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1 Apr 2021

REVIEW: Nioh 2 – The Complete Edition on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis
Nioh 2 has you playing as a Samurai as you fight against a seemingly endless supply of Yokai (think monsters and evil spirits). The basic point of the game is to create your Samurai character and go on an epic adventure across Japan during the Sengoku period (1467 to 1615)

This game is an action RPG and really does have an epic feel to it.

"Nioh 2 contains an original profound story surrounding military commanders from the Sengoku period. However, Nioh 2 goes above and beyond its predecessor by including the new Yokai Shift ability which allows the protagonist to utilize new powerful forms to defeat even the most formidable yokai in battle. New to Nioh 2, your enemies can now create a Dark Realm which raises the stakes of battle and creates new challenges for your protagonist to overcome."

As this is the complete edition, all of the DLC content is throw in, The Tengu's Disciple, Darkness in the Capital, and The First Samurai, as well as everything from the original Nioh 2 PS4 game.

The Tengu's Disciple
The Tengu's Disciple takes the protagonist to the end of the Heian period, where the Genji and Heike clans were competing ruthlessly with one another. Experience the battle that acts as a prologue which reveals how the story of Nioh 2 came to be.

Darkness in the Capital
Darkness in the Capital takes place during the middle of the Heian period, a point in history where evil spirits and yokai ran rampant throughout Japan. The protagonist is brought back to this period and ventures to the capital where they will uncover the connections between an even more distant past and the present time period from which they came.

The First Samurai
The First Samurai brings the protagonist to the Suzuka Pass during the beginning of the Heian period. In the climactic 3rd expansion of the Nioh 2 saga, the protagonist will once again confront their arch-nemesis, Otakemaru.

So, you get the general idea of the game, and if you have played the previous game you know what to expect, so the question then becomes, "Is the game any good?"

First the combat, that in itself is to me the main pull of the game, and Nioh 2 really gets this right, everything just feels very satisfying, and although I tended to stick with the giant axe weapon throughout, I found the combat system challenging, but rewarding as well. But do not think it is easy, it is not, when I say challenging, I really mean it, people new to this genre might struggle, so be prepared.

As you can imagine with a big-name game with a big budget, everything looks and sounds great, and as such you will need a powerful system to play, if you don't have a top-notch graphics card then you will notice a lot of frames being dropped. 

With the added DLC, this is a big game, like huge, it will take you forever to complete, to a level whereby you feel you have really done it all. Although the main story should take no more than 40 hours.

The Good
The graphics, the soundtrack, the fighting, everything is to a really high level.

The Bad
The story is a bit "meh", and looking after your inventory becomes beyond tedious at times. And as I mentioned previously you really need a top computer if you want to get truly smooth gameplay at 60fps, never mind the 120fps option. I ended up playing with a Playstation controller, as mouse and keyboard play is just no good.

Overall
Although I had a few gripes with the game, please understand that overall, this is a great game, it really is one of the better action RPGs ever made, I really do rate it that highly. And I think it is because I rate it so highly that my complaints frustrate me even more, because they are things that are easily fixed. This is a Playstation 4 game ported to PC, and I think because of that, the PC version will always suffer.

I score this game a strong 8/10


Review by Jon Donnis

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