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Darksiders II Review
by on 2013-05-31 at 13:11 (10015 Views)
Last month saw the auction of THQ’s remaining IPs. Amongst them was the Darksiders franchise. Given that it has been nearly two years since I reviewed the first game in the series, this news served as as good a reminder as any to pick up 2012’s sequel, Darksiders II.
While Darksiders II follows 2010’s post-apocalyptic hack-and-slash adventure, this is not your traditional sequel. Rather than occurring after the events of the original game, Darksiders II occurs between the prologue and main story of its predecessor. Players take control of War’s older brother Death, on a mission to clear War’s name following his unexpected appearance on Earth. Death and his siblings exist to maintain the balance in the universe, but this is a personal mission, unrelated to this task. The game opens with Death meeting the Crowfather, a strange and wise old man. He instructs Death to seek out the Tree of Life, and before long, Death is dragged to a new world to accomplish this task. Throughout the game, Death is constantly dragged through various worlds by the whims of the characters he meets. In many ways, the trivial and ridiculous nature of many of these demands helps Death’s character stand out. Vigil did a great job of developing Death as a sarcastic and humorous, and at the same time fearsome and take-no-crap character. However, as he runs around these worlds, completing tasks, his devotion to War truly stands out. Throughout the game, while he is clearly irritated at times, Death doesn’t put up too much resistance to the demands placed upon him. He is on a mission to save his brother, and nothing will stop him, not even his own sins and past.
Death is accompanied on this mission by his trusty stead, Despair, and a strangely unexplained crow, Dusk. Unlike Darksiders, Death immediately has access to Despair. While he is useful when initially traveling through worlds, Despair becomes fairly irrelevant fairly quickly. That’s not due to the scope of Death’s journey, which is far larger and covers many more worlds than his brother's, but rather a result of the quick travel feature that quickly becomes a necessity due to the amount of backtracking the game requires. This larger world also comes with a plethora of sidequests and collectables. The worlds are scattered with optional dungeons that Death can visit to battle powerful enemies and collect useful equipment. Darksiders II thankfully maintains the vibrant colors and character designs of the original. Death travels to a number of different worlds, each with their own themes and characters. Vigil did a great job of creating these worlds, using different color pallets, styles, and environments, and making these diverse worlds feel like completely separate entities. That said, the amount of time spent in many of these worlds, often to complete very repetitive tasks, can drag on and quickly make the experience slide from the hill of enjoyment into the pit of tedious. It got to the point as I progressed through the story, where I wouldn't look forward to reaching new characters since I knew they were about to give me three tedious objectives I had to complete to merit their aid.
There’s no denying that Darksiders was about the action and combat, and Darksiders II has refined this while shifting away from puzzle-solving with a greater emphasis on the combat and action. Those who played the original game will remember that the bosses, akin to games like Zelda, required the use of weapons found in each dungeon. The majority of the bosses Death encounters can be disposed of by hacking and slashing away with Death’s scythes and do not require creative solutions. In fact, Death only gains four tools throughout his adventure, almost all found outside of dungeons. In some ways, this difference does detract from the experience offered by the game. However, improvements to the combat system does wonders for making up for this deficiency. Death feels like a more refined and agile combatant than his brother. War’s block has been replaced with an evade that allows Death to avoid enemy attacks, jump from one target to another, and has created a more fluid and, in my opinion, fun combat system. Death also has access to a Reaper form which functions similar to War’s Chaos form. His arsenal also consists of a number of magic spells and abilities which can be set to hotkeys to be seamlessly integrated into combat.
The focus on action has also led to the development of more RPG elements. Death gains experience from beating enemies and completing quests. Each level gained rewards a skill point which can be used to purchase abilities from two trees -- one magic focused, the other combat focused. Unfortunately, a fairly arbitrary level cap prevents players from fully developing Death’s abilities -- at least without a second playthrough. The game’s inventory system has also received a major overhaul. Throughout the game, enemies and treasure chests can drop weapons and armor pieces for Death. The different weapons and armor pieces contain different abilities (increasing the likelihood of executions, healing Death on each hit, etc.) which allow a certain degree of flexibility. Death also can collect Possessed Weapons (which supposedly are very rare, but I had a healthy supply of..) which can be upgraded by sacrificing other weapons to become stronger and gain new abilities. Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems I had with the game was how limited Death’s inventory was. Since I saved weapons with beneficial stats to make deadly Possessed Weapons I felt like I was constantly pressured to clear up inventory space. In fact, when I finished the game, my inventory of secondary weapons only had two extra inventory spaces apart from Possessed Weapons and legendary weapons I had accrued.
Like its predecessor, Darksiders II is unfortunately far from a perfect game. One of the biggest flaws is with the story it tells. Darksiders ended with an enticing cliffhanger, which Darksiders II unfortunately fails to capitalize on. Those who played the original will remember that War set out to clear his name. Going into Darksiders II, and frankly throughout the game, there’s an undeniable degree of apprehension that no matter what Death does, if/when he succeeds, it won’t be enough. Yes, the game succeeds in expanding the universe beyond the original game, but it also leaves you wanting. When I reviewed Darksiders, one of the big issues I had was the number of game crashing flaws I encountered. This is one characteristic that Darksiders II unfortunately also carries over. Now, I’m willing to partially attribute the larger number of flaws I encountered to the fact that this game is much longer, but that still doesn’t excuse the fact that a finished product had so many issues. I’m not going to list all the problems I had, but two of the really odd ones were when I randomly stopped being able to interact with enemies and when my gun stopped reloading in the middle of a boss fight. Both of these, and all the other issues encountered, were solved with a quick load, but that still doesn’t excuse the problem.
Last month, THQ’s bankruptcy auction saw the Darksiders franchise purchased by Nordic Games. The company has stated their interest in continuing the story, but is the franchise worth such an investment? In evaluating movies, a friend of mine had, in my opinion, a good mindset. He would distinguish between movies that were good, and movies that were entertaining. Just because a movie wasn’t Oscar worthy did not mean it could not be entertaining. Darksiders II is definitely an entertaining game. Death is a fun character, the game easily draws you in and is enjoyable to play, and in many ways, it is a great improvement over its predecessor. However, Darksiders II is far from a great game. With the summer here, this analogy seems especially timely – Darksiders II is the equivalent of a popcorn flick. If you pick it up, you’ll have a lot of fun, but don’t expect too much beyond that. As such, if/when a third entry into the franchise is released, I expect it will offer the same fun and enjoyable experience. But that doesn’t mean I have to sit on the edge of my seat waiting for it.
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“You can’t outrun death forever, but you can make the bastard work for it.”
All images owned by Vigil Games.
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