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DARK SOULS™ II
Developed by FROM SOFTWARE, DARK SOULS™ II is the highly anticipated sequel to the gruelling 2011 breakout hit Dark Souls. The unique old-school action RPG experience captivated imaginations of gamers worldwide with incredible challenge and intense emotional reward.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
27 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Rating: ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead…”
“Weirdly better than DS2 SOTFS. Enemy spawns aren't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Shine of Amana was surprisingly less painful than I remember. I only wanted to die irl like twice, compared to SOTFS which was hairpullingly awful. Iron keep…”
“Life gems over Estus flask need I say more.”
14 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Weirdly better than DS2 SOTFS. Enemy spawns aren't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Shine of Amana was surprisingly less painful than I remember. I only wanted to die irl like twice, compared to SOTFS which was hairpullingly awful. Iron keep…”
“They say Drangleic is a land of fading memories, but after 60 hours, the only thing I know for certain is that I will never forget this journey. I’ve walked the golden fields of the Lands Between and stood amidst the…”
“Amazing game, very fun while being calming and easy. I suggest playing it to wind down after a long and stressful day.”
11 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Rating: ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead…”
“After the clunky and unimpressive first game, I really put off any other Dark Souls game. Still, lack of other games and boredom after surgery drove me to try this. I'm SO happy I did. True the lack of gameplay…”
“+ More freedom than Scholar, thanks to less branch statues. + Early game pacing feels more beginner friendly than Scholar. + Color grading feels a bit more lively than Scholar, a pro in my opinion. + Some NPCs are…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Buggy as ♥♥♥♥ save files corrupting, achievements just not appearing(I had to beat the game 3 TIMES becuase The Heir just wouldnt ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work) Good story, interasting symbolism Peak fiction YES fun to play ♥♥♥♥ NO”
“Much like King Vendrick, Dark Souls 2 was a game that was never truly realized. The actual base game itself is the most average game in it's own genre, but I'd rather play this than any other "mostly positive"…”
“After the clunky and unimpressive first game, I really put off any other Dark Souls game. Still, lack of other games and boredom after surgery drove me to try this. I'm SO happy I did. True the lack of gameplay…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Rating: ---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead…”
“Weirdly better than DS2 SOTFS. Enemy spawns aren't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Shine of Amana was surprisingly less painful than I remember. I only wanted to die irl like twice, compared to SOTFS which was hairpullingly awful. Iron keep…”
“My hours are low for the steam version but I have played the original on PS3 and SOTFS on Xbox One That being said, if you want to play Dark Souls 2, this version (Original/Vanilla) is the one you want to play. The…”
23 of the 103 reviews raise this · 18 of them still recommend the game.
“It's not the worst game in existence like everyone makes it out to be but it also just blantly disrespects it's players and offers no difficulty in encounters other than random unfair ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The base game bosses are…”
“Buggy as ♥♥♥♥ save files corrupting, achievements just not appearing(I had to beat the game 3 TIMES becuase The Heir just wouldnt ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work) Good story, interasting symbolism Peak fiction YES fun to play ♥♥♥♥ NO”
“games ass got to a boss fight I think and immediately got killed by the surrounding enemies because you don't get i-frames on fog walls 0/10”
10 of the 103 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“It's not the worst game in existence like everyone makes it out to be but it also just blantly disrespects it's players and offers no difficulty in encounters other than random unfair ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. The base game bosses are…”
“games ass got to a boss fight I think and immediately got killed by the surrounding enemies because you don't get i-frames on fog walls 0/10”
“After the clunky and unimpressive first game, I really put off any other Dark Souls game. Still, lack of other games and boredom after surgery drove me to try this. I'm SO happy I did. True the lack of gameplay…”
9 of the 103 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“Buggy as ♥♥♥♥ save files corrupting, achievements just not appearing(I had to beat the game 3 TIMES becuase The Heir just wouldnt ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ work) Good story, interasting symbolism Peak fiction YES fun to play ♥♥♥♥ NO”
“Whoever made this absolutely unfathomably dire game, should be ashamed. Not because of any artistic choices, but for shipping a game with mechanics that do not work. Thoroughly convinced no one on the team that worked…”
“Overall I still enjoyed Dark Souls II even though it gets a lot of hate, but some parts feel a bit off. Hitboxes can feel weird sometimes. You feel like you dodged, but you still get hit. Inputs also feel kinda delayed…”
8 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“The developers simply ported the game from consoles and left all the interface prompts 'as is' — from the Xbox 360. The game itself is good, but such laziness on the developers' part is a big minus. Not only do they…”
“Whoever approved this game's PC release for mouse and keyboard deserves a special place in hell. I'm not joking—it's the same ♥♥♥♥ as in Nioh. The game hasn't even started yet, and it's already making me need long-term…”
“Does not have functional keyboard and mouse support. Do not play this game. Garbage.”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“This is a thumb up actually but despite people saying this is better than SOTFS. These kids never played SOTFS or something? SOTFS is a more superior version, hitboxes fixed so your ADP can work properly, enemy…”
“+ More freedom than Scholar, thanks to less branch statues. + Early game pacing feels more beginner friendly than Scholar. + Color grading feels a bit more lively than Scholar, a pro in my opinion. + Some NPCs are…”
“If you like DS 2 Sotfs, you will also like DS2. I prefer Sotfs, because there are many things that make sense, e.g. you can get your build to a decent level much faster, because infusion is available at a much earlier…”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 88.4% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“Really good for my first souls game, it runs surprisingly well on my laptop despite having a really bad specs. I've seen people a lot of people criticized Dark Souls 2, i know most of them didn't even play the game and just went along. When i play it myself, it's not as bad as…”
— a player, Steam review · 137 hrs played“Better than Scholar and I didn't expect it to be SO much better. Save yourself some money and nerves and sacrifice "better graphics" I think Scholar is amazing and for the longest time it has been my favourite game in the trilogy, but I must say the original is much better.”
— a player, Steam review · 6 hrs played“"dark souls 2 is bad" is israel level propaganda and i will not stand for it”
— a player, Steam review · 74 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 10:13 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Online features for the PC version of Dark Souls II have been reactivated.
Online features for the PC version of Dark Souls II (DX9) have been reactivated. We thank you once again for your patience and support regarding the restoration of the Dark Souls servers. https://stor
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action, RPG |
| Player tags | Souls-like · RPG · Dark Fantasy · Difficult · Action RPG · Action · Unforgiving · Adventure · Exploration · Atmospheric · Co-op · Multiplayer (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · Co-op · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Remote Play on Phone · Remote Play on Tablet · Remote Play on TV |
| Languages | English * , French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Polish, Russian, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Traditional Chinese * |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 38 |
| Estimated owners | 500,000 – 1,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | https://www.bandainamcoent.com/games/dark-souls-ii |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows Vista SP2, Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8 Processor: AMD® Phenom II™ X2 555 3.2Ghz or Intel® Pentium Core ™ 2 Duo E8500 3.17Ghz Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600GT, ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 DirectX: Version 9.0c Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 12 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX 9 sound device Additional Notes: Controller support: Microsoft Xbox 360® Controller for Windows® (or equivalent) recommended