Darksiders 2: The Horsemen ride again (Review)

In the video game industry, many developers and publishers will cover “taboo” subjects, such as a racism, sexuality and my personal favourite; religion. If done right it can make for a really amazing game, that leaves you stumped and contemplating the meaning of your own existence by the time you've finished it. If done wrong it just makes players angry as some half cocked game attempts to make them “See the light” like a street preacher squawking at you atop his ivory soap box. In this review I will be going over the core aspects of the game so that if you haven't played it or haven't even heard of the Darksiders franchise, you may well think about picking it up. But enough of my pandering, let the show go on!

Story

In this outing of Darksiders you take control of Death the leader of “The Horsemen”. Death is on a quest to clear his brothers name and restore humanity, although he has no idea how this can be achieved (good call dude!) after a brief encounter with a transmogrification of his brother, he is sent to a far off world that is being ruled over by “Corruption”. In order to restore humanity he is set the task of destroying Corruption by the natives; a race of giants with Scottish accents known as "The Founders", how fortunate for them that he turned up...

 

Say what you like about him, he's still going to kill you.

As you play through Darksiders 2 you will learn more about how “The Horsemen” came in to being and clear up some of the previous games unanswered questions, such as: what Uriel was doing before she was trying to make War her ultimate pin cushion. Along the way you will also hear NPCs name drop characters which you will recognize from the first game and will cause a small smile creep over your face as you remember the good (or frustrating) times that you had playing alongside these characters. It has things for newcomers to the series too though, from the deadpan way that Death delivers his threats, to the “battle chatter” that “The Founders” spout in a heavy jock accent.

 

An important factor that makes this game different from the previous title is that is almost twice as long as the original Darksiders. This may be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon your point of view.

Game play

As with the previous title, Darksiders 2 is more than just an apocalyptic button masher, the overhauled level up system is more reminiscent of World of Warcraft or the Dragon Age series, making you fill an experience bar to get to the next level and allowing you to add another skill point to Death's “Talent Tree”.

If you can fill up every talent, Death is near on unstoppable

The Amount of customization that can be done with Darksiders 2 is nothing short of epic, with each piece of clothing or armour adding or subtracting points from Death's “Attributes” points, allowing the player to mould Death in to the character that they prefer to play as. Although this may seem tedious and boring, the ability to create Death as you envision him to be is something that can't be missed.

As you would expect the combo system is back. Instead of buying all your much needed combo maps and items from the masochistic demon “Vulgrim” (who coincidently makes a reappearance) instead you have to find the different traders that hold the item you want, which can be frustrating but also refreshing in that you don't have to buy everything from a deranged but loveable, soul hungry demon outcast.

The in-game currency has changed from “Souls” to “Gilt” which appear as small piles of gold and won't gravitate to you once they are released from what may be containing them, unlike Souls from the previous game.

The enemy design in Darksiders 2 is just as, if not more creative as the previous title, they are also biome specific, i.e. You wont find a Mummy roaming round green brightly lit fields of The Forge Lands, instead you will find them in the many tombs and dungeons that the Land Of The Dead has to offer.

Vulgrim: Sneaky, greedy, maniacal...whats not to like?!

A word to the wise however, if “Fetch Quests” quests aren't your thing, then it would be best to stay away from this title, as there is A LOT of them, and believe me when I say A LOT, however if you enjoy exploring and finding hidden goodies. Then the fetch quests won't really phase you too much, read on to find out why.

Level Design

In many ways the developers “Vigil” took a lot of inspiration for the “Hub” from the Zelda games of the 90's, each dungeon, cave or tomb is connected by a meadow or a desert that has to be crossed on horse back (purely to save time) to be reached. This is remedied by the enemies that felt the need to converge there, time can be wasted (but experience gained) by taking a little time to despatch these misguided nasties and then procede on your merry way.

These unfortunate foes can be deadly in numbers!

The dungeons/caves/tombs are extremely well designed, with multiple levels on in all of them it is easy to get lost for any length of time whilst you work out what you have to do next, this happens more often in the later dungeons, the addition of usable items that Death can collect, makes the later dungeons even more of a grind to complete, but the rewards at the end of most of them are more than adequate.

As you would expect with this kind of game, each dungeon ends with a boss battle of epic proportions, many of these bosses follow patterns of attack that are extremely easy to memorise such as: Shield Bash, Ice Breaker, Ice Breaker, Killing Blow(A lil hint for you).

Some bosses are extremely frustrating to kill until you work out a way to counter or evade every attack that it may be throwing at you, but as a lot of them are gigantic compared to Death, laying the final blow to deplete their health meter is extremely satisfying and the goodies that they drop even more so.

One of the more frustrating bosses, but has one of the best loot drops in the game.

The Pros

Being able to spec out Death exactly as you like is great, you can now create Death exactly as you've always imagined him.

The wide variety of worlds and levels can keep you engrossed for hours, which is EXACTLY what you want from a video game...right?

The Cons

Being the game of epic proportions that Darksiders 2 is, you can't expect glitches to be non-existent, several annoying camera angle glitches presented themselves to me on my play through, but once the game has its initial giggle at me waggling the analogue sticks trying to get Death back in to the camera shot, the glitches never reappeared.

The dungeons can sometimes get repetitive and boring, especially if you are on a long gaming session, I found that leaving it for a day or two helped me get back in to the flow of things and complete them.

