Watching the release of Dark Souls II’s downloadable content is akin to watching a victory lap. From Software’s mega successful sequel has been utterly showered with accolades; the biggest question that arises with new content is if they are able to top themselves. With the release of the newest expansion, The Crown of the Sunken King, From Software has done just that.

The first of a trifecta of releases, gamers are introduced to Shulva, a massive, labyrinthine city full of surprises to Souls fans old and new. The crooked hallways pulse with the weight of their history: an empire bleeding from invasion suffocated by the toxic breath of the poisonous dragon Sinh. The enemies are fierce, the danger real, and the victories thunderous and exciting. In other words, this is Dark Souls.

This is still Dark Souls II, however. The basic formula and controls still apply. The strength of the expansion is the new ways the environment challenges the players.

Shulva gives players a chance to role-play as Lara Croft, with the massive Mayan-esque pyramids teeming with toxic traps, hidden passages, deadly pits and dozens upon dozens of undead enemies. There’s a particular joy to triggering a hidden switch, activating a lift to whisk me away from a vicious enemy mob. The city feels reminiscent of a particularly brutal Indiana Jones adventure.

Even the generic soldiers have the spark of From Software’s trademark ingenuity for testing players. Enemies rush and crowd the player much more than in the standard game, and in each encounter can have different behavior to make them that much more devious. Rushing into things has never been a smart idea, but this is especially true when a squad of soldiers is firing poison arrows at your back.

As fun as the add-on is, the shadow cast by Dark Souls’ singular “Artorias of the Abyss” DLC is a long one indeed. The boss-fights in particular could be accused of being re-used from previous fights. I didn’t really feel that way myself. The final fight itself was a lot of fun, and a particular joy for a friend of mine that has a deep love for the Monster Hunter series of games, a series known for giant monster battles.

Fans love to debate the merits of boss fights, and while they do not quite compare to the brilliant Artorias fight from the previous game, I feel they at least stand up to the main game.

New items and spells are added, especially really nice goodies for the dexterity characters out there, and I really enjoyed how everything looked and worked. The Player-versus-Player battles are going to be a bit more colorful at the very least.

Especially when compared to “Artorias of the Abyss,” there does seem to be some things missing. Shulva and the Sanctum are entirely divorced from the main game apart from a fun interaction with King Vendrick, and outside of NPC summons there are no characters there that are not trying to kill you.

It seems like one or two friendly characters could provide a lot of interesting dialogue, especially considering how little firsthand information we get about this isolated area. The content feels weakened by the absence of any friendly characters to talk about the new world the developer is showing us.

Overall, this is an extremely strong addition to an already stellar game. New gameplay concepts like projectile-activated switches and poisonous gangs of soldiers test players in unexpected ways, and while separate from the main game’s narrative it still feels like a welcome addition.