The Verdict
Darksiders II is a good game, and at the budget price, it's certainly worth checking out, especially if you haven't played the game yet. However, the lack of a remaster of the first game makes the second one seem rather inconsequential. Without really playing through War's story, you don't really get the sense of importance of what he was accused of in the first game.
The lack of a better framerate is also quite disappointing, especially in a time when ports are running rampant, but each of them at least makes an effort to both play and look better.
If you're just looking for a good hack and slasher, with a decent story, fantastic voice acting and some solid gameplay, Darksiders II is definitely worth checking out. However, if you're looking to get more out of the game, like satisfaction from the narrative, know you're only really getting half the experience here.
The Positives
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Like I stated before and in my review, the game is great. The mashup of various gameplay styles from other popular video game franchises just plain works here. The combat feels quick and responsive, the traversal mechanics feel good too, and the environments are brimming with creativity.
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The voice acting is quite superb, with Michael Wincott as Death, Phil Lamarr as Vulgrim, and plenty others which consist of the supporting cast. It may be extremely cheesy dialogue, but it's cheesy dialogue delivered very well.
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The loot mechanic is great, and adds another layer, that's not overly complex, onto your standard hack n' slashing affair. A convenient pop-up window will always notify you whether a certain item is better or worse than what you have equipped, and you can easily, with a press of a button, automatically equip the better item without going into a menu screen.
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Two separate skill trees will give Death wildly different abilities.
The Negatives
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Darksiders II is a key story that plays alongside the first game. Those having never played the first will be missing out on it. It's a shame that Nordic and Gunfire didn't collaborate better on bringing both Darksiders games to current-gen consoles as a bundle. It feels like having an incomplete experience. A perfect example of doing this right was when Bayonetta 1 was included in every copy of Bayonetta 2. That way you're not alienating the fans that never got to play the first game.
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Why is it only 30 frames per second? If there's anything I've learned from definitive editions, it's that they not only tend to look better, but also support a much higher framerate. For some reason, the framerate is the same here. Normaly I'm not a framerate stickler, but action games benefit greatly from having double the frame-rate. I'm going to make another Bayonetta reference, but any game that requires twitch reactions to dodges to counter moves directly benefits from having a smoother framerate.
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The menu interface is still super clunky.
The Darksiders games, the ones we got before THQ shut its doors, were pretty fantastic titles. Combining The Legend of Zelda exploration and dungeons, with fast-paced God of War gameplay, as well as some Prince of Persia parkour, proved to be a good mash-up. The second game dealing with the tale of Death, which ran parallel to War's story from the first game was in many ways better than the first. Many systems were refined, added and tweaked, to make not only the gameplay feel better, but also much more compelling.
Now in 2015, we have a re-release of Darksiders 2 with the silly subtitle, Deathinitive Edition, thanks to Nordic and Gunfire Games, which bundles all previously DLC with the game, giving players another chance to re-experience the adventure on their current-gen consoles, or perhaps let players that missed out on the first one, a chance to play it for the first time.
While the base game is fantastic, there are a few problems I have with this "definitive" edition.
If you want the full details on the game, make sure to check out my Darksiders II review right here.
If you just want to know about the new stuff, read on to our positives and negatives.
