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Product Description
Platform: Xbox 360 | Edition: Standard
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Awakened by the End of Days, Death, the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen embarks on a quest to undo Armageddon. Along the way, the Horseman discovers that there are far worse things than an earthly Apocalypse, and that an ancient grudge may threaten all of Creation. Become the terrifying force which everything fears but nothing can escape. Death Lives in Darksiders II.
Death comes alive to take on the unlikely role of hero in Darksiders II.
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Death Lives
Darksiders II follows the exploits of Death, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, in an action-packed tale that runs parallel to the events in the original Darksiders game. This epic journey propels Death across an expansive gameworld as he tries to redeem his brother, War, the horseman blamed for prematurely starting the Apocalypse in Darksiders.
Like the original Darksiders game before it, the second game in the series is primarily a hack 'n slash adventure. The game takes place across netherworld environments, including "The White city," an outpost where angels live, and "The Eternal Throne," a floating fortress where the Lords of the Dead stand guard over souls that need to be cleansed. Although Death is the most feared of the Four Horsemen, his physical abilities are very different than his brother, War. Death is far more nimble, and relies on a combination of melee and ranged attacks. In combat Death's primary weapon is his huge iconic scythe, with a wide range of other weapons and usable items that must be gathered as the game progresses. Weapons can be dual-wielded, upgradable armor can be acquired for protection and Death has access to a terrifying and powerful pale mount.
Key Game Features
- Become the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen, able to destroy entire worlds and battle forces beyond Heaven and Hell
- Explore startling gameworld environments reminiscent of heaven and hell
- Customize your experience with varied armor sets, weapons, and skill trees allowing players to create their own Death
- Explore a vast open world, complete dozens of side quests and customize your Death with a full leveling system, skill trees and endless equipment combinations
- Death is a nimble and agile character capable of incredible acrobatic feats allowing the player to explore the world like never before
Additional Screenshots
 Nimble and agile navigation. View larger |  Utilize a powerful, pale mount. View larger |  A diverse arsenal of weapons. View larger |  A daunting array of challenges. View larger |
Product Description
Awakened by the End of Days, Death, the most feared of the legendary Four Horsemen, embarks upon a quest to restore mankind, and redeem his brother's name. Along the way, the Horseman discovers that there are far worse things than an earthly Apocalypse, and that an ancient grudge may threaten all of Creation.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 45 people found the following review helpful
By T. Granillo
Platform for Display:Xbox 360| Edition:Standard|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved the original Darksiders, but I'm blown away by the improvements they've made in the sequel. Lots of RPG elements make the action feel deeper and give you a lot more control and options in combat. Looting weapons and armor from enemies was totally unexpected but I'm glad its in the game. Equipping and finding new secondary weapons from vanquished foes is really sweet. It seems that there are only 2 types of basic secondary weapons. Heavy weapons with slow attack speed and powerful damage, and gauntlet type with a fast attack speed and lower damage. There are a few different types of weapons in these 2 categories like axes, maces, hammers, gauntlets and wrist blades and glaives. Combos flow nicely between your scythe attacks and secondary attatcks. I like the skill tree and experience points so I feel like I"m making progress toward new moves and upgrades besides those acquired specifically through weapons and items. "Possessed" items are a nice touch too. Allowing you to level up an weapon by "feeding" it items from your inventory to help it gain experience.
The fighting is really fluid. This is not a button mashing game. You need to dodge and attack at the right time or you're probably going to get killed a lot. The platforming moments are much like prince of persia and provide a break from the fighting and puzzle solving to make a rounded out experience. With one of your companions, dust the crow, you can hold the left stick down for a hint on where to go. This is a blessing, unlike many open world games where you can forget what you're doing or get sidetracked on side quests. Like the original theres plenty of opportunities to go back to previously visited areas for treasure after you've upgraded your abilities. So far the music and and sound effects have fit the game perfectly and the voice acting is great. The music can be ethereal and dreamy at times or dark and dramatic and lends well to the layout of the world. The comic book styled artwork is also really great with many places having a ruined beauty kind of feel. Only been playing a few hours but I'm hooked and can't wait to play more. If you liked the original, definitely pick this one up. If you didn't play the first give this one a try. It's an amazing game.
