but the characters of DS2 are memorable enough. It's especially handy that the majority of them move to the central town during the story, meaning they're easy to track down and talk to again.

Mass Grave

You're not really the hero, more of a janitor come to clean up the mess. 

Multiplayer returns in DS2, largely unchanged from the first game. You'll be able to summon other players to your world, or be summoned to other worlds, through the use of in-game items, allowing you to team up and take down bosses. The changes this time are in how the humanity system works. In DS2 you can turn human at any time, no longer reliant on bonfires to do so, but the trade is that every death while not human lowers your overall health, down to a possible half bar. This makes staying human that much more important as you'll often need as much HP as possible, even just for the purposes of exploring.

The other big change in terms of multiplayer is the idea of Souls Memory. Rather then lock multiplayer summoning to a certain level range, it's now based on your soul memory, that is, the total accumulation of souls (in-game universal currency) you've gained with your character. That means a level 80 character can play with a level 20 character, so long as they're both in the same Soul Memory Bracket. It's a bit confusing at first, but it simultaneously makes it easier and harder to play with people, based on how much of the game they've played as well.

Once again, DS2's multiplayer is an all-or-nothing game, meaning that if you want to play with other people you'll also have to be willing to allow other players to invade your game. These encounters are often both the best and worst part of the game as I lost count of how many times I was backstabbed because of a bad connection between me and the invader. There is now an option to play offline hidden within the game, but it removes much of the best parts, meaning you'll have to take the good with the bad.

Sins of the First Scholar

The Pursuer Knight, a formidable foe that will chase you throughout the game.

The original DS2 came out in early 2014, and was a moderate success. There were three DLC packs released, each containing a new dungeon with new challenges and items. Seeing as it's 2015 and publishers are money sucking scum, DS2 has received the HD update/game of the year treatment in the form of Sins of the First Scholar. This version collects DS2 and all of it's DLC while changing the graphics over to DirectX 11 and changing up enemy placement for a new challenge.

Right off the bat the best thing about SotFS is the 60fps lock. I've never been one to get into arguments about frame rates, but it's undeniable how much better DS2 plays at 60fps. It's a fast and fluid experience that really enhances the experience. There is some concern about weapon durability falling faster due to a glitch, but From software have already promised to fix that in an upcoming patch.

As for the new enemy placement, while it does balance out certain areas, From seem to have made the same mistake as Hotline Miami 2 thinking that more enemies equals a better challenge. It's unfortunate to see a game like this take such a terrible misstep and while it never ruins the game, it does make certain areas feel like a slog rather then proper challenge. Worse, with some of the new challenge it's difficult to recommend SotFS to a new player, despite the upgrades and multiplayer stability because the level of difficulty in some areas goes above and beyond to be annoying.  It's not a bad upgrade and I'm glad I got it, but it doesn't really do the Dark Souls name proper justice.

Dead and Buried

From shaded forest to rain slicked fortresses, DS2 is a big game.

It's unfortunate that Dark Souls has earned a reputation as one of the most difficult games ever made for a few reasons: First, it means that any half-baked indie game promising a challenge refers to itself as "Dark Souls-like". Secondly, it's just not true. Sure, there is a challenge to the Dark Souls games, but only if you fail to adapt to the game and begin to play with it as it would you. Dark Souls isn't just a game to be beaten, it's a game that dares you to embarrass it, make it feel sorry for ever trying to pick a fight with you. That's when it's at it's best and you truly begin to enjoy it.

I've never liked the idea that a sequel cannot be better then the original game, and saying a sequel isn't good because it's not the original annoys me. Unfortunately, that's simply not the case with DS2, as it's just not as good of a game as the original was. Maybe if it had the original director, or maybe if AI scripting was just a little bit better, or even if the levels were a little more concise this would be a better game. The fact is DS2 just has a few to many issues with it, and that's what keeps it down. Still it's still one of the best RPG's in recent memory, and definitely worth playing for anyone looking for a great challenge. At the very least, it's more Dark Souls, and that's exactly what I wanted.

