When Dark Souls II was announced during Spike TV’s VGAs, many fans thought this was an admission that the game would be dumbed down to appeal to a more casual audience. Those fears persisted well into the present day, but a new trailer and gameplay video should hopefully put your fears to rest.

First up is a new trailer for Dark Souls II showing some of the environments players will explore in the game. It’s obvious that Dark Souls II has received a pretty major facelift as the environments look way better than past games. There also seems to be a lot more fear and desolation going around if the environments are any indication.

If you want to see the game in action, check out IGN’s 12-minute gameplay reveal in which the director gives us a tour of an area in the game:

Dark Souls II will launch on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC later this year.