The versatility of Dark Souls’ appeal is directly related to the adaptability of a strong willed player. The Crown of the Sunken King, Dark Souls II’s first issue of downloadable content, engenders and engages this philosophy as well as any challenge in the proper game. In a certain light The Crown of the Sunken King actually does it better, employing different constraints and driving new ways to explore and appreciate Dark Souls II’s finer details.
To dispense with objective matters of fact, The Crown of the Sunken King is the first of three downloadable expansions for Dark Souls II. The sin of Dark Souls’ Artorias of the Abyss DLC, namely the narrow window the player had to explore their new content, is better addressed this time around. You only need to have cleared through The Black Gulch and finished off The Rotten which, while considerably deep into Dark Souls II, isn’t a finite entry point. Picking up my eighty-hour, post-credits, and level 140 character parked safely in Majula, I was ready to go.
Expressed in pure geography, The Crown of the Sunken King drops a pretty wide spread of land. Shulva – Sanctum City acts as a hub of sorts, offering a vertically dense and winding span of structures and entry points. Incased in its subterranean ruins are a couple of massive pyramids, each (eventually) accessible and ready to explore. As a self-contained environment, Sanctum City and its surrounding areas call to mind the organically connected and homogonous world of the original Dark Souls. Unlockable doors and a series of elevators are mechanically convenient and thematically appropriate, restoring the sense of unity Dark Souls II’s divergent “levels” seemed to ache for. It’s on a much smaller scale, of course, but it’s nice while it lasts.
The visual side of The Crown of the Sunken King leaves a little to be desired. Whereas later DLC packs will reportedly revolve around fire and snow, Sunken King ops for an opaque aquatic theme. The monochromatic greens and dreary mood evoke memories of Dark Souls’ Ash Lake and, if you’ll pardon the deep cut, Uru’s ruins from Panzer Dragoon Saga. Bland stone textures and relatively non-descript features suggest aesthetic diversity wasn’t on the list of priorities with The Crown of the Sunken King, but its three defined areas are adequate in their mission. They work as levels first and illustrious indulgences second.
Functionality is why most of us are here – and it’s exactly where The Crown of the Sunken King shows its colors. I’m reluctant to spoil the gimmicks and features at the beating heart of Sanctum City, other than to say it continues to reward players who try to look a little past the surface. I’m fairly certain it’s possible to make your way through the city and onto any of Sunken King’s three boss encounters without exposing the simple but satisfying contraptions populating the landscape, but their inclusion adds another layer of exploration upon Sanctum City’s artifice.
Enemy encounters are also subjects of endearing opposition. Opening areas are full of humanoid-like undead wielding usual requisites like bows and clubs, but they’re joined by new(er) brethren wielding a fencing-ready lance. Their pale charges are sure to catch you sleeping from time to time, as are the requisite unseen encounters waiting just around the corner. More interesting are the ghost knights and witches lying inside the temples, the former being subject to their own gimmick. They’re invulnerable to physical attacks, and my nearly non-existing pyromancy and weak magic-infused weapons only made tiny dents in their health. There is a way to un-ghost them and restore physical damage values to normal, should you be alert enough to figure it out.
Without directly spelling out what you need to do inside Sanctum City or how you’re supposed to un-ghost those pesky knights, The Crown of the Sunken King is poised to let you figure it out. I discovered both purely by mistake, but also through action of my discretion. In both cases I screwed up one of my attacks, and my error lead to the discovery of said gimmick. The folks at From knew players would do this, and designed initial encounters with this in mind. Every single environment in The Crown of the Sunken King – and Dark Souls as a series – feels designed specifically to teach the player a lesson.
Boss encounters, by extension, are chances to use everything you’ve learned on the way there. Visually, there isn’t much of anything appealing in Sunken King’s trio of bosses. One I’m certain is a re-skin of a beloved boss of Dark Souls’ past, while the others are relatively non-descript in form. Function however, as is the quietly emerging theme, is where these guys shine. One specific encounter pits the player against three foes simultaneously; ranged, strength-melee, and dexterity-melee aggressors all at the same time.
It was in that boss arena where I developed an appreciation for the quirks behind Dark Souls’ level design. In any other game, Gears of War for example, cover points and other practical spaces are thinly disguised as pieces of an otherwise benign environment. Dark Souls carries similar elements of pure level design inside its environments, but it’s much better at concealing their utility. In this arena, for example, small pits on either side seem like a penalty for not watching your footing; falling in results in a brief and vulnerable trek of escape. Eventually, however, I learned to use those pits to my advantage, kiting around the two melee bosses while I took run-by potshots at the archer. Later, I used a seemingly innocent rock as a point of contention between the two remaining melee characters. Was that cheap as hell? Probably, but it was effective and Dark Souls II was content to let me do as I liked – provided I had to skill to see it through.
It’s worth mentioning that The Crown of the Sunken King boasts most of the essentials in a Dark Souls experience. There are plenty of alternate passageways, hidden doors, concealed bonfires, and character summons to complete the usual checklist. Implicit lore, one of the series’ most treasured assets, seemed to come up a little bit short. The premise sets the player on a quest for recovering a crown lost by Vendrick, but I didn’t find much beyond that inside The Crown of the Sunken King. Either I missed it completely or story implications are back-loaded in the end of the three-part package.
While I’m admittedly a slow player, The Crown of the Sunken King took me ten hours to clear. Part of that was collecting my bearings after a two-month layoff, and the other was committing every inch of Sanctum City to memory. I don’t know where the dollars to time to fun ratios shake out, but the quality of the content – owning every encounter, collecting every piece of loot I could see, and exploring every corner – felt as good as anything in the proper game. Drab visuals didn’t leave me with the sense of wonder evoked by the likes of Majula or No-Man’s Wharf, but it’s hardly a complaint in light of Dark Soul’s more adept gifts.