Looking at: The Witcher 2

Kingslayer

As Geralt, you'll often face insurmountable odds. 

I hate the word "epic". Like most things it gets it's hands on, the internet has all but ruined this word, turning into a shambling, stupid, meme-spitting buzzword. I hate "epic"

But there's no other word to properly describe The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Witcher 2 is a huge, sweeping, mature epic fantasy that demands that you take it seriously as it strings you along. Is this a journey worth taking or just idle talk by the firelight?

From Poland with Love

The Witcher 2 can be beautiful when it wants to be.

The entire franchise of The Witcher comes to use courtesy of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. The series centers around Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, and a Witcher. Witchers are mutated monster hunters that roam the land killing for money, and Geralt is considered the best among them. The books provide an entire back story, but the games are they're own self-contained tale, and you don't really need any fore-knowledge on the character or world to get what's going on. All you need to know is that shit is almost constantly in a state of fucked up, and Geralt really doesn't care at all.

The first game opened with Geralt running through the forest, waking up with amnesia, and slowly but surely piecing together everything that's happened to him. Throughout the first game he killed monsters, killed some great evil known as the Grand Master, and saved King Foltest of Temeria from assassination. There is more to it then that, but that's all you'll need to know about The Witcher in order to player Witcher 2.

The Witcher's Path

The upgrade, simplified thanks to the amazing Combat rebalance mod.

Witcher 2 opens with Geralt in prison. He's been accused of killing Foltest and is set to hang. Throughout the tutorial it's slowly revealed that another Witcher killed Foltest and that Geralt is just taking the blame. In exchange for his freedom, Geralt promises to track down the real kingslayer and bring him to justice. This serves as the central plot point throughout the game, as you track down the killer and deal with the fallout of Foltest's death.

The plot plays out like a medieval noir story, with secrets being revealed and motivations changing as more and more details come to life. It's a great story too, taking time to develop like a constant slow burn, and giving you time to digest what's going on. There's plenty of back story to wade through, with character descriptions, a full bestiary, and plenty of lore hidden throughout. The Witcher 2's world is easily one of the most well realized and complete worlds I've ever seen.

There are also side missions throughout every level, ranging from simple Witcher's work -that is killing monsters for money- to more involved quests like locating a lost laboratory, saving researchers from a haunted mansion, and more. The more involved sidequests will create entire stories independent of the main plot, with the majority of these being worth the time, if only for the great story.

Like I mentioned, choice means everything in Witcher 2. You'll often have to make decisions, whether minor or not, and live with the consequences. Practically this usually means things like avoiding a fight, or changing your opponents, but certain choices can vary the game's progression wildly, with the entire second act hinging on a few moments. These choices feel natural, and the game's reaction reciprocates this well so the entire process seems dynamic, rather then the "choose a color" scheme some other games choose to go with.

Whirling Dervish

Monsters are often as terrifying as they are massive.

Gameplay in Witcher 2 can best be described as "tactical swordplay". Geralt, despite his abundance of badassdom, can't really take a hit that well, even with late game armor. Instead his style of fighting relies on being faster then his opponents, be they man or beast, and making sure he doesn't get hit. In this regard I often found the most useful tool in the Witcher's arsenal his ability to dodge around like a madman, rolling or pirouetting out of harm's way in a second. More importantly, dodge was one of the few animations that would trigger correctly when I try to use them.

That brings me to the heart of the issue with Witcher 2's combat, is that it's all heavily animation based. That's fine, since all games are, but there's no real physics to the animations, and they play out regardless of what's going on. It's hard to explain, but play a comparable game like Dark Souls or even Skyrim and you'll understand. There's an odd lack of weight to your hits, like they're not really connected to anything, and this makes combat feel floaty and awkward.

This is an issue for two reasons: One, when combat does work, and you kill your enemies in a flurry of blows and feel like a master swordsman, it feels great. The second issue is that combat makes up the large majority of the game between just normal monster hunting and encounters with human foes.