The fighting is really fluid. This is not a button mashing game. You need to dodge and attack at the right time or you're probably going to get killed a lot. The platforming moments are much like prince of persia and provide a break from the fighting and puzzle solving to make a rounded out experience. With one of your companions, dust the crow, you can hold the left stick down for a hint on where to go. This is a blessing, unlike many open world games where you can forget what you're doing or get sidetracked on side quests. Like the original theres plenty of opportunities to go back to previously visited areas for treasure after you've upgraded your abilities. So far the music and and sound effects have fit the game perfectly and the voice acting is great. The music can be ethereal and dreamy at times or dark and dramatic and lends well to the layout of the world. The comic book styled artwork is also really great with many places having a ruined beauty kind of feel. Only been playing a few hours but I'm hooked and can't wait to play more. If you liked the original, definitely pick this one up. If you didn't play the first give this one a try. It's an amazing game.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By TerraMantis
Platform for Display:Xbox 360|Edition:Standard
Fun:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Darksiders is still a tale of when fantasy meets theology and it still has gaming tropes that feel like they're stripped straight from other games, but this time around the different gameplay ideas come together with great harmony to create a gaming experience that is not only superior to its predecessor but also creates one of the best action adventure role-playing games period.
This chapter of the horsemen's apocalypse takes place simultaneously with War's tale from the first game, but this time around War is left behind and his brother Death is in his place. Death believes War was tricked into initiating the apocalypse early and he will stop at nothing to absolve his brother from his eternal punishment. So Death sets out for the Tree of Life which could potentially restore the lives of all those who died during War's apocalypse on Earth.
The narrative is nothing to write home about but the dialogue is scripted very well and the voice acting is top-notch, so much so that it's enjoyable enough to create a desire to dig deeper. Some of the characters you meet along the way are very interesting and Death himself is quite likable, especially considering he's one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. He's witty with his words and his dialogue really pushes home to convey his unwavering convictions to save his brother from damnation. Death is truly his brother's keeper.
The story simply works as a mechanism to introduce you to the characters, who will then most likely become a merchant or a quest-giver to send Death on his way. These quest-givers will always need Death's help to do what he's asking of them or they'll simply demand something from him before they'll aid Death in his pursuit for the Tree of Life. Whether it's soul stones to reanimate a giant stone guardian or assembling an angelic staff of immense power, Death's quests will take him to the four corners of the map during these missions.
Death's journey to obtain the power to restore humanity with the Tree of Life will take him all over the universe - no matter the environments be foreign, physical, metaphysical, or something else entirely - the new look of Darksiders is beautiful and stunning at times. The design of Darksiders II is a vast and huge open-world that begs to be explored and gazed upon. The vistas are truly fantasy-inspired and take notes from things like World of Warcraft or Warhammer, but from one aspect to the next Darksiders II has brilliant use of complimentary purples and greens throughout the game's entirety, which really unifies the color pallet of the aesthetics. The game simply looks fantastic.
The superb visuals make exploration a treat, and luckily, it's worth your while. Every trek off the beaten path feels like it rewards you for your efforts, from collectables for stat boosts or item gambling to completely optional bosses that have dungeons beforehand, every path leads to something that feels relevant in creating the immersive worlds that compose Death's arduous journey to save his brother. On top of that, there are also treasure chest littering the environments which are filled with gold and loot.
Yes, Darksiders II has loot. Although Darksiders is justifiably compared to games like Zelda, which blur the line between adventure and a role-playing game, Darksiders II instead takes that step needed to really be considered a full-fledged RPG. There is a XP and leveling system in place as well as two skill trees with branching benefits and a color-coated loot system that supports gear with different stats and effects for the differing skill trees. There is even item crafting in sense. Special possessed weapons can be obtained which are blank slates, other items in your inventory can then be sacrificed into the possessed item to help level it up. Whatever attribute effects were on the absorbed item will then be a stat choice that can be applied to the possessed item when it levels.
