Ok so here is part review i'l review as i go but for starters:

The game starts out in a hub area called majula and you immediately have the ability to telport anywhere like in demon souls, or so i heard, and as soon as you reach the bonfire, you can teleport there.The problem with all of this, is that you can't use the advantage of running around through zones like in ds1 to cleverly get past borders and get into areas to farm items and leave.Only way in is to go fight a boss get into a new area hopefully trudge through enemies and get to the bonfire.I think ds1 also was more clever how it placed its secret doors.In ds2 there are some secret doors, but also a of these things where you use a stone of pharros to open a secret door where you find treasure, or sometimes a item is blocked off by a statue that requires anti petrification item to advance.That pharros part is fine, but i am not fine on how many enemies are added to the game in cheap unfair ways.

Dark souls 2 original i hear, has far less enemies that abuse aggro spam than with the dlc "Scholars of the first sin" does, and it sucks.Walk into a area and you get spam aggroed by 5 enemies who all instantly home in on you.Try to go around, and enemies spin around and hit you always, preventing you from backstabbing.A lot of enemies i've fought so far, cannot be backstabbed, or at least not easily.The inclusion of the stat "Adaptability" is a cheap way to make the game harder by taking away invincibility frames and making drinking way slower, forcing you to grind to get faster drinks so the game doesn't kill you, and it will kill you.Dark souls 1 was clever about enemy placements and weaknesses, but dark souls 2 has far too much artificial difficulty.The zones seem alright, although for some reason, the bosses seem too easy.I don't know if i'm really good, or what, but the game is far more difficult, and i'm having a way easier time than ds1 for most bosses.Some bosses are really hard, but getting to the boss with full health and full estus flask is hard, and it sucks.Another thing that is terrible about dark souls 2, is the soul memory thing.If you gain souls by killing some enemy and die, it might count towards soul memory.If you leveled up a lot, it means you can't group with most people below your soul memory number, and you won't be able to group with most with higher soul memory.For some genius reason, the designers thought it would be clever if you could farm large titanite shards to your hearts content, but small ones are ultra rare.

The game to me just feels worse than dark souls 1 in most things.A few things are cool, but the majority are tacked on and feel disappointing.For instance:I really enjoyed that there are outside stuff that turns off traps in boss area.To me, that is under utilized and kind of clever, too bad it isn't used much so far.

So i got really far in.

More to add:You do eventually get titanite chunks for sale, and a decent spot to farm stuff, but the drop rates are god awful and horrendous, at least for titanite.

In dark souls 1, you could get 1 titanite chunk every 1 or 2 enemies.In ds2 you can kill 4 enemies in a row twice and not see anything at all, or even 4 times, and when you do get a drop, 90% of the time its large titanite.The rarity of drop means that you are unlikely to upgrade much since it means you won't have a chance to.

The bosses that are fair but hard are few.A lot of difficulty in bosses is artificial as well, especially the terrible boss fight with sentinels which is 3 on 1 and on a small platform and such wide swings, you will get hit.Also:They drain half your health.Due to such difficulty they probably added gems which makes some boss fights too easy and a joke.

There is definitely a lack of variety of enemies except knight types with big weapons and giant humanoids of some sort or another, and the lands aren't that interesting.They can be pretty but definitely not very interesting.

Now that i played further i don't like the pharros lockstones at all.While interesting, it means you got to farm them for some troll door that might just be poison or a dead end with nothing.Personally, i prefer dark souls 1.

Also:I started streaming for the first time yesterday.You can find me on twitch tv on retrogamer5000.I'l be streaming ds2 later on.

you should definetely summon npcs against bosses. sure, they add extra health to the boss but it takes the attention away from you.
would you rather fight the 3 tall knights by yourself (btw, you can drop down to fight) or have that nearby summonable npc immediately go down and fight two knights while you fight one? i prefer health increase over (real life) stress and frustration increase.
i mean, im good, but im not "beat dark souls 1 using a guitar hero guitar as a controller" good. superhard bosses encourage you to fight. i mean, people summon other people who tend to be overpowered and make short work of the boss despite health increase. some time ago i summoned one guy to help me fight ornstein (the old dragonslayer) and the guy killed him in 11 seconds.

PS3 version was good, somewhat easier and not so spectacular graphics (compared to XBOX 360).

PS4 version is a mixed bag. Weird changes in enemy placement, items and difficulty. They've gone the length to place the Dull Ember in the Lost Bastille, ALMOST AS CLOSE TO the blacksmith. Drangleic Castle is overwhelming in the beggining thanks to many Golden Knights there. And what to say about the Forlorn invasion that gets old quickly? Long story short: the main game is more irritating and the DLC content plays harder.
No matter how much you level up your character the game just keeps pushing and pushing in a way that borders the ridiculous.
So play online.