THE EMPIRE
Nioh 2 & DLC provided by PlayStation NZ for review – Available now on PS4 / Pro
Nioh 2 is one of those games where a lot of satisfaction can be had in the moment to moment gameplay. Individual fights carry tension with them on a level that can be hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced the game. Skill, dynamic gameplay, and persistence in the face of grizzly, repeated deaths come together to make this a deeply worthwhile game of 2020. It’s hard to believe that this game was released in March of this year, because, well, 2020 has been a bit of a year. In my original coverage of the game (Video Below), I gave it a 9.2 / 10, as it is an excellent game, and if you’re into its special brand action-oriented, souls-like gameplay, one that will provide you with way more value than the buy in cost.
One thing that had slipped past my radar with the world being what it is right now was the release of the 2 DLC packs for the game – The Tengu’s Disciple & Darkness in the Capital. Both of these are available now on the PlayStation Store individually or as part of the season pass / Digital Deluxe Edition, and they add a significant chunk of new gameplay, weapons, enemies, NPC’s and missions to the game. Which is pretty good for a game that was never shy on content to start with – there’s easily 100+ hours in the base game, unless you’re some god-like master of the game who never dies, ever.
It’s worth noting that both DLC’s missions and encounters are focused on endgame players, but some features such as the weapons will be available from the get-go. This means that if you wanted to roll a new character focusing around the addition of the fist weaponry, you can easily start to specialise in that skill tree from early on in a new playthrough instead of punishing yourself in the endgame. It’s a great excuse to spin up a new character (and you get the added bonus of not dying constantly if you’re a bit rusty on the muscle memory for the game)!
Regarding the missions and new areas, and their associated monsters, there’s some good content in there. Each DLC takes between 10-20 hours to clock on the standard difficulty, and if you’re looking to get crushed all over again (and let’s face it, you have to be a little masochistic to play Nioh 2), you can jump into the Dream of the Demon difficulty setting, which provides an even more punishing difficulty setting, and changes the layout of demons in the levels, just to make sure that you see the death screen time and time again. There are a host of new cutscenes to set up the action in the new zones and if you’re familiar with the history of Nioh, or Team Ninja, there will be a couple of “Oh, Cool!” & “Dude, WTF?!” moments tucked in there too.
Nioh 2 remains one of the most challenging, focused action games on the PS4, and its DLC only serves to enhance what is already present whilst adding in a good dash of new fun, frustrating, & frantic action content. If you’ve not already played it, it’s worth checking out, and if you weren’t sure about the DLC, it’s a solid add on in the bang-for-buck and content stakes.
I’m going to give these an 8.5/10 – they’re well worth your time!
Dave
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