I was a
huge fan of Joe Madureira when I was growing up, as were most people interested
in comics in the ‘90s. When he left to
work in video games, it was a dark day indeed, but luckily we only had to wait
damn near forever for the first Darksiders
game to come out. The game itself was a
lot of fun, very Legend of Zelda with
a darker and more mature tone to it. The
character designs were obviously stunning as well. Being that the game was about the four
horsemen of the apocalypse, and the first game only featured one of the
horsemen, you would expect there to be at least one sequel. Thankfully we did not have to wait nearly as
long for Darksiders II.
Darksiders II features a new cast of
characters (you play as Death, War’s brother this time around) yet they still
have the same “Joe Mad” design sense that makes them instantly appealing and a
visual treat. The game mechanics in the
sequel are a little different as War was a bruiser while death is a bit quicker
and lighter on his feet. You can still
equip slower weapons like maces and clubs, but who would want to? Death also has the ability to run along walls
(much more so than War did in the first game) making the puzzles a bit more
interesting this time around.
This
game definitely feels like a sequel to the first game as it is very similar in
terms of its approach. It definitely
still falls under the hack/slash mold of video games where you kill a bunch of
enemies and then move forward until you approach more enemies to kill, with a
few puzzles thrown in for good measure.
The sequel does add in a bit more in the way of RPG elements in terms of
giving Death different weapons or armor to enhance stats that the first game
just did not offer. While this adds a
fun bit of customization to your character (and god-bless the animators as
whatever armor you place on death shows up in the subsequent cutscenes) and you
definitely get to play around with a multitude of different weapons (there are
many different scythes to try and your secondary weapon can be anything from
claws to maces) it doesn’t do a whole lot besides provide you with the loot to
load up on health and wrath potions to get you through boss-fights (something I
didn’t bother doing until later in the game).
The
world is very open while still directing you where you need to go and the
collectables are plentiful (if that’s your thing). The enemies can be a little intense at times,
they either are incredibly powerful or there are so many that they tend to
swarm you, but it is nothing but a momentary blip on the radar if you use your
special abilities (the zombies are particularly effective even though they are
quite the wrath-drain). The majority of
the bosses are difficult but not impossible, with most requiring that you do
something with your most recently acquired gadget (a la Legend of Zelda) in order to defeat them. While the bosses were generally challenging,
especially figuring out that little “trick” that would help you defeat them,
the final two bosses, who were straight-up hack and slash until they’re dead
were incredibly easy. For a point of
reference, the scribe, the level boss right before you face the final two
bosses was so difficult that I had to turn the difficulty from “normal” to
“easy” (I know, I’m a pussy) after continually dying (I put it back after beating
him). While the final two bosses, I
believe that I may have died once, if at all between the two. The respite was nice, but I kind of expected
more to finish off the game.
