Sequels are hard to make, very hard. From did a stand up job here, the game is nearly as good as the first, and an ambitious game in it's own right. It takes balls to stick with making games that the biggest market (kids/many teens), won't want to play.

Over sixty million and the game hasn't even been out a week. That little factoid should tell you much of what you need to know about Dark Souls II ; like its predecessor, it's a brutal, unforgiving, nightmarishly hard game.

As someone who is very fond of From Software's Dark Souls , and indeed due to many people of the world's love of this now legendary Action RPG from Japan, the sequel has a lot to live up to. Dark Souls 2 continues the heritage laid down by both Dark Souls and From's debut, Demon's Souls .

"As I was passing through the dark and creepy forests in Things Betwixt, the prologue map in Dark Souls, I was expecting a lot more action, remembering how I escaped the dungeon a year ago, [...]

Given Dark Souls II dropped both the original's light/dark dichotomy and its interconnected world structure, it allowed itself to be far more varied in locations, and now ranges from Gothic castles sinking into the lava, to underground pirates' dens, to thick, overgrown forts.

So, here we are, together again, to discuss Dark Souls II . Returning readers will remember that I've been something of a cheerleader (if a qualified one) for From Software as a development house and have spent far more time playing through their games than is entirely healthy.