Dark Souls 2 is kind of the black sheep of the Souls series due to some of its mechanics that make it feel a little different than the other entries in the franchise by FromSoftware, and so it hasn't aged particularly well. While there isn't a lot that can be done for the gameplay, modders are continuing to work on the game's visuals, introducing so many improvements that make the game almost look as good as the most recent games by the Japanese developer.
The DS2 Lighting Engine Softs mod, which can be downloaded from Nexus Mods, introduces new features to the game's lighting engine which improve the game's visuals quite a bit. Among the new features are volumetric fog, high-quality Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion, an updated shading model for surfaces, and more. While the mod is still in an early stage of development, it already looks great, as highlighted by the screenshots below.
As already mentioned, Dark Souls 2 is among the most divisive entries in the series developed by FromSoftware, mostly due to some of its gameplay mechanics, level design, and a world that is not as immediately recognizable as Lordran and Lothric. The original release was so controversial that FromSoftware released a definitive edition called Scholar of the First Sin that includes the game's excellent DLC expansions as well tons of gameplay changes that addressed some of the issues of the original release, although only partially.
Dark Souls 2 is now available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One worldwide.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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