Game:

Dark Souls II (2014)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 20:01

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The Gutter is a cluster of wooden platforms, bridges, and ladders located deep underground. It is very similar in appearance to Blighttown from Dark Souls.

The defining characteristics of the Gutter are the lack of light, necessitating the use of a Torch or Cast Light, as well as the large number of Poison Statues that launch poison-inflicting projectiles at players as they pass by. As well, the wooden structures that make up the level are unstable and may occasionally drop below the player's feet, moving them down a level in the buildings.

Scattered throughout the level are numerous torch sconces that can be ignited with a lit torch. Lighting these sconces can prove invaluable for navigating the level, as they can reveal hidden paths or serve as markers to indicate locations that the player has traversed before. In Scholar of the First Sin, lighting all of these torches will cause a Dark Spirit to invade.

The level is filled with hollows, who may mob and ambush unsuspecting players who venture forth without a source of light and do not keep an eye on their surroundings. While not very threatening individually, the level's vertical design and lack of light allows them to surprise players at inopportune moments. Care should be taken while navigating the Gutter so as to avoid being overwhelmed or knocked into the abyss.

Dark Souls II retains similar mechanics from its predecessors in the Souls series. Being known for its difficulty, both bosses and standard enemies have the potential to kill the player in only a few hits.

Bad play is punished severely by most enemies, opportunities for recovering health are limited, and as in Demon's Souls, each time upon death, the player's maximum health is reduced (to a certain lower limit) until the player expends a rare item to reverse it.

The game uses a form of joint currency called "souls", which are used as both experience points for leveling up and also as currency for purchasing items from shops. Upon death, the player's entire collection of souls are dropped; the player can recover their dropped souls by returning to the spot where they died, but if they die before picking them up, the souls are permanently lost.

The multiplayer in Dark Souls II uses the same format as its predecessors; players have the choice between co-operative play in the form of being "summoned" into another player's game world either by soapstone or in-game covenant, or player-versus-player through "invading" other worlds or arena duels. Both forms of multiplayer occur pseudo-randomly, although matchmaking formulas are used to pair characters at similar levels together.

The game allows its difficulty to be adjusted by mechanics built into the game. The game designers placed certain items early in the game allowing newer players higher basic damage and defense than they would normally have at that point. For more experienced players, the designers placed higher skill cap items early that do more damage if executed correctly.

Other penalties, such as the health reduction on death, can be significantly reduced with certain items. This allows the player to set the game's difficulty based on their experiences with the game, rather than through a menu option.

Similar to other games in the series, Dark Souls II features a New Game Plus mode. The initial replay is named "NG+", with subsequent replays named "NG++" and continuing until "NG+7" is reached. With each replay, the player retains their levels, souls, and most items.

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