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From Software's Dark Souls was a masterpiece with a deceptively hope-filled heart - celebrated for its bitterness and hostility and still played today because of its extraordinary world design, sublime combat and enigmatic systems. But while it was more successful than its predecessor Demon's Souls, many people still found it too intimidating. Working under new directors, the developers of Dark Souls 2 have tried to bridge that gap while remaining faithful to the series' strange heart. Can it be done?True to the brief, this is still a tough, often brutal role-playing game that requires intense concentration and persistence, but it sets about its business with more equanimity. Dark Souls dropped boulders and bosses on your head before you could get your bearings, but Dark Souls 2 has a gentler starting area, where threats are obvious and instructions are spelled out on tombstones. It then sets you down in the hub town of Majula, where you can rest at a bonfire and speak to a small band of locals.
There are bonfires throughout the world of Drangleic, where Dark Souls 2 is set, and like Dark Souls they let you rest and recover your health and estus flask healing potions, but you return to the one in Majula very often because it's the only place you can level up. You do this by speaking to a mysterious woman, who then tells you to seek the king and hunt down great souls. That's about as much direction as you ever receive in a Souls game, but these inscrutable comments are delivered warmly, and amidst the long shadows cast by a sun that never quite sets, Majula is bright and strangely welcoming.
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