All of these RPG elements, from skill trees to loot, really let you craft Death into a character of your own, but, no matter how you choose to structure Death, the combat doesn't change too much from one spec or gear-set to the next. Death will always have his scythe for one button attack and a secondary weapon for the other. Secondary items range from huge hammers, maces, or lances to something else entirely which can alter attack animations substantially. Spells, scythes, and secondary weapons will all come into play but timed dodges and rolls are necessary to survive and add a nice level of complexity to the combat situations. Overall combat has most of the same principles from the first game but one big change is found in the quick kills. The quick kill is still part of the game but it's more like a critical chance on-hit than something that just happens all the time, this was sorely needed and with a proc chance it makes finishers feel more empowering than before because they're not so ordinary.
The combat is well-paced though and it didn't feel like I was fighting just to fight, more often than not dungeons are filled with intelligent platforming and puzzles. Death can run across walls, flip up wooden beams, and grab hooks with his ghostly grip, he's a bit like an other worldly Prince of Persia. And puzzles start off fairly easy but as you get more abilities, like splitting in two or creating portals, they become more challenging, but not so much so that it becomes frustrating. The abilities needed to finish certain puzzles will also find their way into platforming from time to time which lead to a satisfying sense of progression that's separate from the one you get from leveling and equipping Death.
I did run into some problems though with Darksiders II, some serious and some minor, like being led astray by the bird who is supposed to help guide Death or the aiming reticle being off, and at some points the sound for voices and the subtitles may turn off for no reason. The PC version was by far the weakest, so much so that it made it feel like an afterthought. Some of the most rudimentary features that should be expected for a PC version were not present, like hitting `M' to skip to the map or options to tweak the game's performance, but the worst of all were game-breaking puzzles that made progression impossible to finish the PC version.
Regardless of the issues it has, Darksiders 2 is a great game. It's a game that has this from that game and that from another game but it takes all of those things from many different genres and heads in all of the right directions to create a unique identity of its own. Darksiders 2 is a superb single-player adventure game that's as spectacular in gameplay and style as it is in the same sense a game covering something as profound as an apocalypse should be. It's truly a story that can only be spun as an epic and Death really brought this franchise back to life for me. Don't overlook what may be the best adventure of the year.
This chapter of the horsemen's apocalypse takes place simultaneously with War's tale from the first game, but this time around War is left behind and his brother Death is in his place. Death believes War was tricked into initiating the apocalypse early and he will stop at nothing to absolve his brother from his eternal punishment. So Death sets out for the Tree of Life which could potentially restore the lives of all those who died during War's apocalypse on Earth.
The narrative is nothing to write home about but the dialogue is scripted very well and the voice acting is top-notch, so much so that it's enjoyable enough to create a desire to dig deeper. Some of the characters you meet along the way are very interesting and Death himself is quite likable, especially considering he's one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. He's witty with his words and his dialogue really pushes home to convey his unwavering convictions to save his brother from damnation. Death is truly his brother's keeper.
The story simply works as a mechanism to introduce you to the characters, who will then most likely become a merchant or a quest-giver to send Death on his way. These quest-givers will always need Death's help to do what he's asking of them or they'll simply demand something from him before they'll aid Death in his pursuit for the Tree of Life. Whether it's soul stones to reanimate a giant stone guardian or assembling an angelic staff of immense power, Death's quests will take him to the four corners of the map during these missions.
Death's journey to obtain the power to restore humanity with the Tree of Life will take him all over the universe - no matter the environments be foreign, physical, metaphysical, or something else entirely - the new look of Darksiders is beautiful and stunning at times. The design of Darksiders II is a vast and huge open-world that begs to be explored and gazed upon. The vistas are truly fantasy-inspired and take notes from things like World of Warcraft or Warhammer, but from one aspect to the next Darksiders II has brilliant use of complimentary purples and greens throughout the game's entirety, which really unifies the color pallet of the aesthetics. The game simply looks fantastic.
