Dark Souls II Network Test: A Return To Drangleic
Nov. 17, 2013Dark Souls II Network Test: A Return To Drangleic
The first large-scale Dark Souls II Network Test left a bitter taste in the mouth of many fans of the series.
Server issues meant players in North and South America weren’t able to access the test at all and those in the EU region, who were able to log on, were left with a version in which multiplayer mechanics didn’t function. There were also criticisms of the combat from some players, who believed it didn’t feel as tight and responsive as the first Dark Souls.
I was one of those lucky enough to play the three-hour session back in October and thoroughly enjoyed it – you can read adetailed account of my experience here.
My return to Drangleic provided me with the opportunity to experience it all again with a different class and assess how well the multiplayer components fitted in with solo play.
Rather than loading my Dual Swordsman from the previous test, I started afresh as the Sorcerer,who I’d played with briefly at Eurogamerbut hadn’t had the chance to get to grips with fully.
The Sorcerer starts with three spells –Soul Arrow, Soul Greatsword and Soul Shower – plus the Heal miracle. I hastily purchased myself another 20 Soul Arrows and 10 Soul Spears from the merchant Melentia and levelled a couple of times in Vigor and Intelligence. After attuning both spells – dropping Soul Shower (an AoE) and Heal – I noticed that, unlike in Dark Souls, they didn’t stack. If you attuned two lots of 20 Soul Arrows in DkS they would automatically combine to give you 40 Soul Arrows. This time around they are treated independently, which means you’re forced to change spells when your spell pool runs dry. This didn’t happen very frequently but it’s certainly a puzzling and mildly frustrating design choice.
There were already numerous white summon signs around the first bonfire but each time I tried to call a phantom into my world I was met with a message stating that the summoning had failed and the sign had disappeared. This was exactly as it had been a fortnight ago so I feared the worst and advanced alone to the second bonfire.
What struck me about my journey there was quite how difficult I was finding things while using magic. My spells did less damage than I expected and the strongest in my arsenal, Soul Greatsword, was limited to just four uses. It took me at least three basic Soul projectiles to take down undead enemies, while rogues and bandits took four or five magical missiles before giving up souls. You are able to chain spells relatively easily, but like melee, damage decreases after every hit of the chain.
There are a couple of changes which do benefit the Sorcerer, however. Two-handing a staff now increases the damage dealt and also allows auto-aiming. It’s also possible to cast stronger versions of spells by using R2 instead of R1, exactly like using light and heavy melee attacks. The charging time increases for these improved spells, meaning you’ve got to be selective about when and where to fire one off. From Software are actively trying to incorporate a clearer risk/reward dynamic when it comes to spell casting. It’s now more akin to melee: increased damage output comes at the price of leaving yourself vulnerable to enemy attacks.
I tried to summon at every opportunity but was still unable to draw on the assistance of another player. It may have been that there weren’t enough phantoms to go round ,due to the heavy server load or perhaps I was simply unlucky when selecting them. However, the ease with which I got summoned later in the test suggests others didn’t have the same difficulties when calling for help. Whatever the reason, it’s something From need to address, as it felt reminiscent of the early days of Dark Souls, where the summoning mechanic seemed scattergun at best and at times nigh on broken.
I busied myself combing the Huntman’s Copse for the various items dotted about and gained a couple of levels farming the scythe dual-wielders and the selection of bandits in the woodland section. I died a number of times trying to reach four Human Effigies high up on a pillar, losing my human form, five percent of my maximum HP and leaving me unable to see white summon signs. However, while undead I was vulnerable to invasion and red summon signs (to beckon dark spirits into your world) remained visible.
After some time idly wandering – clearing out the red phantoms leading to the Executioner’s Chariot among other things – I decided to see if I could help out in someone else’s game. I placed my White Sign Soapstone and waited. I didn’t have to wait for long though; within a couple of minutes I’d been summoned.
As either a phantom or shade (more about them later) you start out with 75% of your maximum HP. This is offset by the ability to heal using either Lifegems or your Estus, although the speed at which Lifegems restore health is dramatically decreased. My companion and I played through to the Executioner’s Chariot and made relatively light work of him, overwhelming him with a barrage of spells. For my part in achieving the victory I was rewarded with a Token of Fidelity, a covenant item in the vein of Dark Souls’ Sunlight Medals.
