Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II (ダークソウルII Da:ku So:ru Tsu:, Russian "Dark Souls 2") is an open-world Action/RPG video game developed and published by From Software for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows in 2014. Outside of Japan, the game was published by Bandai Namco. The game is a sequel to Dark Souls (2011).

According to the game's plot, the unnamed protagonist visits the kingdom of Drangleic in the hope of being healed of the curse that turned him into the undead. To do this, he must take possession of several "great souls" belonging to the demonic inhabitants of Drangleic. Like previous games in the series, Dark Souls II features a high level of difficulty - the player is expected to fail repeatedly in battles against strong opponents and learn from their mistakes in order to move on. Dark Souls II contains elements of a multiplayer game, both in the form of a cooperative and PvP component - during the passage, the player can "summon" other players into his game as helpers, or face other hostile players.

The game was announced at the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2012. Unlike Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, game designer Hidetaka Miyazaki, who previously worked on the series as development lead and producer, was not directly involved with the game.

Dark Souls II features an updated game engine from the first game in the series. The basis of the gameplay is the phased exploration of the locations of the kingdom of Drangleic, "seamlessly" interconnected, and the killing of enemies, for which the player receives souls, which are the universal currency of the world. For souls, you can level up, buy or repair items, or receive services.

Bonfires serve as a place for replenishing estus flasks, restoring the durability of items and magic, through which, unlike the first part, it is possible to move around the world from the very beginning of the game. However, only a special character in the central location can level up a character. Health is restored both by flasks with estus, replenished at the fire, and soul stones of three types, which can be found in locations or "knocked out" from a hostile character.

The plot in the game, as in the predecessor game, is minimalistic and presented outside the box: since the main character is presented as silent, the player draws information about the world and its events from NPC monologues, as well as from descriptions of various objects, which makes it possible to independently interpret what is happening.

Dark Souls II is not a direct sequel to the first part, and takes place some time after the events of Dark Souls. There are hints in the game that the kingdom of Drangleic visited by the protagonist may be built on the ruins of Lordran, the setting of the previous game. Drangleic was once ruled by the mighty King Vendrik and his wife, Queen Nashandra.