NOT RECOMMENDED
I am neither a hater nor a glazer of this game. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin isn't as bad as the haters say, but it is clearly not as good as the glazers claim either. Honestly, I would feel so guilty recommending this game to anyone.
I really tried to play with an open mind and 100 AGL, but this game is still an example of a bad Souls game. The director made questionable, unnecessary changes that make it feel like he genuinely hates the players.
[h1] Artificial Difficulty & Quantity Over Quality & Level Design [/h1]
The game has very cheap difficulty/level design, simply placing enemies everywhere to gank you or ambush you from any corner. They overused ambushes so much that it feels so cliche/annoying when it happens. The worse thing is that there is barely any variety, it’s usually just a copy-paste of one or two enemy types. Their aggro range is insanely long, and once you are detected in their range, they will chase you until either you die or they die.
Speaking of gank enemies, most of the base-game boss fights are poorly designed gank fights. They tried to copy Ornstein & Smough but failed miserably. The bosses themselves aren't actually hard, they are disappointingly easy, but the runbacks through ganking enemies and terrible environments made me lose my sanity. If you try to just rush to the boss room, the fog walls and doors don't give you immediate i-frames, meaning you’ll likely get killed before you even make it through. For the first time ever in a Souls game, I had to spend nearly two hours clearing an entire level 12 times just to despawn the enemies at a castle on a lava lake ON TOP OF A WINDMILL connected by AN ELEVATOR??!
[h1] Clunky Mechanics [/h1]
The target lock-on is completely unreliable. What is the point of locking onto an enemy if you can still miss your attack because attack direction in this game follows your movement stick even if when you locked-on an enemy? If I wanted to attack in a different direction, I wouldn't be using the lock-on feature in the first place.
Furthermore, Estus flasks slowly restore HP over time while you're actively trying to manage a gank squad. On top of that, every time you die, you lose 5% of your max HP until it caps out at a 50% loss (or 25% if you use the Ring of Binding). Why? Aren't Souls games supposed to encourage you to learn through dying? And now you don't want me to die, forcing me to use Human Effigy, an item that is also used for multiplayer, to recover my max HP?. It is funny that there is an achievement "This is Dark Souls" awarded the first time you die in this game, so finally do you want me to die in this game or not?
Even the hitboxes feel completely off. Despite leveling ADP to increase my AGL, I would still occasionally take damage from attacks that I had clearly dodged.
[h1] Progression & Storytelling [/h1]
The storytelling and progression become incredibly confusing, especially in the second half of the game. I never would have figured out how to progress after getting the King's Ring and defeating the Throne Watcher/Defender without a guide. It turns out I had to backtrack to two other King's Ring doors that I had completely forgotten about, because the very last time I saw them was over 15+ hours ago. Then, you have to return to a boss room you already cleared just to fight the final boss that relies on a cheap curse effect and repeated few attacks.
[h1] Some goods [/h1]
The game isn't pure garbage though, there is still some beauty to be found in it. Majula is easily my favorite hub area in the entire series (even though I don't like some npcs' attitude when I just have a look at their wares without buying anything). They also introduced some genuinely great quality-of-life features, such as Lifegems, the ability to respec your stats, unlocking bonfire warping right from the start, and the Bonfire Ascetic mechanic.
[h1] Final thought [/h1]
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin isn't a completely terrible game that isn't worth your money; it is just so bad compared to Dark Souls 1: Remastered and Dark Souls 3. Ever since Elden Ring was released, Souls games rarely go on deep sales they used to. My suggestion is to wait until this game goes on a sale, buy it, and try it for yourself since it is also a Fromsoftware's Souls game anyway.
Thanks to the 10+ MINUTES LONG UNSKIPPABLE END CREDITS, I had plenty of time to reflect on how much this game tortured my mental health. That reflection is exactly why I decided to write this review.
Edit: This game does not have cloud save, so manually back up your save files regularly or you will lose everything after reinstalling Windows or switching to a new PC.