Combat is a mixture between using one of Geralt's swords (silver for monsters, steel for humans, despite what the novels may say), using one of the limited, but insanely useful, magical signs, and making liberal use of alchemy. This last one is particularly of interest as it reinforces Witcher 2's theme of preparation. Geralt isn't the Dragon Born, and he can't heal in the middle of a fight by eating a sandwich. Instead, you'll need to brew and quaff potions when you have a spare second, meaning that trips outside of town are limited to about as long as your potions last. It's an interesting idea in theory, and certainly makes the game more challenging, but quickly becomes annoying and tedious, not to mention aggravating when the game constantly forces you into situations where you're not given time to prepare.

Troll maiden

A moment of quiet before a battle.

There's an almost constant sense of awkwardness to Witcher 2, like it's a game that wasn't meant to be as good as it it. Dialogue interactions are strangely stitched together, and rarely flow well. Scenes don't as much bleed into one another like they should, but feel patched together, like they were constructed independently of one another and assembled after the fact. There are so many strange and unintentionally hilarious animations I lost count halfway through the second act. I've seen games that punch above their weight class and impress me by doing things I didn't expect them to do, but Witcher 2 seems like the exact opposite, making mistakes that a game of its caliber shouldn't be making.

The one area where Witcher 2 is consistently great is it's graphics. While the character models have aged a bit in the years since it's release, there's no denying that it's a great looking game. The lighting work especially sells the scenes, but overall the world looks and feels great, even when the things inhabiting it don't. 

On that note, a special notice goes out to monsters. Despite the promise of monster hunting, there are only a handful of monsters to hunt throughout the game, but they all look great. Each monster looks terrifying, and really fits the dark, ugly tone of the game. Everything from the undead zombie nekkers, to the towering Kyran octopus creature looks great and fighting them is all the better for it.

On the audio side Witcher 2 once again fails to deliver. Voice acting on the main characters is great, particularly Doug Cockle as the voice of Geralt and Jaimi Barbakoff as Triss Merigold, the lead female. Voice acting on the other characters though ranges from mediocre to terrible, and the sound mixing doesn't really help. VO actors either seem to close or to far away from the mic at times, and conversations seem to happen regardless of your proximity to them in the world. I was across town from a pair of dwarves talking and yet I still heard every word of their conversation. Worse is that each location only has a small finite amount of ambient conversations that play over and over infinitely. I can completely recite one conversation from the second act because it's the only thing I ever heard whenever I was in town. Using the incredibly useful Cat potion, which grants the ability to see in the dark and sense living creatures, was always a hard choice because for ten straight minutes it would play a beating hear sound that drove me nuts.

Monster Slayer

As a Whitcher you'll often be called to deal with magical creatures like the undead.

I don't know what to make of Witcher 2. I didn't know what to make of it when it was released in 2011, I didn't know what to make of it after the enhanced upgrade release in 2012, and I still don't know what to make of it weeks before Witcher 3's release in 2015.  Witcher 2 is a game that's great, even amazing, despite how terrible it is. This isn't a case of The Room where it's a bad property that's accidentally great because how bad it is, rather it's a case of a property that is so great despite it's many shortcomings.

In the end, there's nothing else quite like Witcher 2. It's a game of political intrigue, endless conversations, and brutal violence. It's a world of grey, where black and white morality simply don't exist. It's a unique experience to be sure, but I don't know if it's for everyone. Trying to recommend Witcher 2 is difficult because looking at it's individual pieces it's not that great of a game. Only when looked at as a whole does the game work, and from a distance it's a masterpiece. If your looking for an RPG that will challenge you, both in terms of gameplay and morally, then The Witcher 2 is for you, otherwise this might be a tale left unheard.

image sources:
http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The-Witcher-2.jpg

Looking at: Hotline Miami 2

Ring Ring

Brief moments of calm break up the non-stop action.

It once took SBnation writer and destroyer of EA Sports games Jon Bois 344 tries to pull off the impossible. Occasionally playing through Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number felt similar to that, struggling to pull off the impossible, always just an inch away from victory. You don't throw footballs in Hotline Miami 2, however, unless they're directed at some poor bastard's head.

