Okay, here goes then.
As I said in a previous post, there were six classes to choose from. I went with the Sorcerer because I relied pretty heavily on magic in the last game. However, I also wanted to have decent melee to work with, so I knew I'd probably have to spend some points in strength to be able to use a decent melee weapon.
So, the game starts. I immediately checked my spells and inventory. I had a crappy shield that didn't even block 100% physical, a crappy little dagger, and my catalyst for casting spells. For spells, I had four attunement slots, with more than four spells available: I had Soul Arrow (20 charges, your basic magic projectile), Magic Greatsword (four charges, swings a magic sword that cuts a wide swath in front of you), Soul Rain (name could be wrong, it basically made soul arrows fall from the sky in a small area, I didn't end up using it), Fire Whip (5 charges I believe, makes fire appear in front of you in an arc), and Heal (a Miracle with four charges).
Unlike last game, pyromancy and magic are both used with a catalyst -- there are no more pyromancy flames. Miracles, however, are still based on faith, and tend to focus more on support and healing. Miracles also need a talisman rather than a catalyst to work.
After I'd checked my inventory, I perused the merchant's wares (they start you with 5,000 souls to use). I bought a copy of Soul Arrow, as well as a brand new spell, Soul Spear (10 charges, basically a more powerful Soul Arrow). I attuned my spells so that I was using both copies of Soul Arrow, Soul Spear, and Fire Whip. Incidentally, I found it annoying that the two copies of Soul Arrow didn't stack. In the last game, if you had two of the same spell, they would combine, so that you would see one pool of forty Souls Arrows instead of two pools of twenty each. It's just more crap to scroll through. But I suspect this has something to do with individual spells having levels now. I'm not sure how this is going to work, whether you need materials to upgrade them, or maybe just have to use the spell enough times.
I also bought a shield with 100% physical block, as well as a half-decent sword. The sword required 11 strength to use, and I only had 8, so I ventured forth knowing that my first priority was to get enough strength to use my melee weapon.
After killing one crappy enemy, I marched forward into a dark cavern, where I promptly fell into an abyss. My first death.
When I next went in I managed to navigate the dark cavern without falling to my death again. Next I approached a building where an ambush was waiting: an archer across a chasm where I couldn't get to him, and a fast dude duel-wielding some swords. I backed out of the archer's sight, but the guy with the swords almost killed me. He was unexpectedly fast and aggressive, and my spellcasting was slow by comparison. I did manage to kill the enemy and heal myself.
I should say again at this point that spellcasting has had some changes. Most notably, double-handing a catalyst now increases damage. I thought that I would be double-handing most of the time, but given how quick the enemies are, that didn't turn out to be the case. I double-handed when I really needed the extra power, but otherwise I tended to stick with the one-handed catalyst and a shield. Also, apparently magic now also has strong and normal attacks just like weapons do. However, when I was playing last night I didn't even realize it, so I didn't get to check out the heavy spells. From what I read they're more powerful, but slower to cast. Makes sense.
In any case, I was then able to kill the archer with a few souls arrows and beat another ambush where a guy busted through a door the second I opened it. I found another bonfire as a checkpoint, and I had enough souls to put a couple points in strength, one away from being able to use my new weapon. Next, I made my way to a bridge where there was a big baddie with a couple of scythe-like weapons. I was doing fine firing magic at him and backing up... until I backed myself off a cliff. Dead again. I went back and got my soul, then killed a few more enemies, and finally had enough points to use my short sword. It wasn't great, but good enough to kill most enemies in four hits, archers in three hits.
I turned my attention to a shiny object that was across a chasm from the second bonfire I had found. I climbed a ladder to a ledge overhead and tried to jump over to it... and fell to my death (sensing a theme here?). My second jump I made it... problem was that the shiny was on a tiny raised platform on the island I had jumped onto, and I couldn't clamber up to get it. It appeared that to get the shiny, I would need to jump onto that specific portion. Grr. Anyway, I looked around and discovered there was no way to jump back to where I'd been. Instead, there was ledge below. I jumped onto that, and then went into a dark cave. I went to what appeared to be the end of the road, and was confused for a minute or two when there didn't appear to be anywhere I could go. However, there were chasms to either side of the path in the cave, and I guessed there must be solid ground at the bottom, because there was no other exit. Turned out I was right. I fell into the abyss and found myself in the middle of three enemies and near a big chest. I beat the three enemies with my new melee weapon, but when I went to open the chest, the damn thing exhaled a big poison cloud on me. I had to use up all my estus flasks just waiting for the poison effect to go away. But the good news was that the chest contained a full armor set that was a lot better than what I had. It was heavier (meaning my roll wasn't as good), and it required 13 strength to use, but I was able to quickly get the points I needed for that. I started taking a lot less damage, and I had a much better poise rating (resistance to being staggered by attacks).
It turned out that the exit from this cavern I'd fallen into looped back around into the building where I first got ambushed. Being out of healing items, I didn't make it out alive, but I didn't really mind that much, as I didn't have too many souls saved up. I decided to march my way toward the boss, and here was able to summon my first phantom to help me along the way, a dude with a big two-handed sword. He was a big help as we marched through a forest full of ambushing thieves -- ambushes really are more frequent, elaborate, and effective in this game that the last. My buddy last about 5-10 minutes before he ate it.
Eventually I was able to find a key that opened a building with a third bonfire -- the one nearest the boss. The next big event happened when I was most of the way to the boss and was ambushed by a couple of big n' burly NPC black phantoms on a narrow ledge... one appeared behind me, and the other in front. They were powerful enough to take out all my stamina when I tried to block the first hit, then kill me with two subsequent hits. The first time I didn't stand a chance. The second time I was able to take out one with soul spears before the other killed me. When I went back a third time, it turned out that NPC black phantoms don't respawn, so I was able to dispatch with the second one all by his lonesome. After that, I made it to the fog gate before the boss, and was able to unlock a shortcut back to the bonfire.
The boss was tough. It was three skeleton lords with big scythes, plus a bunch of other skeletons and pinwheel skeletons as minions closing in from every side. I had hoped that my Magic Greatsword spell and Fire Whip spell would come in handy for crowds, but it wasn't enough for a crowd of this size. I died three times before I was able to summon a phantom to help. With him at my side, I was able to make the most of my powerful spells, and we emerged victorious.
Overall, the game does seem somewhat harder than the last, although this may just be because I haven't been able to build up my character from the beginning exactly the way I want him, and also needed to shake some rust off (haven't played
Dark Souls for quite a while now). But enemies definitely seem faster and more aggressive, and item use has been slowed down. So even though there are more healing items available besides just estus flasks, it's even harder to use them in the heat of battle without getting killed.
In any case, I think that's about it. Sorry that it was all a bit rambly and disorganized. If anyone has any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer. Also, as I've said, there's plenty of footage up on YouTube from people who recorded their beta test sessions (I posted one above). No doubt after last night there will be a lot more user videos up soon.