Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

 Xbox One
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 302 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 212 out of 302
  2. Mixed: 48 out of 302
  3. Negative: 42 out of 302
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  1. Benjiib
    Dec 28, 2016
    7
    after playing dark souls 1 i feel like it took a step back, broken mechanics no point in multiplayer and just bad level design, i felt dark souls 1 had it done perfectly level design was good,
    dark souls 2 is not hard it just throws multiple enemies with weird hit boxes and staggering hits that only work half the time?
    square box rooms with no rendering and grey scale areas feels    after playing dark souls 1 i feel like it took a step back, broken mechanics no point in multiplayer and just bad level design, i felt dark souls 1 had it done perfectly level design was good,
    dark souls 2 is not hard it just throws multiple enemies with weird hit boxes and staggering hits that only work half the time?
    square box rooms with no rendering and grey scale areas feels backwards and dull.
    had so many patches because it was broken beyond repair.    … Expand
  2. BonkTrap
    Oct 16, 2018
    6
    BY FAR the worst dark souls in the franchise, animations are choppy, some bosses are too easy and some are just unfair. too many bosses, its clear that its not the same team that made the game, it feels very different from the first installment, if you are on the edge of maybe skipping this one, skip it, its not worth your time
  3. JRoobs1
    Dec 7, 2015
    7
    Okay, so here's the issue with Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. In terms of how the game looks and plays it's much better than the original and is great overall. The only problems I had with the game regarded how the game is set up in terms of what a Souls game should be. If you loved the first Dark Souls game you will more than likely be disappointed by either version of Dark SoulsOkay, so here's the issue with Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. In terms of how the game looks and plays it's much better than the original and is great overall. The only problems I had with the game regarded how the game is set up in terms of what a Souls game should be. If you loved the first Dark Souls game you will more than likely be disappointed by either version of Dark Souls 2 even if you still enjoy Dark Souls 2. The NPC interactions aren't even half as interesting and worthwhile as the first game and more often than not it just involves someone helping you with a boss fight and then giving you their stuff. Also, the "mini-bosses" in Scholar are an absolute joke. I almost wish they would have kept it with almost no mini-bosses at all like the original Dark Souls 2. All they did was add weaker versions of previously defeated bosses to areas later in the game, rather than actually develop strong and intimidating "mini-bosses" like the Hellkite Dragon of the original Dark Souls which was tougher than some actual bosses in that game. Despite the additional enemies in Scholar, the game is still not nearly as tough as the original Dark Souls which is something that I as a fan was also disappointed by. All in all, I still enjoy the game and play it constantly I simply just wish it stacked up more against the original Dark Souls game and hope that as the series continues the games do NOT drift further and further away from what I and many others originally fell in love with in Lordran.… Expand
  4. Joe_E_Dee
    Sep 16, 2015
    7
    Mediocre game with high difficulty. Not a game for casual players. If you have lots of time, and are passionate about gaming, dark souls 2 is a can't miss title. If you buy a game every few months and or play a few hours here and there, pass on it. The game was designed for the hardcore obsessive compulsive gamer.
  5. McGillotine
    Jul 2, 2015
    5
    I can never quite understand what i miss when playing Dark Souls for the rather short time i used to play this game, is it supposed to be immersive is it supposed to be breathtakingly innovative. Because when i look upon Dark souls 2 all i see is a game it is poorly developed an passed as a difficult game and without a doubt it is difficult because the mechanics are broken and satireI can never quite understand what i miss when playing Dark Souls for the rather short time i used to play this game, is it supposed to be immersive is it supposed to be breathtakingly innovative. Because when i look upon Dark souls 2 all i see is a game it is poorly developed an passed as a difficult game and without a doubt it is difficult because the mechanics are broken and satire doesn't even apply to this game as it takes itself seriously as a true innovation in gaming technology with a third sequel already in the works, When i first the original dark Souls i completed it in a matter of days and understood the absolute difficulty of the game to accomplish and upon instantly forgetting about the series i received the second one as a gift and to be polite played it to find it is virtually the same game with different environments appearing as though it is optimized for Xbox and PS2 formats and not the current generations systems they are currently being played upon. the only true highlight in this game however is the story which is very dark and grueling only off put by the sometimes off voice acting and eventual fact that no matter what you do in this RPG based game there is no good ending. Now in this review i don't intend to conflict with those who enjoy the game and am simply putting forward my view of Dark Souls II a game that could had simply been a lot better… Expand
  6. GainesvilleGuy
    May 15, 2015
    7
    Big fan of the original Dark Souls, but this game was not as good overall in my opinion. I give it a respectable 7, but by the end I just wanted to finish to get the achievements as I had completely lost interest. It was a tedious march by the time I finished. I have absolutely no desire to play again or to focus on PVP tuning.

