Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

The changes have made this edition slightly more difficult, but the core of the game remains true to the superb game design of the original.

Whether you're new to Dark Souls II or played it on older consoles, Scholar of the First Sin is worth revisiting. This PlayStation 4 collection features the original game, along with the three expansion packs.

A deep, dark, extremely challenging and downright wonderful game that will keep you enthralled for weeks or months to come. New enemy placement justifies a purchase for even the most hardcore veterans of the last-gen edition.

Dark Souls II: Scholar Of The First Sin is the definitive version of a masterpiece. Surprising for veterans yet deceptively welcoming to newcomers, this rebalanced remaster proves as deeply impressive as it is brutally compelling.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin is a very good remaster for a great game. Visuals are a bit too old, today, especially if you come from Bloodborne, but gameplay is still unmissable.

Whether or not you enjoy the technical tweaks brought forth by the upgrade, there’s no arguing that Scholar of the First Sin represents the best value prospect for players, with all DLC included, a bump to 1080p, and a solid framerate. Is it the best version of Dark Souls 2? Not necessarily, but it’s a good game.

The “ultimate edition” adjustments could be a part of a larger patch. Dark Souls II changes dynamics and sweeps out some frustrating issues but still remains the weakest part of the series. [Issue#252]

Great game. Fantastic little experience with some genuinely immersive setups.

Na początku było fajnie, ale zbiegiem gry coraz nudniej i powtarzalniej. Powroty do bossów gdzie musisz zabić 20 przeciwników był denerwujący bo nie da się ich ominąć. Bossowie bardzo łatwi, często padałem przez healowanie się bo animacja trwa za długo. Jedynka lepsza.

While still being a good game it's definitely a major step down from Dark Souls 1. The biggest issue in this game by far is the gank. Pretty much every area in this game is flooded with enemies, it's common to be fighting a 5v1 or more extremely often. If you think you can lure enemies 1 by 1 that won't work most of the time since enemies have a very long aggro range. The enemy variety per level isn't very good, it makes it feel like the difficulty was artificially increased by just adding a bunch of enemies close together. Rather than dodging and learning enemy movesets the optimal play just ends up being the following - 1. Get 1-2 hits in, run and let the gank chase you, get 1-2 hits in, run, and repeat. It makes the areas very tedious and frustrating. If you thought you could just run past some enemies like you could in DS1 oh boy would you be wrong, because you can get interrupted while interacting with doors, ladders, and levers so you are basically forced to kill every enemy which ends up being like 5-10 enemies per 10 seconds of progress. The next issue is the bosses, they are laughably easy and boring. Pretty much every boss in this game is 1 of 3 things - 1. A big dude in armor with a sword, 2. Gank, 3. A boss copied from DS1. The next issue is the boss runbacks which are by far the worst out of all the souls games, two boss runbacks are particularly bad and they both force you to fight 15-10 enemies that are the equivalent to the black knights from DS1 on steroids, and you cannot run past them, most boss runbacks don't allow you to run past at least half the enemies. There are some exceptions to this but they are pretty far and in-between which is very unfortunate. Some enemies in this game are also miserable to fight namely the headless assassins that will frequently stun-lock and instakill you, and pretty much any gank. The DLC is also hot garbage, it's just more gank, and more bosses that are just dudes in armor with a sword. The level design was also a step down from the base game. Let me tell you about the worst boss runback that leads to one of the laziest bosses in the DLC. To access this area, you have to run for 5 minutes to access the bonfire, and then the area leading up to the boss makes tomb of the giants look like the best level design ever created. The entire area is literally just a snowy field with a blizzard that blinds you 90% of the time, you have to blindly run through for around 10 minutes until you hopefully stumble upon the boss area on accident and there is no bonfire, meaning if you die on the way have fun running another 10 minutes blind! On top of that there are these ice horses that will spawn with AN INFINITE AGGRO RANGE (not exaggerating) you cannot outrun them, they will always hit you without fail even if you run non stop forcing you to fight them unless you use summons to draw aggro away. And once you finally get to the boss guess what it is, IT'S LITERALLY 2 CLONES OF THE FIRST BOSS YOU FIGHT IN THE SAME DLC! Same move set and everything. So you do all this work to fight a non unique boss that are just clones, so you pay for the DLC to access extra content and they can't even offer you that for the most punishing and miserable boss runback. I would rather navigate tomb of the giants 10 times before doing this part of the game ever again. Now that the major negatives are out of the way lets start with the positives. This game has amazing weapon variety and you can easily respec your build, for sure the best out of all the souls games not even close. My next favorite thing is the level design, it's not as good as the interconnectedness as the first half of DS1 but most levels are fun and cool in their own unique way, I absolutely loved the areas whenever I wasn't busy dealing with gank. A lot of people hate the fact that you have to level up agility to be able to dodge properly but if you know about it beforehand it isn't a huge issue as long as you upgrade agility enough. Also the hub is the best out of all the souls games, Majula is peak. The vibe is also great in this game, the game still feels fun despite it's major issues. It's for sure the worst souls game but still a decent game. I wouldn't call it bad, I wouldn't call it great. I'd say it's just fine. I heard that the base game is a lot better with the gank so maybe play that instead, you aren't missing out on the DLC, the DLC is trash except a couple areas and a few of the bosses are cool. If the game was just the DLC I would confidently say it's a bad game. Overall, I would only recommend playing this after you beat all the other soulsborne games. I played this as my second souls game after beating DS1 and now I have beaten all 3 and have almost finished Bloodborne and this is by FAR the hardest one but for all the wrong reasons. If I could go back I would play all the soulsborne games and save this one for last. This game is like a toxic ex, I'm relieved it's over but sometimes I feel like going back.

shame this game has Dark Souls in its title if that wasn`t the case I would`ve given it a solid 6 but alas this dumpster fire of asset dump interpreted by miyazaki interns had to see the light of day

Clunky as ****. A big disappointment after the first title. Full of bugs and no sense of pain. One of the worst games I have ever played. Dropped.