As a followup to the 2012 indie darling, HM2 certainly has some big shoes to fill. It fleshes out the story, changes up the gameplay, and adds some new touches, but is this a phone call worth answering?

Prerecorded Message

The blood and gore have been increased from the original to incredible proportions. 

Gameplay is unchanged, as it should be. HM2 controls from a top down perspective and your goal is to kill everyone that isn't you in a given level. You'll have access to a variety of weapons and ways to do this ranging from guns, to knives, bats, and chains. Sometimes. More on that in a bit.

Action is brutal and breakneck, with most levels only lasting a few seconds. The trick is that you die in one hit, be it rifle fire or a lead pipe, so completing a level requires a perfect run. You're also scored on your performance, creating a purposely uncomfortable mixture of rush tactics and the desire to stay put and plan out strategies. That's where dying comes into play.

Not unlike Dark Souls before it, death is used as a mechanic in HM2, albeit sans the story explanation. Restarting a chapter is instantaneous, and clearing a section can take dozens and dozens of attempts as you learn and plan your way around.

One New Voicemail

HM2 never shies away from controversy. 

The gimmick in HM2 is that, unlike the first game you play as a cast of characters, rather then one psychopath wearing different masks. Each character has different abilities that change how they play, although there are a number of milquetoast "normal" characters. There's Corey the Zebra that can roll dodge and use windows, Tony the Tiger that eschews weapons in favor of his fists, Mark the Bear wields a pair of SMGs that he can fire in two directions, and most interestingly are Alex and Ash two characters that control as one using guns and a chainsaw. There's also a writer that goes for non-lethal takedowns, a mysterious cop, a soldier and a repentant mobster. Each character handles slightly differently and figuring out which one to use is important.

Or it would be if HM2 was designed a little better, ie. more like the first game. Hotline Miami 2 has a bigger focus on it's story this time around, a welcome change from the first game, but what this actually means is that your freedom is limited more often then it should be. There are a handful of levels that let you run wild at your leisure, but most of the time you'll be told exactly which character to use, and trying to deviate will all but render the level impossible. That's only the first of my issues with this sequel.

Wrong Number

HM2 flips back and forth between fact and fiction, and you're never quiet sure which is which.

The level design of the first HM was damn near perfect, offering constant mixtures of long hallways, short openings, and huge wide-open areas that forced you to constantly react and rethink on the fly. What it usually did best was allow you to figure out how to proceed, letting you pick your path of destruction. HM2 doesn't do this so much, with most of the levels being scarily linear, and with hallways that are way to long so that you get shot from an enemy you couldn't see. When the levels do work they work gangbusters, but this doesn't happen nearly enough.

That sightline issue I mentioned is a real problem, and bleeds into another issue I have with HM2: it's reliance on guns and it's unwillingness to let you use them. Some character can't use guns whatsoever, and Tony the Tiger can't even pick up weapons to throw. That might be fine except that the levels are all bigger and more often then not strangely designed for guns. I didn't like using guns in the first game, since I found they cheapened the experience, but here it was either go in double barrels or use plan B over and over again. Plan B was to expose myself for a second, wait until the idiotic AI rushed me, then take them down in melee. Effective, but it really fucked up my level score.

You can still shift-look in HM2, that is holding down the Shift key to extend your range, but I often found myself over-using this and got annoyed when the level didn't let me extend further. The default field of view quickly became to small and constrained and I struggled to see and mark targets effectively from a distance.

The AI was always inept in Hotline Miami, but now they seem especially off-base. Enemies would either run straight at me in a murderous rage, or spin around in a circle for no reason. I've lost count of how many dogs I've seen spinning like tops. Worse is that the designers seem to think that more enemies means a higher difficulty setting, and you'll always find yourself completely overwhelmed. This does, of course, encourage more tactical gameplay as you separate enemies and take them down in manageable numbers, but you'll likely lament at the amount of times you've killed one guy with a crowbar only to instantly be taken down by his buddy beside him.

