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Lunch » Tags » Video Game » Reviews » Darksiders II

Darksiders II

1 rating: 2.0

an action-RPG video game

Darksiders II is an action-adventure/action role-playing[2][3] video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ. It is the sequel to Darksiders and was released in August 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows,[4] and was released … see full wiki

Tags: Video Game, Action Video Games, Action Adventure Video Games, Fantasy RPG

Console: PS3, 360, and PC, Wii U

Genre: Action RPG

Release Date: August 14, 2012

Price: $59.99

1 review about Darksiders II

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"My kingdom for a horse!"

Feb 12, 2013

by voilodion2012

Exclusive to the Lunch Network

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DARKSIDERS II is the sequel to the 2010 action game DARKSIDERS. In the first game, you played as War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse as he set about trying to figure out who started the war between Heaven and Hell in order to correct the universal balance, yada yada. In DARKSIDERS II, you play as his brother Death, as you set out to free War from his imprisonment at the end of the first game. But things are even more complicated here. An unknown "corruption" is sweeping the world threatening to turn everything black and icky, and its source is traced back to the Well of Souls (which is like the center of the world). Thus, Death must explore this massive realm and fight, not only for the sake of his brother, but for the sake of everything else as well.

Uh...what happened? I'm not even sure how to explain this game, which is a disappointment but at the same time, monumentally addictive. The original DARKSIDERS was just an awesome little apocalyptic action fantasy game who's main fault was that it blatantly ripped off elements from well known titles such as GOD OF WAR and ZELDA. Since practically every review in the industry noted this, you'd think that for the sequel, the developers would try to create a product that distinguishes itself from the crowd, right? Instead, DARKSIDERS II rips off even more classics, creating what might be one of the most contrived games of all time. In one adventure, you'll get to experience (or reexperience) aspects blatantly lifted from GOD OF WAR, DEVIL MAY CRY, LEGACY OF KAIN: SOUL REAVER, PRINCE OF PERSIA, SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS, ZELDA, CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT, DIABLO, Bioware RPG's, FABLE, etc. If you took all the aforementioned games, threw them in a blender and covered it up with a BOOK OF REVELATIONS-inspired overlay, you'd probably get DARKSIDERS II. It's amazing how shameless this game is about copying its predecessors.

But at the same time...that's what makes it awesome. Because DARKSIDERS II IS entertaining and relentlessly addictive and can keep you playing for hours on end. You are basically experiencing all the aforementioned games in one package delivered in a quality manner. And since those games are classics, if you got hopelessly hooked on them, you'll inevitably get hooked on DARKSIDERS II.

A couple more faults: the game is buggy. On a powerful PC, it locked up several times and required to be restarted. Since this was such a big release, I'm disappointed they couldn't have spent more time refining the product more before it did get sent to shelves. As far as I know there's no patches or anything like either for it. And given that THQ recently had financial problems, I'm not sure if there will ever be.

Also, I'm not going to lie...since the game borrows as much from classic RPG's as it does from action games, the level of hacking and slashing has been toned down considerably from its predecessor. Thus it's a much calmer experience which lacks the intense, visceral edginess of the first title. The carnage has been toned down as has the overblown, haughty, tongue-in-cheek atmosphere of the first game. You'll spend almost as much time conversing with NPC's, swimming and climbing up green hills as you will slicing up enemies. For those who don't mind that, it will be fine. But for those individuals attuned to the Hollywood-style intensity of the first title will be very disappointed here.

Fortunately it's all very polished looking and sounding. The graphics, while not up to DARK SOULS standards, still have a very immersive art design that presents this massive fantasy world you explore with as much detail as you could expect. The voice acting is also top notch too. Death's wonderful snarling intonations will stick with you for a long time to come. The only thing I didn't like was the music. True to the game's more whimsical nature, the music is more soft and guitar driven instead of the percussion heavy soundtrack from the first game. While this is appropriate for exploring, those soft twangy guitar tunes sound totally inappropriate for a boss fight.

In the end, I feel like DARKSIDERS II is doomed to fall to a cult audience. It's not crazy fun like its predecessor. And video game snobs will most likely turn their noses up at it for ripping off so many well known classics. But for those who aren't so critical and just want a beautifully rendered dark fantasy world to run away to for a week, there's more than enough to offer here.

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Madpenguin February 19

The more diehard fan will try and convince you those are all homages. LOL. You will be surprised how all of these games though lifted from Soul Reaver in some way, which is still among my favorites. I wish that series would get a reboot. It's a shame that it fell into the land of obscurity due to Devil May Cry's success, in which I think Soul Reaver was better. Anyway, this game for me had its problems when it deviated from the action. In any case, I enjoyed it at the moment, I may replay it just to review it some time this year.

voilodion2012 February 27

LOL. I bet they would also try to argue too that playing as Death is a "completely novel concept", completely ignoring the fact that the character plays just like any acrobatic video game protagonist we've seen in the last 12 years. Heck, the reason I mentioned SOUL REAVER was that I can't help but think of Raziel looking at Death with his blue tinted corpse like figure solving puzzles, gracefully climbing up walls, etc. And indeed, SOUL REAVER was an incredibly innovative game. It is a shame how the franchise just kind of disappeared after the lackluster reception of that last game. But iirc, none of the sequels could stand up to it. That's another series that really deserves a reboot, I guess.

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RabidChihuahua February 15

I didn't play the first Darksiders game, and I won't be playing this one, since I already have a ton of games to digest. Superb review, Alexander!

voilodion2012 February 18

Thanks!! I must admit though I pumped it out fairly quickly, so its not as developed as I would have liked. If you've got a lot of other games on your list, then DARKSIDERS II is probably not the best investment anyway, since the game will inevitably take up a lot of your time.

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woopak_the_thrill February 13

NICE write up. Hey, are you going to play the next DEAD SPACE? It may just get me out of gaming retirement.....

voilodion2012 February 14

Thanks. Unfortunately the next DEAD SPACE game is a while away in my list. I haven't actually even played the first and second games (although watching my brother play them, they do look, for lack of a better word, awesome). Have you played the first two?

woopak_the_thrill February 16

oh yes I have. I especially liked Dead Space 2. I just saw an ad for the new Tomb Raider game and that too looks impressive.

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