The superb visuals make exploration a treat, and luckily, it's worth your while. Every trek off the beaten path feels like it rewards you for your efforts, from collectables for stat boosts or item gambling to completely optional bosses that have dungeons beforehand, every path leads to something that feels relevant in creating the immersive worlds that compose Death's arduous journey to save his brother. On top of that, there are also treasure chest littering the environments which are filled with gold and loot.
Yes, Darksiders II has loot. Although Darksiders is justifiably compared to games like Zelda, which blur the line between adventure and a role-playing game, Darksiders II instead takes that step needed to really be considered a full-fledged RPG. There is a XP and leveling system in place as well as two skill trees with branching benefits and a color-coated loot system that supports gear with different stats and effects for the differing skill trees. There is even item crafting in sense. Special possessed weapons can be obtained which are blank slates, other items in your inventory can then be sacrificed into the possessed item to help level it up. Whatever attribute effects were on the absorbed item will then be a stat choice that can be applied to the possessed item when it levels.
All of these RPG elements, from skill trees to loot, really let you craft Death into a character of your own, but, no matter how you choose to structure Death, the combat doesn't change too much from one spec or gear-set to the next. Death will always have his scythe for one button attack and a secondary weapon for the other. Secondary items range from huge hammers, maces, or lances to something else entirely which can alter attack animations substantially. Spells, scythes, and secondary weapons will all come into play but timed dodges and rolls are necessary to survive and add a nice level of complexity to the combat situations. Overall combat has most of the same principles from the first game but one big change is found in the quick kills. The quick kill is still part of the game but it's more like a critical chance on-hit than something that just happens all the time, this was sorely needed and with a proc chance it makes finishers feel more empowering than before because they're not so ordinary.
The combat is well-paced though and it didn't feel like I was fighting just to fight, more often than not dungeons are filled with intelligent platforming and puzzles. Death can run across walls, flip up wooden beams, and grab hooks with his ghostly grip, he's a bit like an other worldly Prince of Persia. And puzzles start off fairly easy but as you get more abilities, like splitting in two or creating portals, they become more challenging, but not so much so that it becomes frustrating. The abilities needed to finish certain puzzles will also find their way into platforming from time to time which lead to a satisfying sense of progression that's separate from the one you get from leveling and equipping Death.
I did run into some problems though with Darksiders II, some serious and some minor, like being led astray by the bird who is supposed to help guide Death or the aiming reticle being off, and at some points the sound for voices and the subtitles may turn off for no reason. The PC version was by far the weakest, so much so that it made it feel like an afterthought. Some of the most rudimentary features that should be expected for a PC version were not present, like hitting `M' to skip to the map or options to tweak the game's performance, but the worst of all were game-breaking puzzles that made progression impossible to finish the PC version.
Regardless of the issues it has, Darksiders 2 is a great game. It's a game that has this from that game and that from another game but it takes all of those things from many different genres and heads in all of the right directions to create a unique identity of its own. Darksiders 2 is a superb single-player adventure game that's as spectacular in gameplay and style as it is in the same sense a game covering something as profound as an apocalypse should be. It's truly a story that can only be spun as an epic and Death really brought this franchise back to life for me. Don't overlook what may be the best adventure of the year.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Jourdeaux
Platform for Display:Xbox 360| Edition:Standard|Amazon Verified Purchase
Fun:
4.0 out of 5 stars
by jparis09
Darksiders 2 is the sequel to Vigil Games 2010 hit Darksiders. The series has become popular for it mixture of action, exploration and countless dungeons to conquer. The original Darksiders was met with positive reviews so naturally Darksiders 2, not only had to be on par with its predecessor but also expand on elements that made it so popular. I am happy to say that Vigil Games has done that and created a very solid sequel. Let's kick the review off with the story.
