DARKSIDERS 2

Publisher:
THQ

Developer:
Vigil Games

Out now to buy on PS3, Xbox360, WII U & PC

"The greater risk is do nothing."

In a universe forged by dwarves, Death himself marches alone through the realms of the living and dead in search of justice for his banished brother, War Incarnate.

In this game’s 30 hour playtime absolutely nothing happens, at all. You wander around boring looking environments speaking to overly designed characters, you wander into generic dungeons kill a bland boss so you can get some item that will let you progress and do it all again.

It’s hard to really tell whether this a good game because the combat is actually very fun, being a more crowd control version of devil may cry with you switching between Deaths trademark scythe’s (because all cool guys duel wield weapons, ill get to the whole ‘cool’ thing later) an assortment of secondary weapons such as claws and hammers, his brother Strife’s gun, and a range of special moves such as summoning crows.

It surprised me how this game has taken a more RPG route over the original, theres now actual loot such as armour pieces and weapons, each with here own stats and look. A full levelling system with stats and skills with a good sense of character progression, coming back to a boss that could kill you in one hit and slaughtering it with no effort is very satisfying. The games platforming sections are also enjoyable, with a nice rhythm to it, though it does feel effortless at times.

So the problems, lets start with the biggest problem, the artstyle. For some reason the developers felt the need to try and make every single character look cool, 16 hours in I saw one cool looking character. Every character model has too much going on and its just unneeded, Death is the most under designed character in the game probably because hes just the comic book character Spawn but with long hair, infact the entire game is todd mcfarlane-esque (by esque I mean ripped off)

The only thing I like about the art is its use of colour, this is a colourful game, but it’s a double edge sword, in a game where you are Death and the main plot point is the apocolyspe, should it really look so nice? Speaking of the plot, it can be summed up entirely in the lyrics of a Swedish power metal song, how this is not the best thing ever made is a puzzle, this games plot doesn’t need to happen, the ending to the original left it open quite nicely for a sequel. This game does not follow that, instead it decides to show what death was up to during the original, trying to save his brother whos already been saved because the first one is already happening at this point making this game pointless. The sequel should be the horseman teaming up to destroy the antagonists, not Death running around like an idiot.

The back of the cover to the game says ‘play as the most feared horseman of all, death’ not a single character cares that the living embodiment of death itself is currently speaking to them, there are entire sections to this game that are pointless because I am Death, being Death breaks the characters to this.

It feels like a sidestory not a full sequel, would God of War 2 have been as good if it was about Ares running round Athens like an idiot for 30 hours, only to have the exact same ending as God of War 1, the soundtrack to this game is nothing, I can’t remember anything because its so bland, I also can’t remember any enemy design to this game because it leaves absolutely no impact on you.

I like the first Darksiders, it is one of the most underrated games of the generation, this ruins what could have been a great franchise. If you like things like Warhammer and Todd Mcfarlanes work then you could get some kind of enjoyment out of it, but if you don’t I really cant recommend it. There is a good hack n slash/RPG trapped among the blandness, but it is not worth it, buy the first one, or play God of War

Review by Jarrod Beauchamp & Ellis Atkinson


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