The Verdict

Even though it may have a small Legend of Zelda complex, Darksiders 2 is an extremely enjoyable game that a Darksiders veteran or new comer would enjoy, if you have a thing for the end of the world with a lot of blood, intense boss fights and games that involve a lot of scythe swinging, then Darksiders 2 is definitely a game worth picking up.

Find, Return, Reward: The hidden purpose of the “Fetch Quest”

We've all been there, from the lowest level Grasshopper to the highest level Troll slayer, you stumble in to a village or town, completely saturated in Knoll guts and spiders webs and do the regular routine of cleaning your boots, sharpening or upgrading your sword and of course quest gathering.

Which one to tackle first..?

Everything goes well, you get that “Clear Out A Bandit Camp” quest which makes you laugh deviously as you concoct all the messed up ways that you can dispatch those naughty bandits and desecrate their corpses (C'mon we've all done it) a few “Talk To Lady Pimplebottom” type quests and you're feeling great as you laugh your way to free and easy coin. That is until you come to that ONE NPC, they can often be found lurking in the darkened corner of the shadiest tavern in town hunched over a suspicious looking pint. That ONE NPC, that speaks in hushed tones and occasionally glances towards the door, as if to make sure its still there in case an abrupt exit is needed. That ONE NPC that gives you the dreaded quest; to fetch/kill/loot/pilfer X amount of X and become “The mightiest hero in the land”.

Yep, there's a Dragon behind me, and what?

 No one really likes these kinds of quests, they can trail on for hours or you get extremely frustrated when you are not able to find that last “Sweaty Ferret Nose” to hand in to that lazy good-for-nothing-but-a-swift-kick-up-the-arse mage so he can make his potion of extreme blandness, but these quests also have an amazing ability; to open you up to the fruits and wonders of the world that you find yourself in.

It may take you a while,and wandering through the wilderness can be extremely tedious if not incredibly boring, but if the stars have aligned and a virgin has performed a strip tease for a goat in the last 30 days you could find yourself surrounded by beautiful meadows watching the grass sway gracefully in the breeze. Or on the peak of the highest mountain, surveying all that lay before you with a mighty foot on the corpse of a fallen foe or wandering in to an unassuming cave that then leads you to finding a veritable kings ransom of useful goodies or a shiny new piece of armor that completely outclasses your current wardrobe.

I just don't know about these boots with this helmet...

These wonderful places can have you exploring for hours, finding new and exciting things at every turn can make you completely forget about the tediousness of finding that 10^th item so you can claim that measly “reward” that you get for filling your inventory with someone else's shopping list.

So just remember, when Farmer Mc'Gavin sends you to the next town to save his daughter from the mighty “Defiler Bandits” it could lead you on a brilliant quest of exploration, wonder and goodies galore. Fetch quests have their place, they may seem as exciting as watching a pig rolling in its own filth, but off the beaten track is often where the real adventures are to be had, so pick up your feet and grab that dratted quest with both hands and then COMPLETELY forget about it, you'll thank me later. 

And to think, you nearly missed this view...you're welcome!

 

The importance of Auto Save

Like myself, I'm sure that many of you have been enjoying the Games With Gold service that Microsoft has initiated recently, and like many other people have discovered the immense amounts of joy that can be had from brutally destroying zombies in a variety of diabolical and hilarious ways. I am of course, talking about Dead Rising 2, as no doubt most of us are back in training for the upcoming Dead Rising 3 we have decided to play through once again to hone our zombie genocidal art and have a laugh or two with such weapons as “The Sledge-axe” and “The Freeze Bomb”.

Hey Buddy, Did ya hear this one?

I have no doubts that many of you have your own personal peeves that make you foam at the mouth and rage quit faster than Sonic on a speed bender, but without a doubt, mine has to be the lack of a quick/auto save feature. Well that and having to constantly check on your daughter, as if she was about to snort cocaine of a zombie hookers back for shits and giggles at a moments notice.

Picture the scene: you're fighting off a horde of brain and flesh hungry zombies, as well as trying to defend yourself from a complete ass hole...on a bike... that has fricking CHAINSAWS attached! You take an unexpected hit from a zombie that knocks you in to the path of said ass hole, who then saws you in half. Then you realise that your last save was over an hour ago and that you're not even on the same mission that you were on when you took a trip to the cock up peninsular. And this, ladies and gents, is what REALLY gets up my nose.

Good to see the Power Rangers back in action!

If only this game had a quick or auto save function, it would save so much raging and going out for smoke breaks just to calm myself down enough to try it again only to be met with the same results. This isn't just a case of stupidity or “Poor Game play” this is all out, balls to the wall INSANITY! Even Minecraft has a fricking auto save feature! And that game looks like it was made on a toaster that became self aware midway through development! I hope for the love of all that I hold dear that Dead Rising 3 will make the right decision and include such a feature, its got so many other bells and whistles on it that something that simple should be a no brainer.

Take THAT you filthy knave!

But the DR “Fan Boys” will protest that its all in the name of “Immersion” “You wouldn't have an auto save function in a real zombie apocalypse”. Well yes, this is true...but I also wouldn't be running around a zombie infested shopping mall wearing my underpants on my head and beating them with a handbag! Rant_end/