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Source: Gamefreaks
Publisher: THQ
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Score: 8/10
Reviewer: Sebastian Wells
Source:
Gamefreaks
Given that this game feels as though it was targeted at a
generation quite a bit younger than mine, I was a little surprised
to find myself enjoying it so much.
I'd expected that at some point in the deep past I'd lost interest
in chopping slow-witted monster into tiny little pieces in
room-after-room of some flame-lit dungeon. It seems not, or if I
did, it seems Vigil is hell-bent on reversing the process, with
some impressive results.
Darksiders 2 puts Death in the drivers seat this time around, who,
if you've seen any of the images floating around, has traded in the
hooded cape for a skull mask and has been putting on a lot of
weight.
The intro takes us through a quick bit of baffling mythology before
dropping us straight into the training level, where we learn how to
make Death climb walls, jump to ledges, wriggle up posts and run
along walls.
We also get introduced to the two-weapon fighting system and how to
best string deathly combos together (mash buttons). When you pull
these off, Death pursues the perpetually falling body of his enemy
with stroke after stroke until pounding the exhausted corpse with a
thunderous final blow.
I thought this would get old, but the animation, sound, and control
system have polished the experience into such a perfect little
nugget that its a bit like pulling a lever on a pokie
machine.
The game diverges from the first in that soon after receiving his
first real quest, Death is let loose into a large,
freely-explorable world.
The look-and-feel is something along the lines of a cartoony Lord
of the Rings, with beautiful vistas, ornately decorated characters
with exaggerated features, and a basic colour scheme that makes it
all easy to see. The design is not working at odds with the plot or
the gameplay, meaning the whole thing can be taken lightly, which
suits it best.
On the way to quest objectives players are free to stop off at
other dungeons to explore and look for loot. Death is often
confronted with puzzles, à la Prince of Persia, which form a
nice balance against the action.
You'll often need to have a good look around the place, and when
you manage to find that route from pillar, to ledge, to vine to
balcony, putting Death through the sequence of moves is a great bit
of fun.
As the game progresses, these challenges become tougher, though at
times therell be a distinct feeling of been-there-done-that.
Enemies, of course, get tougher too, particularly the bosses that
are placed generously throughout the world.
These big guys require that you put Death through more acrobatics
to dodge attacks, and you'll need to perfect the timing of your
dodge-dodge-attack until youre rolling and chopping like a
ninja.
You'll also be collecting a lot of loot - gold, garments, weapons
and potions. The interfaces for managing all this are fairly
straight-forward (though loading times while transitioning can be
frustratingly long).
The introduction of possessed weapons, which allow you to sacrifice
other items to improve their power, provides the added bonus of
allowing you to keep your inventory tidy while on the run.
On the surface, most of what Darksiders II offers has been borrowed
from a number of games that came before (Zelda, Diablo, the
afore-mentioned Prince of Persia, and probably about a hundred
others).
But it has definitely succeeded in putting them into a package
that's tidy, fun, and perfect for when you're not quite able to
summon the energy for something more demanding. You'll be spending
at least 20 hours on the main quest alone, and more than twice that
completing the rest.
Not a bad bang for your buck.