Nioh 2 took a fair bit from its predecessor, from its overall style to even a few of its actual levels. And now the sequel is borrowing one more aspect by releasing a PC port just under a year later after its initial PS4 release. Nioh 2 Complete Edition has all of the same excellent content with more customizability, even if there are just a couple of odd irregularities within those options.
An arsenal of new options
But these options are stronger than what the original Nioh port had, which was decent but a little clunky — mouse camera control didn’t even come until a few weeks after launch. There are no pre-launch prompts to fill out this time around and there are a decent number of visual options to tweak within the game’s menus.
Ambient occlusion, resolution, texture quality, motion blur, a frame rate cap, shadows, effect quality, and dynamic reflections are all at the player’s fingertips and are right within the game’s menu. There’s even support for 120 frames per second if your monitor or rig can support it; a thoughtful inclusion for a game so dependent on its fluid controls. All of which give Nioh 2 on PC the capability to run better than it did on the PS4 or PS4 Pro and it will on most modern PCs.
However, there are still some questionable parts of this PC port. The mouse pointer never left the screen, some menus (like the skill tree) didn’t quite work with the mouse, button prompts don’t change to keys when using the keyboard, and HDR was completely broken. It’s likely some or all of this will be addressed in an update or by its February 5 launch, but these issues still stick out when compared to how the PS4 original didn’t have similar presentation mishaps.
Resolution, frame rate, and the rendering resolution are also not tweakable during gameplay, meaning players will have to guess what the best settings will be before entering the level. It’s annoying because jumping out of levels and to the menu usually costs experience and puzzling because the PS4 version lets players pick between its three modes on the fly.
Running through the many versions of Nioh 2
Some console players might even have a better or at least comparable experience, depending on what they have. The PC version is more capable than the base PS4 and PS4 Pro versions, but that gets a little more complicated for PS5 owners. Nioh 2 Complete Edition is also coming natively to the PS5 as a free upgrade for those who already have Nioh 2 on PS4 and will support 120 frames per second, cross-generation multiplayer, and PS4 save imports. It likely won’t have as many graphical options, but the system might be more powerful than some PCs and lead to a better experience.
But even the current PS4 version runs incredibly well through backwards compatibility on PS5 as it runs at a locked 60 frames per second at 4K through its Variable Mode. It almost looks like a remaster already even without the official upgrade. Given all the discrepancies, it is going to be up to players to measure what works the best with the hardware they have and the experience they want, given the small goofs on PC get ironed out.
Regardless of platform, Nioh 2 is still as sharp as ever as its combat is still one of the best around. Difficult and demanding swordplay and tight controls make for an action RPG that is consistently challenging but always rewarding as each new enemy is killed. Getting tossed in the meat grinder stays engaging throughout its lengthy campaign as well as its three great expansions, all of which are included in this bloody bundle. Even though there seems to be a few easily fixable shortcomings in this bloody bundle, Nioh 2 Complete Edition on the PC appears to be a sharp, serviceable port of a sensational Soulslike.