Story 8/10
All of the humans are dead. Corruption has taken over the world. Where do you stand among all of this madness? Well you are the Horseman Death. Death is on a determined quest to clear his brother name. For all the newcomers to the series here's a quick synopsis of what happened last game. War is one of the 4 Horsemen. He had been fooled into coming to earth before it was time and basically in result all humans were killed. So of course War gets blamed and is imprisoned for his actions. Fortunately for our friend War, the Horsemen are a close knit family so his brother Death has come to find out the facts and bring humanity back in order to undo what War has been accused of causing. This quest is not as easy as Death would have hoped. Death must reach the Tree of Life in order to complete his quest. He is told the Tree of Life can restore humanity. This is a long quest as it brings death to many of new areas with a ton of new characters and plenty of enemies to slash through with those trusty scythes or all of those other weapons you can loot, but I'll get to that later. This time around there is a lot more side quest than before. It is really easy to get sidetracked while on your way to the Tree of Life. Usually in games there are side quest so that's obviously nothing new at all. The main thing I really found enjoyable though was the diversity of the side quest. They aren't fetch quest or go kill quest. They are extremely deep and fairly long quest with their own story to them as well as side quest bosses to defeat. The world is three times bigger than the last, and there are tons of different quest to go find and complete. The story is told very well and will surely keep you immersed into everything that is taking place and if the story is not enough to keep that controller in your hand I'm sure the gameplay will make sure you lose some of those precious hours of sleep.
Gameplay 9/10
Fantastic is the word I have to use to describe the gameplay. Darksiders was known for its challenging but fun gameplay elements. Darksiders 2 is no different. Combat is extremely satisfying. Vigil Games has implemented RPG elements as well as a looting feature to make it that much better. As you slice enemies into pieces as you surely will within the first 5 minutes of playing you will see weapons and gear flying from their corpse. As you hover over them you then see something else new, these weapons and gear have levels as well as stats attached to them. There are tons of weapons and gear that you can find from simply killing enemies, searching in dungeons and random treasure chest around the world. This is a welcome addition as it allows you to change your gear and also your look which you could not do in the original Darksiders. This encouraged me to do more exploring than normal for the simple fact I knew there was better gear to find than that I already had equipped.
There is also a leveling up system. Each time you level up you unlock points to put into your skill tree as well as a boost to your stats. There are 2 skill trees, "Harbinger" and the "Necromancer" side. The Harbinger side focuses only Death himself with moves that will make you stronger as an individual. The Necromancer side on the other hands focuses more on summons. You can summon demons from hell in order to help you fight as well as make them stronger and last longer. Combat is fast paced so you have to always be on your toes when engaging in it or you might see that death screen a little bit more than you might have hoped for. Kind of ironic how Death can die I know. Where does he go? Anyways the gameplay can be challenging at first especially on Apocalyptic difficulty. Speaking of difficulties there are 3 initial difficulties ranging from Easy mode to Apocalyptic. After completion of the game you will unlock a 4th one.
A brand new addition to the series is the Crucible Mode. This is an "Arena" like atmosphere and is surely not for the faint of heart. There are 100 waves of enemies to slice up. As you would expect they start of fairly easy and then become ridiculously difficult. They are broken up into 4 intervals. Every 25 levels are like a checkpoint that you can start from when you die. Every so often you will be given the option to continue or take a prize and quit. The Crucible is one of my favorite aspects of this game as it gives you a break from your quest to just go bust some heads for a while. Upon completion of the Crucible you will get rare gear you cannot get otherwise so it really gave me incentive to fight through the frustrations of continuous death.
While the gameplay is great there are some flaws that must be pointed out because they are hard to miss. A few times while I was searching for that Tree of Life, I unfortunately ran into a few control issues. For example you will eventually get a "Deathgrip" item which allows you to grab certain things in order to pull Death further. A few times I would press the button and Death wouldn't even use it so once again the death screen and I was having another staring contest. Another smaller issue would be some glitches. A few times I would jump somewhere and would get stuck in the map forcing me to restart from my checkpoint. My game also froze twice forcing me to restart my Xbox 360 as well. These bugs while sometimes can be an annoyance really doesn't break the game or hinder the overall experience fortunately.
