Dark Souls 2 is the second-best Dark Souls game and that's fairly uncontroversial. But it's also famously the most ugly. Chief among the complaints people have about Dark Souls 2, is that the game's original lighting engine—the one FromSoftware went to great lengths to show off back in 2013—was entirely absent in the final game.
In pre-release footage, Dark Souls 2's lighting always looked a tad ambitious for a seventh-gen console game. It was meant to be an important aspect of gameplay, necessitating the use of torches in dark areas, whose fire would cast dynamic shadows and reflections. When the game actually released on consoles it looked flat, murky, and torches were never a necessity. It was kinda similar even when it hit PC with the Scholar of the First Sin edition, so for those looking for something more akin to that pre-release footage, the DS2Lighting Engine Mod has been a go-to.
Now the team responsible for that mod is experimenting with path tracing and the results are pretty phenomenal. Check out this footage from the Shaded Woods:
The Shaded Woods is probably one of the ugliest areas from the original game (you can check out bits of it in this video), though some would argue Earthen Peak deserves that distinction. I'm not being contrary when I say that there's something kinda charming about Dark Souls 2's utilitarian ugliness, especially in hindsight, but path traced Shaded Woods is so richly atmospheric that it's possible to say it's pretty without kinda lying about it.
The path tracing applies to everything, including spells, and there are some other videos doing the rounds also. Check them out below:
