Darksiders II

I'm a true gamer. So I played the original Darksiders on PC, where it was a bit more polished than on the consoles. I almost didn't have any bugs and I enjoyed it so much that I played it several times. Surely, it was no God of War but it had just everything I needed: A Zelda-esk game-play, modest puzzling, a tactical fighting system and a great comic-book story.

Darksiders II on the other side seems like a DLC to the first title, completely blown out of proportion.

It's story isn't told at all. You just meet people, have no clue who they are supposed to be and they vanish again. Neither the introduction nor the ending are really told. Both are just comic-strips that retell parts of the original Darksiders.

The world is empty and lacks details. Surely, the world is bigger but there aren't any areas that stand out. Remember Darksiders, where you had to climb floating pieces of a building while Azrael kept them steady through lightnings? None of that here. Just blown up areas where you mostly run, nothing happens and your enemies re-spawn way too fast.

The combat system is basically hacking. Sure, there are more weapons, but what difference do they make, when you rule out most of them and stuck to three different ones - most times the ones that leech energy from your opponents. You can win over any boss by doing teleport slashes and hacking. And yes: the end-boss is far too easy, let alone that I still don't know who he is.

There are a lot of bugs... They had to patch it twice, because it did have SEVERAL A-bugs, meaning bugs that prevent you from going on in the game. Plus I had to restart 16 times because of clipping errors, the game stopped unresponsive, I couldn't defeat the scribe because of a glitch, etc, etc. The game was running on the same machine that Darksiders did.

Overall it feels rushed, done without love, borrows too many elements from titles like the Prince of Persia Franchise (esp. Warrior Within) and is just a frustrating experience.

This was the game I was hoping for the most this year. Turns out it's a game that I never want to play again.

Every key getting stuck (I'm use to wasd getting stuck because of Windows 10 I suspect), but this was to much. Camera showing useless angels in the middle of a fight and when trying to crawl around on walls or tall building. Evade/dodging in the wrong direction and falling throu solid floor to a place I could not get out off.

I played this game 17 times and I never get enough of it! It's so perfect with every part that even if I want, I can't find a weak point. From atmosphere of every world, monsters, weapons, abilities to the controls and menu.

And Death. Story is so well plotted that it's realistic, almost real. There are characters from Bible, text from Revelation and after all - Horseman Death. This is the most amazing character ever made from a video game, film or a book.

Death is fearsome, strong, almost immortal, older than entire world and cold blood in his job. And still he knows humanity more than half human population.

Great respect for the people who worked so hard to create the best game ever, I love it! Even more, I'm in love with it!

Thankfully I had a coupon for a free rental at Family Video as this game was terrible. I only got about an hour into this game and had to take it back. Coming from a huge fan of the first game, the sequel is packed way too tight full of sh** that is completely unnecessary. Way too many puzzles and the controls felt really loose. Some of the enemies in the game also felt way too powerful, as well as there being so many enemies on the screen, you couldn't fight one without another ten coming at you. I also found the dodge system to be extremely lacking and broken. Press "dodge" and the character would move two steps, stop, and take damage. Skip this game. Worst game of the year hands down.

This was actually the first Darksiders game I have played. But, only for the reason because the leading hero - Death was voiced by my favorite actor, Michael Wincott. And, I guess, thanks to him I stepped into this great universe of Darksiders lore. The idea of the story was just amazing and plausible, for example, but we'll get to that later, let's talk plot first.

The game continues from the first one, the War is sentenced by the Charred Council, and his older (the eldest) brother, the Nephilim Death is set on personal mission to prove that War is innocent and to restore humanity.

The game offers you even better visuals and designs than the first one. The level design is far more beautiful, more bigger, but easy on the eyes. And the looks of the levels are very different, which makes you want to explore even more through that world. Death is basically stranded in this weird world, someone might say, a different dimensions, that expands from Forge Lands to Dead Lands. And even to Hellish World where Samael and Lilith are wardens. Weapons design is great. The character design is so good and refreshing. The Death design is brilliant. This lean, muscular figure with skull-shaped mask and long, dark hair, with blue, cold like body and this voice... Well, I think that Michael Wincott was more than a perfect choice to voice this Death. His deeply rasping voice fits so uniquely to the character. It is cold, scary and very awesome sounding. To mention that Wincott is a really great actor who just gave an amazing performance to his character, he wasn't only a voice... but a character. And Death is well developed and a cool character. He is dark, calculating, sarcastic, cynical, cold, distant, has this dark sense of humor, but he is immensely powerful and, basically invulnerable - a total badass! Very deadly, fast, agile and, with amazing abilities... But, he shows care for his brethren and he has a spark of humanity. Well, him being Death, which makes him one of the most powerful beings in this universe and according to the lore of our mythologies, different cultures and folklore, Death, the Grim Reaper, is inevitable and forever, so when that comes to mind, it fits in so satisfying manner. Other characters and voice actors were great, you instantly fell in love with leading Maker (voiced by James Cosmo), for example, you even like that slime ball merchant Vulgrim (voiced by Phil Lamarr). The other voice talents are JB Blanc, Claudia Christian, Phil Proctor and Steve Blum.

Game play is filled with high-voltage action, puzzles and other activities. You can level up, upgrade yourself, but you must advance and look for more tougher opponents so that you can level up faster. There are sets of weapons made for Death, also including armor and other power garments. When it comes to controls, you need to get use to them, but it's not that hard. I find the first game to be notorious for game puzzles, because they were tiresome and too long, this game offers you smaller puzzles, but I think that there are more of them here. But, they are not that hard and some of them are quite interesting. On occasions, they can be boring. Sound design is just amazing and soundtrack is awesome.

So, this is, in my opinion the best Darksiders game... for now. We'll see about the next two. This is a must play and I recommend it 100%.