I leveled up Attunement to increase my spell slots and casting time, the latter of which felt a little slower than I would have liked at the outset of the test. After putting about five points into the Attunement stat the improvement in spell speed was negligible. Taking into account the damage done by my spells, I often felt I was better served trying to backstab with my dagger rather than using magic on lone enemies. One technique that worked well was softening up a group of targets with a couple of Soul Arrows from distance before going in for melee kills. The Royal Dirk did decent critical damage, so getting in a backstab or parry/riposte was often the quickest way to kill.
Next up I started trying to summon dark spirits to PvP against. This proved pretty laborious as I was getting the same “sign disappeared” message as before and it wasn’t until 8.10am GMT (an hour and ten minutes into the test) that I finally faced up to a dark spirit. Due to the fact that so many previous summons had failed I was caught unawares by his arrival and was cut to ribbons at close range while still brandishing a torch. PvP has never been my forte but even I was disappointed with my lamentable first effort!
I got summoned a second time shortly after and accompanied a Hunter around the Copse. Whoever the player was must have had most of the Beta memorised as they were navigating the darker areas without a torch or the slightest wrong turn. Sadly, I couldn’t quite emulate their traversal of the darkness and slipped off a cliff to my death – sorry buddy!
I was now getting summoned swiftly every time I dropped my soapstone and was next paired with a Warrior appropriately two-handing a Zweihander. His brute strength combined with my ranged coverage proved a potent mixture and I led him towards Undead Purgatory for a date with the Executioner. Unfortunately, he neglected to look where he was going while crossing the bridge and fell through a gap in the wooden slats to his death.
White summon signs still punctuated the gaming terrain but it wasn’t until almost two hours in that I FINALLY managed to successfully summon. In that time I’d probably tried around 50+ white soapstone signs to no avail. Why I’d been able to get summoned so easily but struggled to summon myself is anyone’s guess.
When I was allowed to summon it was certainly timely –I’d literally just been invaded for the first time – and in one of the most unlikely locations. Someone had left their sign at the top of the cage elevator and, perhaps due to its obscure location (meaning a lack of other players trying to summoned there), the summon worked. The two of us went head-to-head with the red phantom invader but on this occasion two heads didn’t prove better than one. My phantom was vanquished by a flurry of dual sword swipes and I perished soon after following a crafty backstab. What was pleasantly surprising was that there didn’t seem to be much lag. The battle flowed pretty smoothly – a positive indication that dedicated servers should improve the overall online experience. Others have reported lag issues but my PvP experience, albeit limited, didn’t exhibit it to any significant or game-breaking level.
I used a Human Effigy to become human again but the previous problems I’d had summoning persisted so I went back to putting down my white soapstone. One host managed to summon a second phantom while I was there and the three of us took on the Executioner’s Chariot. The part played by Duskman was brief – I got chewed up by the Chariot’s wheels as I tried to squeeze into a niche already occupied by the two other characters. A comedic death!
A second three way with a new host and another phantom ended up with me being banished for no reason when outside the fog gate leading to the Skeleton Lord boss. If ever there was a time for the “Shrug” gesture it was then.
With my nose put slightly out of joint by that snub I decided to try to hook up some one on one against a dark spirit again. It took me about five minutes of waiting near the second bonfire to find a sign that worked and a very tense, well-fought duel ensued.
The dark spirit was well equipped to soak up my Soul Arrows and Soul Spears while blocking so I had to get up close. We played an intriguing game of cat and mouse; rolling and dodging, backing up and healing after taking heavy hits, and searching for that ever elusive backstab.
Neither of us was making much headway so I tried a change of tact. Switching to the Soul Greatsword spell, I baited him into attacking me before unleashing it and utilising its lengthy range to take off chunks of his health. It took all four uses of the spell to vanquish him but the bonfire was nearby so I could replenish my stock.
Two further stints as a phantom followed, but sloppy pre-noon Sunday play ensured neither ended in success
Then came a bolt from the blue. A message alerting players that the final half-an-hour of the test would be run in High Difficulty Mode. Aye, siwmae. I certainly didn’t see that coming!
I didn’t notice any additional mobs but every enemy’s damage output was cranked right up. Any mistake was punished even more severely than usual. The scythe-wielders were capable of one or two shot kills, while even basic torch-carrying undead could be deadly if not handled correctly. I didn’t reach either of the bosses during the High Difficulty Mode so can’t comment on them in relation to the higher difficulty level. But judging by how tough standard enemies had become, it would be hard even the most hardcore of Souls players to complain about the level of challenge.
