Darksiders II brings Death to life

I want to live in a world where Darksiders II isn’t on my short list for video game of the year. That is surely a world residing in a plane of pure awesomeness. Darksiders II is the epitome of everything I want from a gaming experience. Seriously, this title pushes every gaming joy button I have. It’s an action / adventure game with fast paced fights filled with combos, customizable powers, crazy wall running acrobatics, old-school dungeons compete with maps and keys, and random loot color-coded by rarity. Jon has referred to it as “God of Diablovania”. If we had a rating metric here at Dorkadia, Darksiders II would get top marks. Buy it. Buy it now!

Straightforward storytelling

There isn’t much mincing of words in Darksiders II. Death, it would seem, isn’t used to being the most subtle or tactful guy. The opening cinematic catches you up with the story from the original Darksiders, explains exactly who the horsemen are, what’s going on with War, and what Death plans to do about it. If you’re looking for intrigue, nuance, or subtext, this isn’t going to be your game. However, if you love over the top dialogue full of snark, then you are in for a treat my friend. There are few instances of friendly chatter. It turns out that not many are actually happy to have Death show up at their door.

One of my favorite story related elements is definitely the “story so far” that you get when you load a saved game. I enjoy having that narrated little tidbit instead of a wall of text while my game loads. Not that there’s any chance of me being away from the game so long that I won’t remember what I was doing, but it is cool.

Reaping a path to victory

Style overflows from every aspect of this game and combat is no exception. Your main weapon is a pair of single handed scythes that you wield like a dervish. As if that isn’t enough, Death can wield a variety of outrageous secondary weapons. There are anime-esque over-sized monstrosities like glaives, hammers, axes, and maces as well as the smaller and faster fist and claw weapons. Combo attacks are easy to get a handle on and are visually impressive. It’s a stunning blend of grace and violence. Nothing boring happens on the battlefield and every encounter feels awesome. To add to the feeling of awesome, vanquished enemies explode into loot in the form of coins and items.

Death equips armor that actually changes his appearance as well as imbuing stat bonuses. Aesthetically, I’m pretty sure the concept was to continue looking tougher and more imposing with each new piece of equipment. It certainly works for me. Equipment even follows the now accepted color coding conventions (white, green, blue, purple) of various RPG genres. How do you make that even more interesting? Have chests always contain level appropriate items. Are you level 15 and missed a chest in the opening area? Now it has level 15 items and is thus always relevant regardless of when you find a way to open it.

On top of that, the concept of a skill tree has made its way beautifully into the customization of Death. Players can choose to go either full melee or magic or find a balance between both. Unlike skill trees in MMOs, points spent in either tree count toward your overall total. For example, you can spend 5 points in the necromancy side and still unlock the ability to chose skills on the other side that only require 5 points being spent. The real emphasis here is that it makes every point you spend feel important.

Play this game

Darksiders II has everything you’ve done before, except now it feels epic. I used to hate the whole wall to wall jump maneuver in other games, but in Darksiders II it not only works effortlessly, it also feels fun. What Vigil and THQ have done is find the magic formula of making every little thing you do feel fun. It’s exactly what a sequel should be – an experience that builds on its predecessor and only adds new features when they serve to promote a sense of enjoyment. The only complaint you’ll see from me is that I had to stop playing to write this review. If you are the kind of gamer that even remotely likes action / adventure games, you should be playing instead of reading reviews. Seriously, go rent or buy this game right now.

Still here? Okay, watch this hilarious literal trailer and then go get a copy of this game.