Compared to its predecessor a disappointment unparalleled ...

I am still an absolute lover of predecessor Dark Souls I whose combat, story and world system have how else intrigued me no other game.
The sequel to Dark Souls II manages exactly the characteristics that I have loved the predecessor to remove and replace it with considerably poorer approaches. I will try here to explain what I mean by that. [From here: SPOILER]

1. The game mechanics
The gameplay of Dark Souls II is a joke compared to its predecessor. While there any command which was given through the controller, was executed immediately, Dark Souls II has a Kommandolag, executing the command only a few hundred milliseconds later (despite excellent Internet connection). Add to this the incredibly bad Hitbox system. Here the developers have it - as with many things in this game - managed to create a problem where none existed in the predecessors. You meet, although the opponent was clearly out of reach, and is made even though one is itself out of reach. Sometimes not work for me the Riposte function after the Guard Break, although I have spent hours with tutorials and tests with different weapons. A mail this regard to the Bandai-sales service remained until today unanswered. The rollers is only half as efficient as the previous and you no longer feel that you deserve the virtual death, but rather that actively works against the game a ...

2. Fairness
This is exactly what is sometimes the biggest shortcoming of Dark Souls II. The predecessors managed the game thus difficult to make that it was interesting. A brilliant performance, without question! Dark Souls II makes it reversed. The game is to be made more interesting by artificially created problem. A smooth slap in the face of the people, which the opposite was just important! The Dark Souls mechanics is a single fight, which shows itself in the lock-on feature of the camera. The developer, however, thought it was a good idea to make the fight through enemy mobs harder and to be the call of the Souls series justice. The result is too many boss fights in which you fight against a number of clones of the same opponent.

3. The bosses and the soundtrack
Precisely those bosses are - to put it mildly - boring. More than that: they act carelessly. In game bosses were repeatedly copied brazenly. Who met in the blue cathedral on the "Old Dragon Slayer" or the "bell Gargoyles Reloaded", knows what I mean. Once the game is stealing even about himself and makes a Boss at the beginning, just two identical later in the game (Dragon Rider). The battles were all but not made more interesting.
Add to that the abysmal soundtrack. In Dark Souls I do I connect with each track a certain boss or a particular area and has led to certain challenges. In Dark Souls II, the tracks feel to be exchanged and gray. They fit rarely drama of each boss kill and ruin by the already ailing game atmosphere even more.

4. The World
Dark Souls I accomplished the brilliant feat of dividing a single gigantic world in areas and to link to the best places to each other by abbreviations and backdoors. Added to this was the grandiose sense of gloom and loneliness, the counter hit one at all possible points of Lordran. Dark Souls II also ruined this property. Drangleic is not connected and coherent areas, but from an abundance of colorful levels, which were attached to each other without any purpose. The best example is the passage of the Irdenspitze in the iron lock. Man climbs a tower, on which only the sky can be seen, then rises in the spire in an elevator to the top and ends up in a flooded by lava castle ...
Or the fact that no one shipyard would be below sea level, when one enters from Heide's flame tower ...

5. Other Features
There are many more bad features that did not exist in the predecessor, but were inserted in Dark Souls II without real added value:
- Every time go the idea to upgrade to Emerald Botin and having to listen to the unbearable dialogue ... (keyword: "Bearer of the curse ...")
- The idea of ​​letting opponents disappear after five killing. This may be originally meant to prevent the Soulgrinding, but in fact it makes the game are unfair. One has the feeling, the game tests a long-term and punished for mistakes. Dark Souls I had just not done, but the players never punished in the long term. Heavy fair but there was the motto. Nothing more can be seen here.
- Convert the idea with Asketenleuchtfeuern individual areas in NG +, NG ++ etc ruined the feel of a single coherent world even further and eliminated last signs of fairness. If you determine a drop does not get, you must therefore to a heavier mode switch? Impudence!
- The idea to punish a player for "shell games" with lower maximum life points ...
I could go on, but for now this should be enough.

What I'm going to keep from Dark Souls II positive memory, graphical improvements in terms of combat movement are (not in terms of textures), moving in the wind cloaks and great new magic. In addition, the Magic were slowed what the melee players significantly more opportunities grants as Dark Souls I. But as mentioned before, these are all things that could have been implemented without ruining the game feeling.

Allen who have come while reading this review to ponder, I advise strongly from it, Dark Souls for sale II. It remains one only the dull feeling that has once again developed a series of games for the worse, although almost everything was done right in the predecessor.