Dark Souls II sure is shit compared to Dark Souls I. I like the way
they improved connectivity, but that's just about the only improvement.
In terms of art, most the game looks worse than Dark Souls I. The Dragon area and all the bits with water look pretty cool though.
Oddly,
they made it much easier to do inter-player actions, in terms of co-op
and helping people doing PVP, but they made PVP items so rare that you
never get the chance to do it. I spent maybe five hours in the covenant
to help people in PVP, and it never triggered. I'm glad I'm not a
completist: you have to help dozens of people in PVP to unlock all the
rewards.