As stated earlier the overall gameplay portion of Darksiders 2 is simply fantastic. With the fun, fast paced combat, leveling and looting system, as well as the Crucible mode, Darksiders 2 does a phenomenal job in making sure that the gameplay gives you something to remember and an experience worth playing through. Even though gameplay is great though, nobody wants to have all that fun playing if the game looks ugly though right? Luckily this game doesn't
Graphics & Sound 8/10
Darksiders 2 doesn't look like your ordinary game. Vigil Games has their own unique art style and it shows in this installment. Colors are very bright and the open world environment looks pretty good. The visuals won't make you drool over your controller of anything like that but they still look damn good. The world is huge and sometimes I caught myself just stopping to look at it because the art style really shows when you are outside. With the exception of those 2 freezes stated earlier, I didn't run into any bad graphical performance issues such as texture pop ins or framerate drops while playing at all. I always play with my game installed to the HDD so that may also have played a factor into the nearly flawless performance of the game.
Voice acting. Oh yes the voice acting. Simply one of the best I've seen. The original Darksiders has top of the line voice acting as well so I was eager to hear it this time around. I was not disappointed. Hearing Death speak to everybody sounded great. As you will find out soon Death is more of a jerk than his brother War, so the arrogant statements he says is always worth hearing. NPCs voice acting was just as superb as Deaths. The sound department definitely did a great job with the score as well. Nothing like being in an epic fight with a great musical score helping you get into it. With the gorgeous art style and top notch voice acting, expect to be impressed each and every minute that you go along in your adventure, but how long will you be playing be on said adventure?
Playtime and Replayability 9/10
The first run through of Darksiders 2 will net your around 30-60 hours simply depending on how you play it. It is a very lengthy adventure. Like I said before there are plenty of ways to get distracted from side quest to taking your chance in the Crucible. I have yet to mention the most time consuming thing to embark upon though. There are tons and I do mean tons of collectibles. Dead Pages to find for our good old friend Vulgrim so he can complete chapters in a book I doubt he will read. Different types of stones to find etc. One thing I must point out I love about the collectibles besides the fact it extends the playtime considerably is you are actually rewarded, and I don't mean with gamerscore (even though that's nice too) but you are rewarded with in game rare gear or a permanent boost in stats. I think this is pretty cool because usually collectibles in game are simple that. There isn't a real reward in game for doing it. Darksiders 2 also features a New Game Plus mode. After completion you may start your game over on a higher difficulty setting but keep everything that you had before on your previous playthrough with a few exceptions. If you are a completionist then you can expect to spend tons of hours playing and replaying this game.
Final Verdict 8/10
Pros
+Spectacular Gameplay
+Artistic Style
+Voice Acting
Cons
-Control Issues
-Small Glitches
-Occasional Freezes
Closing Comments
Darksiders 2 is a very solid title and I encourage any fan of the genre to play it. It honestly offers some of the best gameplay I've seen this generation and has a solid story to go along with it as well. It also has a lengthy adventure as well which is becoming more and rarer since multiplayer has become so huge. Read more ›
Darksiders 2 is the sequel to Vigil Games 2010 hit Darksiders. The series has become popular for it mixture of action, exploration and countless dungeons to conquer. The original Darksiders was met with positive reviews so naturally Darksiders 2, not only had to be on par with its predecessor but also expand on elements that made it so popular. I am happy to say that Vigil Games has done that and created a very solid sequel. Let's kick the review off with the story.
Story 8/10
All of the humans are dead. Corruption has taken over the world. Where do you stand among all of this madness? Well you are the Horseman Death. Death is on a determined quest to clear his brother name. For all the newcomers to the series here's a quick synopsis of what happened last game. War is one of the 4 Horsemen. He had been fooled into coming to earth before it was time and basically in result all humans were killed. So of course War gets blamed and is imprisoned for his actions. Fortunately for our friend War, the Horsemen are a close knit family so his brother Death has come to find out the facts and bring humanity back in order to undo what War has been accused of causing. This quest is not as easy as Death would have hoped. Death must reach the Tree of Life in order to complete his quest. He is told the Tree of Life can restore humanity. This is a long quest as it brings death to many of new areas with a ton of new characters and plenty of enemies to slash through with those trusty scythes or all of those other weapons you can loot, but I'll get to that later. This time around there is a lot more side quest than before. It is really easy to get sidetracked while on your way to the Tree of Life. Usually in games there are side quest so that's obviously nothing new at all. The main thing I really found enjoyable though was the diversity of the side quest. They aren't fetch quest or go kill quest. They are extremely deep and fairly long quest with their own story to them as well as side quest bosses to defeat. The world is three times bigger than the last, and there are tons of different quest to go find and complete. The story is told very well and will surely keep you immersed into everything that is taking place and if the story is not enough to keep that controller in your hand I'm sure the gameplay will make sure you lose some of those precious hours of sleep.