    First, it was far too easy. I'm no elitist (although am    Big fan of the original Dark Souls, but this game was not as good overall in my opinion. I give it a respectable 7, but by the end I just wanted to finish to get the achievements as I had completely lost interest. It was a tedious march by the time I finished. I have absolutely no desire to play again or to focus on PVP tuning.

    First, it was far too easy. I'm no elitist (although am a pretty skilled old-school gamer) but the entire point of a Dark Souls game is the difficulty, and it just wasn't there this time. When I finally just wanted to beat the game I rushed through the final levels without a sweat. In original Dark Souls that would have been impossible.

    As for the story I like the way they approach it in the Dark Souls series. It is mostly about the vibe, the backstory that you uncover, and the tidbits left around to discover. But it was just more of the same. If I had never played Dark Souls I'd probably have enjoyed it more but there was nothing new here in my opinion.

    The multiplayer I've always thought was the absolute genius of Dark Souls. I still give them bonus points for that, it is very innovative. However, the messages have lost their sparkle after the 100'th "beware of rear use tongue" type comment next to a bent over corpse. Granted, they still provide good clues as to what to expect most of the time. The ghosts of other players makes it feel like you are playing with others even when you are not, and the ability to summon and be summoned is very cool. Unfortunately, summoning makes pretty much any boss fight absolutely trivial. Meanwhile, the PVP wasn't really that frequent at the levels I was playing which is kind of a waste. They should have figured out how to make PVP more relevant early on.

    Overall I thought this game was just kind of blah. I don't regret buying it, but I have no really fond memories of playing it and no desire to every fire it up again.    … Expand
  7. TagGamer1122
    Jul 5, 2015
    6
    After putting in forty hours and having played and beat this game multiple times before its re-release, I can confidently say I absolutely hate this game! The movements are slow. The rolling has been gimped so you need to play with a shield. The enemies are grouped together in a huddle s fighting them one on one is nearly impossible. You can no longer run past the enemies, you have toAfter putting in forty hours and having played and beat this game multiple times before its re-release, I can confidently say I absolutely hate this game! The movements are slow. The rolling has been gimped so you need to play with a shield. The enemies are grouped together in a huddle s fighting them one on one is nearly impossible. You can no longer run past the enemies, you have to fight them so say goodbye to all those hours to just grinding. The game absolutely makes you play as a sorcerer since you will need to be able to do some crowd controlling so you'll no longer be able to play the solo-melee character. The game says it's fair but it's not. Not when multiple enemies stack on top of you UNLESS of course you're an overpowered Mage. The game did not age well. If you want a game that's truly fair and faster, then pleas bloodborne. There is nothing to see here. Wasted money. Wasted time… Expand
  8. CenkAlp
    Dec 30, 2018
    6
    Hikaye = 6
    Oynanış = 6
    Grafikler = 6
    Sesler = 7
    Keyif = 5
    Atmosfer = 8
    Süre = 8
  9. GamingPoptartTV
    Mar 25, 2016
    7
    This game and the Souls franchise in a whole. Is a amazing game series dripping with lore that is more deep then most games do in years. I would say a good buy. There are some things I do have a grip with and thats the dumbed down difficulty for newer players and also the mundane enemy selection for DLC areas. To be quite frank they are carbon copy's just different skins. Store is what youThis game and the Souls franchise in a whole. Is a amazing game series dripping with lore that is more deep then most games do in years. I would say a good buy. There are some things I do have a grip with and thats the dumbed down difficulty for newer players and also the mundane enemy selection for DLC areas. To be quite frank they are carbon copy's just different skins. Store is what you can aspect from a souls game, telling you the core story while leaving it up to the player to piece the rest. Core combat is good and allows the player to play with multiple different builds allowing allot of replay-ability. I would rate this game a 7 out of 10 a above average game something that is new to the souls series should play. Then dive into what I call Dark Souls but thats a review for another day.… Expand
  10. Filmanwalt
    Feb 9, 2021
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I finished the game after about 41 1/2 hours (level 177) and got 410 success points. I still have a few optional bosses to do, but otherwise I tried as well as I could in the first round of the game to take a lot with me and try out. I played a warrior with a fat 2h weapon and used a bit of pyromancy (mainly to push opponents off cliffs).

    story

    I found the staging of the story very nice, a little more cutscenes were added. Basically, the storytelling takes place again mainly on the objects and individual conversations with NPCS. I think it's a bit of a shame that you can't follow the story so easily and that it takes a back seat, even though I'm very interested in the cart.