The biggest issue I had with HM2 was it's constant inconsistency. Enemy weapons are randomized, as well as their movement paths, which made proper planning very difficult. What happened the last four tries didn't happen on try #5, and only half happened on #6, meaning that I was never really able to plan my advance leading to more unnecessary deaths then I can count. This isn't a stealth game, I realize, but I do approach HM2 like a puzzle game, and that's difficult to do when it doesn't remain constant from attempt to attempt.

Click

The insidious phone calls from the first game are back, although less frequently.

It might sound like I didn't like HM2, and at some points while playing the game I think I didn't either. The truth is, though, I do like HM2, but only in short bursts. I found if I played only a level or two at a time I could sort of put up with the game's bullshit, and the feeling of accomplishment for actually pulling off a perfect run is unbeatable. You feel like a god for that briefest of moments and it's a dangerous rush because you'll want it again and again.

I haven't yet mentioned the soundtrack, which is probably the only part of the game improved on since the first one. That's saying something, since HM had one of the sickest, most enjoyable soundtracks ever put into a videogame. There's a lot of what made the first game great, with heart pounding tracks layered in with smooth calming beats. HM2 also starts moving towards the rock end of the spectrum, fitting as the game itself moves into the early 90's, and you hear more variety in the music then the first game.

Hotline Miami 2 isn't a bad game, and in many ways it's not even a bad sequel. Everything that made the first game great is here, but it's often buried under the desire to make HM2 something it isn't. There's to much filler pushed in beside the goodness of the core game, and it brings the experience as a whole down because of it. I enjoyed my time with HM2, but I don't know if I'd actually recommend it, at least not until a few patches and the promised level-designer feature release. Perhaps, for now, this is a message best left unanswered.

Looking at: Far Cry 2

http://www.pcgamesarchive.com/archive/f/far-cry-2/wallpapers/far-cry-2-4.jpg

Big Game Hunter.

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/0/26/176547-farcry2_04.jpg

Rocket launchers are rare, but incredibly useful.

It's midday on the plains of an unnamed central African country. I'm on a hill overlooking a small guard post. I spot my objective, a box of medical supplies that I need to keep me alive. I check my equipment:
My trust .45 hangun, two mags of ammo.
My 1903 Springfield rifle, half rusted, about 12 rounds left.
My RPG7, one rocket.

I look at the map one more time and try a headcount of the mercenaries in the camp. I count three, but know from experience there's likely six or seven. I take a breath, sight down my first target, and open fire.

Moments later I emerge, bruised, bloody, but victorious. My rifle broke after a few shots, so I had to resort to my handgun. I snagged an AK47 off one unfortunate soul and had just enough ammo to put down the last remaining merc. I got winged more then a few times, and once had to stop to yank a stray bullet out of my leg with my pliers. There is no time for pain here.

I grab the meds from the cabinet, inject myself with some life saving drugs, and pull out my map. My objective is still several kilometers away, and I'll be doing this dance at least two more times before my mission is through.

You can only push a man so far...

http://gamezilla.komputerswiat.pl/media/2012/342/1194066/far-cry-2-mapa1.jpg

Rather than a static mini-map, you'll need to actually pull out a map to navigate around.

I've already spoken about the Far Cry series as a whole before, but the second game deserves particular attention. It's an odd game, flying in the face of other shooters and it's own offspring. It's a game that's worth examining and talking about, even seven years after it's release.

The setup for FC2's story is simple: you are a mercenary hired to enter a central African nation and assassinate an arms dealer known as The Jackal. He's a known sociopath that's been selling guns dirt cheap to the two major factions. You enter the country, faint, and are awoken by the Jackal lecturing you on how much you suck and how he can't be killed. Civil war erupts and, seeing as you have no other option, you decide to lend your services to the factions in exchange for information on Jackal's whereabouts.

What follows is a series of almost completely unconnected fetch or assassinate missions that see you trekking back and forth through the country, engaging in brief but violent gunfights with the local mercenary population. You'll take down targets, earn diamonds, buy equipment, rinse and repeat for ~15-20 hours.

The Big Suck

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/14/nov/FarCry2_4.jpg

Always make sure you have a friend on hand to save you in a firefight.