Gameplay 9/10
Fantastic is the word I have to use to describe the gameplay. Darksiders was known for its challenging but fun gameplay elements. Darksiders 2 is no different. Combat is extremely satisfying. Vigil Games has implemented RPG elements as well as a looting feature to make it that much better. As you slice enemies into pieces as you surely will within the first 5 minutes of playing you will see weapons and gear flying from their corpse. As you hover over them you then see something else new, these weapons and gear have levels as well as stats attached to them. There are tons of weapons and gear that you can find from simply killing enemies, searching in dungeons and random treasure chest around the world. This is a welcome addition as it allows you to change your gear and also your look which you could not do in the original Darksiders. This encouraged me to do more exploring than normal for the simple fact I knew there was better gear to find than that I already had equipped.
There is also a leveling up system. Each time you level up you unlock points to put into your skill tree as well as a boost to your stats. There are 2 skill trees, "Harbinger" and the "Necromancer" side. The Harbinger side focuses only Death himself with moves that will make you stronger as an individual. The Necromancer side on the other hands focuses more on summons. You can summon demons from hell in order to help you fight as well as make them stronger and last longer. Combat is fast paced so you have to always be on your toes when engaging in it or you might see that death screen a little bit more than you might have hoped for. Kind of ironic how Death can die I know. Where does he go? Anyways the gameplay can be challenging at first especially on Apocalyptic difficulty. Speaking of difficulties there are 3 initial difficulties ranging from Easy mode to Apocalyptic. After completion of the game you will unlock a 4th one.
A brand new addition to the series is the Crucible Mode. This is an "Arena" like atmosphere and is surely not for the faint of heart. There are 100 waves of enemies to slice up. As you would expect they start of fairly easy and then become ridiculously difficult. They are broken up into 4 intervals. Every 25 levels are like a checkpoint that you can start from when you die. Every so often you will be given the option to continue or take a prize and quit. The Crucible is one of my favorite aspects of this game as it gives you a break from your quest to just go bust some heads for a while. Upon completion of the Crucible you will get rare gear you cannot get otherwise so it really gave me incentive to fight through the frustrations of continuous death.
While the gameplay is great there are some flaws that must be pointed out because they are hard to miss. A few times while I was searching for that Tree of Life, I unfortunately ran into a few control issues. For example you will eventually get a "Deathgrip" item which allows you to grab certain things in order to pull Death further. A few times I would press the button and Death wouldn't even use it so once again the death screen and I was having another staring contest. Another smaller issue would be some glitches. A few times I would jump somewhere and would get stuck in the map forcing me to restart from my checkpoint. My game also froze twice forcing me to restart my Xbox 360 as well. These bugs while sometimes can be an annoyance really doesn't break the game or hinder the overall experience fortunately.
As stated earlier the overall gameplay portion of Darksiders 2 is simply fantastic. With the fun, fast paced combat, leveling and looting system, as well as the Crucible mode, Darksiders 2 does a phenomenal job in making sure that the gameplay gives you something to remember and an experience worth playing through. Even though gameplay is great though, nobody wants to have all that fun playing if the game looks ugly though right? Luckily this game doesn't
Graphics & Sound 8/10
Darksiders 2 doesn't look like your ordinary game. Vigil Games has their own unique art style and it shows in this installment. Colors are very bright and the open world environment looks pretty good. The visuals won't make you drool over your controller of anything like that but they still look damn good. The world is huge and sometimes I caught myself just stopping to look at it because the art style really shows when you are outside. With the exception of those 2 freezes stated earlier, I didn't run into any bad graphical performance issues such as texture pop ins or framerate drops while playing at all. I always play with my game installed to the HDD so that may also have played a factor into the nearly flawless performance of the game.
