Repetition defined.
PC version reviewed.
Darksiders II is an action adventure game published and developed by Nordic Games for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U and PC.
For clarification I played through the Deathinitive Edition and have not actually played the original.
The strange thing about Darksiders II is that with games, unlike movies, the sequels are usually better than the original. The developers take on board the criticisms and do their best to make a stronger sequel with more experience under their belt. However I can't say that Darksiders II seems like a better game than the first one.
This review contains spoilers!
GAMEPLAY
The first big world, The Makers Realm, has a long run of dungeons that all look and feel the same. It made it hard for me to motivate myself to play this game, especially for long spells, because a lot felt so similar. Almost every dungeon uses a rule of three, where you have to through three different sections to complete the dungeon. Almost every dungeon in the main quest line has this in some form and it really is predictable and boring.
Repetition is this games biggest weakness. Most dungeons in each world look the same and are usually just glorified fetch quests. Towards the end of the first world I felt the game was already beginning to drag and was hoping the second world would change up the formula a bit, but sadly it was similar to the first world where most dungeons looked and felt the same. Essentially once you've played the first dungeon in the game then you'll have experienced most of what it has to offer.
The first couple of abilities/weapons you're given are straight out of the original so that's a bit boring. The puzzles in the first game were largely quite fun, aside from when they dragged a little bit towards the end, but in Darksiders II all of the puzzles I encountered just felt kind of bland. They weren't particularly fun, complex or challenging - rather they just took a while to do - and when most of the dungeons already look the same it just sets up most of the game to be bit flat.
There are other small mini dungeons and hidden chests throughout the worlds but I can't really see why those would be very interesting when most of the dungeons feel the same. Just like the original game the horse is a strong point of the game but again goes underutilised. Some of the best parts in the first game were the boss fights were you had your horse, the first major boss in this game is another one that's great fun too but that's the most noteworthy point in the game with your horse. Why not chuck out a few of the repetitive dungeons for more horse combat? It would have increased the variety the game had to offer and made it far more fun. Instead the horse once again goes underutilised and is relegated to largely serving as a glorified taxi to get from place to place, I'm not really sure why they even have the segments in between dungeons because it's just running through a giant largely empty landscape to find the next story line dungeon. Bleh.
The third act is guilty of this too but the maps are smaller, more focused and you start going to varying environments instead of doing similar looking dungeons over and over. It still wasn't amazing but it was a certain improvement over the first two acts. There are still problems though, such as the rushed ending.
Nordic has a cool idea to add in crow who could guide you through parts or perhaps even give you ideas on what to do next in dungeons. However it's broken and just flies around and perches anywhere really. So that's disappointing.
The abilities you can pick up from the skill tree didn't really seem very interesting.
Most boss fights are more enjoyable than the original, although I would say the first game had a higher ceiling for them with the brilliant ones where you had your horse.
Platforming can sometimes be frustrating because Death will sometimes end up running the wrong when trying to climb around which can result in falling to his doom or making simple platforming segments into tedious trials.
Feels bigger than the first, probably thanks to expanding into different worlds and having more characters. However the pacing felt very slow, perhaps the presence of a pressing antagonist would have helped. Setting it concurrently with the first game may not have done it many favours either, as if you've played the first game you'll know why the main premise of redeeming War just doesn't fit in to the narrative.
The story of the first wasn't great and the second fails to better it. I may have mentioned that this game has slow pacing but the ending feels very rushed, suddenly thrusting a choice upon Death, not the player, that never actually seemed to be a choice that was being considered. I think I see what they were going for, that Death wanted to leave his past behind but when you see how determined he was to stop Absalom and that his focus was always on restoring humanity for War anyway the idea failed to play out very well.
GRAPHICS
The art style of the game reminds me of PS Vita/Playstation 3 cross-play games, things like Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time and Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. The game just doesn't look like it had that money pumped into it, at least for the graphics anyway. Considering the financial pressure THQ were under it wouldn't surprise me.
SOUND
If there is definitely one thing that Darksiders II does than its predecessor, it's the soundtrack. Jesper Kyd brings a much more vibrant and memorable score than the forgettable soundtrack of the first game. There are some nice pieces but I did feel that perhaps the music did repeat a little bit too much sometimes, that didn't help some of the dungeons that felt similar to differentiate themselves from each other.
There did seem to be a few issues with the sound however. Sometimes it didn't seem to be playing properly, for example the ambient sound and the music would disappear but voices would still play.
VALUE FOR MONEY
OVERALL
I was disappointed in the change from a very Okami/Zelda-esque action adventure game to something more closely resembling an RPG. That's not to say it doesn't still have some of that style, it does still blend a similar combat system together with puzzles and platforming, but it just doesn't have the same feeling as the first - which didn't have the same charm, wonder or refinement, amongst other things, as Okami/Zelda but still felt like an interesting take on the genre - as if the developers had played those other games and thought "I want to do that" even if they didn't nail the recipe - it felt inspired.
Darksiders II just feels uninspired and like it fell back to a solid and simple RPG template instead. It has a straight forward skill tree and a loot system, it even throws in an almost pointless dialogue tree. It takes you to these visually interesting lands but throttles you into boring looking dungeons that will have you thinking deja vu after just the first few as it continues to throw more of the same at you over and over again. It abandons much of the great Zelda/Okami formula of the original. I found it hard to motivate myself to play through the game because it just felt like it wasn't ever getting up to much, and of course it has plenty of bugs too. Would I describe this game as fun? Not at all. It feels like a chore. It's bitterly disappointing and I wouldn't recommend this game at all.
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