By today's standards, FC2 is somewhat antiquated. While not technically true, FC2 is widely considered the first open-world shooter, and as such it had quite a few stumbles. Most notoriously is the respawning enemy checkpoints, like the one mentioned at the beginning of this article.  These are littered throughout the world, often at road intersections or strategic hard-points, and most of the time they can't be easily avoided. This might not be an issue, since most checkpoints have less then ten enemies and always contain useful supplies, but they respawn so fast that it feels like you never make any difference. Occasionally you'll clear a checkpoint, finish a mission, and comeback to see the checkpoint manned again, despite the corpses of it's former inhabitants still lying around.

The other big complaint is Malaria. You start the game with it and it comes back several times. It's a shitty disease, sure, but here it's an incredible annoyance. When it flairs up you won't be able to see very well, you can't jump or sprint, and you'll need to pop some pills. That means taking your finger off the trigger and staying exposed for a few seconds. Worse is that you only get pills a few at a time, and when you run out you'll need to finish a mission to get some more. It can't be cured, and actually gets worse as the game wears on, making it a constant annoyance.

Let's talk about the guns too. Like I mentioned in my story, my sniper rifle broke after use, forcing me to resort to my side arm. That's not an uncommon occurrence. The weapons of Africa are terrible, jamming all the time and occasionally just flat-out breaking. Weapons bought from the friendly arms dealer are ok for a while, but will slowly degrade. Weapons picked up out in the field, however, start shitty and only go downhill from there. You'll find yourself aiming at an enemy's head, only to pull the trigger and have nothing happen.

Slapping You Around.

Here's the thing about all of this, is that they're there to reinforce the story and atmosphere. Africa is a shitty place at the best of times, but war-torn Africa is a whole new level of hell that's impossible to quantify. That's what FC2 is trying to convey to you, that life is pain, everything is terrible, and people suck. FC2 doesn't have a great story, but it does have a great way of telling that story.

Life is brutal short, and this is constantly shoved at you time and time again. There aren't any doctors in Africa, so you'll find yourself improvising, yanking bullets out with pliers, twigs, or even your teeth. If you have the stomach, here's all of the possible healing animations:

If you wince in pain from that, don't worry, that's normal. That's how your supposed to feel. You leave a trail of bodies in your wake, but every fight take a small piece of you with it. Life is pain.

Here's most of the guns of FC2 jamming. Try watching and not getting annoyed:

Infuriating isn't it? In that video it doesn't show any firefights, but imagine that happening with bullets flying past your head. That's life in Africa. Dirty, grime, and dust getting into your guns and turning even the most rugged of weapons into scrap heaps. Everything is terrible.

There's a complete sense of moral greynes pervasive throughout FC2. No one is a hero here, not even your player character. At the start of the game you get to choose from a small roster, it's a completely arbitrary choice with no effect on the gameplay. But none of your choices are particularly good, ranging from professional mercenaries, to AWOL soldiers, to smugglers and known criminals. This extends to the cast of characters you meet, from the selection of buddies that'll give you side quests and save your life in combat, to the various faction representatives that give you missions. People suck.

Day of the Jackal.

https://extralives.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/fc2_1.jpg

Firefights are brutal and explosive.

Graphically, FC2 doesn't quiet hold up. When it came out in 2008 it was at the top of it's game, especially the PC version. In the face of more modern shooters like Metro Last Light, ARMA3 or even COD: AW it just looks dated and muddy. It's not a bad looking game, and it certainly has a great atmosphere to it, but it's a relic by today's standards and just can't hold a candle any more.

Where it fails graphically, it makes up with innovation. There are a staggering amount of first person animations in FC2, as evidenced in the videos above. Everything you do in FC2 feels real, from reloading and interacting with your weapons, to just opening a door or getting into a vehicle. This really helps to sell the immersion.