Voice acting. Oh yes the voice acting. Simply one of the best I've seen. The original Darksiders has top of the line voice acting as well so I was eager to hear it this time around. I was not disappointed. Hearing Death speak to everybody sounded great. As you will find out soon Death is more of a jerk than his brother War, so the arrogant statements he says is always worth hearing. NPCs voice acting was just as superb as Deaths. The sound department definitely did a great job with the score as well. Nothing like being in an epic fight with a great musical score helping you get into it. With the gorgeous art style and top notch voice acting, expect to be impressed each and every minute that you go along in your adventure, but how long will you be playing be on said adventure?
Playtime and Replayability 9/10
The first run through of Darksiders 2 will net your around 30-60 hours simply depending on how you play it. It is a very lengthy adventure. Like I said before there are plenty of ways to get distracted from side quest to taking your chance in the Crucible. I have yet to mention the most time consuming thing to embark upon though. There are tons and I do mean tons of collectibles. Dead Pages to find for our good old friend Vulgrim so he can complete chapters in a book I doubt he will read. Different types of stones to find etc. One thing I must point out I love about the collectibles besides the fact it extends the playtime considerably is you are actually rewarded, and I don't mean with gamerscore (even though that's nice too) but you are rewarded with in game rare gear or a permanent boost in stats. I think this is pretty cool because usually collectibles in game are simple that. There isn't a real reward in game for doing it. Darksiders 2 also features a New Game Plus mode. After completion you may start your game over on a higher difficulty setting but keep everything that you had before on your previous playthrough with a few exceptions. If you are a completionist then you can expect to spend tons of hours playing and replaying this game.
Final Verdict 8/10
Pros
+Spectacular Gameplay
+Artistic Style
+Voice Acting
Cons
-Control Issues
-Small Glitches
-Occasional Freezes
Closing Comments
Darksiders 2 is a very solid title and I encourage any fan of the genre to play it. It honestly offers some of the best gameplay I've seen this generation and has a solid story to go along with it as well. It also has a lengthy adventure as well which is becoming more and rarer since multiplayer has become so huge. Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great
First one was good second one is way better graphics to combat. A true sequel that got better I hope there is a third one
Published 3 minutes ago by Alfred I. Castro
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great game but
I think that darksiders 2 is a great game, actually I think that is better than the first one. I dont give a five stars rate for some issues with the game camera, and the game... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Robert
5.0 out of 5 stars
An entertaining experience.
While it doesn't have as many grand cinematic cutscenes as the original Darksiders boasted, the hero of this game and his many challenges are more than entertaining enough. Read more
Published 1 day ago by C. Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tops the first.
I really wish more people would have purchased this game. The first one was excellent and they raised the bar in the sequel adding more of an RPG element to the game. Read more
Published 2 days ago by tommisfit
1.0 out of 5 stars
Game is much worse than 1st
I did not enjoy the game, less chests, less enemies and game controls sucked.
It involved a lot of jumping, and I thought the action of jumping was difficult if not tedious. Read more
It involved a lot of jumping, and I thought the action of jumping was difficult if not tedious. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Matthew A. Koch
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing game
Great exploration and really fun combat. Similar to Zelda some say because of the puzzles/adventure mechanics. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Marc
5.0 out of 5 stars
Darksiders || Awesome
I have Darksiders 1 I love the game I ran across this one and bought it it's as good as the 1st one.
Published 11 days ago by tweetpea
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great game
I bought this game for may brother, but I ended playing it, great history, nice graphycs, I will play Darksiders I for sure
Published 19 days ago by Gabriel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Drksiders II
I purchase this as a gift for my son. He absolutely loves it. It was
a great gift as he gets a lot of enjoyment out of it.
a great gift as he gets a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Published 22 days ago by Jannes McElroy
5.0 out of 5 stars
AS AWESOME AS THE FIRST
This game is a little harder than the first due to the fact that you have ro use health potions. In the first you gained life from killing enemys. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Therevern14
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Platform: Xbox 360 | Edition: Standard
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