Reviewer's note: The actual Darksiders 2 game is much better than a 7, but this review is based on the Deathinitive edition remaster.
Darksiders 2 is one of the most underappreciated games of the last generation. It had a great story, great combat and a big world to explore. I recommended this game to everyone I knew, and was excited when the Deathinitive edition was announced. I finally got around to playing it and I unfortunately would only recommend it to anyone who has missed it the first time around.
The game boasts native 1080p graphics, but let's be honest, it is not going to drop any mouths. The game's saving grace is it's comic book art style, to make it look decent by today's standards. While the draw distance is always great, the game suffers from an inexcusable amount of lag. This happens when there is a lot of enemies on the screen or when you enter new sections of maps. At first it is kind of annoying, but it becomes glaring as the game pushes on. For a remaster of a four year old game, this is just should not happen.
The Deathinitive edition you also get the game's DLC, which is a dungeon and some weapons and the such. Not much to see here, especially since the developer's didn't even put in achievements for the DLC, making it a skip for me. And that is okay, because after near thirty hours as playing Death again, I'm ready to put this game back to sleep. As someone who has already played the game, it dragged on for me in the last ten hours. So those are my thoughts on the remaster, for those who haven't played the game, read on.
In Darksiders 2 you play as the horseman Death, set out to seek vengeance for War, who was wrongfully imprisoned for ending mankind early. Death sets out to restore humanity so he can free War and set things right. Death is quite the character too, some might even say ***hole, but after a while you will grow more fond of him. Your journey will take you across a few huge hub worlds and some very challenging combat. Thankfully, the combat is tight and the camera is rarely an issue.
There is light RPG elements in Darksiders 2, where enemies drop weapons (primary and secondary) and several types of armor for you to collect. It becomes a balancing act about half way through the game where you are no longer just looking at things like damage, but also quickness, extra damage effects and critical hit percentages. If you're anything like me, you will have a hard time letting go of twenty extra damage so your critical damage chances and wrath abilities jump by a small percentage.
Darksiders 2 also features great platforming action. Death is much more nimble than his brother War, as he can wall run, jump and vault with ease. As a guy who loves Prince of Persia to death, I loved the sections of dungeons that revolved around platforming challenges. The dungeons can get quite frustrating though, as puzzles can be obscure and hard to solve. As Death goes through his journey he collects new items like the ability to split himself in two halves and a portal gun, creating some memorable but annoying puzzles.
The best dungeon in the game comes near the end when Death gets his portal gun upgraded so he can travel to the dungeon's past. Like Prince of Persia, I loved this part, going from a broken dungeon with passages you can't reach, to the past where it's pristine but other obstacles lie in your way. I never found any of the puzzles in this section too difficult either, unlike the dungeon before it with the primary portal gun. There is also a questionable-ly long period where you are stuck doing some third person shooting about three-quarters through the game.
If you are not doing some smooth as milk wall-running or scratching your head on a puzzle, you will be battling a huge roster of monsters. It wouldn't be a dungeon without an end boss either, and there are some excellent ones here, though they can be frustratingly tough playing on hard. The game shows it's age with checkpoints, as in they are terrible and almost non-existent. You will curse after dying on the third wave of tough enemies and have to watch an unskippable cut scene and try again.
Most enemies offer their own unique challenges. Some rely solely on the tried-and-true run and bash method, while others summon minions or you have to wait for rare openings to attack. Sometimes when the game throws all these together the battles can be quite overwhelming, the enemies will not stop for a second and your reflexes will be tested. The game relies on a lot of counters, meaning Death is always dodging and rolling. There is a lock on system that is great for one-on-one battles, but too frustrating and annoying to use once multiple enemies are on the screen.
Thankfully to help us out, Death also has an impressive upgrade tree, well actually, he has two upgrade trees. You will have to pick one side if you hope to get to the last upgrade as the levels are hard to come by in this game, after twenty-eight hours I was only level twenty-one.
Darksiders 2 may show it's age in the Deathinitive edition, but it is still a must play for newbies. As for those who saw Death's tale already, I would not recommend returning for another outing. I was happy I only got this game for $10 on a Xbox sale, otherwise I might of felt a little bitter about the lack of polish a remaster should boast. In 2012 this was one of the best action-adventure games available, and while it might show it's age now, it is still worth visiting for anyone who hasn't had the pleasure.