Even more innovative is they way FC2 handles it's world. There are things FC2 does that I have yet to see any other shooter do as well. Take, for instance, the time of day. Most games have it so that stealth is easier at night since you have the cover of darkness. In FC2 the AI's awareness changes based on the time, so during high noon they can see for a mile, but are usually distracted grabbing a drink or sitting in the shade. At night, they can't see anything, but because of this they're more alert and respond quicker to loud noises. Planning an assault also means picking the time of day, what weapons to bring, and how you're going to approach the situation.

The biggest selling feature of FC2's world is it's fire propagation system. Africa is a dry place, and as such fires can rage uncontrollably, burning down entire fields in the blink of an eye. Set fire to an enemy position to flush them out, or cajole them into a killing field. It's unfortunate that the fires end at arbitrary lenghts, mostly to stop you from burning down the country with one Molotov, but it's fun to play around with regardless.

Far Cry 2 isn't a game for everyone,and certainly not for fans of it's own sequels. It's a hard, ruthless game that challenges you and never plays fair. I hesitate to call it the shooter equivalent to Dark Souls, but there's no denying the difficulty of this game. It's a shooter for people who are tired of being the supersoldier, tired of instantly winning and being told "good job". It's the anti-shooter, making you hurt for your prize and spitting on you when you win. It's an odd relic of the past, and a truly one of a kind experience.

Looking at: Dark Souls

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131111214011/darksouls/images/e/ed/Chosen_undead_artwork.jpg

The Dark Soul

http://thumbnails.cbsig.net/CBS_Production_GameSpot/CBS_Production_GameSpot/2011/10/03/GameSpot/Gameplay_Videos/1/33/169_dark_souls_gameplay_boss_fight_ps3_100311_bell_gargoyles_2800.jpeg

The Bell Gargoyles, one of the many bosses you face. 

It's probably to early to say with full clarity, but Dark Souls is likely one of the best and most important RPG's of the seventh generation. There's no real way to tell until enough time has passed, but even looking back at it two years later it's importance is not lost on me.

The most important thing to know about Dark Souls is that it's difficult. Note that I didn't say it's hard. Hard is Battle Toad's infamous Speederbike level, where the game tasks you with doing something while providing you no way to adequately prepare for it. Dark Souls is difficult. It will beat you down, and do horrible things to you, but almost all of it's challenges can be overcome with some planning and strategy.

Prepare to Die

http://static4.gamespot.com/uploads/screen_kubrick/mig/0/9/6/0/2110960-169_dark_souls_gameplay_x360_093011_skeletons.jpg

Magic is an alternative to swords and axes, but comes with it's own limitations

Make no mistake, you will die in Dark Souls. You will die often, and it will always be painful. Maybe you fell off a ledge, or maybe you were pounded into mush. Perhaps you were decapitated, or just impaled with arrows. Death will come for you, and most of the time there's nothing you can do. But where most video games challenge you to stay alive for fear of death, Dark Souls uses death as an in-game mechanic. Death is education, allowing you to learn from your mistakes to better overcome them in the future. Sure, almost every game with a checkpoint has some form of this, but with Dark Souls it's almost encouraged. It's a weird sort of Trial and Error system, one that doesn't reward death, but rather uses death to teach. It's a bit hard to explain.

In short, you can, and will, overcome any challenge the first time your presented with it. Most of the challenges come in the form of cleverly placed enemies, and it often boils down to learning how to combat them within the terrain. But every once in a while, usually once or twice in a level, you will be caught off guard and sent to a quick death. This is where it becomes imperative that you learn from experience. Unless you do something stupid, like jump off a cliff or walk into an obvious trap, every death teaches you something, be it where an enemy is hiding, where a trap is pointing, or a foe's attack pattern, and learning from this will allow you to overcome.

Land of Ghosts

http://lazytechguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/dark-souls-9.jpeg

Bonfires act as save points, and allow you to level your stats.

Of course, there's always the multiplayer. Dark Souls' multiplayer is both intuitive, and terrible, although that's not completely the game's fault. The concept of it is that every player's game is separate, but players can enter other games either by being summoned as a friendly spirit, or invading in an attempt to kill the host. For further interaction players can also leave messages around the world, be it helpful hints or lies designed to trip people up. It's an interesting mix of PVP and PVE and when it works it works great. That's sort of the issue though.

I played Dark Souls on both the PS3 and the PC re-release and on both versions there were connectivity issues. It's worth noting that the PC version was worse, since it used the well documented terrible Games for Windows Live system. As of now Dark Souls PC is being migrated over to Steamworks, so I can't speak to it's stability, but the outlook is positive, especially given how much better Dark Souls 2 works through Steam.

Worse is the other players. Dark Souls' multiplayer is an all or nothing gamble, you either use it or you don't. There's no way to opt out of the PVP aspect, and with the prevalence of hackers, it can become incredibly dangerous to remain online. It's worse when attempting to PVE in a PVP popular area, as you can unwittingly become a member of a fight club you never wanted to join. The world of Dark Souls is harsh and punishing, but it's players are likely worse.

Boss Rush

http://www.gamebanshee.com/images/sobipro/entries/1764/gallery_33_1764_img.jpg

One of the game's smiths that will upgrade your weapons and sell you items.

There's not so much of an actual plot in Dark Souls. In fact, for the first part of the game you'll have very little knowledge of why your doing what your doing. All you know is that everything wants you dead, and there are bosses to kill. Rather then spend time building a plot, Dark Souls chooses instead to build a world, with every item having it's own lore, and every boss having their own back story. Eventually you do learn what your true purpose is, but it's still confusing and serves as just a reason to send you against various bosses.

The bosses might be the best reason to play Dark Souls. Sure the every day of Dark Souls offers challenges galore, but the bosses are the real tests. Boss fights in modern games have sort of fallen by the way side, but Dark Souls trots them out front and center. All of the bosses are memorable, either for the way you fight them or just their design. What's truly great about Dark Soul's bosses is that almost all of them can be easy. Each of the bosses has it's own weakness to exploit, be it an instant kill mechanic, or a trick to their environment. Theoretically you can beat each of the bosses without ever taking damage, as long as you figure out how.

That's sort of the unofficial theme of Dark Souls. Figure it out. It's not said as a threat or an angry declaration, but rather as a piece of legitimate advice. You need to figure it out. Dark Souls refuses to give you more then what you need, and wants you to learn how to break it. There's an inch here and there, an item that tips the game ever so slightly in you favor, but it's rare and you will need to figure it out. There are a dozen of plots and stories to find, you just need to figure them out. It's a game that rewards exploration, both of the world itself, and of the history and lore of everything.

Alone and Scared

http://canadianonlinegamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Dark-Souls-2-Screen-2.jpg

Player invaders appear as red specters, and hunt you down.

It's difficult to explain why Dark Souls is so good, and it's even more difficult to actually recommend it. Even trying to classify it within the RPG world is something of a challenge. I hesitate to call it an action RPG, since it rewards patience and punishes rushing. It feels like an old-school RPG, but only because it refuses to hand-hold at all. Dark Souls is Dark Souls, it defies proper analysis and demands to be played.

I mentioned that I believe Dark Souls to be one of the more important games of last gen, and I still do. It's something of a stone pillar in modern gaming, a game that refuses to budge from it's spot. It doesn't hand-hold or coddle the player at all, but challenges them to learn the game. It rewards patience and planning, rather then tossing the player in head first and letting them win. If Dark Souls was a person they'd be the parent willing to let their kids fail, just so they learn properly.

It is, by no means, a perfect game. It's multiplayer is clunky and fails often. Despite the co-op, there's no easy way to play with friends. There's a total lack of control, with hacking rampant especially on PC. The graphics are passable, but they've aged poorly in the few short years, and come off as greasy. There are a number of "cheap" deaths that are unavoidable. Dark Souls also refuses to let a game mechanic just be a game mechanic, so everything is forced into the lore. On the console versions the frame rate is atrocious, especially in wide open areas like the swamps of Blighttown.

Dark Souls is a great game, provided you have the patience to work through it. I don't recommend this game for most people, even fans of RPGs. This isn't Skyrim, or even Dragon Age. It's not a pick up and play type of game. Dark Souls is Dark Souls, and there's nothing else quite like it.