Ni-Oh 2 Previews
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Following the recent closed alpha test for Team Ninja's samurai-themed action-RPG Ni-Oh 2, we can now check out a couple of hands-on previews that let us know what to expect from this Dark Souls-inspired title, how it differs from the previous installment in the series, and how well it runs.
First, we have Eurogamer's preview:
An often overlooked aspect of performance concerns loading times - which just happens to be one of the most impressive aspects of Nioh 2. You will die a lot and thankfully, loading when this happens is extremely short: everything happens within a handful of seconds.
Based on what we've seen so far, Nioh 2 is shaping up as a solid sequel that perhaps plays it a little too safely, but that's OK - the original is one of the better action games of the generation and I'm eager to see what Nioh 2 ultimately delivers when it launches. If Team Ninja can cut down some of the grindy elements that persisted in the original, this could be an even better game.
And then there's one from Niche Gamer:
The closed Alpha contains two levels, or three if you include a harder ‘Twilight’ version of the first. The levels aren’t particularly great, and I’d have liked for even more diverging paths, but they aren’t necessarily bad, either. Filling them are a few new enemies, including but not limited to a female snake creature that is an absolute pain in the ass to fight (but in a good way!), some mini creatures which seem to devour injured ones around them to grow even larger, and a grotesque slug… thing which rolls into a ball for massive damage, burrows underground to charge the player, and thrashes around to whip the player with it’s appendages.
The creature designs for the new enemies are well done, which makes it hurt all that much more because the majority of the two (technically three) levels are spent fighting creatures from the first game. Returning are skeleton warriors, Yoki, Karakasa Umbrellas, Oni Bi, Dwellers, Kappas, Magatsu warriors, and even a few others.
