Darksiders 2 released a few years ago and seemingly appeared to be the last of the franchise we would ever see as THQ and Vigil closed shop. Now with the franchise owned and operated by Nordic and having some of the original folks working on it we have Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition on PS4 and Xbox One. A definite purchase for fans of adventures games, but what if you’ve already played it?
While we can all cross our fingers and hope that we inevitably get a Darksiders 3, seeing part 2 being re-released warms my heart as I’m a huge fan of the franchise. It’s not often that we get games of this type, grand action adventure, puzzles, and an interesting world. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, imagine a darker more mature Zelda game with just as many environments, dungeons, and unique abilities as other games of its ilk. Here we see Death, one of the four Horseman of the Apocalypse, trying to prove the innocence’s of War who has been condemned for accidentally bringing about the end of the world prematurely. If players never experienced Darksiders 1, it’s a shame that it isn’t included in this remaster, but luckily the story is a prequel and they fill players in immediately on what has transpired so newcomers can feel safe jumping straight in.
During Deaths long journey, he will explore vast lands, explore many dungeons, and meet unique characters, kicking a bunch of demon butt in the process. Combat feels just as good as it did in the original release with fast action and two weapon damage. With enemies deaths come loot and lots of it. Death constantly gets better drops of weapons and armor and the drop rate has even been tweaked for the new version. Platforming is another huge part of the game along with puzzles and players can expect to get stumped at times. Even having played the game a few years ago, I couldn’t figure out one for about 15 minutes before I about slapped my head in disbelief. Players will too as sometimes the solution is so extremely obvious but still rewarding and satisfying to solve.
The biggest questions players will have are from the ones that owned or played it originally and are asking themselves “Do I have a justification to play it again? “ That answer is inherently going to be up to the player to decide but let’s discuss what it does do different. First off as I mentioned earlier, loot drops are tweaked and it appears I’m getting more successful drops and better equipment earlier on then in prior releases. Graphically it still strikes out as beautiful and that’s in large part due to its fantastic art which is simply gorgeous to look at even today. Resolution is bumped to 1080p and lighting seems to have had a decent upgrade as well which really adds to the atmosphere at times, especially in dungeons. Though there is some performance issues, seemingly in the open world and when traveling between loading sections, players will see some stuttering. I’m not sure if it’s simple an engine design flaw or not because in the dungeons it seems to run just fine. These sometimes subtle and slight changes, along with all the DLC being included is basically all that’s changed over the course of this port. Framerate isn’t 60 as some would hope and that’s a bummer unfortunately.
Darksiders 2 retains what made the original release such a huge hit. It features a vast, expansive world to explore, jaw dropping visuals at times, fun and intense combat, and tons of loot to grab from enemies and monstrous bosses. It’s the best console version, but it still has some performance issues and for anyone that played it on PC, that is still the way to go for the best looking and playing version, but that’s par for the course. If players missed out on the original release and are looking for a long adventure game on their new consoles, look no further, Darksiders 2 is here to quench that thirst extremely well and better than most games on the consoles. If you already played the game and are ok with the minor improvements offered, it still comes in at a decent price, otherwise just play the previous release. One thing is for certain, if this leads way to Darksiders 3 coming to life, I’m all for it.
An Xbox One code was provided by the publisher for review purposes
