Dark Souls II was my first experience into the Soulsborne franchise back in 2014, I'd sunk countless hundreds of hours into it on the PS3. When Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First sin released in 2015 on the PS4 I went and sunk countless of thousands of more hours into it before I moved to PC in 2018 where I've sunk another few thousand hours into this game, needless to say it's one of my favourite games of all time.

The hub area known as Majula has got to be one of the best and most atmospheric hubs in the whole of the Soulsborne Franchise. It has a warm and welcoming feel, with the music in the background being slow, calm and relaxing, really reinforcing how much of a safe space the area truly is in comparison to the other hostile areas throughout the game. The Hub is also home to our favourite Waifu: The Emerald Herald, Shanalotte.

The levelling system while introducing a new mechanic called Adaptability was not all that bad, unlike Resistance in Dark Souls I, Adaptability has an actual use. That being that it increases the speed that you use consumables like your Estus Flasks but it also increases your IMMUNITY FRAMES, a thing that most new players tend to not know and complain that the game is too hard because the dodges feel impossible to do which in the early game is rough, but spending a few points into Adaptability fixes the dodging issue entirely.

Another controversial mechanic introduced is Soul Memory, matchmaking based on how many souls you've collected along your journey, I assume this was intended to stop twinking (The act of making a low level character intended for competitive PVP or COOP.) but this is also counteracted by the Agape ring, a ring that prevents souls from being earned by any means, unfortunately twinking is still common, at the cost of a ring slot.

The story is much like the other Soulsborne titles, where you can follow it at a baseline and if you're truly invested in it you can talk to NPC's, explore areas or even look into the item's descriptions that you collect for a deeper understanding of areas, enemies and bosses. You do not need to be an expert to understand and enjoy these games by any means.

Fashion Souls is an important part of any Soulsborne title and this one certainly delivers on that front, a lot of armors working well together, colours of fabrics, tints of metals, weapons complimenting said outfits, a personal favourite combination of mine being:

• Black Witch Hat / Black Witch Veil
  
• Black Witch Robe
  
• Ruin Gauntlets
  
• Ruin Leggings
  
• Moonlight Greatsword
  
• Golden Wing Shield
  
• Staff of Wisdom

And

• Desert Sorceress Hood
  
• Alva Armor
  
• Alva Gauntlets
  
• Desert Sorceress Skirt
  
• Black Knight Greataxe
  
• Blossom Kite Shield
  
• Pyromancy Flame / Dark Pyromancy Flame

PVP is honestly some of the best in the entire franchise in my opinion, with plenty of variety in weapons that you can choose to powerstance, armor combinations to pick from and mechanics to compliment your playstyle; ranging from simply backstepping through attacks to animation cancelling and animation recovery through certain actions. There are also plenty of ways to parry from shields to weapons to tools like shields and the sound from achieving a parry being like music to your ears. A personal favourite parry to achieve is the great sword parry.

In conclusion, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin holds a special place in my heart and I cannot recommend it enough, I'd rate it a 10/10 and advocate that any fan of the genre who hasn't tried it yet to give it a chance.

Hunt: Showdown 1896 is one of the best and most atmospheric PvPvE extraction shooters I've ever had the pleasure of playing to date, it is simultaneously easy to learn, hard to master, unique and rewarding.

I started playing back during the Devil's Moon event in 2022 and as a new player, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing at first, it was overwhelming. I was in constant fear of players ambushing me, resulting in me sneaking around for about 80% of the match and even then I fumbled most of my gunfights at the time.

My MMR at this time was 2 stars and I shortly stopped playing after around 40 hours of playtime due to demotivation... I was so focused on becoming a higher MMR it ruined the fun for me, forcing myself to use the best weapons and tools. Eventually returning to the game back in 2024 with newfound motivation to learn how to play the game without worrying about my MMR, in favour of using guns and tools that felt good for me to personally use. This new mindset had my MMR increase from 2 stars to 4 stars and now currently... 6 stars.

The game's atmosphere and sound design is absolutely bonkers. Often second guessing myself while walking around whether or not I heard players footsteps or metallic clanking / glass crunching. This is more prominent especially during older events where we had the entire map in a wildfire and torrential rain occasionally swooping over the map making it hard to hear footsteps and gunshots in the distance, even reducing your visibility.

With the amount of guns and numerous amount of variants of said guns, no single gunfight you experience feels the same in a match feels the same. In one fight you may encounter people using snipers, in another fight you may waltz into a compound inhabited by a trio full of Bomb Lance users while the third fight you could encounter rats who've trapped the entire compound and blocked off doors and exits with concertina bombs. Everything feels unique.

Furthermore no one gun feels the same, with all of them having unique statistics such as bullet velocity and drop off, reload and cycle times. Certain guns have unique reloads for emptying them entirely, much like the Mosin-Nagant or the Dolch using stripper clips to reload unless you partially reload them in which you manually insert the bullets into the internal magazine.

Unique ammo types such as Dumdum, Incendiary and Poison help you apply pressure during gunfights while Spitzer, High Velocity, FMJ provide environmental advantages like extra velocity and penetration allowing for wallbangs. This is especially useful when you're the bounty holder, during darksight you can locate an enemy behind a wall and unload into it, potentially killing or scaring them out of hiding from you.

Another factor contributing to unique gunfights and interactions are traits. An example of this is "Lightfoot" which is vaulting, falling and climbing ladders silently or "Silent Killer" where your hunter doesn't breathe in when preparing your melee weapon to attack and doesn't grunt when attacking with said weapon allowing for sneak attacks.

Other traits like "Bloodless" being that bleeding will not to escalate to intense / severe or "Bulletgrubber" making you catch unspent ammunition during partial reloads or finally an underrated trait "Dauntless" the ability to extinguish live explosives thrown at you with a single push of the F key are all situational but incredibly useful to bring in most situations.

Burn traits like "Rampage" that when you down an enemy hunter you trigger a restoration for yourself as long as you are missing a chunk of health, burned or not, which once triggered disappears from your hunter's traits. Scarce traits like "Shadow Leap" are rare, granting you the ability to teleport inside most AI monsters from 50 meters away, instantly killing them allowing for sudden flanking or cunning escapes from a sticky situation.

In conclusion Hunt: Showdown 1896 has plenty of playstyles, unique enemies, bosses, roaming bosses and even players for you to find during your hunt. I won't spoil these for you as I'd much rather you give the game a chance and experience the atmospheric Bayou or the beautiful mountainous Mammon's Gulch for yourself. It's a 10/10 experience that you won't forget.

Rise up, damned soul!