Dark souls is pretty overrated imo. Why ? Although there is some background if you track every item, the core story is really lacking. Unless you like conjectures without actual answer.
Gameplay wise, it's really most of the time a one trick pony. A decent shield and build will make the game smooth as a whole. What's irritating is how they don't explain core mechanics, and everyone has to wiki stuff.
The only good bosses are almost all in the Oolacile DLC.
The rest just have 1 or 2 method that make them incredibly easy, instead of a borefest otherwise.
Checkpoint and teleport placement ain't always ideal either.
1. Not really. The Prologue, Oscar, Frampt, Kaathe, Ingward and Gywndolin explain the entire premise and core story very clearly. The expansion adds to this greatly too furthering the whole "fire vs dark" aspect to the story.
The story is simply an example of quality over quantity and even the environment tells a story (i.e the big tree roots found in some areas can be traced down to Lost Izalith from whence all demons originated from after the chaos flame incident which you can learn about from Eingyi and Quelana as well as from items).
2. Well I've played through the game 7 times so far and have never had to "wiki" builds. If you were wiki'ing builds then it's only because you made a poor one by yourself. The game is meant to be challenging remember and not just in terms of combat but in terms of figuring out things for yourself.
If stuck with playing with a sword and shield then that explains why you got bored, it clearly weren't the build for you and you didn't want to experiment elsewhere preferring to stick to the generic "safe" PvP builds of the wiki.
My first character didn't even need a shield half-way into the game and stuck with two-handing a greatsword, I had another character two-handing an ultra-greatsword and then a dexterity-based warrior who used spear and ranged attacks. I could go on about my dual-wielding magic/pyromancy character or how each weapon has a different use, different attacks and different combos but then we'll be here all day.
You're entitled to your opinion as is anyone else but I can't see how you could call the bosses and combat of Dark Souls lame and yet hold Divinity 2 up as the perfect game out of all you listed. Divinity 2 was only good for its story, dialogue and role-playing. Gameplay wise it was a mess and the combat didn't know what it was. Divinity 2 can just about hold a flame to Divine Divinity and that's only due to the story, dialogue, quests and customization. You can also see the sacrifices made for the game to be on console.
