Dark Souls II: Crown of the Old Iron King

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 123 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 84 out of 123
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 123
  3. Negative: 22 out of 123

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  1. DeusXCom
    Aug 29, 2014
    5
    Disappointment. Definitely worse than The Sunken King. Theoretically about the same value, so 10 bucks for 5 hours of gameplay including some co-op and pvp, so still questionable, but compared to the previous DLC, the quality is even weaker here. It's still hard, especially if you're playing on NG+ and more, so at least you'll get a good amount of combat challenge, but Souls series is notDisappointment. Definitely worse than The Sunken King. Theoretically about the same value, so 10 bucks for 5 hours of gameplay including some co-op and pvp, so still questionable, but compared to the previous DLC, the quality is even weaker here. It's still hard, especially if you're playing on NG+ and more, so at least you'll get a good amount of combat challenge, but Souls series is not just about the difficulty, the main reason why I love original Dark/Demon Souls is the atmosphere, story and the level design, and all of that is lacking here. Level design looked promising at first, but in the end it's mostly a vertical mess filled with elevators, atmosphere is ruined by constant annoying sounds of those elevators or lava flow and the lore behind all that is quite minimal. (No new NPC's whatsoever again). Another big let-down were the bosses, even less inspired than the ones in the main game and even though this was my criticism with previous DLC, here it's even worse - a big knight with a big sword, an overgrown Shiva and the blue Smelter Demon? Is this really the best you can do? I still liked some parts, the whole ash theme and the ashen idol mechanic for example, but for the first time in the Souls series I found that I wasn't really enjoying myself, I was just plaything through. It's a pity, because The Sunken King was pretty decent DLC with many interesting ideas and I was hoping for an increasing quality level and eventually an impressive trilogy, but the Crown of the Old Iron King feels more like a Dark Souls 2 outtake/b-side/leftover. 5/10… Expand
  2. StaticSpine
    Sep 5, 2014
    7
    Good DLC, bun not as good as the first one locations design-wise and atmosphere-wise. There are some cool shortcuts though. New enemy types are nice and the new bosses are good too (except Blue Smelter Demon... he's just a re-used boss from the original). Overall, the DLC is worth money/time.

Awards & Rankings

82
#82 Best PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Oct 25, 2014
    84
    Landscapes inside a tower look the same, and so do the bosses, all armored humanoids with big sword. [Oct 2014]
  2. Polygon
    Sep 26, 2014
    80
    Dark Souls 2: Crown of the Old Iron King gets the formula right, but only if you’ve invested the time required to match its level of difficulty with your own and you’re willing to listen to what it’s trying to tell you.
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  3. SpazioGames
    Sep 16, 2014
    80
    This DLC for Dark Souls 2 confirms the genius of From Software in the structuring of the maps, and once again offers a new setting full of charm, brutal enemies and many things to discover.
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