    Gameplay

    Again, the heart of Dark Souls 2. Let's start with the positive aspects, because DS 2 offers some quality improvements (but these also come with disadvantages). So you can travel quickly from beacon to beacon right from the start (it was pleasant for me). Later in the game you can even find a list that shows all potential beacons in an area (you still have to search), which makes backtracking a little easier.

    The game offers you many different healing options that you can actually farm. Although there were fewer Estus overall (looking for the broken pieces here was extremely fun), but life stones, divine blessings and much more. were more than enough healing.

    I also liked Majula as a compressed but important HUB. Funnily enough, I also thought it was cool that jumpers weren't skimpy here.

    Incidentally, Dark Souls 2 offers extremely different areas and a lot of content, because there are extremely many bosses and secret doors (I'm still proud to have found the Gargoyles).

    However, all of these aspects also have disadvantages and the most obvious one for me is the weak world building compared to its predecessor. At DS 1 it makes a "click" in the fire band shrine and you notice that all paths of the shrine can lead to pretty much all areas (more or less). DS 2, on the other hand, feels more like a series of areas without any real interweaving of the game world. For me, this loses a bit of the spirit of the predecessor, where the connectivity of the worlds really blew me away. The direct fast travel option reinforces this feeling of disconnection in the game world.

    Furthermore, the hit feedback, for whatever reasons, has been significantly worsened. In DS 1 I didn't hit the lock that often and sometimes you don't even notice that you were hit if you don't keep an eye on your hit points. It starts with the hit sound, which I didn't like at all. Some hitboxes also seem strange, it's hard to describe, but I didn't really have that feeling with DS 1.

    And now the worst aspect of the game: the trash mobs. I played Scholar of the first Sin (I don't know if that makes a difference) but in some areas you just get littered with opponents (especially magicians and marksmen). This is not to be misunderstood, for me it is also part of the fact that the ways to the boss are a separate fight, but in DS 2 this borders on ridiculousness (e.g. fire DLC for the iron demon (slow magician + melee + shooter), Pirate bay, fire area with the Katana runners + archers). This is not my definition of a high level of difficulty, but you make it easy in level design, in that the difficulty should be to bombard the player with trash mobs. Unimaginative. What's even more pointless about the story is that the bosses are ridiculously easy by comparison. I didn't have REAL problems with any boss (only with the poisonous snake, but it was due to the hard mode with the poisonous soil that I messed up) and with the final boss I really felt ripped off.

    Graphics / presentation

    Basically the game has evolved and I really liked the look of both the bosses and the territories. I didn't have any technical problems either. There is nothing to complain about here.

