E3 Hands-On: Dark Souls II Demo

After watching one of the staff members play through the demo and get to the Mirror Knight, we were presented with a challenge before being sent into the harsh world of Dark Souls II. If you could beat the boss of the stage, you would earn a special t-shirt. So far, no shirts had been given out. I wanted that shirt.

I waited for the person in front of me to finish the demo. I had paid close attention when watching the staff play and even closer attention to the guy in front of me. I was going to earn that t-shirt.

I was up. I went with the class I played in Dark Souls: the sorcerer. Prior to throwing my character into danger, I went through the spell list. My God, there were so many. Some familiar, some new.

I was given a full inventory. Five estus flasks, a few lifegems of two different types (one weak and one strong), a few herbs to refill my spell uses, something to buff my weapon, and some other stuff I was too nervous to fool around with.

Speaking of my weapon, I was equipped with a staff, a sword (most likely of the short variety), and a shield. I familiarized myself with the moves and took off after feeling warmed up.

The first area isn’t too hard. You fight the same kind of enemy that has been at the start of every Souls game more or less. Those bastards that wield the dagger and swing it wildly. Only this time, instead of trying to leap at you, they try and bait you. Luckily, they’re still easily killed by some quick use of the R1 button.

Although the difficulty didn’t scare me at the start, the narrowness of my surroundings did. I could easily fall off if an enemy hit me hard enough, take some damage, and possibly land in front of some other enemies. I hugged the wall like it was my only friend in the game.

Shortly after getting through the first area, I came across a small hallway with stairs that lead down into total darkness. There was a torch in front of the entrance, but I walked midway through the staircase just to check how much I could see in front of me.

Unless the enemies were going to come into kissing range before starting their animations, I had to play it safe and grab the torch. This meant no more shield.

I had watched two others play this Dark Souls II demo already. I knew the Turtle Knight was down there. I ran into the room so I could aggro him and then immediately turned 180 degrees to run back upstairs. To my dismay, I had forgotten about the two hollows near the bottom of the staircase.

I narrowly avoided their attacks and lead my three pursuers into the well-lit, wide room I found the torch in. I backed myself into a corner and I was surrounded. A carefully placed dodge and I could- OUCH, man, that hurt.

I managed to run back towards the first area, giving myself enough distance to pick off the hollows with magic. Now it was just me and the Turtle Knight.

He thought he was so tough. I knew I couldn’t hurt him much with my weapon and did not want to leave myself exposed. I baited his attack by using a lifegem. He swung, I dodged, backed up, and shot him with some magic. It did so little damage I nearly cried.

After about a handful of missiles and a mouthful of cursing, he was dead. I lit my torch again and pushed on.

Along the way, I faced some more hollows. I found myself in some tough spots, often times being surrounded by enemies who caught me off-guard by looking dead. Or at least deader than what a hollow normally looks like.

Eventually, I cleared all but a few stubborn foes. In part of a half-destroyed room, three enemies awaited me. It was a familiar lineup of foes: two hollows and a Turtle Knight. This time, spaced was even more cramped and they had the advantage of the element of surprise. I did not see that shit coming.

After a Benny-Hill-chase in and out of various buildings, I managed to slowly whittle their health down until they became corpses for me to loot. It was over. I got to the bonfire, explored the remaining area for loot (and because I had no idea where I was supposed to go).

I returned to the bonfire and warped to the next area. It was one I was familiar with. A long hallway filled with statues and a caster enemy guarding a mist door. I was nearly there. The Dark Souls shirt was as good as mine.

In the demo room, the staff member who showed off the game got to the Mirror Knight by running through the hallway, taking a projectile from the caster, and entering the door before anyone else could lay a finger on him. I had a meeting in 10 minutes with Daedalic and so I decided to emulate him.

As I ran down the hallway and some of the statues came to life, my heart was pounding. The Mirror Knight lay ahead. He was tall, shiny, and had a movelist that would make even the toughest players feel threatened.

Not only was he a tanky boss, he had a shield that could summon enemies. In the demo version, these were just AI, but in the final release, he can summon enemy phantoms. Thankfully, my new shirt and I did not have to worry about that. All we had to do was avoid his big, telegraphed swings and his ranged lightning attack.

I was in front of the caster now and I was hit with the same missile attack as the staff demonstrator was. All I had to do was enter that mist door.

I pressed the button to enter and the animation started. Then my character was hit by one of the statue enemies who had followed me. I tried again, but before I could even get to the animation, I had been surrounded.

In one foolish instant of rushing, one stupid mistake of throwing caution to the wind, all of my hard work had been for naught. Instead of a brand new shirt, I just got some old fashioned pride-hurt. Those familiar words showed on the screen, taunting me, making putting the controller down to leave that much harder.

Welcome to Dark Souls II.