Darksiders 2 is a necessary step in the story.
In Darksiders one you got to play as the horseman War as he battled his way around a dead world trying to prove his innocence after being wrongfully accused of bringing certain doom to mankind. In this second installment of the series you get to play as Wars brother, Death. Darksiders 2 is defiantly a much bigger game than the fist and there is a lot more to be done. Death is trying to help out his brother. He is 100% sure of Wars innocence and in order to prove it he is going to restore humanity in the kingdom of man. To do this he travels through many exotic and mysteries lands, meets a large group of rather colorful characters and has to face hoards of enemies featuring everything from the angels of the white city to the demons of hell. He's not alone either. He has his horse, despair who is great for traversing the large world he goes through and his trusty navigator, Dust the crow. Both are really well thought out and play very important roles in the game. There are lots of new characters to meet and you even get to see some familiar faces. It was nice to see Vulgrim again and it was a lot of fun playing with Samael once more, as smug as he is.
The game is defiantly bigger and the environments themselves are absolutely beautiful. Walking through a forest, I was compelled to stop and just look at the backgrounds. As I got further and further into the game there was always something to just stop and look at. And the characters themselves were also pretty interesting to see. From the old ones, to the lord of the dead, all of the characters were well crafted and even served there purpose to move the story along. And since the game is bigger, there is PLENTY to do.
No. The game is not all fetch quests. Yes there are quite a few fetch quest missions in the main story but not all of the missions fetch quests. One thing I am finding funny about people complaining about the fetch quests is they are saying it is way more than the first game. Well sorry to prove you wrong but that's a load of bull. In the first one you have a TON of fetch quests. Start by collecting souls for Vulgrim. Then get 4 hearts for Samael, and after that go find fragments of a sword and so on and so on. The cool thing about Darksiders 2 is that you have a choice. There is a ton to do hear. You can break up the fetch quests by doing a side mission. Go assassinate somebody. Have a romp in the crucible or go get lost in the Soul Arbiter's Maze. The assassination mission are optional yet they are all unique. You have to fight one optional boss on a bridge or another deep underground. You get to go into the crucible where you can see how well you fight. Each level gets slightly harder and you win great prizes with each victory. Go into the maze and see how far in you can get. Will you get lost and have to fight a hoard of enemies or will you make a right turn and end up getting the special armor at the end. That's half the fun.
The armor System is quite impressive. The armor isn't something you can have the strongest of. Every piece is all about player preference. Every piece of armor will give you a higher stat, but will also lower another. If you prefer to fight with more magic, then you will want to equip armor with higher arcane attributes. However if you prefer a more direct approach, you will want to equip more strength based armor. It is all up to how you want to play. Your death will not match another players. And there is always something better to choose from. They did not skip on the selection. The selection of anything is off the wall. There are so many different types of armor and weapons that you can mix and match just about anything. Make your death the way you want him.
People are clamming this game is a one button dodge and slash game and this is just not true. So I will explain this to you. You have two primary attack options. You have the light attack, which is using your scythes, and your heavy attack , which has a nice verity of weapons. With the heavy attack you get fast and slow weapons. Both have there advantages. The slow weapons (axes, maces, hammers, etc..) pack a serious punch and hand out massive damage. While the fast weapons (arm blades, gauntlets, claws, etc..) deal less damage but are faster and deal smaller amounts of damage faster. You are able to mix and match attacks and the switch outs are seamless. And it's not just pressing a button and dodging. Enemies attack in all kinds of different ways. There is one button for dodging but you have to decide what to do in each fight. An angel is not gonna attack the same way as a demon. You have to dodge and decide where to dodge to. Do you dodge or should you jump. Then after the dodge you have to decide how to attack. Some enemies cannot just be attacked head on or you will fall for a trap.
I would also like to point out the possessed weapons. These are probably one of my favorite features. They are full customizable weapons. You can upgrade them by feeding them other weapons and armor that you no longer use. Then you can decide what attributes you want that weapon to gain. You want your weapon to increase your defense? Go for it. You want to have it cause fire damage? It's possible. You are even able to rename the weapon to whatever you want. Make the weapon your own.
Plus there are lots of new moves you can both earn and unlock and you can even include tools you gain throughout the game into your fight. The hand of death is a big one. It is a tool used like a grapple. You can use it to stun your enemies for a moment before putting an end to them. And then there is the reaper form. While in this form you can withstand stupid amounts of damage and dish it out ten fold. If you say the combat system is just a single button masher then you have not played this game.
I am also not happy with people saying this game, "Just stole concepts from other games." Death is able to move around anywhere. He can climb walls, run on them, dash under water, jump from beam to beam and land on his feat every time. On reviewer claimed that this was just taken from Altair from the Assassin's creed games. News flash people. Altair was not the first wall runner in the video game world. Anybody remember the Prince of Persia games. As I recall he had a lot of skill for wall running. To say this game has borrowed to much is like saying that every first person shooter is the same cause they all involve shooting guns. It's just not a fair concept to rate a game on.
And about the puzzles. People are saying that all the puzzles are the same. That they only require you to roll a ball into a hole. Really? These people did not play the game past the first world. Each world has a unique puzzle theme. In the first world, yes you do have to role balls into a hole. The puzzle though, is to get the ball to the hole. How do you get the ball past this obstacle or which hole does this ball go into. While in another world the puzzles do not include a ball but instead a lantern and you have to find out where to shine the light. There are fountain puzzles and time gate puzzles ad so on and so on. They are each challenging and unique in there own way.
Is the game without flaws? No. There are some things I would have liked to have seen done differently. For example when you beat a boss it is a cut scene of death delivering the final blow for you. Something like action commands during these sequences would have been nice. And of course the game comes with some glitches. But any new game would. However all in all it is a good game that is fun to play and adds really well to the Darksiders story. It is well worth the buy and I am proud to say this will be a permanent part of my gaming collection. I give Darksiders 2 a 9 out of 10.