    Conclusion

    Even if the impression was different, I had fun with Dark Souls 2. For me it is a bit weaker than Part 1 and therefore gets 7/10 life stones.    … Expand
  11. Caldan
    Nov 15, 2020
    5
    ⚠️57%
    I like the new and creative bosses but this game hasn’t really got too much new to offer.
  12. Kio22
    Apr 15, 2023
    6
    Just Finished my first blind playthrough of Dark Souls 2 and the DLCs after 68 hours, all i can say is wow... this is both the easiest and most unfair souls game at the same time. The story in this game is extremely simple and is not really that complex. The Characters you meet are actually really interesting and unique but also feel like wasted potential that could have been used for moreJust Finished my first blind playthrough of Dark Souls 2 and the DLCs after 68 hours, all i can say is wow... this is both the easiest and most unfair souls game at the same time. The story in this game is extremely simple and is not really that complex. The Characters you meet are actually really interesting and unique but also feel like wasted potential that could have been used for more side quests. The level design is not that great very few places in the main game stick out to me or are just frustrating. Majula, tower of flame, Dragon Aerie, Dragon Shrine, and Iron Keep only places that I liked aesthetically, however Iron Keep had an annoying level design and enemy placement. The DLC had three cool areas in Shulva, Brume Tower, and Eleum Loyce the last of which was also annoying to traverse twice. The other problem with most areas in Dark Souls 2 is they lack scale and a feeling of largeness. Probably the worst thing about this game is the bosses 90% of them feel the same or are just bad. Most bosses just have one big sweep attack like The Last Giant, Dragon Rider, Ruin Sentinels, Lost Sinner, and more or they reuse an area of effect burst like the Smelter Demons and The Rotten or they just throw a bunch of enemies at you like Skeleton Lords, Freja, Royal Rat Vanguard and Authority, and more. The game has only a few good Bosses that feel good and are challenging like The Pursuer, Executioner's Chariot, Looking Glass Knight, Velstadt, Fume Knight, Sir Alonne, and The Burnt Ivory King, only four of these are main game bosses. Another bad thing about the bosses is how almost every boss has some dumb gimmick that is supposed to help you with fighting them and is cool a few times but for most of the fights it is annoying or a waste of time. One the best things about Dark Souls 2 is all the different weapons and builds you can do which makes combat fun. The new mechanics hurt Dark Souls 2 more than they help it agility was a horrible addition and affects the game to much making it hard if you don't upgrade and too easy if you do. The torch mechanic was bad and made the game harder for no reason even if it was cool from time to time. Power stancing and dual wielding in this game is one of the best mechanics in a souls game. The combat is overall enjoyable but is slightly ruined by the terrible hitboxes of every enemy and boss in the game. I only died 9 times, 3 were to bow traps and the well in Majula, 2 were to the toxic rats in Doors of Pharros, only 4 felt legit to The Pursuer, Fume Knight, and once in Brume Tower. This is the easiest souls game funny enough, compared to 38 deaths in DS1, 55 deaths in DS3, and Elden Ring with 85 deaths (46 to Malenia so 39 rest of the game). In the end this is a mediocre game it's got the challenge and fun combat of a souls game with barely any good bosses, small feeling areas with no scale, mostly bad mechanics, a shallow story, wasted characters, and terrible hitboxes. Without the DLC this game is not good and I would give it a 4, but with the DLC it makes it slightly better even though the DLC makes similar mistakes with some of the bosses but also bring in some of the best along with cooler bigger areas to explore which bring it to a 6.… Expand
  13. Jetstar90
    Oct 6, 2020
    5
    Dark Souls 2 has often been referred to as the black sheep of the Dark Souls series. Scholar of the First sin edition cemented that with it's additions to the original title's game world. I have played through the game multiple times and gone through every area, defeating every boss in the game.
    DS2 SoTFS was put out to fix some of the things that players didn't enjoy about the base    Dark Souls 2 has often been referred to as the black sheep of the Dark Souls series. Scholar of the First sin edition cemented that with it's additions to the original title's game world. I have played through the game multiple times and gone through every area, defeating every boss in the game.
    DS2 SoTFS was put out to fix some of the things that players didn't enjoy about the base release. What it ended up doing was exacerbating them. Hitboxes don't work properly the majority of times, health recovery is laughably slow without leveling adp which isn't even clear to the player, there are more enemies than there should be in certain areas as well as bosses, the new forlorn addition can be more enraging than fun. There are many other things that make this game unnecessarily difficult and even remove the desire to replay the game. Most of that comes down to certain areas with the worst being in the DLC.
    The game does shine in it's beautiful environments and length. While the length does feel more artificial at times it still allows the player to see the world in less of a blur.    … Expand
  14. SaberOfXebec
    Jul 25, 2023
    7
    Good:
    -Visual Design of the areas
    -Music
    -Atmosphere
    -Lot of cool armor and weapons

    Bad:
    -Boss fights
    -Enemy placement
    -Enemy design
    -Level design
    -Healing system
    -Terrible movement
    -Back stab
    -Jump attack
    -Story
    -Agility
  15. M1sfiT
    Sep 3, 2023
    7
    Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees! ds2

Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best Xbox One Game of 2015
25
#25 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2015
32
#32 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
  1. X-ONE Magazine UK
    May 26, 2015
    80
    It's still one of the best RPGs out there at the moment, but the NPC invasions and enemy placement felt a little unbalanced this time around. [Issue#124, p.79]
  2. MondoXbox
    May 10, 2015
    85
    From Software brings back its game making the game even better without distorting it. The result is an even harder game, surely suggested while we're waiting for the inevitable sequel.
    Read full review
  3. ZTGD
    Apr 23, 2015
    90
    PC players that have already played the game and DLC are the ones that will maybe think twice before going through it again, while Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 players will get the most out of it.
    Read full review
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