The implementation of High Difficulty Mode definitely poses some intriguing questions though. Was it included as a general test of how difficult the game should be on a first playthrough? Perhaps From saw some of the comments from people that played the first network test and thought it too-easily conquered? Perhaps it was included with New Game + in mind and served to test how difficulty could scale post completion. Or maybe it something altogether more sinister… a clue that the final release will give players the option of what difficulty to play at? Most Souls veterans will be hoping that this isn’t the case – it would go against everything the series stands for.
I’ve never been much of an invader but High Difficulty Mode seemed the perfect time to try to invade some poor Soul. I popped a Cracked Red Eye Orb (you must be fully human to do this) and, to my surprise, invaded a world immediately. I managed to destroy my target and was sent back to my own world with a Token of Spite. If you talk to Titchy Gren (I didn’t during this test) with one of these in your inventory he will offer you access to the invasion covenant, Brotherhood of Blood. Once initiated into the BoB, players will receive cracked red eye orbs by invading and defeating fellow covenant members.
I invaded again a few minutes later but failed to locate my target, got fed up as time was drawing to a close and threw myself off a cliff. I prefer to be a help rather than a hindrance so my dalliance with the cracked red eye orbs was brief but it was pleasing to see invasions could be executed with relative ease and frequency.
Speaking of which, I was then invaded and killed extremely quickly; though during the brief battle I did discover that plunge attacks are back (I failed to land one during the first test two weeks ago). I was relieved to know that it hadn’t been omitted, despite the fact that it feels harder to pull off now due to the tweaked lock-on and move tracking. The battle was so short lived that I didn’t get to experience the interaction between the Way of the Blue and the Way of the Guardian covenants. Every Beta class, with the exception of the Warrior, starts out belonging to the Way of the Blue. Belonging to this covenant results in a blue phantom (a member of Way of the Guardian, who must be wearing the Guardian’s Seal ring) being auto-summoned when you are invaded. Their sole purpose is to destroy the invading phantom and they return to their world if this aim is achieved. This auto-summon only works if you do not already have another friendly phantom in your world, which somewhat allays invaders’ fears of being massively outnumbered or “ganked”.
With 25 minutes of the test remaining I summoned my first shade. Shades, unlike phantoms, can be summoned in areas where the boss has already been defeated. However, they last a far shorter time – around five minutes compared to the 15 or so that phantoms remain with you. It needs confirmation but I think shades are summoned through small white summon signs, while a phantom comes from its larger form. My shade got pulverised by one of the Copse’s now even more militant scythe-wielders, who one-shotted him. I managed to avenge his death but died myself soon after.
Ten minutes from shut off time and I got an Error Code message when I thought I’d summoned someone. This was the first and only Code bug that displayed during the three hours and is exactly the kind of thing that you’d expect from a network test. It’s something I’m sure From Soft will iron out over the coming months. That proved to be my last hope of human interaction as my desperate attempts to summon in the dying moments of the test all failed. My inability to summon consistently stands as the main criticism I have about the test but even then I’m inclined to give From the benefit of the doubt given where we are in relation to release date. I just really hope it’s got right by March.
I’ve liked how the game is shaping up ever since getting my hands on it at Eurogamer. The two three-hour stints I’ve had since then have been very different in purpose and nature but both were rewarding in their own right. Playing the first network test alone was a lot of fun but it lacked something – that unique feeling of comfort, comradeship or terror that you get when playing online. I can’t say that I experienced a seamless combination of those things during my second visit to Drangleic but there was enough there to tantalise and tease about what’s to come next year.
One thing’s for certain, Souls always leaves you wanting more.
You can preorder Dark Souls IIhere.
You can read more about Dark Souls IIhere.
Duskman1
As you may have guessed, Duskman1 is a Souls fanatic but he by no means limits himself to Boletaria and Lordran.
Since the start of the year he’s enjoyed numerous gaming delights, including Far Cry 3, Hitman:Absolution, DMC, Tomb Raider, God of War: Ascension, Okami, Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, Bioshock Infinite, The Walking Dead, Ni No Kuni, Dragon’s Crown and GTA V.
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