Dark Souls 2 - Playing games is stupid and shit and I don't want to do this

This game, like Dark Souls -series in general, could be described with a list of "You died"-screens in different locations.

You died to a random hollow. You died to a fucking mean motherfucker who looks easy. You died because you hit a NPC by mistake. You died because you drowned. You died because you encountered five enemies at once and they beat you to pulp.

I tried to play the first Dark Souls and enjoy it. I got quite far!

The problem was that I had accidentally killed a few NPCs. Like an important blacksmith. Fucking wrong click and I hit him. There was a possibility to calm him down by paying a fee, but I fucking ran to a super strong enemy who killed the NPC blacksmith.

God fucking dammit.

So I quit playing Dark Souls 1.

Do you see this? Last played 27.6.2014. Playtime, 24 hours.

But as I might have mentioned on my last post, I got Dark Souls 2 as a Christmas present. Because it was given to me as a gift, I can't ignore it.

I'm here to give my first impression on the game, as I've played it for 9 hours.

In Dark Souls 2, you're cursed before you get to start the game. You end up in a world due to "destiny", meet up a bunch of old hags who tell you all cursed ones end up there. Basically a junkyard of people, so the healthy people can get rid of the cursed ones.

For those who are new to the game, Dark Souls -series is mostly about finding enemies who beat the shit out of you, learning how to parry/dodge them with right timing and at some point, winning them. There is a learning curve, built on the process of "git gud", which makes the game much easier. Once you have a decent touch on enemies attack patterns, rolling and killing enemies is usually easy.

Easy means "killable".

My first problem with the PC port of the game was the fact that it's built for a controller, but the controller support sucks in the port. I have a Logitech gamepad and it's useless. Most buttons have the binding wrong and I can't change them. There are mods to fix it, but based on what I've read, you'll get banned from multiplayer functions if you do that.

This means no interactions with other players, including the fact you can't get help from others for boss fights.

So I've been playing with keyboard and mouse, which is not really optimal, but good enough after a while of practicing.

The map design is not as good as in Dark Souls 1. Maybe the well hidden levers are a part of the game design, but some places in the game are plain ugly. However, the enemies so far have been really fun and well designed. I've been surprised by the variety of enemies, even though they don't seem very diverse at first.

The enemies have very different attack patterns, making sure one strategy doesn't work for every enemy. The game is also refreshingly innovative with the tricks forcing players to look carefully what they're doing - or reading the instructions (or deceptions) left by other players.

Yes, I'm talking about you all who are giving "Try jumping down" -advice in the messages on the ground.

Also "illusionary wall" and "treasure ahead".

You're awesome.

Especially when you can "activate" the bloodstains left by other players. This way you can see the final moments of other players playing the game.

There's awfully many players jumping down from cliffs and towers.

This isn't even a game review. This game came out 2014, so maybe it's no point really reviewing this seriously. But those who have played the game know what I'm talking about.

The moment you start to feel good and get some confidence, you get bashed in the head. You die, you lose all your thousands and thousands of souls and ultimately get thrown off to a bonfire so far away that you don't even want to get back.

I'm not even having fun. You're not even having fun. We all know we just don't want to give up.

This time I won't give up, as no serious damage has been caused. Own deaths are understandable, it's not a failure yet. Dying is part of the game, even though it's not a pleasure.

But what is the pleasure?

Is it winning? It's so rare to win, I can't be certain.

Maybe when I'll complete the game I can be happy. Maybe. I can't know it unless I try.